What might Australian cities look like by 2100?
The Business as (Un)usual Schools Competition invited High School and Primary School students to imagine a future Australian City and send us a postcard from themselves 80 years in the future. We received 120 entries from schools around Australia. The following 15 winning entries will each take home $100 and a certificate.
Nicky Brown (Narrogin Senior High School)
Charise Calzado (Yule Brook College)
Anderson Cho (Robertson State School)
Jensen Cho (Robertson State School)
Stephanie Dang (Balwyn High School)
Giselle Guo (Penrith Selective High School)
Marcus Hsu (Robertson State School)
Zara Hustwit and Izabelle Leembruggen (Nowra Christian School)
Marion Kempster (Good Shepard Lutheran College Leanyer Campus)
Christina Koutsiofitis (Balwyn High School)
Anamya Menon (Balwyn High School)
Hailey Roberts (Balwyn High School)
Kate Wallace (Good Shepard Lutheran College Leanyer Campus)
Piper Wing (Good Shepard Lutheran College Leanyer Campus)
Katharine Xue (Balwyn High School)
The Business as (Un)usual University Competition invited students to imagine a future Australian city that embodied a new Australian Dream for the twenty-first century.
From a total of 72 entries, BAU’s eminent interdisciplinary jury—comprising of Richard Weller, Robin Goodman, Robert Freestone, Beth George, Rebecca Moore, Perry Lethlean, and Abel Feleke—awarded 4 winners and 5 honourable mentions.
Each of the 4 winning designs receives $2,500, and a certificate. The winning designs are:
Jeremy de Lavaulx, Port Nexus
Natalie Keynton and Bridget Foley, The Green Rail
Nur Mohd Rozlan, Transit City
Gemma Robinson and Maisie Matthews, What's mine?
5 designs awarded commendations by the jury will receive a certificate. The commended designs are:
Olivia Huitema, Mandjoogoordap (Meeting Place of the Heart)
Kent Lyon, Toodyay
Charles Zagon-Davies, Wariga Molla (Listen Deeply)
Emma Gray, Radiata
Courtney Albertini, The New City of Lismore
The Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC) would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands where the entries are proposed to be sited and pay respects to their Elders past and present.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Business as (Un)usual competition.
Watch a video of the winning entries..
bau University competition: Winning entries
Winning entry: Jeremy de Lavaulx, Port Nexus
1. What is the name of your city? Port Nexus
2. Where is your city located? Between Woodside, and Woodside Beach: approximately -38.54278, 146.9449; adaptable to other regions.
3. What is the ideal population of your city? 65000
4. What is the impetus behind your city? The year is 2100, and Gippsland continues growing as a megaregion endowed with natural resources attracting residents and workers alike. The government has implemented Fast Rail infrastructure between Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney on the coastal side of the Great Dividing Range. This mega-region - with its main cities and satellite cities - have populations ranging from 50,000 to 1 million. It is 2100, and Neural Interface infrastructure connects 97 percent of the population to the Global Digital Database (GDD). Thought, sense and emotion are effortlessly encoded and decoded into the digital realm allowing instant communication, stimulation and contribution. Most people are connected intimately to their host which has decreased the need for long distance movement. People stay closer to where they dwell; their lives completely integrated into the network for the sake of convenience, interest, need and efficiency. Workplaces have largely been overtaken by automation and robotics which reduce error and increase efficiency. Due to this, much of the labour required has been allocated for overseeing operations, implementation and monitoring of automation maintenance. There has been an increased focus on holistic health, nutrition, empathy, spirituality, and care for non-human species. This has resulted in a shift away from both high impact agriculture such as Dairy and Beef, and intensive forestry practices. Alongside this, colonial cultures of private land ownership have been largely dissolved with thought and industry asking how can the land do more while growing more resilient? To achieve this decolonising impetus, pastoral land has been gradually given back both to Indigenous custodians and science ecology. This land within the cool contexts of southern Gippsland is starting to encode complexity by way of both Indigenous and Western land management practices. Indigenous kinship with Country is established alongside networks of Westernised research.
