Mudd19 Yearbook

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City Visions

Hamburg | Venice | Sydney | Canberra Contents 002

Message from the Dean

004

Message from the Program Director

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A Country of Cities

010

Stadtvisionen | City Visions

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City Visions - Sydney

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City Visions - Canberra

036

Agoradynamics

038

Elias Duek-Cohen 1926 - 2014

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Wilhelmsburg 2035 - Hamburg

068

Glamour Marghera - Venice

102

Darling Harbour

114

Second Harbour Rail Crossing

126

New Chinatown

138

Visions for Canberra

150

Communication in Urban Design

152

MUDD19 Class

154

MUDD alumni list

156

MUDD alumni profiles

158

Acknowledgements

161

MUDD collaborators

162

Sponsors


Message from the Dean

2 Professor Alec Tzannes

This year we welcome the return of Professor James Weirick as the Discipline Director of UNSW Built Environment’s Master of Urban Development & Design (MUDD) program. We sincerely thank Professor Karl Fischer who, with Dr Paola Favaro, directed the program in 2013 - 2014. Their contribution is evident in the excellent work by our graduating students on the cities of Hamburg, Venice, Sydney and Canberra, the subject of this, the MUDD 19 catalogue and accompanying exhibition. We sincerely thank Professor Karl Fischer and Dr Paola Favaro for their stewardship and contribution to MUDD. I also announce with great pleasure that Karl Fischer has agreed to remain engaged with MUDD by accepting a new appointment as Visiting Professorial Fellow. In this capacity, his first contribution has been significant, bringing to UNSW and MUDD the STADTVISIONEN 1910 | 2010 Berlin, Paris, Chicago, London travelling exhibition. Dr Paola Favaro continues in her role as a tenured academic at UNSW BE. The STADTVISIONEN 1910 | 2010 exhibition along with the MUDD studio curriculum, enables our students to analyse and discuss not less than eight different cities over the last century of their development; delivering potent case studies of the historical practices of urban design as a discipline. Studied together, they provide unique insights on a wide range of neighbourhoods and places of remarkable and distinctive urban form. This type of comparative and historical study of cities is one of the essential components of the MUDD curriculum. Our students learn through the study of these cities about urban outcomes of enduring cultural value to help guide their work as our next

MUDD 19 - City Visions

generations of urban designers. Guiding urban change, growth and investment in the physical infrastructure of cities can also be understood in terms of meeting challenges that urban environments have not faced before on a global scale. Transforming cities to address evolving social and economic imperatives is the core work of the contemporary urban designer and in this context the study of urban design requires students to be prepared for emerging challenges cities face throughout the world. For this reason, the urban design tools, skills, plans, strategies, controls and conceptual frameworks from the past may not always best serve the current and future needs of contemporary cities. Urban design as a discipline whilst always learning from the past is also simultaneously developing knowledge and skills to address emerging urban issues of significance. One emerging issue of significance comes to us from our Adjunct Professor in MUDD, Alexandros Washburn (former Director of Urban Design at the NYC Department of Planning and now Professor and Director of CRUX, the Centre for Coastal Resilience and Urban Xcellence at the Stevens Institute) who has written in his recent book ‘The Nature of Urban Design’ on the devastating effects wreaked by Hurricane Sandy in October / November 2012 on low lying areas of NYC. This event brought to focus an urban design issue around the resilience of coastal cities to the effects of climate change. This issue is of particular relevance to Australia as, with the exception of Canberra, all major Australian cities are in coastal locations. We know that the frequency


The STADTVISIONEN 1910|2010 exhibition along with the MUDD studio curriculum, enables our students to analyse and discuss not less than eight different cities over the last century of their development...

and intensity of serious storms is increasing, as is the probability that they will occur in dense urban areas, as happened in NYC with Hurricane Sandy. The impact of Hurricane Sandy demonstrated that many of our cities, as currently designed, will not be resilient to this type of climate event should it occur. In NYC, Hurricane Sandy damaged underground transportation systems to the point where they stopped functioning. Essential ground level and underground major service infrastructure, such as electrical sub-stations, were destroyed. Floodwaters containing effluent, up to a full storey above ground level, damaged buildings and seriously polluted entire residential neighbourhoods with threatening health risks. Large areas of the city of New York stopped functioning for days and many people became homeless overnight. The challenge of analysing coastal cities from this perspective and transforming cities to become more resilient to extreme weather events, is new in scale and significance with new urban design skills required to address this issue at a global level. Developing urban design strategies to adapt cities to new climate realities is a sub-set of this challenge. Another emerging issue is the increasing awareness of the significant contribution of urban environments to global green house emissions. We know that cities and neighbourhood with higher densities produce lower levels of concentrated green house gases (measured by units of carbon dioxide or equivalent levels of emission) particularly where there exists efficient public transport integrated with housing infrastructure. Mitigation strategies to reduce the production of urban green house emissions involves the discipline of urban design bringing to the fore the question of how to retrofit sprawling suburban cities, as commonly found in Australia, with new public transport infrastructure and higher levels of density, whilst maintaining or improving already high levels of amenity. The conceptual framework of urban design is well suited to this challenge through knowledge gained from historical precedents as evidenced by the neighbourhoods of high density and amenity exemplified in this years MUDD exhibition. The discipline of urban design is also distinguishable because it integrates planning for urban change with effective implementation strategies. Urban design provides realistic and implementable urban transformation strategies and plans integrating relevant specialist design disciplines

including the engineering aspects of infrastructure, with financial and political strategy. Urban design, it could be said, is the discipline that most effectively addresses the intersection of design processes with financial and political strategy to effectively implement projects at an urban scale such as is required to retrofit existing cities with higher density levels integrated with public transport infrastructure and simultaneously improving amenity. The MUDD program’s unique title linking ‘design’ with ‘development’ reflects this focus. In this context, we welcome the Marc Holliday Professor of Real Estate and Director Vishaan Chakrabarti of the Centre for Urban Research (CURE) at Columbia University’s GSAPP to UNSW and the MUDD program, to deliver the annual Paul Reid Utzon Lecture. His recent book ‘Country of Cities’ on which his lecture is based, addresses a number of issues common to Australia and USA, both nations being amongst the few with developed economies experiencing vigorous urban population growth. New computational technologies available to urban scholars have also enriched research opportunity in the discipline of urban design. In parallel with the ongoing study of urban processes and places using established methodologies, computational technology enables the development of new methodologies for the collection of urban data in a form never before available to urban researchers. As urban design in practice transforms cities to meet new or emerging challenges of global significance, new research frontiers are being identified to better understand the impacts of urban change through gathering ‘bigger data sets’ and developing analytical tools to objectively measure urban effects resulting from implemented strategies and plans. This brief introduction to the 2013-14 MUDD catalogue only touches on the growing vitality and relevance of Urban Design as a discipline. The work of our graduating class heralds the prospect of many significant careers in an increasingly important area of research and practice. We congratulate the 2013-14 Master of Urban Development & Design graduates for their outstanding work. The faculty welcomes you as life long friends and alumni. We wish you professional success in the years ahead and offer our continuing support and engagement.

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014

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Message from the Program Director In 2013, Dr Paola Favaro from the UNSW Architecture Program and Professor Karl Fischer from the University of Kassel – our 2011 Reid Lecturer – served as Acting Directors of the Graduate Program in Urban Development & Design.

Professor James Weirick

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Professor Fischer proposed to bring from Germany the impressive exhibition STADTVISIONEN 1910 | 2010 Berlin, Paris, London, Chicago which had been organised by the Centre for Metropolitan Studies and the Architecture Museum, Technical University Berlin to mark the centenary of the 1910 General Town Planning Exhibition in Berlin. After its Berlin opening, this exhibition had travelled to the Technical University, Dortmund; the University of Kassel; and the Bauhaus Weimar, with an English version shown in London at Dalston Square under the auspices of the RIBA; and Glasgow at The Lighthouse organised by Architecture + Design Scotland. Our friends at TU-Berlin – where we ran a joint International Urban Design Studio in 2011-2012 – readily agreed, and with the support of the Goethe Institute, Sydney the STADTVISIONEN exhibition has been the centrepiece of the MUDD experience this year. The practical problem of moving an exhibition with 70+ panels from Europe to Australia was solved by making the panels available to us in high resolution digital format. The MUDD19 class has been involved in re-formatting the panels for printing in Sydney, designing the installation in the BE Gallery, and presenting the Berlin material as a companion exhibition to the work of MUDD Program in 20132014. In the process, the MUDD19 class has had a year to engage with the structure and intellectual content of the STADTVISIONEN materials, the power of which resides in the dialectic between central themes of city making a century apart. As a teaching resource, this has been invaluable. The focus on two epochs centred on 1910 and 2010 brings the urban reform movement at the end of the nineteenth century and the ambitions of sustainable urbanism at the end of the twentieth century to the fore, without the intervening decades of high modernism, the devastation of total

MUDD 19 - City Visions

war and the emergence of the car-based city that destroyed urban fabric and urban life on an unprecedented scale worldwide. The result is a refreshing affirmation of urbanism in all its diversity and richness. Inspired by the STADVISIONEN concept, the MUDD Program adopted CITY VISIONS as the theme for Studio investigation in 2013/2014. In doing so, the Program drew upon the definition of the term proposed by Dr Alfonso Vegara Gómez of the Fundación Metropóli, Madrid in his 2013 Reid Lecture at UNSW last year: A city vision can be defined as a flexible language for sharing and augmenting the strengths of a place. It is a living body of work resulting from inclusive urban analysis, civic participation, trial, error and experience. A vision acts as a blueprint for the creative transformation of urban landscapes through specific, implementable, high impact projects all the while complementing the more tradition problem-solution model of dealing with urban challenges. Urban design is ‘design for design’, it is a framework for change that needs to deploy goals, strategies and clear messages in a visionary way to be effective over time. At the same time, a critical perspective is essential, bearing in mind the cautionary note sounded by German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt many decades ago, ‘People who have visions should go see a doctor’ (‘Wer Visionen hat, sollte zum Arzt gehen’). Visions can turn to nightmares, as the central decades of the twentieth century more than demonstrated. The City Visions explored in the six MUDD Studios of 2013-2014 are all critical of current proposals for the cities under review. In Sydney, the Semester 1 Studio 1 vision of a light rail link from the cultural centre at Carriageworks, Eveleigh to the Powerhouse Museum through creative re-use of the 1855 goods line to Darling Harbour is a critique of the current Darling Harbour mega-project that will


We congratulate the MUDD19 students for the creative achievement of ‘City Visions – Hamburg, Venice, Sydney, Canberra’ held in association with the TU-Berlin exhibition, STADTVISIONEN 1910 | 2010 Berlin, Paris, London, Chicago. replace a single use convention/exhibition centre with a single use convention/exhibition centre, compounding the mistakes of the 1980s. The Semester 1 Studio 2 vision of new urban development in the CBDs of Sydney and North Sydney generated by a second harbour rail crossing is a critique of the North West Rail proposal, metro-style in its engineering but no more than a shuttle as currently configured to terminate at Chatswood: only with a connection to central Sydney and the airport will the metro make any sense. The Semester 2 Studio 2 exploration of alternative visions for Sydney’s Chinatown is a critique of the reluctance to embrace change on the scale of the contemporary Asian city. In Canberra, the Semester 2 Studio 1 vision for a diverse, mixed-use neighbourhood interwoven with the Government departments of the Russell defence complex is a critique of Inner Canberra development that saw construction of the isolated, high security headquarters of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation on Constitution Avenue in defiance of plans for a fine-grained ‘Griffin Legacy’ precinct proposed by the National Capital Authority. In Venice, where the MUDD Program returned to work again with our friends at the Università IUAV di Venezia in the Summer Term International Studio, the vision for a cruise ship terminal and associated urban development relocated from its current, highly intrusive location in the historic city to the mainland port of Maghera is a critique of the increasingly mono-functional tourist economy and tourist experience of this extraordinary city. In the Hamburg Summer Term International Studio, where we were hosted by HafenCity University and the Hamburg IBA GmbH. The vision for a poly-nucleated pattern of urban districts set within the distinctive Elbe Island landscapes and waterscapes of Wilhelmsburg is a critique of the otherwise outstanding Hamburg Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA), 2007-2013. This proposes future urban development as a central linear strip parallel to a heavy rail corridor, dependent for its realisation on re-location of a major Federal highway. In conceptualising this program of study, bringing it to realisation and overseeing the MUDD Program in the past year, I thank Dr Paola Favaro and Professor Karl Fischer – their respective essays in the MUDD19 Folio express their commitment to the culture of cities that has done so much to enrich the intellectual atmosphere and student experience in 2013-2014. I also express my appreciation to Nigel Dickson and Dr Scott Hawken for the ambition and rigour of their advanced Studios on the Second Harbour Rail Crossing and the future of Sydney’s Chinatown. In all our Studio projects, we continue to seek the synthesis of three bodies of knowledge about the city: first, spatial political economy, the manifestation in urban

form of global patterns of capital formation, investment and disinvestment; second, urban design principles and paradigms, normative models of ‘good city form’ grounded in aesthetic, social and environmental concerns; third, ‘urban design as public policy’, the intersection of public policy, design principles, the dealmaking of the property sector and defence of the public realm. Our projects in Hamburg and Venice this year have been conceptualised within a political economy framework set by John Zerby in a background briefing to the MUDD19 class on north-south tensions in the Eurozone driven by the lack of fiscal union in the EU. Professor Donald McNeill from the Institute for Culture & Society, University of Western Sydney provided a critical reading of urban development and design in Sydney’s Chinatown that gave conceptual depth to the Studio 2 investigations in Semester 2. Bob Perry, Principal of Scott Carver, who has refined and expanded his Agoradynamics presentation in creative ways for many years, presents a compelling synopsis of his urban vision in our Folio this year. His interpretation of density and the pedestrian city is complemented by the stimulating ideas on ‘Hyperdensity and Civic Delight’ that are the topic of the 2014 Reid Lecture to be given by Professor Vishaaan Chakrabarti from the Center for Urban Real Estate, Columbia University, New York. All these ideas and visions are placed in perspective when we look back 50 years to the beginnings of urban design teaching at UNSW in our review of the life-work of our colleague, Associate Professor Elias Duek-Cohen (1926-2014) – a true visionary, who passed away in January this year. The International Urban Design Studios were once again the highlight of the MUDD experience in 2013-2014 and we thank our hosts for introducing challenging projects to us - in Venice, Professor Enrico Fontanari of the Università IUAV di Venezia; in Hamburg, Professors Michael Koch, Bernd Kniess and Jens Usadel of HafenCity University, and Uli Hellweg, General Manager, Hamburg IBA GmbH. We congratulate the MUDD19 students for the creative achievement of ‘City Visions – Hamburg, Venice, Sydney, Canberra’ held in association with the TUBerlin exhibition, STADTVISIONEN 1910 | 2010 Berlin, Paris, London, Chicago. We extend appreciation to Dr Scott Hawken, Professor Karl Fischer and Jodi Lawton of Lawton Design for the very special efforts that made presentation of this work possible. Generous support for the MUDD19 Folio and Exhibition – and the Paul Reid Lecture in Urban Design – has been provided by our sponsors: the Goethe Institute, Scott Carver, Bates Smart, Colin Stewart Architects, fjmt, JPW, Allen Jack + Cottier, ae design partnership, Architectus and HASSELL, together with donors Rose & Jones, Mia Creek Pty Ltd and Redd Investment Group - for this, we express our sincere thanks.

