PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTION
PLANNING FOR
SOCIAL CONNECTION IN AUSTRALIA'S METROPOLITAN FRINGES
by Professor Jane Farmer, Swinburne University Social Innovation Research Institute, and Associate Professor Andrew Butt, RMIT Centre for Urban Research
As the suburbs of Australia's capital cities continue to sprawl outwards, we continue to experience challenges with establishing new communities with strong social connections. A new research project is seeking to understand these issues and offer pathways for local government and other agencies to make change.
A
ustralia’s fringe suburbs remain the places where the highest rates of population growth are occurring – effectively doing the ‘heavy lifting’ for creating new housing, new services, retailing and helping people to find belonging during a long period of high population growth nationally. These places are the engine of new community life in Australia's cities, but the challenges associated with these new suburbs are well documented – a lack of transport options and local work, and gaps in early delivery of community and commercial services. Increasing interest in planning for community health and wellbeing is also an important part of these new suburbs, adding in designs for physical health – such as generating primary health care hubs, outdoor ‘urban gyms’ and walking tracks – has become a mainstream consideration and selling point in many new developments. COVID-19 revealed the value of a quality, ultra-local urban ‘health environment’ for many people, but also forced people to consider the less obvious issues that influence mental health and wellbeing, bringing a new exposure to the need for infrastructure to help generate social connection.
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Winter 2022 // ISSUE 3
Outer-metropolitan suburbs are arguably at particular risk for social isolation, with lack of services and transport one issue, as is the time it takes for new people to come together to form a community. For example, elements of neighbourhood design, the absence of local services and car dependency are each factors that appear to offer fewer opportunities for incidental meetings between neighbours.
WHAT IS A COMMUNITY, AND WHICH COMMUNITY ARE WE PLANNING FOR? The experience of new suburbia is not usually presented as being varied – advertising for new estates often presents young families, and facilities can be aimed at an ideal type of new resident. Yet the reality is that these areas have a wide array of age groups, cultural backgrounds and day-to-day experiences with the city that they are in. While the often cited examples of long commutes, or delays in local services, create challenges for households and communities, there are many other issues in making social connections.
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