5. Describe the design of the city: P1 If we break down the existing layers as the inputs, we can process these layers individually to output the elements which are recombined into the prototype model. New mobility interjections are made along existing rural mobility links and run parallel to watershed or along existing water-lines. Slower intra-city routes link city clusters allowing a slower perception of nature. The hierarchy of these mobility routes determines velocity, density, and capacity and is aided by FareShare interchanges. Existing use and lack of biodiversity is questioned, divided and complexified through patchwork ecology. Water is aided by technological intervention to enrich, distribute, mineralise and soak the depleted soils and systems currently on site. This is aided by linking into sub-surface geological enrichments. Industry shifts towards sustainable, nuanced and long-term practices revolving around forestry, engineered timber and vertical farming. Similarly, New technologies for supporting infrastructures make use of existing and future resources relating to the regional contexts. When zooming inwardly, small to medium cluster cities emerge as urban centres bound by parallel dwelling islands. These cluster cities have limited height and density; a move away from larger morphologies; taking advantage of the sky in to favour all species. Sparsity is not as it seems however, due to the proximity of nearby cluster cities, working industry, and inter-species kinship.
6. How does your city embody an alternative Australian dream? Port Nexus provides an alternative Australian Dream that emerges and shifts away from the Australian Dream grown within Australian towns and cities. Historic towns have often emerged along main mobility routes with the strip and grid layout; an ideal infrastructural layout to support processes of periphery resource extraction, land title, and centralism. As centralised urban centres develop concentration and density, interstitial mobility links are formed allowing further categorisation of land use and zoning requirements. The grid spreads, intensifies and embeds over time; with increased densities affecting amenity and liveability. This is a shift towards undoing complexity of the land.
Port Nexus (P2) reverses this simplification and categorisation through water infrastructures, growth and mobility phasing, programming, modes of dwelling, specific dimensioning, and the deployment of local EVCs. These aspects curate the balance between intimacy and prospect while contributing towards a unique spatial identity; the experience of a new Australian Horizon.
P3. This new Australian horizon of intimacy and prospect can further privilege non-human species by questioning what it means to live above the earth with minimal footprint. Port Nexus supports this exploration into new modes of dwelling. Systems of the 2100 context help define and enable such explorations
P4. Such connection with kinship and the other has assisted the de-centralising of self, whilst illuminating impermanency and detachment. This Introspection questions patterns of habit and ownership; and instead promotes bodily protection through impermanent or nomadic dwelling.
Winning entry: Natalie Keynton and Bridget Foley, The green rail
1. What is the name of your city? The Green Rail
2. Where is your city located? Our city is both highly specific, and general in nature. We propose a model for creating green precincts around rail stations throughout Australia, leveraging and extending existing active transport infrastructure. In the next 20-30 years we imagine these cities will emerge around existing stations. We also imagine these train lines extending into new territory, and connecting to regional hubs. This model of strategic expansion outside of the city boundary combines the convenience of the city with high speed connections and the quiet of the country town. As a test case, we chose Middle Gorge station, over 20km from Melbourne’s CBD. It is a 25km drive taking anywhere between 45 minutes and 2 hours, or a train ride of over an hour to arrive in the city. Already designated as a growth zone, this northern corridor is developing with very low-density housing estates. We propose an alternative vision for future growth at the fringes of our cities and a new Australian Dream.
3. What is the ideal population of your city? 106000
4. What is the impetus behind your city? The traditional Australian Dream is today riddled with problems. Our fantasy -- borrowed from America of the single-dwelling on a quarter-acre block has replicated itself in sprawling cookie-cutter suburbs at the city fringe, to Sydney’s west and Melbourne’s north and south-east. ‘Affordable’ home ownership, delivered through house and land packages is creating hot, isolated and unsustainable neighbourhoods.