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014

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7th Paul Reid Lecture in Urban Design 2014

Professor Vishaan Chakrabarti Director of the Centre for Urban Research (CURE) Columbia University’s GSAPP

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Vishaan Chakrabarti AIA is the Marc Holliday Associate Professor of Real Estate Development and Director of CURE, the Center for Urban Real Estate at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, Columbia University, New York. An experienced architect, planner, and developer, Professor Chakrabarti has transformed the Master of Science in Real Estate Development into a curriculum dedicated to smart growth policies locally, nationally, and globally based on the synthesis of the three pillars of urban real estate: the financial, physical and transactional. His book, A Culture of Cities: a manifesto for an urban America (New York: Metropolis) was published in 2013. Professor Chakrabarti is also a Partner at SHoP Architects, New York. Prior to joining Columbia and SHoP, Professor Chakrabarti was an Executive Vice President at the Related Companies where he ran the Moynihan Station project at Penn Station and oversaw planning and design for the firm’s extensive development portfolio including Hudson Yards on the west side of Manhattan. In addition, he was the inaugural Jaquelin T. Robertson Visiting Professor in Architecture for the University of Virginia in 2009. From 2002 to 2005, Vishaan Chakrabarti served as the Director of the Manhattan Office for the New York Department of City Planning. While with the City, he successfully gained approvals for major rezonings that have begun to reshape the west side of Midtown Manhattan including the extension of the #7 subway line. In this role he also directed the City’s design response to the reconstruction of Lower Manhattan in the wake of 9/11, the expansion of Columbia University into Manhattanville, the makeover of Lincoln Center, the transformation of the High Line, and several other major development proposals in Manhattan.

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Prior to his work with the City of New York, Vishaan Chakrabarti was an Associate Partner and Director of Urban Design at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, as well as a transportation planner at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He holds a Master of Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley, a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and dual Bachelor degrees in Art History and Engineering from Cornell University. Professor Chakrabarti is a David Rockefeller Fellow. He serves on the boards of the Architectural League of New York and Enterprise Community Partners, is a trustee of the Citizens Budget Commission, and is an emeritus board member of Friends of the High Line. He is also a member of the Young Leaders Forum of the National Council on US-China Relations. Metropolis Magazine named him one of the top 12 ‘Game Changers’ for 2012.


A Country of Cities Hyperdensity and Civic Delight Hyperdensity — defined as density sufficient to support subways — contributes to the health, prosperity, and sustainability of cities. [1] Compared to most forms of human habitation, dense cities are the most efficient economic engines; they are the most environmentally sustainable and the most likely to encourage joyful and healthy lifestyles. So, how do we build delightful cities that make us more prosperous, ecological, fit and equitable? Here I will lay out the factors that impede hyperdensity in our cities today, and the conditions necessary to create hyperdense environments in the future, including great design, responsible preservation and sound urban planning. Sound urban development is the lynchpin of the hyperdense environment. Yet public advocacy for high-density development is extraordinarily low, primarily because its merits are misunderstood. Even among those who appreciate cities, there is enormous confusion about how best to build density. This is largely because the rationale for hyperdensity is often lost on those who should be its strongest advocates. Paradoxically, many so-called urbanists — broadly defined as urban planners, architects engaged in city building and urban theorists — tend to be enthralled with density yet enraged by real estate development. In fact, today it is a common trope in most schools of architecture and urban planning to believe that density is good but development is bad. Instead, many urbanists consider European capitals such as Paris and Barcelona as the exemplars of ‘good density.’ And, indeed, with city centres that support mass transit and walkable neighbourhoods built at more than 80 units per acre (200 units per hectare) — as is the case in Paris — these are some of the most densely built environments in the world. [2] Since they achieve these densities without, as some would say, ugly skyscrapers built by ugly developers, these cities represent the meritorious urbanity — commonly known

as ‘low rise, high density’ — championed by the design and planning fields. These fields tacitly or explicitly consider the growing hyperdense cities of Asia as embodiments of ‘bad density.’ They generally deride places such as Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore as being too congested and characterless, the products of mindless real-estate development, inept urban planning and impoverished civic culture. In fact many Asian cities are outpacing European capitals not only economically but also in terms of cultural production, mass transit, environmentalism, racial integration and other key metrics. It is unrealistic and irresponsible for any true urbanist to embrace European capitals as models for future development when they are among the most segregated urban centres on earth and have increasingly unstable finances characterized by debt-driven grands projets. Cities such as New York, Chicago and Toronto fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum between beloved and bemoaned urbanism: praised for their picturesque brownstone neighbourhoods, criticized for areas where skyscrapers have been allowed to thrive. Brownstone Brooklyn, we are told, is sustainable, community-based and charming. Midtown and Lower Manhattan, by contrast, are often derided as the amoral playland of ‘the 1 percent,’ despite the fact that those two business districts generate the majority of the tax dollars that fund the extraordinary array of social goods throughout New York City, including schools, parks and affordable housing. Missing from these simplistic judgments about good and bad urbanism is an in-depth understanding of the origins of low-rise, high-density environments, not to mention an appreciation of the rationale that

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014

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will necessitate high-rise, high-density environments in the future. The majority of the historic buildings in Paris, Barcelona and Brownstone Brooklyn were built by the private sector — yes, by real-estate interests and wealthy businessmen. To be sure, as with any great city, these charming neighbourhoods are framed by grand public parks, lovely streetscapes, efficient transit systems and dignified foreground buildings. But the much-lauded ‘good density’ in such cities is the building stock itself, which was actually built by powerful development interests and typically fuelled by unsavoury capital, such as the spoils of colonialism or labour exploitation, and enabled by topdown government. Today many planning professionals remain fixated on smaller-scale development. They tend to ignore that height limitations have held back the Parisian economy in comparison to the forward-looking redevelopment of London, both at Canary Wharf and within its city centre, which is now marked by a series of glistening and respectful new towers by Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano. There is, in fact, a marked correlation between those European cities that have allowed skyscrapers and those that have successful economies. Urban residents tend to balk when they hear about ‘development’ because they fear any change to their neighbourhoods. Every new proposal has come to be construed as a Robert Moses-like mega-project that will ultimately displace people and tear apart the urban fabric. In cities today many residents channel Jane Jacobs to fight dense, mixed-use, transit-based projects that any true Jacobs acolyte should support. While adaptive reuse of truly historic buildings is essential, existing building stock alone will never accommodate the needs of evolving business or residence, particularly in light of rapid technological and social shifts. Surgical new development remains critical to the rebirth of neighbourhoods and the vitality of urban economies. The design of new buildings has tremendous significance for cities. While sustainability and functionality are important metrics, innovative architecture has proven to be a significant economic and social driver because of its ability to engender new forms for dwelling, work and repose. Smart architecture is as smart about money as it is about design. Yet the best urban architecture satisfies

MUDD 19 - City Visions

more than pragmatic concerns; our best buildings conjure civic delight. Truly great architecture invites, uplifts and advances its city. A great building inspires people through its beauty and material qualities, while enhancing the coherence and contradictions of the street. A great building can reveal a city by exposing its urban structure in new and unfamiliar ways, creating a better collective understanding of its past — and future. Good planning should be guided by desired objectives rather than prescribed physical outcomes; it should allow for flexible uses, densities and building form in response to evolving market conditions, architectural expression and availability of infrastructure such as mass transit. Cities should unleash the performance-focused power of municipal planning to create public policy and investment that spur private-market reaction, which, in turn, will generate invaluable tax revenues to fund public needs. This is precisely the story behind some of the most successful recent policy-driven urban development, such as the preservation of New York’s High Line and its role as a catalyst for the mixed-use neighbourhood that surrounds it. My advocacy for hyperdense, vertical cities should by no means be misconstrued as a prescription for everyone to live in an unyielding forest of skyscrapers. At Columbia University, my students and I have been working on a concept I call ‘cap and trade zoning,’ which would allow the free flow of air rights within an urban district, with an understanding that the overall amount of developable area would be capped in relation to proximity to mass transit. This would result in hyperdensity, to be sure, but would also create a ‘high-low’ city of diverse heights, uses and ages. Permitting the construction of hyperdensity creates what former New York City deputy mayor Daniel Doctoroff has called a ‘virtuous cycle of economic development’: new residents generate new taxes, which, in turn, equals better municipal services in the form of good schools, beautiful parks and effective policing. This better quality of life brings more new residents and workers, which requires even denser development, which ultimately results in sound municipal budgets, vibrant cities and round-theclock ridership for public transportation.


This synopsis of the 2014 Reid Lecture is excerpted and adapted from Vishaan Chakrabarti, A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America, illustrated by SHoP Architects (New York: Metropolis Books, 2013) and appears here with the permission of the author and publisher. 1. Density that supports mass transit is understood to be greater than or equal to 30 housing units per acre (75 units per hectare). 2. Institute for Urban Strategies, Global Power Inner-City Index 2010 (Tokyo: Mori Memorial Foundation, 2010). There is no broadly accepted measure of density, published estimates vary as much as methodologies have varied over time. For examples of density measures used throughout history, see Meta Berghauser Pont & Per Haupt, Spacematrix: Space, Density and Urban Form (Rotterdam: NAi Publishers, 2010).

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How to build the ‘high-low’ city through cap and trade zoning. Source: Chakrabarti, V. 2013, A Country of Cities A Manifesto for an Urban America, New York: Metropolis Publishers, pp.148-149.

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Professor Karl Fischer

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Stadtvisionen | City Visions Exhibition and Studio work

In 2013, MUDD studio teaching was based on the theme of city visions as presented in the exhibition Stadtvisionen 1910 | 2010 - Berlin, Paris, Chicago, London organised by the Architecture Museum and the Centre for Metropolitan Studies, Technical University Berlin under the direction of Professor Dr. Harald Bodenschatz and Dr. Hans-Dieter Nägelke and with contributions by colleagues from other German universities. Produced with assistance from the German Federal Office for Building and Regional Development (BBR) and the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building & Urban Development (BMVBS), this great travelling exhibition has been shown in Berlin, Kassel, Dortmund, Weimar, London and Glasgow over the past three years. In preparation for presenting the exhibition in Sydney as a companion to the 2014 MUDD19 Exhibition, the UNSW MUDD Program drew upon the Stadtvisionen materials as a research and teaching resource for studies in urban history, contemporary urban design practice, and the creative basis of urban design. To bring the themes of the Berlin exhibition alive in the Australian context, MUDD Studio 1 explored the distinctive city visions developed in Sydney and Canberra during the same periods, examined them in their international context and used the perspectives provided by the Stadtvisionen exhibition to generate new visions for case study areas in Sydney and Canberra. Stadtvisionen – The Exhibition The exhibition is a celebration of the centenary of the 1910 General Town Planning Exhibition in Berlin, which promoted urban planning and design at the beginning of the twentieth century, displaying visionary projects from Berlin, Paris, London and Chicago. The Stadtvisionen show takes a fresh look at the ideas and projects from 100 years ago and sets them alongside new work that is shaping these major urban centres today in a powerful dialectic. The exhibition does not focus on 1910 and 2010

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Master of Urban Development & Design

as precise dates but as referring to eras which extend back somewhat before the turn of the respective centuries as well as ahead in time by a similar number of years. The period around 1910 saw the emergence of town planning in Britain, ‘Städtebau’ in Germany, Civic Art in the US and ‘urbanisme / urbanismo’ in France, Italy and Spain. Exhibitions such as those presented in Berlin in 1910 and in London in 1911 summarised the knowledge and the state of the art at a point in time before the underlying principles were fundamentally transformed in the age of modernism. One of its messages was that the problems of chaotic urban growth and squalor, of traffic congestion and the loss of green spaces and aesthetic qualities could be tackled through a new holistic field of technical expertise that drew upon architecture, engineering, surveying, landscape architecture, urban economics and civics. One hundred years later, challenges around the sustainable design of the post-industrial city and its urban region within the context of globalization are on the agenda. Many of the big themes have remained, even though they have radically changed in content. A new understanding of urban development has found its way into a much broader and contested range of urban design concepts. Simultaneously, new problems that threaten the integrity of cities are emerging. They include a dramatic weakening of the influence of the public sector, the usurpation of the public realm by private interests and new forms of social polarisation. The Stadtvisionen exhibition looks at the principles of urban design in these two key periods through a range of ‘windows’: •

The first is The Big Plan of the early 20th century, with its presentational medium, the artistically drawn bird’s eye view of the metropolis. It represented a novel approach and a clear break from the 19th century, when the laying out of cities tended to be


a raw process of land subdivision, road building and rudimentary servicing with insufficient regard for health, well-being and civic order. The elaborate images of The Big Plan in the decades 1890 - 1920 were designed to ‘sell’ the design experts’ vision to a broad sector of the population. The belief that it would be possible to shape the urban region right down to the architecture of the individual building on the basis of this blueprint in a top-down approach was to remain a fundamental tenet of the field for many years. As the exhibition demonstrates, the hope of designing cities as a total work of art was an international phenomenon. ‘The Cult of the Big Plan’ introduced an irrational dimension to the new science of city planning, nevertheless the visionary projections of that era and the technical expertise underpinning them, continue to be most powerful and evocative expressions of urban ideals. A century later, The Strategic Plan adopted in many urban regions reflects a learning process. The omniscient planner‘s rigid, prescriptive master plan, which was concerned to set out the desired future end state in detail has been replaced by strategic plans oriented on broader objectives and alternative ways of attaining them. These were often set out in writing rather than in detailed maps. Strategic plans tend to identify opportunity areas for prioritised development embedded in new forms of governance and communication. The way in which such plans are produced, their implementation and the actors involved differ widely. Nevertheless, the value of city visions for linking individual projects within a cohesive structural frame remains unchanged in this context. As Dr. Alfonso Vegara Gomez put it in last year’s Paul Reid lecture, they have to be ‘contextually robust city visions that are sufficiently flexible to manoeuvre unforeseen changes, sufficiently ambitious to create notable impact, and sufficiently contextual to be implementable’. •

A central theme of city planning and design in the early 20th century consisted of giving the public realm a new and dignified dimension through the creation of an impressive arrangement of monumental buildings in The Monumental City Centre. Its 21st century counterpart, The New City Centre, is going through a highly visible post-industrial ‘urban renaissance’ with up-market apartments and restaurants for ‘the creative class’, pedestrianised streets and public spaces wellconnected to public transport (light rail), a new mix of historic and modern buildings and altered functions including waterfront redevelopment. New museums and spaces designed for an events and festival culture attract local, regional and international tourism and have taken the role of crucial signifiers in the context of global inter-urban competition. Explosive population growth of the industrial city, housing shortage and the proliferation of slums led

to the emergence of ‘the housing question’ as a burning problematic of the 19th century. Two major avenues pursued consisted of the development of New Garden Suburbs and New Models for Dense Living. Today, cities are looking for new Alternatives to Suburban Sprawl, partly on brownfield land, while work is proceeding on new concepts for Redeveloping Large-scale Housing Estates of the 20th century, •

The focus on maximum mobility persisting into the last decades of the 20th century has been complemented by the search for Sustainable Forms of Transportation.

