suburbian design evolution in metropolitan adelaide
valeria guajardo | a1707014
suburbian design evolution in metropolitan adelaide how can we design better neighbourhoods that encourage more meaningful social connections?
issuu: sketchfab:
dynamic realities DESST 3515 | representation III | 2021 school of architecture and built environment university of adelaide
introduction
03|04
project workflow
05|06
analysis
07|08
analysis
09|10
references
contents
contents
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point cloud spatial data for sections of Colonel Light Gardens, West Lakes and Mawson Lakes was obtained from the ELVIS database.
cloud model and street network data were integrated and manioulated further in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop
.shp street network data was downloaded from the Aurin database and visualised using QGIS display settings, illuminance tools and camera angles were modified for best visualisation
cloud model layers were extracted from Cloud Compare using the ‘render to file’ tool cloud models were manipulated further by subsampling, cropping and merging cloud models were manipulated using the segmentation and colourising tools
02 project workflow
01 project workflow
point cloud data was extracted and visualised using Cloud Compare software
the aim of this project is to visually analyse the historical evolution of suburbian metropolitan adelaide. By analysing different street layouts of suburbs around adelaide, we can travel back in time to understand why planners designed neighbourhoods in particular ways during their time. The historical context is important too, as social, cultural and environmental climates have an effect on how cities are designed as they adapt to the needs of the community. In a time when we are becoming more connected than ever, we also find ourselves increasingly disconnected from our communities. This growing phenomenon of social isolation can play a role in the decline of mental health and wellbeing in our homes. So, what can we learn from previous planning strategies when it comes to designing neighbourhoods today?
A suburb is a residential area of mixed use, located as part of an urban area or within commuting distance of a city. The idea of the modern suburb became popular in late 18th Century Britain as a response to the population growth following the Industrial Revolution. As workers migrated to the city, the middle classes began to purchase villas and estates on the outskirts on major cities (History UK, 2013). Nevertheless, thorough planning policies weren’t formerly introduced until the early 1900s. In its first decades, Adelaide consisted of a main city core, surrounded by parklands, an inner ring of suburbs and some smaller towns at the port and villages. Ideas of combining city and country into a suburban utopia flourished during this time (Hirst, 1973). The most influential was Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City model, which was brought to life in the development of Colonel Light Gardens. Combined with the neighbourhood unit concept, this scheme became hugely significant for subsequent stages of suburban planning in Adelaide. During the 20th Century, modifications to planning strategies were prominent in the New Town model, the Radburn approach and the Designing with Nature concept. Though some more successful than others, they all aimed to solve aesthetic, environmental and social issues in the context of their time, often through various proposals of street layouts. At the end of the 20th century, the New Urbanism Movement called for a re-focus on formalised policies that responded to contemporary social, cultural and ecological concerns.
04 introduction
03 introduction
how can we design better neighbourhoods that encourage more meaningful social connections?
a brief history of suburbian adelaide
In 1969, the Development Finance Corporation was commissioned to carry out the design proposal of West Lakes. The new scheme, known as the Radburn aproach, valued pedestrian-oriented principles and high-transit use. Unlike previous models, it aimed to integrate high-density development with open public spaces and a connective pedestrian network (Lee and Stabin-Nesmith, 2001). It was influenced by a combination of the English garden city and post-war American city planning.
Unlike garden city standards which followed a formal grid system, Reade developed patterns of roads that varied in length, width and visual characteristics (Hutchings, 1986). He also implemented the use of curves to reveal different vistas throughout the suburb. Likewise, pedestrian and vehicular traffic was separated by the extensive use of culs-de-sac and hierarchal road systems. Internal green spaces guided pedestrians between residential areas and the community centre (Garnaut, 1999). This model became largely influential for Adelaide’s suburban planning.
Taking advantage of the topography along the upper Port River, the development of a lake and an estate of attached housing was proposed. This included an array of open spaces and landscapes interconnected by pedestrian walkways. Community areas and the local school were at the centre, and the collector road was raised to pass over the main open space without disrupting it (Hutchings and Garnaut, 2007). The landscape was largely reworked to accommodate for the main district centre whilst residences were arranged in clusters around culs-de-sac to emphasise the sense of community.