Poorly-designed and -constructed houses lead to increased heating and cooling requirements, lack of urban greening, and the urban heat island effect. They result in longer commuting and travel times as key services and infrastructure are not delivered along with new housing.
The Australian Dream of 2022 is barely achievable even now and will lead us to an unsustainable and unliveable 2100. It is time for a new Australian Dream. How can we reinvigorate the Australian Dream to create a better, more environmentally-friendly future?
Many Australians are calling for more climate action: we have designed a road map for strategically re-vitalising fringe urban areas into environmentally-friendly, lush precincts. Continually expanding our cities by taking over valuable farming land is not viable: instead we can create delightful density within existing and emerging fringe centres and create attractive neighbourhoods residents will want to live in.
In this small way we challenge the brief: rather than creating new rural centres, we recognise that Australia has one of the highest rates of urbanisation globally (86%) and urbanisation is likely to continue between now and 2100. While COVID-19 saw many people relocate to rural areas, we believe this was a response to prolonged lockdowns and a desire to escape them. However, it is our challenge to create attractive, green neighbourhoods surrounded by natural landscapes and small-scale farming to allow us to appropriately densify our existing urbanised areas to manage the effects of climate change and population growth.
5. Describe the design of the city.
Step 1: Invest in a high-frequency, elevated rail network, and install a high-speed bike network underneath the railway line.
Step 2: Masterplan each precinct to create a delightfully dense, highly walkable 20-minute neighbourhood, leverage existing infrastructure at the city fringe such as roads, schools and large-format retail.
Step 3: Consolidate existing railway parking in one, demountable multi-deck carpark.
Step 4: Create several medium density buildings on former carparking sites to bring activity right into the centre.
Step 5: As car usage declines and more citizens begin to travel by active transport, shift all car usage to a high-speed road parallel to the railway, to free the precinct centre from cars. Simultaneously create a network of pedestrian- and bike-friendly connections using existing roads, accessible only by service and slow-speed vehicles.
Step 6: As existing low-density homes deteriorate, transform blocks into medium density apartment living suitable for all.
Step 7: In newly dense precincts ensure that the service and infrastructure needs of the community are met by ensuring that each precinct is a true 20-minute neighbourhood.
Step 8: Because the increased density will be able to accommodate residents from the old Australian Dream houses, as well a growing population, regenerate former housing estates into local-scale farming or natural environments to create a source of local food production and recreational activities such as bushwalking.
6. How does your city embody an alternative Australian dream? We believe that Covid has strengthened our need for connection to community and country. With this in mind, we have designed our city with four different scales of community.
In the Green Rail, no building will have more than 30 apartments. Each floor should have 8 or fewer apartments, meaning that you will know the people you see in the stairwell and be able to make collective decisions with your neighbours about shared communal spaces and their uses.
Using the existing road infrastructure ‘superlots’ have been created by amalgamating individual housing lots. Each ‘superlot’ should be developed at a rate no less than 120 dwellings per hectare, meaning that there could be between 4 and 10 building communities per superlot.
Each railway station will be the hub of a 20-minute neighbourhood, each with approximately 21,000 residents (based on density rates). These 20-minute neighbourhoods are each the same size as a regional town such as Echuca or Griffith, but all within a 20 minute walk from the high-speed rail which connects several towns into a linear city; an expansive network of communities, limiting our impact on the environment while connecting people to their friends, communities, and city. 5 linear cities working together will house over 106,000 people
Winning entry: Nur Mohd Rozlan, Transit City
1. What is the name of your city? Transit City
2. Where is your city located? Transit City is located in Port Augusta, South Australia. The future city centre, which is the main arrival point for those travelling by high-speed rail from other major cities, will be located where the current one is, on the Spencer Gulf's eastern side. However, much of the future city will grow beyond this area, parallel to the water body and on the Gulf's western side. Geospatial coordinates of city centre: -32.49, 137.77
3. What is the ideal population of your city? 1500000
4. What is the impetus behind your city? The modern nation of Australia is largely founded on a migrant population. Going into the future, we will continue to rely upon this pattern to sustain our economy. So far, Australia has been largely selective of who it welcomes, its intake made up mostly of skilled migrants. On the other hand, its refugee and humanitarian intakes are much lower. This can’t remain the case going into the future. The number of cross-border migration is increasing across the world, particularly due to political conflicts and the slow-onset of climate change. Australia will be required to step up and provide refuge for more people than what it's doing now and expand its migration policy to become more inclusive. Transit City, a charter city, will support the migrants' initial settling-in journey (i.e. a temporary stay of varied time-spans, depending on the individual’s support & needs) before they move on to a new town/city they will call home. The city also has potential to provide a more humane solution to lifeless detention and offshore processing centres. With its own governing system, the city will be able to response more promptly to the diverse needs of new migrants and represent their voices in decision-making. The city invests in migrants' well-being and recognises each individual's ability to make Australia a better place.