The introduction of Green Belts and Parks formed another element of the approach to modernising the industrial city around the turn of the millennium. A final window of the exhibition opens out on to the search for a healthier Green City with features which include not only more parks, but also rooftop gardens, local urban food production and new features such as guerrilla gardens.

Studio work in the context of the exhibition Studio work in the MUDD program of 2013 then applied the approach of the exhibition to Sydney and to Canberra. The introductory studios re-visited the big plans of that period around 1910 – the Royal Commission Enquiry of 1909 in Sydney and the Griffin Plan for Canberra as well as their 2010 counterparts, the Sustainable Sydney 2030 plan, and the contested ‘Griffin Legacy’ proposals for the symbolic centre of Canberra. On this basis, MUDD Studio 1 developed visions for the abandoned goods railway between Darling Harbour and Eveleigh and for the mono-functional defence precinct at Russell, envisaged as the market centre in the original plan for Canberra. Studio 2 projected visions for the CBD’s of Sydney and North Sydney that would be stimulated by a second harbour rail crossing in the Fall term, while the spring studio explored the future of Chinatown in the context of the Central Sydney Planning Study currently in progress. A final component focused on the UDES0003 International Studios in Hamburg and Venice. The first involved a critical study of the principles and projects of the International Building Exhibition in Hamburg - Wilhelmsburg, 2007 2013 and produced ‘post-IBA’ urban development and design scenarios. In parallel, the MUDD excursion to Venice explored the future of the port of Maghera as a metropolitan cruise ship terminal and centre designed to alleviate the problems of the medieval city. In all studios, the City Vision themes informed the explorations and the development of the design concepts.

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014

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Sydney 1910 The Big Plan

Stefano Cendron Connie Lau Felicia Sugiaman

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Key projects that reflect specific windows of the proposal suggested by The Royal Commission for the Improvement of The City of Sydney and its Suburbs. (The Royal Commission 1909)

METROPOLITAN MOBILITY North Sydney Connection Connecting the CBD with North Sydney via a harbour crossing.

MODELS FOR DENSE LIVING The Rocks Remodelling housing for harbour workers.

MONUMENTAL CITY CENTRE City Centre Connection Improve connections within the city centre.

GREEN BELTS & PARKS Network of Green Spaces Equitable distribution of parks and reserves.

NEW GARDEN SUBURBS Daceyville ‘Garden City Movement’ concept housing estate.

MUDD 19 - City Visions

The exponential growth of Sydney’s metropolitan population lead to the city overcrowding and an infrastructure system that could not cope with the rise in volume. Issues such as poor port access, inadequate road systems, an underperforming mass transit system, slums, environmental pollution and health concerns, directly affected the productivity and the competitiveness of the city and were the key problems raised in the Royal Commission for the Improvement of the City of Sydney and its Suburbs. The Royal Commission for the Improvement of The City of Sydney and its Suburbs was formed to investigate these key critical issues, and importantly to make Sydney modern and attractive. The Commission conceded that it had not produced a ‘formal’ or ‘symmetrical’ plan but rather a ‘scheme of improvement’. It focused on five core areas: traffic congestion, beautification of the city, slum areas, housing reform, future growth of the city.


Sydney 2010 The Strategic Plan

Stefano Cendron Connie Lau Felicia Sugiaman

The 2030 Vision highlights the challenges Sydney faces now and in the future, that of climate change, and the need to be economically competitive in a global market. Specifically within the city context, problems of transport congestion, decreasing affordability, persistent social disadvantage, the need to replace aging infrastructure are all key issues that need to be addressed by providing leisure,cultural experiences and greater accessibility. The focus of the ‘remaking the City’ into one that is green, global and connected. Strategically, the Sustainable Sydney 2030 Vision deals with five encompassing ‘Big Moves’ as directives rather than specific projects: a revitalised city centre at the heart of global Sydney, an integrated Inner Sydney transport network, a liveable green network, activity hubs as a focus for the city’s village communities and transport, transformative development and sustainable renewal.

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NEW CITY CENTRE Revitalised City Centre In the heart of global Sydney, reconnected to the harbour.

SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY South East Light Rail Integrated inner city transport network.

URBAN RENEWAL Cowper Street Old Depot Re-development at Glebe Creating mixed-housing hub.

GREEN CITY Liveable Green Network Integrated green spaces, pedestrian and bike paths.

ALT. SUBURBAN SPRAWL Green Square Mixed-use business precinct & sustainable liveable suburb.

Key projects that reflect specific windows of the proposal suggested by The Royal Commission for the Improvement of The City of Sydney and its Suburbs. (City of Sydney, Sustainable Sydney 2030: The Vision)

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Sydney 1910 Monumental City Centre

Bianca Maria Francolini Liam Williamsz Xiao Ruyu

The major problems were seen in the overcrowding; the unsanitary; poor housing conditions; in the congested cross-city links pedestrians and goods to harbourside wharves; the lack of monumental civic spaces. Members of the Royal Commission such as Norman Selfe (1839-1911) and John Sulman (1849-1934) proposed projects to enhance the city centre inspired by the beaux-arts boulevards of Europe and America. Woolloomooloo and the Rocks were to be demolished and redeveloped. Crescent townhouses at Belmore Park Aston Webb’s design for the Queen Victoria Monument in London (1903) and a monumental axis along Pitt street to Circular Quay would reconnect the city to the harbour. The Tarpiean promenade, renovated government buildings on Macquarie street and redeveloped Taylor square would furnish Sydney with genteel grand civic spaces.

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Projects for Improvements in Royal Commission 1909 (Student design adapted from Royal Commission 1909)

MUDD 19 - City Visions


Sydney 2010 The New City Centre Mirror of the City Region Bianca Maria Francolini Liam Williamsz

Major problems were seen in the general lack of civic focus; the substandard mass transit (railways, buses and trams); the congested city centre. The City of Sydney council has proposed a major renovation of George street which would act as a spine for the City with light rail between Central station and Circular Quay. New civic plazas would be established at the Quay, Central and in front of the Town Hall. Two private redevelopment projects coordinated by the state government are the redevelopment of Barangaroo and the former Carlton brewery site. Both major projects employed international ‘starchitects’ and will provide the city centre with more high density office and residential space.

Xiao Ruyu

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1 1. Proposed Barangaroo Development (www.lode.com.au)

2 2. Proposed Townhall Square (www.skyscrapercity.com)

3 New City Centre Projects in Sydney 2030 (Adapted from Sydney 2030)

3. Proposed Central Park (Fraser Property & Seikusui House)

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Sydney 1910 New Models for Dense Living

By the end of 19th century, overcrowding, the poor housing conditions and the high prices in central areas presented great problems for large parts of the population and were in contrast to what workers could afford. A major principle of the improvement plan consisted in demolition and constructing new residential projects of relatively high density for working-class people. Planning aimed at creating a dense residential project with social and services infrastructure including shops, which would then serve as a model to be repeated all over Sydney. This model was, however, abandoned in favour of low-density garden suburb development.

Mohammad Shahrokhian Sun Xiao Wang Youding Xu Zhaoming

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Right: The Strickland Building in 1914 (The City of Sydney Archives, NCSA CRS 43: 1915 p105)

Below: Munn Street bridge, showing Sydney Harbour Trust staff homes (http://www.flickr.com/ photos/state-recordsnsw/7798878102)

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Terraces on Irving Street, Chippendale1908

Myrtle Street, Chippendale1908

(www.dictionaryofsydney.org)

(mjedmo.files.wordpress.com/2011


Sydney 2010 Renewal of Working Class Neighbourhoods Mohammad Shahrokhian Sun Xiao Wang Youding Xu Zhaoming

Industrial sites and working class neighbourhoods around Sydney are experiencing renewal as inner city living becomes attractive to the middle classes. The former CUB site (the old Carton United Brewery site), now known as Central Park, is located at the south-west end of the Sydney CBD. The renewal of the old Carlton United Brewery site by Frasers Property involves the adaptive re-use of the Brewery buildings, innovative approaches to energy generation, waste treatment, sustainable architecture and affordable housing. Central Park involves the renewal of six hectares of industrial and mixed use urban land. It is a $2 billion ‘urban village’ for living, working, shopping and relaxing with a park at its heart. The project includes 11 buildings with around 2,000 apartments. In addition, this plan is attempting to promote design excellence through the involvement of star architects such as Jean Nouvel. Nouvel’s contribution includes two towers – one 16 stories and the other 33. They incorporate green hanging gardens designed in collaboration with the botanist Patrick Blanc, and a curious cantilevered heliostat. The heliostat is designed to redirect sunlight into the building and onto the landscaped terraces with an innovative system of mirrored panels. Central Park 2013 Source: https://www.facebook. com/pages/Central-Park-Sydney/111314825567886

Present and future Central Park

NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure (2012, 2013)

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014

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Sydney 1910 New Garden Suburbs

Bianca Maria Francolini

The suburb of Castlecrag is one of Australia’s most significant urban projects by the American architect and landscape architect Walter Burley Griffin (1876-1937), designed in association with his architect wife Marion Mahony Griffin (1871-1961) in 1921. In its bushland setting on the shores of Middle Harbour, Castlecrag was originally conceived to have no fences, no boundaries, and no red roofs to spoil the steep leafy hillside landscape. The roads of Castlecrag were planned to suit the topography of the area following the natural contours of the land, reflecting Griffin’s belief that the built environment should be subservient to the landscape. The streams, cliffs and harbour foreshore were preserved as an integrated public open space system.

Liam Williamsz Xiao Ruyu

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Left: Marion Mahony Griffin, Forest Portrait, Angophera lanceolata (Castlecrag), c.1925, detail. (Nicholls Collection, National Library of Australia) Above: Griffin’s 1932 plan of the Castlecrag and Haven Estates. (*Black: constructed buildings) (willoughbydhs.org.au) Below: View from Tower Reserve to the Fishwick House (Walter Burley Griffin Society Incorporated Collection).

MUDD 19 - City Visions


Sydney 2010 Alternatives to Suburban Sprawl

Bianca Maria Francolini Liam Williamsz

Projects such as Victoria Park in Sydney’s inner city and Rouse Hill Town Centre in Sydney’s northwest demonstrate higher density alternatives to business as usual urban sprawl. Both these examples were implemented by the public development company Landcom and other private developers. At Rouse Hill the urban core has a significant proportion of new retail, apartment and community floor space and is planned to be the centre of medium density development. Within 12 years there will be 1800 homes, more than 3000 jobs and the Northwest Rail Link at the front door. Victoria Park is a medium density development that was amongst the first development projects in Sydney to incorporate water sensitive urban design. First planned in the 1990s Victoria Park is now coming to completion after $3 billion in investment. Despite the density of apartments 40 percent of the site consists of open space.

Xiao Ruyu

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Eco 1 + 2 at Victoria Park Zetland, Sydney. Source: McGregor Coxall http://mcgregorcoxall.com/ projects/37#/projects/37

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km

SYDNEY

Source: from www.rhtc.com.au

Source: www.epa.vic.gov.au

Source: www.thehills.nsw.gov.au

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Sydney 1910 Green Belts and Parks

Three different parks were renovated around 1910 with different purposes. Hyde park was to be the beautifying monumental park with axial paths while Centennial park was to be the larger metropolitan urban reserve in which people could escape from the city. The smaller Belmore park was particularly symbolic because it immediately greeted visitors to the city as they exited the grand new Central Station.

Bianca Maria Francolini Liam Williamsz Xiao Ruyu

Source: The Royal Commission

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Hyde park

Centennial park

Belmore park

MUDD 19 - City Visions


Sydney 2010 The Green City

Bianca Maria Francolini Liam Williamsz

Pirrama park is a small, well designed urban parkland which reconnects the city and harbour in inner city Pyrmont which was redeveloped in the 1980’s and 90’s. One of the new concepts of the 2010 period, which scarcely anybody would have imagined around 1910 was that of ‘guerrilla gardening’. Sydney today has many cases of community gardens following this principle. Many produce vegetables for local consumption, others are mainly decorative. Arguably the most beautiful one is ‘Wendy Whiteley’s Secret Garden’ in Lavender Bay, a once derelict large patch of land owned by the NSW Rail Corporation lovingly transformed into a publicly accessible garden with artworks and picnic tables in planted séparés between sinuous paths.

Xiao Ruyu

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Above: Pyrmont Point Park (Hill Thalis in collaboration with ASPECT Studios and CAB, photograph by Brett Boardman and Adrian Boddy) Below: Wendy Whiteley’s (not so) Secret Garden (photograph by Karl Fischer)

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Sydney 1910 Metropolitan Mobility

Bianca Maria Francolini

The major problems were seen in the serious inner city congestion; the lack of plans for infrastructure; the unsatisfied demand for suburban housing. The Royal Commission and railway commissioner proposed a series of overlapping circular lines for the Sydney region in an attempt to connect the central city to its growing suburbs. Amongst the most important projects which were proposed was the Circular Quay transit hub and renovation of the Central Station area and Belmore park. Many of the ideas discussed in 1910 were continued in the 20’s and 30’s by Dr J. J. C. Bradfield, chief engineer for metropolitan railway construction and the driving force behind design and construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, completed in 1932.

Liam Williamsz Xiao Ruyu

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Railway plan focus

Royal Commission - Railway plan

Monumental city Oxford St. propose Circular Quay

Source: The Royal Commission

MUDD 19 - City Visions


Sydney 2010 Sustainable Mobility

The major problems were seen in the low density city, lack of transport infrastructure for North-Western and South Western Sydney. There are two main projects of different scales. Firstly, there is the NorthWest and South-West rail link which extends the rail system to the ‘growth centres’ on the city periphery. The second project is the installation and complete renovation of George street as a main artery through the city. The plan undertaken by the City of Sydney Council and proposed by Gehl architects will provide a strategic pedestrian focused connection from Circular Quay to Central Station with three new plazas along its length.

Bianca Maria Francolini Liam Williamsz Xiao Ruyu

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Source: City of Sydney 2010, ‘Sustainable Sydney 2030: The Vision’, Australia.

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Canberra 1910 The Big Plan

Jane Anderson Wang Chenyu

The plan for the capital presented by Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mahony Griffin in 1911 is one of the great classic ‘Big Plans’ of the period before World War I Presented in a superb set of drawings, the competition scheme echoed principles of the L’Enfant plan for Washington DC, Haussmann’s Paris and Burnham’s plan for Chicago, and combined them with those of the Garden City, the American parks movement and the democratic ideals of the America progressive era.. The drawings were an impressive tour de force in presentation. Except for one plan which had to be drawn onto the contour base map supplied to the competitors they were rendered in sepia tones on fine holland fabric mounted on stretchers. The overview over the whole city was presented in the Plan of the City and Environs.

Yu Haiwen

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Above: Griffin 1911, the city plan drawn on the contour base map of the competition. (National Archives of Australia, NAA: A710, 36-37)

Left: W. B. Griffin and M. M. Griffin, Commonwealth of Australia Federal Capital Competition. City and Environs, 1911. (National Archives of Australia, NAA: A710, 38.)

