It examines how the design and functioning of a city – from transport networks to the availability of parks and sporting grounds to the architecture of public spaces and buildings – can help bring people together or keep them apart.

It shows that even modest and inexpensive changes, such as installing benches at the edge of a public area or converting an unused lot into a ‘pocket park’, can make urban spaces more welcoming.

Australian cities are expected to keep growing for the foreseeable future. If they are to absorb more residents and improve quality of life for all, then it is essential that cities provide for our social as well as our material needs.

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Article from www.grattan.edu.au

The initiative is based on promoting the value of high quality design to the public by opening doors of exceptional projects to all, completely free. At this special event, there will be the unveiling of some of the best design projects and places throughout the city.

http://www.openhouseworldwide.org/openhouse/perth.php

When Australians express concern about overpopulation, the cause is almost invariably the congestion caused by population growth without appropriate infrastructure.

My electorate of Wentworth includes some of the most densely settled suburbs in Sydney yet few residents complain they are suffering from overcrowding. These suburbs in Sydney are keenly sought out, in fact, increasingly by families with children.

Sydney’s inner east, though densely settled, is not generally regarded as “congested” because its residents have access to reasonably reliable and frequent public transport

They are, for the most part, close to where they work and can do much of their shopping on foot. They don’t have big, or any, backyards yet there is plenty of public space within easy reach.

If we are going to increase the density of our city, by putting apartments and townhouses into streets formerly lined with bungalows, we have to build appropriate infrastructure. We have spent billions building new roads and freeways but until relatively recently there was little or no new investment in Sydney’s mass transit.

We complain bitterly about crowded roads but do not provide enough of the only thing that can be relied upon to get people off the roads – efficient and reliable mass transit.

The population question is not to be answered, as Bob Carr sought to do, by saying “Full Up”. The real answer is to ensure migration continues to contribute to the economy and infrastructure enables us to enjoy the benefits of a more densely settled city without congestion.

Density is not the problem. Combines with public transport and open space, it gives great amenity – more of the places we want to go are within easy reach.

Good public transport is critical but has been neglected for too long. It has an important social benefit. Cities dependent on cars discriminate against the old, the poor and the young.

Technology enables us to enjoy virtual proximity to each other but physical proximity – he ability to move around to meet each other, to go to places of public recreation, culture and commerce – is essential to a city and its social equity eg Subi Hotel!

This is an extract of Malcolm Turnbull’s address to the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils’ national population summit.

Malcolm Turnbull speaks at National Population Summit at Casula Powerhouse

Thank you Councillor Alison McLaren for your kind introduction and insightful remarks about the development of our city. In holding this conference today, the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC) is today demonstrating the vision and leadership that it has given to Western Sydney over many years.

We have never idealised city life in Australia, and yet for most of our modern history we have been a thoroughly urban society.

We have, instead, romanticised the bush and compared it very favourably with the city life most of us, in fact, prefer.

Consider how Banjo Patterson compares his squalid life as a city clerk with the freedom of his friend Clancy of the Overflow whose shearing mate has just advised with a thumbnail dipped in tar

“Clancy’s gone to Queensland droving and we don’t know where he are.”

Patterson laments:

“I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy

Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,

And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city

Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all.

“And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle

Of the tramways and the buses making hurry down the street,

And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,

Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.”

“And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me

As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste

With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy

For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.”

A grim life indeed for this downtrodden city dweller, but at least he can dream…

“And I somehow rather fancy that I’d like to change with Clancy,

Like to take turn at droving where the seasons come and go,

While he faced the round eternal of the cashbook and the journal –

But I doubt he’d suit the office, Clancy, of the Overflow.”

Well so much for poetry. The fact is that most people prefer the urban “round eternal” and today nine out of ten Australians live in urban areas, and three quarters in major cities. We may dream of Clancy of the Overflow, but we are one of the most urbanised nations in the world.

So we can hardly complain when migrants, 85% of them in fact, choose to live in cities. “When in Rome” they might say.

The Greenhouse is about designing and operating better places for people. Places that let us touch natural materials, understand where everyday things come from and taste fresh food straight from the garden.

Designers, engineers, builders, scientists, farmers, chefs and others are among those whose knowledge and advice have gone into every aspect of creating the Greenhouse, from the lighting, to the menu, to the fresh baked bread and the worm farm. The Greenhouse aims to harness the growing understanding of the human footprint to offer alternative solutions that tread a fine balance between functionality, sustainability and beauty.
All the features of the Greenhouse are carefully considered first for their practicality, recyclability, life cycle and embodied energy and then for their aesthetics and cost. By putting each decision through this rigorous process, it is hoped that the Greenhouse can provide information and examples to builders, designers, restaurateurs and the public, regarding their daily choices of materials, ingredients, and practices.

A few features involved are:

• Furniture (designed by Joost Bakker) includes tables made from the plywood floor of the Greenhouse by Joost (Federation Square, Melbourne 2008-09), chairs made from old road signs, bar stools/tables made from wafer board recycled from old wooden palettes, and light shades made from reclaimed fencing wire.