Port Augusta is an ideal location because:
- its strategic location and existing train infrastructure connecting eastern and western Australia allows for easier distribution of new immigrant population across the country, especially regional towns that require a population boost.
- as a major service hub in the region, there's lots of potential to develop more industries and increase career pathways for new migrants (e.g. education, renewable energy, tourism, hospitality, manufacturing, marine studies).
- Port access will assist in the distribution of goods.
- the location's temperature will be ideal for living in the next century.
5. Describe the design of the city.
URBAN FORM & TECHNOLOGY: To respond to the constantly changing and temporary population, the new city is structured in a grid. Freight networks run on this grid to assist in sculpting the urban landscapes and insert or remove interventions onto flexible metal structures. The grid only provides a framework however, while still encouraging the city to grow organically and allowing residents to add their own personality to the city. The urban form is compact and controlled by the airport to the west, water bodies to the south and work and train yards to the north. The grid is divided into precincts, each with its own data collection and processing centre on human activities and changes that take place in the area
SUSTAINABLE LIVING: On arrival, residents are given a housing unit that they can customise and build onto. They can choose where to reside in the new city. Once their temporary stay is over, they will choose whether to bring their with them. If not, it will be dismantled or repurposed to house new residents.
LAND USE: Essential services, commercial areas and other non-residential land uses are located close to transit corridors for easy access. Beyond community green spaces. green corridors located along tram lines provide an escape from density and serve as way-finders.
INFRASTRUCTURE: The city will be mostly car-free & private transport limited for service functions. Residents get around the city by train, trams & active transport such as electric bikes etc.
6. How does your city embody an alternative Australian dream? Transit City envisions a dream where migrants, regardless of their cultural or socio-economic background, are given the best opportunity to establish a new life in Australia. This is not only by providing social and economic support but also by integrating new residents into ‘normal’ everyday life, give them opportunities to be part of and contribute to communities, explore various job pathways and interests, gain education and qualification for previous experiences, and reconnect with previously separated relatives and friends.
The city is not solely for new migrants. Australian citizens can also come to visit, work and live here. By opening the city up to other Australians, it allows for new migrants and Australian citizens to form social networks and learn about each other’s cultures. The migrants themselves are also able to leave the city and visit other towns and cities, whether for leisure or work purposes such as internship and training in a different city; they would require a special pass which would be registered on a system to regulate movement, ensure safety and protect agreement of special considerations that have been bestowed upon them and agreed upon between the Australian and Transit City’s governments.
During their stay in the city, residents will attend workshops, schools or universities to develop language, cultural and technical skills. The Australian government, in collaboration with Transit City, may also provide incentives for migrants to pursue certain courses to address job shortages in the country. Private companies are also able to invest in job training for applicants of choice.
Despite the prevalence use of technology in the city to monitor and collect data, face-to-face interaction is still valued and highly prioritised. Robots and AI take up the more mundane tasks of keeping the city clean and functioning. However, activities involving value-based interaction between individuals are conducted in person wherever possible, such as in educational and service settings, to help foster belonging and sense of place among new migrants. The city provides various types of climate-suitable outdoor spaces to encourage outdoor activities and social events for residents to join and engage with members of the community. Residents are also encouraged to join or form their own community groups and organise their own events or volunteer their time for the community.