MUDD 19 - City Visions


Canberra 2010 The Strategic Plan

Chen Yanxi Chen Yuhao Nguyen Khanh Tung Raffaele Villano

Canberra’s Strategic Plan of 2012 is an exercise characteristic of the period around 2010. By 2010 Canberra had grown to a city with a population of 370,000, composed of a network of separate, predominantly low-density ‘New Towns’, each with its own urban core separated by hills and green belts. The 2012 ACT Planning Strategy was based on a number of studies and consultation exercises which explored alternative urban forms, urban design and density options. The strategy involves higher densities along the transportation corridors (transit-oriented development) and major avenues not unlike the principles underlying the original Griffin plan. It combines the introduction of the tram with urban renewal projects of industrial as well as residential sites and aims for a more sustainable, green city

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Woden / Mawson / Athllon Drive master plan

Woden/Mawson/Athllon Drive master plan

ACT Strategy Plan (Planning and Land Authority: ACT Planning Strategy 2012)

Belconnen / Bruce master plan

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Canberra 1910 Monumental City Centre Chen Yanxi

As Griffin saw it, the first and most essential requirement of the design problem was to make a splendid city, worthy of the national capital; a city which would look important and be impressive as a tangible expression of nationhood. (Peter Harrison, ‘Aft agley: the development of Canberra’, Journal of the Town Planning Institute, Sept. / Oct. 1957, p. 236). Griffin describes his monumental buildings of government as ‘giving the impression of one great building like some of the superb structures of Indo-China, presenting a facade one mile in length and piling up terrace on terrace...’ (Griffin, 1915, reproduced in David T. Van Zanten, Walter Burley Griffin: selected designs. Palos Park: Prairie School Press, 1970).

Chen Yuhao Nguyen Khanh Tung Raffaele Villano

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An example of ‘one of the superb structures of Indo-China’, the central building group in Yihe Yuan. Zhou Weiquan , China Classical Garden History, Beijing: Tsinghua University, 2006, vol.7, p.421.

W. B. Griffin & M. M. Griffin, section B-A Southerly Side of Water Axis: Government Group, 1911 (National Archives of Australia, NAA: A710, 43.).

MUDD 19 - City Visions


Canberra 2010 The New City Centre Mirror of the City Region Jane Anderson Chen Yanxi Wang Chenyu Chen Yuhao Yu Haiwen Nguyen Khanh Tung Raffaele Villano

In the case of the National Capital, monumentality still plays a significant role in the 21st century – more than in other cities. Since Griffin saw his plan as an ‘arrangement looking forward one hundred years‘, his city centre design for the capital was not focused on a central business district in a spot location. Canberra’s city centre was circumscribed by the corners of the central triangle, extending along a lakefront boulevard Constitution Avenue between the municipal centre and the market centre. The approaches to designing the monumental character in the central area have changed significantly over the last 100 years. And in 2013, the centre at the western corner of the triangle changed its name from ‘Civic Centre‘ (reflecting to an extent the idea of a ‘municipal centre‘ in Griffin’s plan) to ‘City Centre‘.The principles for designing that ‘New City Centre’ have been summarized in the new City Plan, reflecting a highly visible ‘urban renaissance’ with a great number of up-market apartments and restaurants, pedestrianised streets and public spaces well-connected to public transport (light rail). Together, the new city centre at the western corner of the triangle and the monumental area in the middle of the triangle have become a mirror not only of the city region but of the nation.

Source: Image supplied courtesy of the National Capital Authority. © Commonwealth Copyright. All rights reserved.

The City Plan 2013 (Planning and Land Authority: ACT Planning Strategy 2012)

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014

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Canberra 1910 New Models for Dense Living

Griffin’s residential planning exists principally in two forms: higher density terraces lining the main avenues and lower density garden suburbs set back from the main avenues. Density of subdivisions between the main avenues network and public building precincts decreased proportionally to their distance to main transport lines and commercial Centres. Main features of neighbourhoods planned by Griffin:1. Preference of low density housing forms; 2. Higher density terraces defining main avenue; 3. Lower density suburbs set back from main avenues; 4. Periphery of low density hillside housing; 5. Gradation from higher density on main avenues and Centres and lower density in peripheries.

Huynh Thi Mai Phuong Rituka Kapur Carlos Bartesaghi Koc Mu Cong

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Different residential densities planned by Griffin in 1917. (ACT 2004).

Source: Design prepared in studio

Blocks typologies intended to create varied building densities in neighbourhoods (ACT 2004).

Reference: ACT 2004, The Griffin Legacy: Canberra, the nation’s capital in the 21st century, Australia

MUDD 19 - City Visions


Canberra 2010 Renewal of Working Class Neighbourhoods

Griffin’s ideas for housing are nowadays to an extent revisited as an opportunity for providing housing diversity in form of higher density apartments and terrace housing along main avenues. The spatial plan set out to provide housing for all kind of lifestyles, equal distribution of amenities, safety, access to public buildings & transport and viable town centres for each district.

Huynh Thi Mai Phuong Rituka Kapur Carlos Bartesaghi Koc Mu Cong

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Civic Centre and West Basin Development Plan Concept (ACT 2004).

View of monumentality along the land axis 2010

Artistic impression of the Northbourne Apartments proposal. (http://www.canberratimes.com.au) (2013).

Source: Design prepared in studio

Reference: ACT 2004, The Griffin Legacy: Canberra, the nation’s capital in the 21st century, Australia

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Canberra 1910 New Garden Suburbs

Chen Yanxi Chen Yuhao Nguyen Khanh Tung Raffaele Villano

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Right: Reconstruction of Griffins’ Westlake Esplanade, Yarralumla (ACT 2004, p. 53) Left: Plan of a Typical Neighborhood (ACT 2004, p. 81)

Computer Reconstruction of Neighbourhoods in the Central Area (ACT 2004, p. 65) Reference: ACT (Australia. National Capital Authority) 2004, The Griffin Legacy: Canberra, the nation’s capital in the 21st century, Australia.

MUDD 19 - City Visions

The suburbs planned by Griffin formed units for cellular growth and were defined as walkable communities and/or semi-agricultural neighbourhoods. The suburbs were continual subdivisions where community gardens were confined by buildings and housing to protect children and courtyards from traffic and noise. These were contained by Main Avenues which provided public transit, commercial activity, apartments and terraces. The topographically sensitive, curvilinear plan of outer neighbourhoods contrast with an orthogonal grid defined for centres and sections. The nature intertwined with blocks and buildings set up for achieving community oriented suburbs.


Canberra 2010 Alternatives to Suburban Sprawl

Key targets of the ACT Planning Strategy (2012) are: In the next 5 years, 50% of new housing will be within the established urban area of Canberra, and 75% of residential urban intensification in the established area will be in town and group centres and along transit ways. A medium-density waterfront redevelopment project in the suburb of Kingston is already well-established. More cutting-edge concepts have been explored for the nearby Eastlake district. But the discovery of contamination in this area and the associated cost of remediation are slowing the implementation down.

Huynh Thi Mai Phuong Rituka Kapur Carlos Bartesaghi Koc Mu Cong

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Eastlake Urban Renewal (Planning and Land Authority: ACT Planning Strategy 2012, urban design by Simpson+Wilson)

Mixed Use Suburb Kingston Foreshore (Courtesy Colin Stewart Architects)

Source: Planning and Land Authority: ACT Planning Strategy 2012

Yarralumla – Urban extension in association with Brickworks adaptive re-use (Land Development Agency, Canberra)

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Canberra 1910 Green Belts and Parks

Chen Yanxi Chen Yuhao Nguyen Khanh Tung Raffaele Villano

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Above: Civic Centre tree planting plan (29 April 1919) showing tramway alignment and planting layout at intersection of present-day Northbourne Avenue and London Circuit. Below: Detail prepared by Griffin in 1916 showing subdivision of blocks, possible school locations and neighbourhood parks.

Source: ACT 2004, The Griffin Legacy : Canberra, the nation’s capital in the 21st century, Australia, p. 13.

MUDD 19 - City Visions

An outstanding feature of Griffin conception was the way in which it integrated the city into the landscape and turned the natural features of the topography into corner stones of his design. In addition to continuous parklands surrounding the lakes, there was an experimental Redwood plantation south of today’s airport, and there was to be an agricultural suburb as well as a ‘continental arboretum’ around Westlake. Canberra was to be a city set in parklands of very different nature, characterised by a great variety of indigenous as well as non-Australian plants and trees. The hills were to be planted with trees in different colours. Much of the planting and also the planning work preceding it was carried out by the Director of City Planting, Charles T.C.G. Weston. In avenues and roads trees were planted in formal straight lines for visual effect and with great consideration for the colour and timing of their flowering. Other plantations were later designed to provide shelter from the wind, such as Haig Park, a ‘formal’ wind break planted at right angles to Northbourne Avenue.


Canberra 2010 The Green City

Chen Yanxi Chen Yuhao Nguyen Khanh Tung Raffaele Villano

The most spectacular project in the field of green space planning of the period around 2010 is the establishment of the National Arboretum Canberra. The Griffin Plan had contained a proposal for a ‘Continental Arboretum’ at the western edge of the lake, in which different trees collected from each continent were to be planted. Following the great bushfire in January 2003, the ACT government decided to take up this idea and to develop an arboretum based on a 1915 Griffin proposal on a 250 ha site of the bushfire-damaged lands. The winning design of an Australia-wide competition by landscape architects Taylor Cullity Lethlean proposed the concept of 100 forests/100 gardens focusing on the planting of forests of rare, threatened and symbolic trees from around the world. The project became one of the centrepieces of Canberra’s centennial in 2013. The visitor centre by the Sydney architects Tonkin Zulaikha Greer incorporated a mosaic of outdoor sculptures and a café/restaurant/visitor centre. In its architecture, this building is equally spectacular as the arboretum landscape project. While it has been designed in a contemporary design language, its function can be said to be an equivalent to the building which Griffin had designed for the northern end of his land axis, and which he had called a ‘casino’.

Right: Arboretum Masterplan by Taylor Cullity Lethlean landscape architects. “Starting a National Arboretum from the ashes of the bushfire-ravaged hillside took vision and a commitment to the future.” (Fuller, P. 2013, ‘One of the wonders of the world’, Arboretum: the magazine for the National Arboretum Canberra, February 2013, p. 13.) Below: Visitor Centre, Tonkin Zulaikha Greer architects, photographer: Brett Broadman.

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014

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Canberra 1910 Metropolitan Mobility

The sequence of arrival to the National Capital and the central ‘amphitheatre’, by rail and road, was consciously orchestrated in the Griffin Plan through a series of gateways and scenic approaches as well as a clear demarcation of the city edge. The Griffin Plan proposed a model street-car city. The direct and efficient network of Main Avenues provided lines for ‘rapid transport’ (tramlines) plus, very importantly, a rail line with a monumental railway station at the Market Centre and railway marshalling yards in the North. Griffin had a pedestrian oriented approach while planning the city. Density increases in response to accessibility, mutually reinforcing the system. The transit system affects the density and character of the city, allowing a horizontal distribution of building mass that maintains the city in scale with its landscape and increase access to open space.

Huynh Thi Mai Phuong Rituka Kapur Carlos Bartesaghi Koc Mu Cong

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Railway Network

Griffins’ schematic Plan of Road, Rail & Waterway levels. (Reid 2002)

Tram Network

Source: Design prepared in studio Alternative Railways alignments from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works 1916. (Reid 2002) Reference: Reid, P 2002, Canberra following Griffin: A design history of Australia’s national capital, Australia

MUDD 19 - City Visions


Canberra 2010 Sustainable Mobility

Jane Anderson

The public transport connections between city centre and towns are to be strengthened by implementing rapid transit in what has long been designed as the central public transport spine, as well as in other parkway corridors and major avenues. The introduction of the high speed railway between Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne will reduce the number of inter-city flights and is going to change Canberra’s development perspectives dramatically; a healthier and more active community is expected as walking and cycling will be easier. The provision of bike lanes and ride services has already made great progress; easy way to change transport modes; Planning walking route, make them safe, direct and pleasant; Incorporation of bike parking areas in public spaces and adjacent to public transport stops.

Wang Chenyu Yu Haiwen

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Source: Design prepared in studio

Source: Planning Land Authority, Planning Strategy

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


All cites are simultaneously constrained by, and augmented by, their transport systems. Commuter behaviour, shopping behaviour and, indeed net social behaviour are all dictated by the systems that predominate in particular cities. It is the population, and the way it moves around, that drives the need for communicative architecture and forges the nature of that communication. Today, people move between cities at will, around cities at speed, and they linger in places by impulse rather than necessity.

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Agoradynamics

Bob Perry Director Scott Carver Architects Bob Perry defines a term he has coined, as the study of the interaction between the city and people moving through its public realm. For many years, he has presented an evolving lecture to the MUDD Program, based on extensive photography and video of people’s behaviour in the world’s most transit-rich city, Tokyo. He compares static Australian suburban architecture, primarily designed around the motorist, to the fluid architecture of the world’s most populous city, designed to be appreciated by the pedestrian. On the streets of Tokyo, it is through the pedestrian lens, rather than through a car window, that we can marvel at the dynamism achieved when architecture evolves for the people that move through it.

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Tokyo is arguably today’s most responsive city to the eye. Through its graphics, its architecture, and its heavily-populated street edges, information, artefacts, and built form are merged into an ambiguous and everchanging dynamic. This is in sharp contrast to most Australian cities today, and we can learn much about the effective integration of people and place, by walking through the streets of Tokyo. The movement paradigm of the motorists’ city has led to a culture of carefully manipulated destinations, limited to places where cars can park. The need to get out of a car puts a spatial burden on the city of 35 square metres per car at each place. This is just to stop, and is a separate demand from the roadways required to facilitate arrival at the parking destination. Ironically, each motorist is carried to each place by the very tool that impacts negatively on the possibility of place. This system of movement in Australian cities is now pervasive and has led to retail environments of aggregated sameness, convenient enough to each sub-region of motorists. Each community of motorists is effectively trapped within a locality, torn between the desire for convenience and the desire to escape, depending on traffic. In this way, each suburban subregion becomes a billabong of boredom, while transitrich cities remain rivers of possibility. Of course, not all cities are car-centric and we can learn a great deal from other cities in order to creatively evolve our own hybrid situation. If Australian cities typify urban form derived from cars, then Tokyo is at the other extreme, being the most transit-rich city in the world. The Tokyo commuter rail system has 882 stations, including 290 subway stations, and carries 40 million daily rail passengers. In Australasia we are typically enamoured of European cities as precedents for integrated, transport-privileged places, so we sometimes forget that transit-rich, and therefore lesson-rich, Tokyo, is both on our doorstep and within our time zone.


More interesting than Tokyo’s transit system itself, are the myriad public places it connects. Paradoxes abound in this clean, safe, child-friendly, quiet, polite, robust and culturally dynamic megacity of some 35 million people - all of whom live, work and play within an hour of each other. The eye of the pedestrian dictates specific outcomes because pedestrians constitute a market that can engage immediately with its surroundings. Pedestrian volume has an immense impact on urban form and, consequently, Tokyo is largely a response to the widely diverse tastes and expectations of its pedestrians. Buses, bicycles and pedestrians mingle seamlessly in narrow streets while trains traverse, often at-grade, every few minutes. Here we can see intimate and interpersonal social transactions occurring in the same space as transport systems with no detrimental influence on either. Pedestrians and cyclists, safe on shared roads and footpaths, are free to explore and to discover the city. Spatial perception at pedestrian speed is compatible with shopping. Here the right brain predominates and peripheral vision tempts impulsiveness. Flows of people fluctuate throughout the day, and throughout the week. Consequently, the edges of these streets respond to the needs of this flow with an organic variety of architectural, landscape and retail messages, characteristic of each place.