• Rooftop garden provides produce for the kitchen and bar and uses energy efficient LED grow-lights to stimulate the growth of plants due to the largely shaded site

• Drip irrigation waters garden. Water used on rooftop garden filters through soil and sand and collects in the bottom of Schutz bins to be re-used.

The metamorphosis of Potts Point from a clutch of sleazy, drug-riddled back streets to a cosmopolitan food hub over the past 20 years has benefited the suburb’s well-heeled residents and its businesses.

But now, competing interests are threatening the area’s harmony, with some restaurant owners threatening to close up shop if alfresco dining regulations are not relaxed.

Daniel Blackman, co-owner of the cafe Room 10 in Llankelly Place, is locked in a bitter dispute with his neighbour, Jo Holder, proprietor of the Cross Art Projects gallery. Mr Blackman said he had been forced to halve the number of outdoor tables and chairs he used because of Ms Holder’s complaints – an allegation she strongly disputes.

”My only objection is that I don’t want his people in front of my gallery – out of respect, because it’s a quiet, contemplative space,” she said. ”But I have made no complaints [to the council] and [Mr Blackman's accusations] are mischievous and way out of line.”

However, Mr Blackman has secured the support of the celebrity chef Neil Perry to argue the case for unfettered alfresco activity in Potts Point.

Australians have failed to grasp that cities must change to allow for population growth and demographic change, former Sydney lord mayor Lucy Turnbull has said.

The deputy chairwoman of the cities expert panel, advising COAG Reform Council’s review of capital city strategic planning systems, said governments needed to work harder to create a mandate for change from the community early in the planning process and to help people better understanding that “doing nothing is not an option”.

“We need to have a better way of engaging and having a common understanding that we need to do something to support future growth,” she told the Green Cities conference in Sydney yesterday.

Ms Turnbull was speaking before the release of the findings of the review, due to be made public after the Queensland election which will be held later this month.

Another fundamental problem with the system was a lack of emphasis on economics in the planning process, she said.

“One of the major deficits in our experience is that there is a lack of understanding about land use economics and economic feasibility in the planning profession,” she said.

“The planning profession is more than capable of understanding this but often the tasks that they are given give very low weight to these fundamental questions or factors which will lead to deliverability – or non-deliverability – or feasibility of these plans.”

The NSW government will soon start making decisions about planning laws that will set a course for Sydney’s development.

But the conflicting demands of around 400 submissions to the far-reaching NSW Planning Review, lodged before the deadline passed last Friday, show that when it comes to the details of fixing the system, there are many areas where it will be hard to make everyone happy.

“Clearly the next stage is where some of the rubber really does hit the road,” says NSW Planning Minister Brad Hazzard. “As you would expect, it’s going to be a challenging time to try to reconcile the varying views.”

Resident groups, councils and developers are in broad agreement that the current system is broken. Take Sydney Opera House chief executive officer, Richard Evans, who says in a submission to the review that complex heritage laws are hitting the iconic building’s core business as a performing arts centre.

He says whenever the Opera House wants to stage an event or do major or minor capital works, it has to comply with one commonwealth act, six individual NSW acts and its own Sydney Opera House Trust Act; get consent from two state government departments acting independently; and go through the state minister for the arts.

“One size does not fit all in the planning system,” Evans writes. “Sydney Opera House is an example of a unique planning scenario in NSW that does not fit into the general categories that are currently being considered in this review.”

D2 Property has lodged plans for a mixed-use development at the old Subiaco Pavilion markets site in Perth, WA.

The plans included a high-rise tower, which could revitalise the area with residential and short-stay apartments, retail and an entertainment square.

The proposal comprises 232 residential apartments, 94 serviced short-stay apartments, 18 specialty shops, a supermarket, entertainment zone and conference facilities.

The development will add 400 new residents to the town centre and 100-150 visitors per day through hotel rooms, function facilities, retail and dining.

Extensive stakeholder, council and community consultation was conducted to ensure plans would match local expectations and requirements.

The project has placed a strong emphasis on sustainability, world-class architecture and progressive pedestrian and transport initiatives.

A’Beckett Tower by Elenberg Fraser won a National Commendation for Residential – Multiple Housing at the 2011 National Architecture Awards.

Emerging heroically at the edges of the RMIT [University] city campus, A’Beckett Tower has a brilliantly conceived facade of shallow three-dimensionality, colour and repetition on a small, 900-metre-square block. Created through a decorative application of shading devices to the north elevation, the scale and geometry complement the piecemeal and low-rise building stock of A’Beckett and Little La Trobe streets. The tower operates as a dramatic set piece in the urban realm, adjacent to Swanston Street and within the eccentric character of local architectural form.

At ground level, its arcade connects the two streets and offers views of Melbourne laneway graffiti. Above the street, at the podium level, front apartments allow a series of parking levels accessed by car elevator to eliminate street-level ramps. This is unashamedly high-density living in the city, yet it is intent upon nurturing a strong aesthetic quality, not only through the north face but also through applied decoration on the south facade (by John Warwicker of Tomato) and a sequence of interior finishes and installed objects.