Winning entry: Gemma Robinson and Maisie Matthews, What's mine?
1. What is the name of your city? What's mine?
2. Where is your city located? Our proposal aims to connect abandoned quarry sites across Victoria and potentially nationally and repurpose them. Our first city specifically focuses on the quarry site of LS Quarry at 184 Williams Road, Lima South VIC 3673. In the surrounding area of Lima South there are over eight quarry sites within a 60km radius and the linkages between these abandoned quarry sites will form the crux of our subscription cities.
3. What is the ideal population of your city? 60000
4. What is the impetus behind your city? In the year 2100, structures will grow from abandoned quarry and industrial sites, revitalising, recycling and rehabilitating the forgotten locations. A re-framing of landscape design and architecture to promote context and living on Country will enhance the way we live, and connect. Living in primarily free standing dwellings, Australians have the capacity to individualise their homes more than other home-owning nations. We want to still allow for a capacity of individualisation as people can manipulate their houses whilst they live in them. A monthly payment of varying tiers will allow people to move, and relocate between municipalities. As circumstances change, so can the way one lives, yet prices remain predictable and affordable. Short term and long-term solutions are accounted for and a sense of community will be prioritised at all levels.
What’s mine? is a speculative interrogation into what the future of our Australian cities could look like when it starts to address the technological, environmental and cultural shifts within our country. As our requirements and world change, so should our cities, and so should our dreams.
5. Describe the design of the city. Landscapes and rural settings will be preserved and rehabilitated, whilst still hosting city lifestyles. We have chosen to repurpose old quarry sites as we believe these sites will be no longer in use in the year 2100. At this site, rock crushers and machinery left inform our architecture and form the base structures of private and public space. The previously excavated and scarred landscape will be utilised and rehabilitated using native species from the Ecological Vegetation Classes (Pre 1750 - Grassy Dry Forest) within the area. The history of this site will be honoured and will add to the character of the architecture and experience.
Types of subscription will vary and evolve depending on users. Subscription options:
- Traveller subscription - Renewed 6 monthly, for those who intend to travel between the revitalised locations and stay for periods shorter than 2 months in each location.
- Single subscription - Renewed 2 monthly
- Couple subscription - Renewed 2 monthly
- Concession subscription - (note: a concession can be applied to all other subscriptions) - renewed 2 monthly
- Short term/trial subscription - For those who may only wish to trial or stay in a location for 1 month or less. These ‘homes’ will come fully furnished and act like a hotel, but access to the entire site is available. For a holiday go-er or a person requiring emergency housing.
- Small/big family subscription - renewed 2 monthly
6. How does your city embody an alternative Australian dream? The quintessential Australian dream is a traditional housing model including the quarter acre block, a single detached dwelling, hills hoist clothes line and a back garden. When this dream is interrogated in our current context, it is metropolitan, capital-oriented and Western. As home and land ownership over the past 80 years has become increasingly unattainable, our cities have rapidly expanded to engulf the city fringes with people attempting to fulfil this dream. Our cities are beset with environmental problems and the lines of inequality are only becoming more and more apparent. The traditional Australian housing model will not be feasible for the future and this is seen under the lens of being a bad thing, but what if we flipped the narrative for our future ? What if home ownership doesn’t have to be the goal?
Our proposal considers the way we currently live in the twentieth century and how our lives are becoming more and more subscription based our music, movies, recreational activities etc what if our housing and cities followed a similar model? What if we lived in a subscription based city, where a monthly contribution allows you to live in any participating municipality? Could there be a typology of housing that can address our changing notions of home ownership? A more flexible, accessible housing model based more on a kind of subscription rather than the traditional model of mortgage-based purchase or deposit-based contractual rentals.