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Whereas our car-centred cities propagate repetitive and culturally dull commoditisation of goods and services, the overlapping transit catchments of Tokyo propagate extreme specialisation for individual traders, cultural institutions and whole neighbourhoods. Each captive market of motorists in Australia is offered the same basic goods and services. The super-connectivity of Tokyo’s rail system allows its subcultures to aggregate in specific places; the largest in the more accessible places, and the esoteric in slightly less accessible places. Tokyo teaches us that sustainable urban living is more about connectivity than density. The people of Tokyo create intimately shared public space while we, through our neglectful gaze as distracted motorists, impoverish our public domain. Herein lies our challenge for the future of urban design in Australia.

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


With sadness we note the passing of a revered colleague, Elias Duek-Cohen, who joined the University of New South Wales as lecturer in town planning and civic design in 1965. Renowned for his ‘vitality, challenges and vibrant lectures,’[1] Elias laid the foundation for the teaching of urban design at UNSW among many enthusiasms and accomplishments. After retiring as Associate Professor in 1989, he continued lecturing for many years and will always be connected to the Faculty of the Built Environment through the Elias Duek-Cohen Award in Urban Design, which encourages undergraduate students to undertake their final year thesis on a topic concerned with making towns and cities more beautiful and more workable. Elias was born on 2 January 1926 in Calcutta, India into a leading family of the Jewish community longestablished in the city. His grandfather, after whom he was named, was Chief Rabbi and a member of the City Council. Elias first studied at a Jesuit school in Darjeeling in the Himalayas, which he recalled as ‘the most beautiful setting in the world.’ Just before World War II he was sent to England for his secondary education at Clifton College, Bristol which was evacuated to the picturesque resort town of Bude on the coast of Cornwall after Bristol was heavily bombed in 1940. Commencing his tertiary studies at the end of the war, he read Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford, receiving his BA in 1947 and his MA three years later. He went on to receive a BArch Degree from the University of Liverpool, where his teachers included Colin Rowe. He then undertook a part-time Town Planning Diploma at University College London in the program headed by Sir William Holford and Lewis Keeble. His final year thesis, ‘A Pedestrian City’ was reviewed by Lewis Mumford with the comment that Elias ‘was closer to the spirit of Ebenezer Howard than Britain’s New Town planners.’ By that time he was working for the architectplanners of Crawley New Town, Minoprio Spencely & MacFarlane where he was involved in the preparation of town planning schemes for Kuwait and the 1956 Master Plan for Baghdad. Employment after university took him to Canada before family connections brought him to Australia in 1962.

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Elias Duek-Cohen 1926 - 2014

Photograph by Josephine Roberte

MUDD 19 - City Visions

In Sydney, Elias first worked for the Cumberland County Council, the planning authority for the Sydney region 1947-1964, where his duties included the first open space survey of the metropolitan area. After a short period of private practice, he joined the University of New South Wales in February 1965 to teach architecture, town planning and civic design – the latter at graduate level in a newly-established graduate diploma. In this program, he worked closely with the distinguished Danish urbanist Steen Eiler Rasmussen (1898-1990) from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, who was Visiting Professor at UNSW in 1965. Elias Duek-Cohen made significant contributions to town planning at UNSW, particularly in the field of civic design. In teaching, he found his true métier. He taught with passion and commitment. His own experiences


at university bore a strong influence on his style of teaching; he went out of his way to encourage and assist students and provide support whenever needed. His lectures were powerfully visual using dual projectors with hundreds of slides drawn from his practice experience and travels in memorable expositions, which became his trademark in the university and beyond. As Elias stated, he always had ‘a wish to sell important ideas.’ Next to his teaching he was a leading public intellectual, on personal terms with world figures of his day – Lewis Mumford, Margaret Mead, Jacqueline Tyrwhitt and others – passionately engaged in matters of design, physical planning, people space and the visual world. Beginning with a series of articles on ‘Sydney townscape’ in the Shire & Municipal Record in the 1960s and continuing in his role as President of the Civic Design Society - which he expanded beyond its UNSW origins with a newssheet, newspaper articles, regular meetings, prominent speakers and high profile campaigns - he sought to promote awareness of the urban environment and what could be done to improve it. In that era, ‘the indefatigable Elias Duek-Cohen’ was recognised as ‘the only educator concerned with developing a sense of urban aesthetics . . . whose lectures beguiled dozens of aldermen.’ Among many battles, he fought for conservation of the Queen Victoria Building (threatened with demolition for a multistorey car park), the Pyrmont Bridge (threatened with total removal on completion of the Western Distributor), and above all, the design integrity of the Sydney Opera House, compromised by the forces that led to Jørn Utzon’s withdrawal from the project in February 1966. Elias Duek-Cohen was outraged by the loss of Utzon to Sydney. He was a member of the ‘Utzon-in-Charge Committee’ formed at the outset of the crisis with Harry Seidler, Peter Kollar, Harry Howard and others. To put Utzon’s ideas before the public, he produced a powerful book entitled, Utzon and the Sydney Opera House: statement in the public interest (Sydney: Morgan Publications, 1967). In 1968, he helped found the Sydney Opera House Society with the aim of encouraging completion of the Opera House to the highest standard as a work of architecture. Elias campaigned ceaselessly on this issue. In 1998 he achieved a measure of success - Jørn Utzon, who had never returned to Australia, was invited by the thenNSW Premier, Bob Carr to establish a set of design principles to guide future changes to the Sydney Opera House. Utzon agreed, and in association with his son Jan and the distinguished Sydney architect Professor Richard Johnson (both educated at UNSW), the Utzon Design Principles were published in 2002. At that point, Bob Carr wrote to Elias Duek-Cohen declaring Jørn Utzon’s re-engagement with the Opera House was ‘one of the proudest aspects of my premiership.’ Expressing a ‘deep gratitude’ to Elias, he stated this would not have happened ‘without [your] decades of insistent advocacy.’

As Professor Robert Freestone has commented, ‘ensuring the highest design standards for the Opera House was just one of Duek-Cohen’s lifetime of civic causes aimed collectively at achieving more humane, liveable and sustainable urban environments. Sydney was his major laboratory.’ Other campaigns included promotion of alternatives to car dependence. He helped found Bicycle NSW in 1976, and saw his visionary scheme for a NSW Coastline Cycleway brought to realisation: a 1400 km cycleway stretching from the Queensland border to the Victorian border, which avoids major roads and highways to link communities, natural environments and scenic sites along the NSW coast. A related long-running campaign, anticipated in his final year planning thesis at UCL in 1956, involved tireless advocacy for pedestrian cities. Introduced to the ‘esoteric word, ecology’ at UCL in 1955 he was involved in establishment of the Total Environment Centre in Sydney in 1972. In Professor Freestone’s words, ‘Duek-Cohen was not a traditional scholarly academic. He was committed to improving real environments for real people . . . . The causes he fought for from the 1960s, such as active transport, greening the environment, and heritage conservation, are now widely accepted ideals in creating better cities.’ Graduate study in civic design at UNSW in the 1960s, grounded in the history of cities, urban aesthetics and neighbourhood planning, was given gravitas by the contribution of three Visiting Professors, Steen Eiler Rasmussen from the Royal Academy, Copenhagen (1965), Yoshinobu Ashihara from the University of Tokyo (1966) and Christopher Tunnard from Yale (1968) – but the energy, direction and everyday significance of the ideas they espoused were anticipated, amplified and extended in the life-work of Associate Professor Elias Duek-Cohen. For this we honour him.

[1] Eric C. Daniels, A History of the Faculty of Architecture, Sydney: Faculty of Architecture, UNSW, 1989, p.36; this obituary also draws upon the following references: Robert Freestone, ‘Elias Duek-Cohen 1926-2014: Livewire keen to humanise city habitats,’ Sydney Morning Herald, 20 February 2014, p.36; Karin Brennan, ‘Elias Duek-Cohen teaching aids: slides for town planning,’ Origins: Newsletter of the UNSW Archives, no.14, April 2012, pp.9-11; Paul-Alan Johnson & Susan Lorne-Johnson (eds), FBE Interviews: reminiscences of former academics from the Faculty of the Built Environment, UNSW, vol.1, Sydney: Faculty of the Built Environment, UNSW, 2007, pp.45-106; Claire Wagner, ‘Cultural landmark,’ Royal Australian Planning Institute Journal, vol.18 no.2, 1980, p.71.

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Hamburg Beyond IBA Wilhelmsburg 2035 Master of Urban Development & Design - International Studio

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The Studio proposed a poly-nucleated pattern of new neighbourhoods on readily developable land, reinforcing the Elbe Island character of dispersed settlements within a rural landscape.


Professor James Weirick

Professor Karl Fischer

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With a population of 1.8 million in a land area of 755 km², the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is second largest city of Germany and a powerful city-state within the German Federal system.

New Urban Districts on the Elbe Islands 42

A great trading port for more than 1000 years, Hamburg today is a growing city. Unlike many other German cities, its population is increasing due to its role in the exportoriented economy of Germany and its expanded economic influence in Central and Eastern Europe following German unification and the end of the Cold War. For its growing population, the City of Hamburg plans to add 6000 dwelling units per year for the next decade through a mix of public and private investment. To counter suburban sprawl beyond its boundaries, this housing target must be met within the city limits. However, available residential land is restricted in the long-established urban districts on the high land north of the River Elbe. In 2003, the City adopted a metropolitan growth strategy termed ‘Leap across the Elbe’ aimed at new urban development on the low lying Elbe Islands between the North and South Arms of the River Elbe, the largest of which is Wilhelmsburg Island. Protected by dykes for centuries but still flood-prone, Wilhelmsburg is a socially-deprived area of 35 km² with a population of 50,000 located in a series of dispersed urban settlements in a rural setting interwoven with port facilities, heavy industry, light industry and urban infrastructure.

2008 linear city plan

Poly-nucleated proposal

The Port of Hamburg has been the economic driver of the area, however, large-scale expansion of international container terminals downriver to the west has rendered the traditional port facilities of Wilhelmsburg obsolescent. As a consequence, this semi-industrialised, semi-rural river island has extensive brownfield and greenfield sites available for urban development. The planned urban expansion of Wilhelmsburg faces three problems: •

The island is flood prone and suffered a disastrous flood in 1962 when a storm surge from the North Sea broke the dykes;

The island community is the poorest in the city facing many social problems, it is culturally diverse with new immigrant groups who are educationally and socially disadvantaged, yet the community has a strong sense of identity and passionately resists gentrification;

The industrial lands are valued employment areas and in the diversity of their functions support both the community and the operation of the port to the extent that industrial zoning is considered the ‘highest and best use’ of these lands.

Wilhelmsburg and the Elbe Islands

To address these problems, the City of Hamburg undertook an Internationale Bau Aussstellung (International Building Exhibition) in the years 2007-2013. IBA’s are a unique German response to urban development challenges that 2003 Metropolitan plan ‘Leap across the Elbe’ (Image Sources: City of Hamburg)

MUDD 19 - City Visions


have been held periodically since 1901. Jointly funded by all levels of government, IBA’s draw upon frontier thinking in planning and design worldwide to build and test innovative solutions to urban problems. Over the six years of its operation, the Hamburg IBA adopted three themes to address the problems of Wilhelmsburg and the ‘Leap across the Elbe’ metropolitan strategy: •

CITIES & CLIMATE CHANGE – projects using local sources of energy and constructed ecologies in a climate neutral manner, rethinking urban development by and with water to overcome the flooding challenge from extreme weather events and climate change; COSMOPOLIS – projects to empower a diverse, socially-deprived ‘Global Community’ through education, community activism, local ‘incubator’ ventures and entrepreneurship, social outreach, neighbourhood identity and cultural expression; METROZONES – new combinations of residential and industrial land uses in innovative mixed-use neighbourhoods to meet the twin objectives of increased residential development and sustained industrial activity, with the latter re-directed to export-oriented light industry using clean technologies instead of the current pattern of heavy industry and logistics.

The Hamburg IBA undertook key pilot projects across all three themes as pointers to a new urban future for Wilhelmsburg. However, at the closure of the IBA in November 2013, the challenge of large scale urban development on the island remained. The MUDD19 Hamburg Studio investigated this challenge. The Wilhelmsburg Master Plan won in international competition by Dutch urbanist Jo Coenen and French landscape architects Agence Ter in 2008 envisaged post-IBA urban development in the form of a northsouth linear city constructed in a zone currently dominated by the Wilhelmsburger Reichsstrasse, a heavily-used 1930s Federal Highway cut through the centre of the island. The 2008 Master Plan proposed re-locating the Reichsstrasse 500m to the west to a corridor adjoining the north-south rail lines through the island. The Studio questioned this strategy on the following grounds: •

Relocation of the Reichsstrasse would involve complex Federal and City cooperation on planning policy, funding and phasing;

The project would involve complex engineering and high costs;

Both the new route for the Reichsstrasse, and urban development along the existing route would involve resumption of land parcels with many owners;

The new route would re-locate noise and environmental pollution to a new part of the island, affecting land values in this area;

The proposed urban development zone would remove an extensive area of light industry, which the City needs to retain; it would also remove an extensive area of highly valued community allotments;

A new linear city in the centre of the island would not enjoy the principal unrealised asset of Wilhelmsburg, its waterfront which can be accessed beyond the historical dykes by the constructed ecology of superdyke systems brought from Rotterdam by the Hamburg IBA.

Instead of a problematic linear city on the Reichsstrasse alignment, the Studio proposed a polynucleated pattern of new neighbourhoods on readily developable land, reinforcing the Elbe Island character of dispersed settlements within a rural landscape. The existing settlements are linked by a high-frequency, highly-valued bus route, Metrobus 13 which runs in a loop around the island at 10 minute intervals, connecting with the S-Bahn stations of Veddel and Wilhelmsburg. This practical and symbolic public transport system has the flexibility to be extended to the new neighbourhoods, providing accessibility and social cohesion to the new urban pattern of the island. The Studio explored three sites with three different development scenarios, each with its own distinct character set within the Elbe Island landscape: •

The port lands of Kleiner Grasbrook on the North Arm of the Elbe across from Hamburg CBD and the HafenCity waterfront development currently in construction, a 160 ha tract of city land which can be developed on the same model as HafenCity;

The industrial lands on the western side of the island along the Reiherstieg channel and Vering Canal, a site comprising city-owned port land and large, privately owned industrial landholdings which can be developed in private-public partnership, directed by the Hamburg IBA planning and design group, which is being reconstituted as a land development agency;

A greenfields site at the eastern end of the low density, semi-rural district of Georgswerder, which has been identified for urban consolidation – the subject site is a single parcel of land in private ownership which can be developed by the private sector.