The end of the 20th Century brought debates on suburban design principles. A neotraditional approach was suggested as a response to rising social, ecological and cultural concerns. Merits of street design were questioned and there was a plead to return to pre-war formalist theories of street layout, with contemporary means of multi-use developments. The New Urbanism movement began in the United States in the 1980s and has since strongly influenced urban design practices (Byrne and Hutchinson, 1986). The new scheme advocated for regional planning for open space, and emphasised context-appropriate architecture and infrastructure. In Mawson Lakes, major residential streets were integrated into boulevards that form the collector system. Emphasis was placed on pedestrian and vehicular traffic, as the suburb was a link between a technology park and a University of South Australia campus. Wayfinding and good foot circulation systems were implemented, such that like the garden city model, promoted the importance of reference points and vistas. The clustered two-storey housing, divided shop frontages and high-density developments defined a departure from the earlier estate design model (Mawson Lakes Update, 1998).
residential street
The Garden City Movement, facilitated by Sir Ebenezer Howard, originated in late 19th Century Britain as a method of urban planning. It aimed to proportionally distribute residential, recreational, industrial and administrative areas to create self-contained communities ( Jones, 2012). Colonel Light Gardens was introduced by Charles Reade in 1917 as a model city with several key community-centric planning principles. The spatial arrangement of roads is arguably the most compelling aspect of the scheme.
mawson lakes
tertiary street
west lakes
new urbanism
06 analysis
05 analysis
colonel light gardens
the radburn approach
secondary street
the garden city model
the garden city model colonel light gardens
the radburn approach
new urbanism
west lakes
mawson lakes
what’s
next?
The influences and planning theories in Adelaide over the past century have proven enduring in the way they consider contextual issues.
street layout
Social isolation and loneliness are arguably the greatest causes of unhappiness in the home. As population grows and cities continue to sprawl, communities are having to adapt to living with less space. Urban planners must continue to adapt to the changing social climate and utilise suburbs as spaces to cultivate strong communities, using principles that have evolved over the last century such as; the adaptation of grouped dwellings sharing community space and the reduction in vehicle dependency by providing ample pedestrian and bicycle connective paths as well as accessible public transport.
ground & vegetation
As Adelaide evolves as a society, city design must evolve too. City planners today face new ecological, technological and social challenges. The 21st Century has already started to present a shift in focus from human scale issues that prevailed in the early 20th Century, to broader concerns of sustainability and ecological preservation, based around community-centric design.
08 analysis
07
analysis
development
Lee, C.M. Stabin-Nesmith, B. 2001. ‘The Continuing Value of a Planned Community: Radburn in the Evolution of Suburban Development’. Journal of Urban Design. 6:2. pp 151-184 Garnaut, C. 1997. ‘Transposing the Model: Design Sources for the Mitcham Garden Suburb’. The Australian City/Future Past. Proceedings of the Third Urban History/Planning History Conference. Monash: Office of Continuing Education. pp. 11-20. Garnaut, C. 1998. ‘Model Intentions: Colonel Light Gardens, an urban design object lesson’, Australian Planner, 35(2) pp. 81-89. Garnaut, C. 2006. ‘Colonel Light Gardens: Model Garden Suburb’. Revised edition, Sydney: Crossing Press. First published 1999. Hutchings, A. 1986a. ‘Adelaide: Suburbia Triumphant’. With Conscious Purpose: A History of Town Planning in South Australia. Wakefield Press. Hutchings, A. 1986b. ‘Comprehensive Town Planning Comes to South Australia’. With Conscious Purpose: A History of Town Planning in South Australia. Wakefield Press.
10 references
09 references
Jones, A. 2012. ‘Garden Cities – An English Illusion’. Jones The Planner. Accessed at http://www.jonestheplanner.co.uk/2012/06/ garden-cities-english-illusion.html
suburbian design evolution in metropolitan adelaide