The idea of subscription living, moves users away from ideas of profit, ownership, excess and permanence. It instead focuses more on shared success and living with what you need at a reasonable cost. This model would also buy you greater flexibility and quality. The flexibility to come and go at short notice, to upgrade up and down-spec as circumstances in life inevitably change, as well as to readily move locations and travel to different cities, countries even, with the same provider. Competition would come in the form of the quality of the communal spaces, amenities and programme of events as well as the opportunities to travel. In this case, leasing does not result in one individual to profit at the cost of another, and not one person owns everything. The recurring payments will ultimately be put back into the community and be spent on improving the lives and living conditions of all in the subscription model.
Our proposal starts to speak to a philosophy that is emerging that has to do with our relationship with ownership, possession and place. That feeling of belonging, community, or sense of place no longer has to be dependent on owning bricks and mortar in a specific and fixed location. We propose an Australian Dream that should become an attainable reality, that embraces cohabitation, living on Country, and unsubscribes from home ownership.
bau university competition: commended entries
commendation: Olivia Huitema, Mandjoogoordap (Meeting Place of the Heart)
1. What is the name of your city? Mandjoogoordap (Meeting Place of the Heart)
2. Where is your city located? Mandurah, Western Australia 6210
3. What is the ideal population of your city? 500000
6. How does your city embody an alternative Australian dream? Nature and the city share similarities in that they are both complex ecological systems with many converging forces interacting at any given time in constant adaptation. With this in mind it is imperative to state that there is unlikely to be a static solution to the changing landscape of social, environmental and economic drivers. The aim then, is not perfection but a system that is resilient and can be adapted.
Cities' functioning is critical to achieving sustained liveability, economic stability, and environmental preservation. Population increases and intensified urbanisation are not necessarily problematic. Cities are, after all, historically the drivers of social change and most likely hosts to innovations that could help to address the global environmental crisis. If managed well, Australian cities have the capacity to accommodate even the extreme projections of population growth in the 20th century, however, there is a need for fundamental shifts in the current urban structure and more importantly, in urban infrastructure to support this growth.
The city of Mandurah, originally Mandjoogoordap, is a city woven by gabi (waterways), a city with a mandjoo koort (village heart). Bindjareb people of the Bibbulmun nation are the original inhabitants and traditional owners of the land in and around the city, which abounded in fish, game, berries, and fruits. During these times, Noongar people would travel down the waterways to the shores of Mandjoogoorap to meet potential partners from other local groups. Hence the name Mandjoogoorap, meaning: Meeting place of the heart.
With respect for Country as a core guiding principle, Mandurah will become a meeting place once again. A re-imagined Australian Dream will unfold that builds on existing infrastructure to become a model city for retrofitting and a socially thriving center for art, culture, and sustainability excellence. A re-imagined Mandurah envisions a city connected by transit and intertwined with public spaces, green areas, environmentally responsive design, playgrounds, and public art. It will attract migrants and immigrants, both domestic and international, seeking a different life than that offered in the sprawling, car-dependent capital.
Restructuring the problematic land-use patterns and transport deficits that are characteristic of Australian cities will require new governance models and acceptance of the socially changing Australia that no longer desires to live in the endless suburbs, separated from work, sustainable mobility and social amenity. There is a need to put in place and agree on a set of guidelines that all are excited and motivated to uphold so that the limitations of a capitalist society don’t blur the developments into recognisable Australian norms. This requires management of public anxieties through education and promotion of a new Australian Dream that is able to serve all Australians.
commendation: Kent Lyon, Toodyay
1. What is the name of your city? Toodyay (Duidgee is the first nations name for the place)
2. Where is your city located? Balladong Noongar land Western Australia in the Wheatbelt. Latitude 31 33' S Longitude 116 28' E
3. What is the ideal population of your city? 90000
6. How does your city embody an alternative Australian dream? A direct effect of the global pandemic has recognised the need to be more self-sufficient and become less reliant on the worldwide supply chain by creating niche manufacturing and research opportunities specific to the place. For example, the Avon Arc Alliance (Alliance) consists of Avon Valley and the Wheatbelt towns, building on each town's strengths rather than competing against one another.