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014

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Kleiner Grasbrook HafenCity South

James Arnold Alice Reilly Momke Sosna Sun Xiao Xu Yi

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HafenCity South Master Plan, Kleiner Grasbrook

MUDD 19 - City Visions

The Kleiner Grasbrook site is identified for future urban development as part of the ‘Leap across the Elbe’ metropolitan strategy of the City of Hamburg. Kleiner Grasbrook is an island within Hamburg Port located on the south side of the River Elbe, geographically isolated from the centre of Hamburg to the north and Wilhelmsburg to the south. Improving accessibility to and within Kleiner Grasbrook is required to activate the site. At present, public transport access is limited to the S-Bahn station at Veddel on the extreme west of the site. Kleiner Grasbrook once operated as a fully functioning industrial port, however its use is in decline as port operations have been relocated west to new container terminals. This extensive tract of city owned land, 160 hectares in extent, thus provides potential for the development of new uses and new energies on the approach to the Elbe Islands. Remediation of the extensive brownfields site will be necessary. Preservation of existing heritage buildings is integral in retaining aspects of the site’s history and character. The future ‘HafenCity South’ will have a greater proportion of residential to commercial in its land use mix than the


HafenCity North project due to its location away from the city centre. It is seen as a ‘green city’ set within landscape to express the earth shaping and ecological transformations of its site remediation and flood control, and evoke the special landscape character of the Elbe Islands. This character is created by a dispersed pattern of urban development protected by dykes, bunds and causeways within meadows and marshes. At the same time, by flanking HafenCity North on the historic river front of Hamburg, new development at HafenCity South will contribute to the imageability of this great trading port as a Global City of the 21st century. The project has the potential to extend the Hamburg IBA themes of metrozones, cosmopolis and cities & climate change by creating a dynamic fusion of residential and employment uses, integrated through social mix and affordable housing with the existing community of the Elbe Islands, incorporating advanced systems of ecological design and flood control.

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Hamburg Port Museum

Vista to Elbphilharmonie, Herzog & de Meuron Architects

Flooding of Hamburg Harbour in extreme weather events (Source: http://www.hzg.de/imperia/md/ images/gkss/presse/pressemitteilungen/2010/09112007152.jpg)

Project Facts & Figures 160ha of land area 13.5km shoreline GFA 1.8 million m2 1 million m2 residential 600,000 m2 commercial 200,000 m2 light industrial 12,000 dwellings 30,000 population 28,000 jobs 13ha dykes & waterfront promenades 35ha internal network of public spaces 16ha university precinct 12ha convention center precinct 2 U-Bahn Stations new bridge to HafenCity North

HafenCity & HafenCity South, 21st century gateway on the Elbe

Structure Plan with U-Bahn extension Concepts of Superdyke through HafenCity South to Wilhelmsburg

Long Section of western residential precinct with light industry buffer to retain port uses

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Kleiner Grasbrook HafenCity South: Harbourfront Convention Centre Xu Yi

Kleiner Grasbrook will be transformed from a working port in decline to a new urban district in the southern part of Hamburg with a diverse range of housing types, cultural facilities and employment opportunities. The brownfield development, principally located on a platform elevated above flood level, will give Hamburg a great convention centre on the Elbe, a remarkable hotel, and a spectacular waterfront campus for the University of Hamburg. It will also feature a new Stadtpark on the riverfront that will provide a unique, large scale public space with views to the city centre and the Elbphiharmonie, together with a linear park extending into the residential neighbourhoods. A floating dock will provide alternative housing responsive to the tidal changes of the Elbe and extreme weather events. The project will grow for years to become an attractive and differentiated urban community with special ‘Elbe Island’ elements. The third stage of the overall Kleiner Grasbrook project will involve creation of a peninsular by the excavation of a canal in the hardstand expanse of a

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Master Plan of the Convention Centre precinct

MUDD 19 - City Visions

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1960’s container terminal. This will re-establish the early 20th century profile of the Australia-Quai on the former India-Hafen. The peninsula will become the site for an international convention centre, a high-rise landmark hotel, a great public square with access to a station on the proposed U-Bahn extension, ringed in part by conserved heritage buildings from the spice trade integrated with the museum of the Port of Hamburg. The new canal will define the urban space and re-establish the quay-side significance of the heritage warehouses. Adaptive-reuse of the old industrial port edges and cranes as part of the Port museum will include outdoor café areas. The existing steel flood-protection wall, painted an industrial green, which divides the waterfront area will be converted to a true ‘green wall’ with plantings, stiles and viewing platforms. The landmark hotel adjoining the convention centre will be scaled and positioned to form an iconic river gateway with the Elbphilharmonie.

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Section B-B, Convention centre, landmark hotel and heritage port buildings

Section A-A, Super dyke, hotel and convention centre with new U-Bahn Station

Port Museum waterfront, steel flood barrier greened

Convention centre precinct opposite Elbphilharmonie

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Kleiner Grasbrook HafenCity South: District Centre at the U-Bahn Sun Xiao

This waterfront development on the third island of Kleiner Grasbrook will be transformed into a commercial centre with residential apartments and a waterfront park. The new centre will include retail uses, cafés, restaurants and offices grouped around a town square with access to the proposed U-Bahn station on the U4 line extension from central Hamburg, which will also serve the International Convention Centre across a new canal to the east. The residential development will include a mix of housing typologies from garden apartments to terrace houses and urban villas, many with roof gardens and park outlooks for people to live in ‘Elbe Island’ greenery. All residential buildings in the precinct will be 3 to 6 storeys, ensuring views to HafenCity and the traditional skyline of the inner city. To develop this district into a livable and sustainable neighbourhood requires specific principles for accessibility, flood protection and character. In terms of accessibility, this previously-isolated port district needs a new transit system - an extension of the U4 U-Bahn line from Hafen City North to the south bank of the Elbe. Station location is a critical aspect of this proposal, and the third island of

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Master Plan of new Commercial Centre at the western end of the Convention Centre U-Bahn Station

MUDD 19 - City Visions

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the development zone provides space for ‘transit oriented development’ around the station exits. For flood protection, this new district – located outside the historic dykes of the Elbe Islands – needs to be built on extensive fill, protected by Superdyke construction, to create a platform elevated above flood level while maintaining direct access to the waterfont. This form of construction creates the opportunity for a green edge to HafenCity South in contrast to the built form edge of HafenCity North. The waterfront park will take advantage of the Superdyke profile to create spatial definition, views, vistas and an ‘Elbe Island’ character of built form embedded in nature. A riverside promenade will enable people to appreciate the river views, as well as the green spaces. Overall, this area will be a neighbourhood of interest and identity created by the contrast between intense urban activity around the town square and repose on the riverfront in the network of green spaces formed by the Superdyke.

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Commercial centre development analysis

Long Section

East-west section through the town square

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Large city park on the waterfront

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Residential courtyard perspective

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Kleiner Grasbrook HafenCity South: High-Tech University Alice Reilly

The Hamburg port character is defined by its distinctive basins which provide a series of enclosed water views. This proposal aims to create a world class university campus maximising the potential for experiencing the waterfront in the large basin of Kleiner Grasbrook. The scheme is for a high-tech science engineering campus for the University of Hamburg. The campus will have state of the art contemporary facilities focusing on collaborative learning and research spaces and associated innovative enterprises aiding prospective graduate job opportunities. Student accommodation will be provided by adaptively reusing the heritage warehouses on the eastern canal. Ample recreation space will be available for the university as well as the local community, including extensive green space on the waterfront, a sports field and floating docks for a fitness centre and a large wooden platform. This will allow direct access to the water’s edge regardless of the daily tidal movements. As the site is on an Elbe island it exists outside the city’s dyke structure, the campus will

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Port waterways

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Urban form and orientation

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be protected from flooding by raising the land and using a green hill superdyke. This will also give the site a green island feel and allow public access to the water. The pedestrianised campus will promote the use of public transport and cycling to and within the site. Main access to the campus will be from the north west corner in close proximity to the U-Bahn station. The diagonal angled promenade will lead to the centre of the campus and have views to the water in the distance. All other major pathways will be designed with a grid structure providing easy and safe navigation through the site. The buildings will be positioned and orientated to maximise water and green views. Special urban forms of unique architectural significance will be used for focal buildings including the central student centre and the main theatre on the waterfront. The research tower in the north east corner and the UH floating dock will be landmark structures for the university.

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High-tech university campus on harbour basin

Floating pool recreation area and the dock responsive to tidal change

High profile lecture theatre on seam between campus and city park

East-west section from harbour basin to high-tech campus

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Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Hybrid District on the Reiherstieg

Rath Muengpaisan Nur Atiqah Binti Muhamad Park Eunju Xiao Ruyu

Industry has had a significant role in the growth of Wilhelmsburg since the nineteenth century and continues to underpin the local economy across the dispersed pattern of urban development and rural lands of the Elbe Islands. In the Reiherstieg district on the western side of Wilhelmsburg, many small factories were established along the Vering Canal while heavy industry including a large oil refinery - occupied the waterfront along the Reiherstieg arm of the Elbe. Almost totally destroyed by Allied bombing in World War II, the area was re-established as an industrial zone with the exception of the oil refinery site, which remains an open expanse of contaminated land colonised by ruderal vegetation at the Reiherstieg Knie, the right-angle bend of the Reiherstieg at the Alte Schleuse entrance to the Vering Canal. In recent years, community and cultural uses have begun to be established in former factory complexes along the Vering Canal, such as the HĂśnigFabrik arts & entertainment complex and the Soul Kitchen alternative cafĂŠ from the 2009 movie of that name directed by Fatih Akin. The Hamburg IBA extended this process with pilot projects. Beyond IBA, the combination

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MAIN ROUTES PROPOSED CONNECTIONS ROUTES BEYOND SITE NEIGHBOURHOOD LINKS MIXED USED LIGHT INDUSTRIES G R E E N S PA C E S

Proposed structure plan showing new neighbourhood streets and heavy traffic relocated through port lands to the west

2008 Master plan by Jo Coenen and Agence Ter with green link to the Reiherstieg Knie Source: Studio Urban Landschaften 2010, Metropolis: Metrozones, IBA Hamburg

Master Plan of new metrozone between the Reiherstieg Channel and the Vering Canal

MUDD 19 - City Visions


of large private landholdings along the Vering Canal and large public landholdings in the port lands adjoining the Reiherstieg Channel creates the opportunity for public-private development by the Hamburg IBA GmbH in its new role as an urban development agency, carrying forward the three IBA themes: Metrozones neighbourhood design based on a combination of residential uses and employment generating industrial uses challenging the dominant 20th century planning model of separate zones; Cosmopolis a creative response to social disadvantage and the concentration of diverse immigrant groups in Wilhelmsburg by the creation of a ‘Global Neighbourhood’ embracing multiculturalism, educational initiatives, affordable housing and protection of tenants’ rights linked to incubator development for micro enterprises and immigrant entrepreneurs; and Cities & Climate Change rethinking urban development in relation to water management and flooding, working with the complex constructed ecologies of the Elbe Islands in new ways.

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Project Facts & Figures 135ha of land area 150,737 m2 mixed use 190,524 m2 new light industry 311,934 m2 green space 65,129 m2 public facilities 5713 total population 1885 new dwellings density of 27 dwelling/ha 4781 new jobs

Superdyke model for new waterfront development

Bird’s-eye view of the Metrozone Project, integrating new mixed uses with existing industry

source: http://www.seacityresearchnet.com/ wp-content/uploads/2011/08/super-dikejp1.jpg

East-west section through new proposed Metrozone from the Reiherstieg Channel to the Vering Canal

Reiherstieg 1945/New Rethe lift bridge/Vering Canal vista/ Gross-Sand Water Tower/Restored lock on Vering Canal/Neighbourhood Source: www.vju-hamburg.de/energiebunker/indexphp?site=8&lang=en

Cultural Strip along Vering Canal

Green connection from the neighbourhood

Open Space in Hi-Tech Park

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Hybrid District on the Reiherstieg: Cultural Strip on the Vering Canal

Wilhelmsburg has high social and cultural diversity with residents from more than 40 nationalities. Internationality is one of the strongest aspects of cultural life on the island. There are many different life styles and cultures. Every ethnic group has its own traditions, most visibly expressed in the shops and enterprises of the traditional working class neighbourhood which extends from GroĂ&#x;-Sand in the south to StĂźbenplatz in the north, and dates from construction of the Vering Canal in the 1890s. However, this neighbourhood has long been cut off from the waterfront by industry along the Vering Canal. Structural change in the local economy has made some of the old factories redundant and in recent years these have been occupied by the local community for creative and cultural uses. Pilot projects of the Hamburg IBA supported these initiatives.

Xiao Ruyu On the Metrozone theme, this project proposes to reinforce the community concept of the Vering Canal as a cultural strip with integrated cultural facilities and a new row of live-work housing within the former industrial zone. This canal-side housing reinterprets the linear form and continuous

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MUDD 19 - City Visions

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Vering Canal cultural strip and canal side housing within the proposed Metrozone


urban fabric of the 1890’s working class district to the east, with the scale and varied skyline of traditional warehouses and factories. As part of new traffic arrangements, heavy truck movements are relocated west to port lands across the Reiherstieg Channel and a grid pattern of local streets is connected to the traditional neighbourhood with new bridges over the Vering Canal, creating east-west links and associated porosity of the former single use industrial zone. The Vering Canal cultural strip aims to bring people to the waterfront as a meeting place of choice for creative and innovative Wilhelmsburg residents. The surrounding communities - Portuguese, Turkish, Polish and others - will benefit from enhanced street life, changing uses and new experiences of landscape. Retention and conservation of the Soul Kitchen, currently under threat of demolition, is proposed as an integral part of the Vering Canal cultural strip in recognition of its iconic role in the 2009 film by Fatih Akin, which brought world renown to Wilhelmsburg.

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Housing/cultural strip/canal section

Bridge sections

Street elevation - reinterpreted warehouse typology, 4 storeys with varied skyline

http://www.narrowboatingblog.com

Water edge walk along the Vering Canal

Lighting event in the Reiherstieg

Canal-side event spaces

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Hybrid District on the Reiherstieg: Metrozone Neighbourhood Park Eunju

As part of the Metrozone project on the Reiherstieg, the northern section of the abandoned oil refinery site of the Deutsche Erdöl-Werke, destroyed in World War II, is proposed for a new residential precinct. The urban development process will facilitate remediation of the overall site, the southern section of which will be retained as green space for flood protection and as a buffer from noise and dust pollution generated by the iconic Rethe-Speicher Silos on the south side of the Reiherstieg Channel. The new precinct extends west across the Vering Canal from the longestablished neighbourhood of the Polish community centred on St Bonifatius Parish Church, the Wilhelmsburg Groß-Sand Hospital and landmark Jugendstil water tower designed by Wilhelm Brünicke in 1911. The street pattern and building types of the new precinct reinterpret the urban morphology of the old neighbourhood embracing the same concept of ground floor activation with small offices, retail outlets and restaurants

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Cultural strip and canal - side walking with industry beyond

Rethe-Speicher silos on the Reiherstieg Channel, dramatic industrial elements of the working port which have iconic presence but generate noise and dust pollution when in use. The city park proposed for the former oil refinery site will buffer the new residential neighbourhood from these activities. (Source: Dockville Festival)

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Dockville summer rock festival on the abandoned oil refinery site, a key cultural event in today’s Wilhelmsburg. The new metrozone will continue this special short term use within the parkland created from the remediated industrial site, which has been vacant since destruction of the Deutsche Erdöl Werke in World War II. (Source: Dockville Festival)


as generators of street life, linked to the cultural strip along the Vering Canal. The courtyards of the perimeter block developments create a series of protected, semi-open community spaces defined by 4 – 6 storey brick buildings in the manner of Fritz Schumacher’s Hamburg housing estates of the 1920s. The undeveloped southern section of the oil refinery site will become a public park expanding the green corridor along the waterfront, recently upgraded as part of the 2013 Hamburg International Garden Show, into public open space of regional significance for events such as the Dockville Rock Festival. The park will turn to advantage the flood-protection dyke and reduction in heavy industrial traffic to create new opportunities for waterfront access, in dramatic contrast to the structures and activities of the working port.

