Message from the Course Convenor

Dr Christine Steinmetz

Course Convenor, UNSW Built Environment Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture

It is appropriate that the theme of our exhibition catalogue is Planning in Times of Uncertainty. As 2021 progressed, it was with great uncertainty that our students enrolled in classes, not knowing if they would be in a classroom with their friends or online with significant distances between them. They endured virtual breakout rooms despite constant reconnecting issues; they were a pilot class for newly established ethical research protocols; and they devised a research plan not knowing if or how they were going to conduct site visits or meet their interviewees. A heartfelt ‘thank you’ goes out to this class. Their patience, flexibility, adaptability, perseverance and sense of humour are more than commendable. The learning curve was steep since the beginning of Term 1, but everyone rose to the challenge and trusted the murky process of undertaking an honours thesis despite having never set foot in my classroom. It is especially exciting this year to see another exhibition catalogue come to fruition and to acknowledge its place in archival material produced by the Bachelor of City Program. In the final year of the Program, students design and then execute independent research on a topic of their choice. Their research culminates in an undergraduate thesis of up to 15,000 words. It is the capstone project of their degree and a snapshot of hundreds of hours of class time, thousands of hours of research and carefully planned individual fieldwork, and countless days of writing. Groundwork for a thesis project begins in Term 1 with a preparatory course that revisits the practicalities of research design, research ethics, and methodology. Students develop a research proposal that sets out exactly what they plan to do in their independent research project, including how they will do it and why it is worth doing. The range of topics is vast, reflecting both the breadth of planning as a discipline and the interests and backgrounds of the students themselves. This year, students have been involved with built-environment audits, in-depth interviewing, participant observation, policy reviews, creating and administering online surveys via social media platforms, and ABS analysis. They have covered issues such as: women’s safety in the city, outdoor recreation spaces for the elderly, place identity in LGBTQI+ neighbourhoods, bushfire risk policies, community gardens, maker spaces in Sydney, urban water management, and a range of other topical-planning challenges that face our cities and regional areas today. In their final semester, each student is assigned a supervisor from the City Planning program, City Futures Research Centre staff, or a city planning practitioner. Successful completion and examination of so many independent research projects within a relatively short space of time would not be possible without guidance and input in supervisory and examination roles—their time is appreciated. It is fitting to take this opportunity to thank the many other people who have assisted students in their research. Literally hundreds of people have contributed directly through participation in interviews, surveys and other advisory capacities. Throughout their undergraduate journey, students have intensively studied the forces that have shaped planning outcomes for better or worse in many different contexts and at different scales. Having worked closely with them, I can see that they are ready to take on new challenges and make their marks on the planning profession. No doubt, each year sets the benchmark higher for the next.

Dr Christine Steinmetz, BCP Course Convenor (PLAN4003)