Previously Toodyay (Duidgee) did not have a wool mill; the Alliance identified it as a city that could successfully process wool due to its agrarian history. Changing farming techniques created a decreasing reliance on produce from outside the region. New techniques also reduce damaging fertilisers carried into the Swan and Avon River through groundwater.
The Alliance built greenhouses to control the environment in which produce was farmed and to keep out insects, combatting the adverse effects of extreme weather events and severe temperatures (caused by climate change) on farming. In addition, new residential building designs include north-facing terraces with gardens, which give residents the freedom to cultivate their crops.
A reforestation project estimated it would require 1.2 million hectares of land to offset the carbon emissions from Perth, a place with a population of 3 million in 2050. Part of this reforestation project includes the installation of 8,1000 hectares of co-located wind turbines and photovoltaic surfaces when environmental engineers identified that the Avon Arc, with its open plains and undulating hills, gave the best greenfield location. This local renewable power generates lower-cost energy sources, and the reforestation project will offset emissions, providing a return to Avon Arc residents who invest in the scheme.
To aid in the development of the Avon Arc, the State Government built a faster train line, meaning permanent residents and tourist numbers have grown as the 1 hour and 15-minute trip from Perth to Toodyay (Duidgee) was shortened to only 20 minutes on the faster train.
commendation: Charles Zagon-Davies, Wariga Molla (Listen Deeply)
1. What is the name of your city? Wariga Molla, in Gunai this means 'Listen Deeply'
2. Where is your city located? Kalimna, Lakes Entrance. The location of the 1x1km POD (pedestrian oriented district) was allocated to me as part of an RMIT Bachelor of Landscape Architecture design studio. Coordinates are: -37.863301, 147.972058
3. What is the ideal population of your city? 130000
6. How does your city embody an alternative Australian dream? The keystone of community culture is further amplified within the community oriented open spaces. Each open space uses an adaptation of Koolhaas? Parc de la Villette strip programming model. Thin strips of programming within community open spaces scales up the propensity for interaction by scaling down the size of the programming. If one were to walk against the grain of the various community oriented programmes, the higher the likelihood of rubbing shoulders with many other community members. The city design as a whole reflects these aspects and the Australian ideal it is laying the foundation for. Take a look at the city plan and you will notice 2 sides to the city, with a strip of existing flora cutting through the centre. Each side of the city reflects opposing values, different communities that are woven together by the value found in existing Indigenous culture, physically and metaphorically. The bridge design through the existing flora sews together two different communities harmonised by the significance of the Indigenous value. To travel through the flora and over the creek to the other side of the city, travellers are met with bottleneck zones where interaction and close social proximity is inevitable, signifying that the only way to unify different cultures, different identities, different people, is to interact, and healthy interaction is the tinder that sparks community bond. Zoning, programming, and designing on these 3 scales enhances the threshold between public and private space which is where community forms.
The community open space at the north-eastern corner has been depicted as an example. Each community open space is surrounded by this same model of zoning. Clean industry allows white and blue collar workers to commingle to lessen class divide, commercial zoning with cafes, restaurants, retail, the local pub, to attract consumer traffic and support local businesses. Residential housing opens up to the entire public open space on its doorstep for Frank and Sharren to say g’day to you on your morning coffee run on the way to work, and hybrid zones for flexible programming in response to community need, and pandemic and climate change measures.
For an increasingly cosmopolitan Australia to adapt and develop a new Australian identity, bringing Aussies back-to-local is the first step to combatting urban sprawl, to revive Australia's community culture, and to carry a united diverse Australian community into the year 2100 and beyond.
commendation: Emma Gray, Radiata
1. What is the name of your city? Radiata
2. Where is your city located? Current location of Haslam Beach in South Australia. 32.7968S 134.1995E
3. What is the ideal population of your city? 80000
6. How does your city embody an alternative Australian dream? Climate change and social inequality don’t mean that we should give up on our Australian Dream completely. Considered in a more abstract sense the true Australian Dream is really the belief in a ‘fair go’ for all. The ‘New Australian Dream’ exemplified by Radiata is a city with environmental and social sustainability at the root of its economy, such that everyone in society has equal opportunities without a parallel sacrifice of environmental integrity. In other words, a fair go for people and the environment.