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Green connection from existing neighbourhood

Block pattern of new neighbourhood

Bird’s-eye vIew of housing complex and parkland buffer from the south-west

Neighbourhood and canal section showing streets and green spaces defined by perimeter block housing in the Hamburg tradition

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Hybrid Distric on The Reiherstieg: Waterfront Business Park Rath Muengpaisan

The Metrozone concept aims to integrate previously incompatible uses, such as residential and industrial, into a new form of neighbourhood where economic enterprise and sustainable living are fused in productive ways. In the Reiherstieg sector of Wilhelmsburg, the replacement of old heavy industry with new light industry is the key to achieving this objective. A Scitech Business Park on the Reiherstieg Channel is proposed as a flagship project to drive this transformation. The project is located on a Superdyke extension to the original protective dyke of the island and comprises a campus plan with a dynamic diagonal axis aimed at creating a high-profile image on the waterfront for advanced industries of the 21st century. A research tower on NeuhÜfer Strasse - the main east-west connection – is proposed as a signature element in the flat landscape of the Elbe Islands to highlight the new future for the district. The research tower is aligned with the World War II Flak Tower in the centre of Wilhelmsburg, which was converted to a sci-tech Energy Bunker as part of the Hamburg IBA.

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East-west section of Sci-tech Business Park showing iconic Discovery Centre on the waterfront

Sci-tech Business Park Master Plan

MUDD 19 - City Visions


Within the new business park, existing logistics sheds are retained as shells for affordable incubator spaces on the model of the World Commercial Park from the Hamburg IBA. These will support start up businesses initiated by the local community in extension of the IBA Cosmopolis theme. Thus the Sci-tech Business Park will not only accommodate global enterprises but also become a promising economic force for Wilhelmsburg’s residents in the future. A Discovery Centre underpins this objective, supporting the Hamburg IBA commitment to enhanced educational opportunities in the socially-deprived districts of Wilhelmsburg by linking sci-tech training with sci-tech enterprises. The new complex is located within a park-like environment to maintain the Elbe Island character of built form set within greenery. The publicly-accessible waterfront on the Reiherstieg Channel includes a sunken amphitheatre to allow immediate engagement with the water below the Superdyke, and to function as a flood-absorbing element in high-water periods. Incubator Spaces

Discovery Centre

Main Pedestrian Street

Research Tower

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Sci-tech extension of the metrozone along the Reiherstieg Channel beyond new housing and existing clean industry

Pedestrian street and open space within Sci-tech Business Park

Open space along Reiherstieg Canal

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Georgswerder Eco Village

Chen Dong Jiang Fan Ratih Renaningtyas Maria Stefanie

Community consultation during the Hamburg IBA established strong support for urban consolidation in the Georgswerder district, a low-density, semi-rural area in the north-east sector of Wilhelmsburg Island along the Dove Elbe - a cut off arm of the River Elbe. This area is principally in private land ownership. However, the high value landscape of woodland and water meadows requires sensitive development. The future program of urban consolidation demands a considered urban design approach, which will accommodate an increase in population density but still retain the distinct character, uses and ecological functions of the Georgswerder landscape. A large parcel of farmland known as the Bullert Meadows in Georgswerder East, held in single ownership, presents the opportunity for urban development Beyond IBA on a greenfields site, based on creative ways to integrate eco housing, agricultural production, water management and clean industry within an urban pattern respecting the cultural landscape. This will extend the Metrozone principle and Climate Change theme of the Hamburg IBA to the next phase of urban development in Wilhelmsburg.

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Obergeorgswerder Deich

DOVE ELBE WETTERN

BULL

ERTW ET

Sperlsdeicher Weg

LLERTW ETTER N NEU BU

Kirchd

orfer St

rasse

TERN

Bulle

rtwe

g

Jenerseitedeich

Master plan of the Georgswerder Eco Village showing the linear pattern of development in the cultural landscape

MUDD 19 - City Visions


A linear pattern of development is proposed in response to the cultural landscape with public space corridors aligned on key elements: the biodiversity corridor along the Dove Elbe, and view corridors to and from the heritage items. Embracing the Metrozone mixed-use development concept from the Hamburg IBA, a 5-storey building block designed to buffer noise from the Bremen-Berlin autobahn which adjoins the site to the east is zoned for light industry, complementing a nearby family-owned high-tech factory. In response to the flooding risk, non-living residential functions and public space are provided at the existing ground level in the new building types, with streets and living areas on a raised level so individual dwellings and the overall neighbourhood can still function when local flooding occurs. Provision of a mix of housing typologies that can provide living space among productive agricultural fields, creates the appropriate increase in density within the rural setting.

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Project Facts & Figures 24ha of land area 60,000 m2 new residential 20,111 m2 new light industry 632 new dwellings 1680 increase of population density of 2.8 people/dwelling 400 new jobs

LIVING LIVING LIVING LIVING STORAGE

LIVING STORAGE

NEU BULLERTWETTERN

East-west section of central precinct showing raised street and building platforms

Street-defining blocks and semi-detached villas

Eco housing blocks in water meadow landscape

Georgswerder Eco Village in the cultural landscape, view from south-east

Community market, based on mecanoo architecten project 2009

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Georgswerder Eco Village: Urban Food Production Corridors Ratih Renaningtyas

The integration of agricultural production with built form in the proposed development of Georgswerder Eco Village is a strategy to conserve the character and use of the landscape. Retained as linear strips within the historic pattern of long, narrow fields, the urban food production corridors will function as a filtering and recycling system to clean grey water from residential uses before it enters the main water body of the Dove Elbe. The traditional pattern of ditches running through the landscape to wetlands and water meadows will be retained and used for deep soil replenishment, pollutant removal and irrigation. The linear agricultural fields are set to retain view corridors to the heritage farmhouses and to flank the Neu Bullertwettern (a branch of the Dove Elbe) – two key elements of the cultural landscape. The linear fields include public rights-of-way as a part of a strategy to retain public access to the waterfront. Boardwalks within the public rights-of-way are designed for residents to access the communal agricultural plots and manage-collect-consume the food they produce.

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View of the agricultural production and irrigation ditches of the shared space with view corridor to the heritage farmhouse

Section showing the raised level for streets and living functions with the public corridor for agricultural production on existing level

MUDD 19 - City Visions


The urban agricultural corridors within the residential blocks will be used to produce daily needs for food in a shared manner, therefore fostering social cohesion and identity in a community with multi-cultural backgrounds. Shared space and experiences around food and food production, building on the Schrebergarten allotment tradition of the German city, has the potential to engage residents in meaningful communication and interchange. In the nodes of the linear corridors, community agriculture can take place with produce sold in the market located at the intersection of Kirchdorfer Strasse and Bullertweg. The collective food production can benefit the local economy by having small businesses manage sales and distribution, hence creating job opportunities. The profit can be an additional income for households participating in the collective enterprise. In this way, the Georgswerder Eco Village will extend the Cosmopolis theme of the Hamburg IBA based on a commitment to community empowerment.

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A section of the site showing the raised streets and the public corridors along the Neu Bullertwettern

The agricultural village within the cultural landscape

Concept of shared space for agricultural production

Setting the public corridors and agricultural landscape scheme

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Georgswerder Eco Village: Living with Water

Jiang Fan

Water treatment is central to the creation of an efficient and sustainable neighbourhood on this highly sensitive site. The proposal includes water houses of various types, 2-4 storeys in height; artificial lakes and wetlands with both purification functions and recreational uses; an inflatable rubber dam system for seasonal water management; and sufficient bridges to provide connections within the project. The water system involves the integration of water catchments, streams, artificial lakes and drains. These elements are designed to work with roof gardens, green spaces, noise buffers and crops. They not only support vegetation, but also contribute to water re-cycling and flood control. The vision is to build and maintain a self-sufficient water cycle system that is economical, sustainable and clean. Precipitation, surface water and underground water are tapped to form a circulating system integrated with the green space network and the street network in order to achieve self-sufficiency. However, the site presents three challenges. First, the Bullert meadows have a high flood risk because they are located in a basin about 4 metres below the level of the surrounding dykes. It seems to be unavoidable for

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Master plan detail showing water village elements along the Dove Elbe

Flooding map showing inundation areas and security access

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Vehicular and pedestrian/cycle circulation


this area to be filled with water in heavy rain. In addition, it is also unrealistic to raise the whole site above flood level for financial reasons. The solution is to live with water and accommodate floods in a safe, low impact way. Technically, detention and retention systems, such as basins, lagoons or dams are incorporated in the design. However, the most important move is to raise the level of the streets and living areas of the houses above flood level and encourage acceptance of this strategy in the community. Second, the site is close to an industrial area to the northeast and a former waste dump to the north, it thus faces pollution risk. Providing clean water from the site for everyday use and recreational use is a challenge. The solution is to set up an efficient water recycling and purification system. Third, the site is designed for both residential and farming functions with different uses of water. It is necessary to resolve the conflict between them and furthermore, to make them supportive of each other. The solution is to incorporate a dual system of water catchments, pipe networks and drains to extract different standards of water from the purification plant and associated system of constructed wetlands.

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East-west sections showing resilience of the water village to periodic flooding

Water flows to the Dove Elbe

Community agriculture vision

Recreation vision - biodiversity corridor protected from autobahn noise by new factory

Green rooftop water catchment system

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Georgswerder Eco Village: Road Hierarchy in the Cultural Landscape Chen Dong

The Eco Village proposed for the Bullert meadows is located in a rural district of Wilhelmsburg with a road system of narrow lanes crossing flood-prone wetlands or constrained on the top of long dykes lined with old farmhouses and recent suburban residences. At the same time, the site adjoins the heavily-used Bremen-Berlin autobahn, and contains a longestablished factory that exports worldwide. The site already experiences conflicts between neighbourhood traffic and heavy industrial traffic. As a low-density site in a rural setting, the site is also poorly served by public transport. Development of the site has the potential to increase these conflicts. A more intense form of residential development will need to be buffered from the traffic noise of the autobahn. Another factory of sufficient height and mass located next to the existing industrial facility could achieve this, however, it would increase the amount of heavy traffic on the narrow rural roads. More housing and more population would justify provision of a new

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Proposed street system consisting of main and secondary routes in the Georgswerder Eco Village

Proposed extension of the existing bus route and location of new truck route to factory group

MUDD 19 - City Visions

New housing on main road/ narrow Bullertweg needing careful widening/linear village on Jenerseitedeich/factory next to Autobahn


bus route through the district but again this would be in conflict with the scale, profile and character of the existing rural roads. The solution is a traffic network comprising a carefully designed hierarchy of service roads - capable of carrying industrial traffic and the articulated buses of the public transport system – and narrow rural roads designed for light traffic serving the housing clusters of the Eco Village. A new access route for the industrial facilities along the west side of the Bremen-Berlin autobahn is proposed as a loop road from the large industrial area to the north-east, entering and leaving the site by means of underpasses under the autobahn. A single north/south – east/west crossing of service roads is proposed for the centre of the site to accommodate a new bus route, dividing the Eco Village into four quiet precincts with cycle paths and pedestrian ways located in green corridors linked to bus stops.

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Perspective view of the existing and proposed factories as barriers to the eco village to reduce traffic noise from the Autobahn

Plan of the existing and new factories

Proposed installation of noise barrier walls on the Autobahn, along the new Eco Village

Road hierarchy street sections

Perspective view of the new factory as noise barrier

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Glamour Marghera - Venice Master of Urban Development & Design - International Studio

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“

La gronda lagunare e’ il luogo dove la progettazione urbana incontra una delle sfide piu’ difficili. The lagoon edge is the place where urban design confronts one of the most difficult challenges.

Leonardo Benevolo


Dr. Scott Hawken

Dr Paola Favaro

Professor Enrico Fontanari UniversitĂ IUAV di Venezia

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A Shared Design Experience

Professor Enrico Fontanari Università IUAV di Venezia

MUDD 19 - City Visions

In Venice in November 2013 a workshop was held with students from the UNSW Masters of Urban Development & Design Program and 2nd year Masters students from the Università IUAV di Venezia. Many of the Italian students are part of a new Masters program titled ‘corso di laurea cultura del progetto’. It has been a great opportunity to develop urban design proposals and possible solutions for two of the main issues related to the contemporary metropolitan condition of the Venetian settlements. On one side there is the problem of the urban economy and the ‘vital’ function of a historic city like Venice, which has to find a way to re-organize itself and build an alternative to the dangerous mono-functional trend linked to the tourist sector. On the other side, this intention of building new and diversified urban activities needs to find new places and a new urban-scape, a new image complementary to the traditional image of Venice. The design teams worked on both issues, developing a strategic or territorial approach to the project area and a functional new mix of activities situated around a new cruise ship terminal. The proposed transfer of the cruise ship terminal from the historic island of Venice to the mainland is an opportunity to promote the development of a new urban precinct of many different functions: residential, sport and other utilities, research, commercial and recreational. The teams faced this opportunity with great imagination. The meeting of different urban cultures in the studio helped to develop new and unusual combinations of functional uses. The resulting provocative ideas are useful for the local administration and for the stimulation of the local urban culture.


Due to the presence of the famous, shining, historic city of Venice, the nearby mainland urban settlements of Mestre and Marghera remain hidden. There is a large psychological shadow cast over the suburbs of ‘Greater Venice’. In the past attempts to develop these urban districts as autonomous cities failed. The interest in the proposal developed by the different teams was in showing new possible connections and relevance for the large, abandoned industrial area of Marghera. The students designed the area as a new ‘urban tool’ to service the historic city of Venice. The brief for Marghera, was to transfer the dangerous movement of the big cruise ships to Marghera from Venice, and to use the immense cruise ship economy to stimulate the development of a new modern town in the area, with new uses and opportunities for work linked to universities, digital industries, research and development. The recreational facilities of the new designs serve tourists, researchers and students; and the borders of the lagoon can became areas for relaxation, water sports as well as linking into the big natural open spaces of the nearby historic fort. Moving Venice’s cruise ships to Marghera transforms a problem into an urban opportunity. Marghera is without the strong historic constraints of Venice and so the students were presented with the opportunity to develop contemporary architectural design proposals with compelling suggestions for new landmarks, residential blocks, university buildings and diverse urban programs. It was not only a research of proposing a new object, such as a skyscraper, which has been done in the past. It was more a morphological and technological search for new urban patterns and

uses. The designs have resulted in interesting fresh images and the transformation of the site into the new ‘entrance’ of Venice. It has been a good experience for students to compare their different ideas of landscape, and, to learn from each other, new points of view. The final result was a range of images of a possible new contemporary urbanity facing both the lagoon and the historic city of Venice. The site is a gate to the future for an ancient town. The studio suggested a new image which can contribute resilience and depth to the current crystallized, global image of Venice. The name of the studio is ‘Glamour Marghera’. In Italian we use the word ‘glamour’ for its ambiguity. It suggests something that is famous; fascinating; shining. Something for example that might sit on the horizon across the lagoon from Venice, one of the most magical and fascinating cities in the world, not in competition but in a complementary way. Finally, I have to underline that for the second time the shared experience of the two universities was very fruitful. Like the first joint workshop held in 2010, the students of the two universities could mix and work together in small teams of their own selection with great proficiency. To encounter and discuss different views on the urban contemporary condition has been very useful for all of them in terms of learning, personal cultural improvement, and also amusement. I really hope that it will be possible to repeat this experiment again in the near future.