A truly sustainable city should provide a full circle economy, reducing the requirements for fossil-fuel guzzling imports and exports. But to be successful it needs to provide something for everyone in society. In Radiata, seaweed provides the solution. The seaweed industry encompasses farming, manufacturing, retail and research, so seaweed products can provide jobs from the primary to quaternary sectors. An entire city with seaweed at the root of its economy could be self-sustaining and space-saving, ensuring that people are able to live their Australian Dream without compromising our environment further.
With a housing density of 140 people/ha, the 8 ha set aside for mixed-use means that each neighbourhood unit can support over 1000 residents. A city of over 80000 could be supported on as little as 20 square kilometres of developed land and sea, with the modular neighbourhood units allowing for staggered development. If necessary, the city could become much larger. Through roof-top solar and seaweed-fuelled energy creation, and water storage and waste recycling solutions on the islands, the city will be off grid. The city will also be able to produce all its own food. Conventional farming yields enough food to feed 25 people/ha, but island farms can supplement this with high-yield agricultural and aquacultural products. Hydroponics can feed up to 500 people/ha, and seaweeds can provide important proteins, reducing (and perhaps eliminating) our dependence on animals for food. The protected waters of the Australian Bight mean that native seaweeds can be safely cultivated and protected from tidal and storm damage, and people will have a reliable source of food, reducing their vulnerability to climate change.
Because the city will expand in self-sustaining neighbourhood units, it will ensure that resources are never over utilized. A succession of similar cities dotted along the South Coast could ensure Australia’s expanding population is housed in climatically stable regions while providing the added benefit of a link between Eastern and Western Australia, as it becomes irresponsible to rely on fossil fuel-releasing long-distance road transport for goods and services.
Zero carbon emissions, self-sustainability, and a full circle seaweed economy will ensure a true fair go for all, not only for the Australian people, but also for the environment we are so dependent on.
commendation: Courtney Albertini, The New City of Lismore
1. What is the name of your city? The New City of Lismore
2. Where is your city located? The town of Lismore is a regional centre located in the Northern Rivers region of North-Eastern NSW. The centre post code is 2480 and geo-spatial co-ordinates are 28.8094? S, 153.2879? E.
3. What is the ideal population of your city? 63750
6. How does your city embody an alternative Australian dream? The city embodies the alternative Australian Dream of liveability in flood-prone areas. Instead of retreating to higher ground, abandoning the town, or investing significant financial incentive in the building of infrastructure such as levees, the design aims to ‘bring Lismore back to life.’ This involves discovering design solutions through building adaptation to make the city a liveable and enjoying place to inhabit.
The second aspect of the alternative Australian Dream is embracing medium-density, medium-rise and mixed-use development. Urban sprawl which has resulted from low-density, low-rise, homogeneous and grouped zones, has produced a number of challenges. For example, existing zones in the Lismore CBD are grouped in large clusters and dispersed over a large area. The new design proposes a commercial ground plane, with offices and residences above. The city is designed to achieve a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 1.0, 2.0, with building heights varying from 4 to 8 floors. The variety of housing available, including courtyard houses and shop houses with generous green spaces, would attract a variety of social groups. The integration of mixed-use function will increase access to a variety of public amenities including commercial and recreational activity. Preservation of heritage buildings and architectural character will retain the cultural and historical significance of the town. Removing the levee system will also dismantle a barrier between communities on opposite sides of the river, allowing bridge links to connect these groups and build community resilience through an increase in social gathering space. Mixed-use function and densification of the city centre will attract tourism and draw more people to the town to live, work and play.
BAU schools competition: winning entries
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