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014

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La gronda lagunare e’ il luogo dove la progettazione urbana incontra una delle sfide piu’ difficili. (The lagoon edge is the place where urban design confronts one of the most difficult challenges.) Leonardo Benevolo

The gronda lagunare is the area between the Venice lagoon and the Venice mainland. It is an intricate system of emerged lands and half submerged ephemeral lagoon sandbanks (barene) crossed by a system of canals, a complex morphological structure whose unique characteristics were and still are under a continuous process of natural and artificial transformations.

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La Gronda Lagunare Di Venezia: Edge or Hinge?

Dr. Paola Favaro

During the celebrated centuries of the Republica Serenissima (Most Serene Republic) (697 - 1797) Venice, a city-state isolated within its lagoon, left the gronda lagunare as a natural inhabitable green edge. Venice political and economic vision was projected beyond the lagoon and the terraferma (mainland). At that time, Venice was more interested to negotiate or fight with the great world powers including the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic Caliphs and the Turkish Sultans. Her interest for many centuries was toward the sea rather than toward the land. Her port was the city: goods and passengers travelled along her canals and stopped in her basins and banks. Centuries later in 1880, under the Austrian domination, the city developed a goods and passenger Pprt in San Basilio and Zattere area. In the mid-1990s an important urban design decision moved all the commercial activities to Porto Marghera maintaining the former area exclusively for passenger activities. (Zorzi 1994; D’agostino 2012) As the tourist business has rapidly taken over the historical city, one of the hypotheses currently in discussion is to limit the transit of the cruise ships to Venice (Ordinanza Letta, Lupi 153/2013 and Decree 472/2013 Capitaneria di Porto di Venezia) or more drastically to move the passenger terminal to Porto Marghera, releasing the historical centre of Venice from the transit of the large cruise ships (Movimento No Grandi Navi, Venice Summer School 2013). Porto Marghera, the site for our Glamour Marghera Workshop, sits on the gronda lagunare, on this lagoon edge almost midway between the new Fusina Terminal on the southern edge of the lagoon and the new Tessera Airport on the northern edge of the lagoon facing the historical island of Venice with behind the towns of Marghera and Mestre. Marghera or ‘Operation Marghera’ started in the second part of the 1800s when the area became economically attractive for developing new productive industrial, commercial and port activities. To sustain this new functional role of the area, the local and state government initiated a series of infrastructures on the western part of Venice. In 1846 a new bridge (Ponte della Liberta’) was built to connect the island of Venice to the mainland providing a new railway extended in 1932 to include a vehicular road

MUDD 19 - City Visions


connection. In 1917 a new master plan completely changed the natural landscape of the gronda lagunare by planning a new port (never completely realised as planned), a series of excavations for new waterways, new metal industries (Officina Breda), shipyards (Cantieri Navali) and other industrial settlements. ENI, Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (national hydrocarbon authority) was founded in 1953 to provide petrol initially coming from Egypt. In 1965 a new canal (Canale dei Petroli) with the vast dimensions of 180m large and 15m deep was excavated with the intent of bringing in the petrol ships to the new petrol industry realised on the eastern part of Marghera. (Mancuso 2011) The Historical maps of Porto Marghera by IGM (Istituto Geografico Militare) show how the construction of the industrial area constituted a ‘great design’ by redefining the lagoon edge. From this point of view the whole ‘ Operation Marghera’ takes the form of a huge landscape design: in a period of just 60 years (1903 1966), the ephemeral lagoon sandbanks have turned into a rigid pattern of canals and factories. With the closure of the industrial area on the edge islands of Marghera, new opportunities have opened up to re-create a green habitable edge with private and pubic infrastructures including a new large cruise-ship passengers terminal. Glamour Marghera Workshop has challenged this opportunity developing a series of urban design themes. Architect and Urban Designer Leonardo Benevolo writing in 1999 about the future development of the Venice lagoon edge, the place where urban design confronts one of the most difficult challenges, listed a series of obstacles. He warned about: 1. The level of decadence of the economic and social structures controlled by the region and the province administrations 2. The conflict between an ambitious master plan and the limits of power given to the local administration 3. The dismissal of the Urban Law Legge 142/1990 with its much anticipated metropolitan area for the Venetian territory 4. The unclear strategy of the national system in providing public funds for the development of the Venetian territory

What is the current situation in relation to Venice and the gronda lagunare? A new proposal for the “Citta’ Metropolitane” (Metropolitan Cities) under discussion at the Senate (Decreto Legge Del Rio n.1542/2013) has replaced the law n.142/1990 for developing Venice into a metropolitan area. One can only wonder how Venice

as an UNESCO site, with her specific territory, with her gronda lagunare and all her other complex factors can be considered equally to the other Italian cities. As already mentioned by Benevolo 15 years earlier only a change in the Public Powers and in the release of national public funds to the local administration eliminating the complex bureaucratic tradition of the provinces and regions might progress the “Citta’ Metropolitana” ahead and probably solve the debate for the Cruise Ship Terminal. Furthermore, from the late 1990s Venice is part of the 5th Paneuropean Corridor (Lion to Kiev through Turin, Trieste, Lubiana and Budapest), one of the ten Central European Transportation and Communication Corridors created to facilitate and develop exchange of human resources and goods among the main European Capitals. (Benevolo 1999; Costa 2013; Scaramuzzi 2014) For many centuries Venice’s interests laid upon the sea keeping the gronda lagunare and the mainland marginal to her expansion scheme. From the vantage point of today which seems to privilege the interest of Venice equally to the sea and to the land, the gronda lagunare from the new Fusina Terminal to Tessera Airport cannot be viewed anymore as an edge against which the Serenissima almost rested her mind rather a hinge toward the rest of Europe and the world. Concluding his article, Benevolo, alluding to the glorious years of the Serenissima Republic suggested that the gods and their envy have later intervened to prevent Venice for having a second glorious time. Our hope is that Glamour Marghera Workshop will contribute toward a new future for the gronda lagunare and for the Serenissima Citta’ Metropolitana.

References Benevolo, L. 1999, ‘La nuova gronda lagunare’, in De Michelis, M. (ed.) Venezia La Nuova Architettura, Comune di Venezia Fondazione Giorgio Cini Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia, Milano, Skira. Benevolo, L.; D’Agostino, R. & Toniolo, M. 2007, Quale Venezia. Trasformazioni Urbane 1995 - 2005, Marsilio, Venice. Costa, P. 2013, President Venice Port Authority – The Annual Inaugural Discourse June 2013. D’agostino, R. 2012, ‘Un porto sempre in movimento: l’ evoluzione del waterfront’, in Chiellino, di Cesare, Frisone, C. (ed.) A Venezia dal mare, Marsilio Editori, Venezia. Lombardi, G.; Bertoldo, M. & Sbetti, F. 1999, L’economia della gronda lagunare: le difficili connessioni, Fondazione Venezia 2000 Publisher. Mancuso, F. 2011, Fronte del Porto: Porto Marghera, la vicenda urbanistica, Corte del Fontego, Venice. Scaramuzzi, I. 2014, Conversation held in January 2014 with Architect Scaramuzzi from the Venice Council and Venice Mayor Cabinet. Zorzi, A. 1994, Una citta’, una Repubblica, un impero. Venezia (697 - 1797), Mondadori.

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Micro Citta

Leonardo Formoso Huynh Thi Mai Phuong Nguyen Khanh Tung Stefano Zeni Mirna Zordan

The scheme is based on five precincts or ‘micro-cities’. Each micro-city is its own neighbourhood. A civic building acts as the catalyst for the development of each micro-city. This concept, ‘the city within the city’ is inspired by the process of Venice’s formation. Professor Mancuso describes this process whereby individual insula or islands were progressively urbanised and connected by bridges to form the urban complex of Venice as we know it today. The proposed strategy of progressive polycentric urban growth acknowledges the reality of contemporary development in the Venice metropolitan region. In the proposed scheme each micro city develops from a catalyst building with a different spirit and function. These buildings are connected to each other by various means of transport. Each small city has a distinctive economic function which kick-starts a diverse economy. It is not precisely

OPEN SPACES AND RECREATIONAL SPACES

WALKWAY AND CYCLING

BUILDING FOOTPRINT

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Strategic buildings New buildings Existing buildings

Pedestrian and cycling Linear park

Semi-public spaces Public open spaces Recreation areas

Above: Critical Diagrams Left: Master Plan

MUDD 19 - City Visions


known what economies will be successful so diversity is beneficial. The micro-cities form an archipelago of functions and forms. The project demonstrates a dynamic approach to the renewal of the abandoned industrial area of Porto Maghera, one of the biggest industrial areas in Europe. This project seeks a sustainable approach to urbanism by basing new developments upon the deep urban culture of Venice and a design approach focused on change and flexibility. Porto Marghera, once an industrial giant is now largely obsolete and open to new uses. This scheme is based on the demands of the large number of tourist visiting the historic site of Venice and provides hotels, support services, temporary accommodation and most importantly a new cruise ship terminal situated away from the fragile urban heritage of historic Venice.

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Porto Marghera present and future

cultural terminal

Entrance

residential

entertainment

Strategic Location Identified

Key Building

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Connecting Marghera

The scheme develops part of the Micro Citta master plan on the previous pages. It focuses on the design of a commercial and entertainment precinct orientated around a new canal cut into the industrial land of Marghera. The idea is to utilize the waterfront for tourists and residents by forming strong connections between different neighbourhoods with streets, linear parks and waterways. The area also links two significant areas, the cruise terminal and lighthouse park, with a strong urban axis.

Huynh Thi Mai Phuong

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Section 2-2

2

1

1

1

1

2 Master plan Master Plan

Landscape corridor

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Interior traffic

Water axis

Pedestrian


The site of the ‘entertainment city’ is well chosen for its strategic location on the waterfront. The design language includes comfortable pedestrianised blocks that are defined by lush tree lined streets and boulevards. These more urban spaces are complemented by copious green parks and courts. The building hight of the development is Venetian however the public spaces are more generous allowing ample light into the urban promenades and green spaces.

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Section 1-1

Section 2-2

Perspective

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Recapturing Marghera

This project develops part of the Micro Citta master plan in more detail. Two micro-cities from the master plan have been developed as a bold mix of modernist forms and perimeter block housing. One precinct is based around a transport interchange incorporating light-rail, trains, water public transport and buses. The hub supports a vibrant and liveable commercial and residential neighbourhood with good access to the waterfront. The area provides new types of green spaces which are not common in Venice. The chosen site is located in a key position with potential for development and strong transport connections to Venice, direct access to the current light rail route, access to two residential areas (Marghera and Mestre), access to open space (San Giuliano Park) and a historic fort (Forte Marghera).

Nguyen Khanh Tung

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Waterways

Pedestrian

View corridors

Motorway access

1 1 2

Master Plan

MUDD 19 - City Visions

2

Typical residential block


In this scheme old factories and other industrial facilities are transformed through adaptive reuse and incorporate vibrant activities. The project integrates various means of transport, providing a wide range of mobility options such as vaporetto (water bus), light rail and buses. The design of the neighbourhood encourages sustainable mobility options such as walking and cycling, civilizing the new residential area with social, open spaces. The historic image of an industrial Marghera will be transformed into one promoting a modern Venetian urban form.

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Section 1-1

Section 2-2

Perspective

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


The Wind Rose: Identity & Orientation Chen Yanxi Zaira Gasparini Andrea Manente Mu Cong

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Master Plan

MUDD 19 - City Visions

The project starts from an analysis of the urban relationship between Venice and the mainland. A new urban precinct has been designed as an interesting point of connection between these two precincts and as a point of dispersion into the wider Venetian territory. The concept can be described as a wind rose dispersing local and global currents. The physical design orientates visitors and locals to surrounding areas of Marghera Garden City, Mestre, the historic city of Venice and the transformed post industrial landscapes of Porto Marghera. The project can be divided into four functional areas, a new arrival complex for the cruise ships, expansion of the scientific park of VEGA, an area for museums and exhibitions and construction of residential areas. The site is ideally located as a connection between Venice and the mainland. This design takes advantage of the site’s strategic location


and existing transport links such as the railway and proximity to Venice International Airport. Additional links and services are provided such as a cruise ship terminal connecting the site to the Mediterranean and beyond. This eases the pressure on historic Venice. Once tourists arrive on the site and disembark from the cruise ships a variety of transport options and services are provided. These are shown in the diagram below and include, water-bus, water-taxi, train, light rail, car and bicycle. In addition the site provides many recreational and work functions to entertain both tourists and locals, such as museums and exhibition centres, as well as vivid work environments such as the scientific park.

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Scientific Park Courtyard

Existing Urban Contents

Building Heights

Preserved Buildings and The Areas

Blocks & Functions

Residential Area Courtyard

Existing Buildings

Main Boulevards & Streets With Water View

Public Domain

Section A-A

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Compass

This project develops the ‘Wind-rose’ master plan described on the previous pages. This project named ‘Compass’ integrates the function of a new cruise ship terminal with a museum and exhibition space. It provides both identity and orientation for visitors arriving to Greater Venice for the first time. Existing industrial buildings are transformed into a museum through adaptive re-use creating contrasts between old and new structures. The development links the historic industrial buildings to public urban spaces along the waterfront to assist visitors to find their way. Identity is created through landscape spaces with strong visual qualities. Visitors to the area can expect the life and energy of Venice but in a modern style. The project also provides direct access to Venice via a light rail system.

Chen Yanxi

A

A

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Master Plan

MUDD 19 - City Visions


Tourist activities along Tronchetto, current cruise ship terminal of Venice

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Section A-A

Water landscape features

Existing buildings

Demolishing original buildings and constructing Terminal

Constructing surrounding small buildings

Constructing glass and higher buildings

Perspective

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Punta Della Marghera

This site is reminiscent of the Punta della Dogana in terms of its triangular shape and the function as the proposed entrance to Venice. Punta della Dogana was the Custom’s House of the Venetian Republic and was the first stop for foreign ships where they were taxed. The prominent location of the Punta della Dogana and striking urban design has made it a symbol of Venice. The proposed scheme makes the point of the triangular site at Porto Marghera the most visually dominant part of the new urban precinct hence the title ‘Punta della Marghera’.

Chen Yuhao Margherita Sambo Mirko Tucakov Wang Chenyu Yu Haiwen

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Preserving Strategy

Zoning map

Master Plan

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Building height


This design preserves the existing road system and some of the original factories and warehouses through adaptive re-use. In the west of the site, a residential area with recreation and education infrastructures adapted by warehouses is proposed. A vibrant waterfront and an accommodation area for tourists and students is designed for the west of the site. A recreation complex and major park is proposed for the point of the site.

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Transport system

Typical street sections

Punta della Dogana

Site Photo Perspective

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Liveable Dock

This scheme develops a residential precinct within the master plan of Punta della Marghera. The scheme promotes liveability and the creation of intimate and identifiable places through the application of successful types from the urban island of Giudecca. The concept for the residential area is based around a network of small public spaces and canals. The urban architectural types emulate successful developments such as those by Cino Zucchi in Giudecca. This area is near a range of commercial precincts with jobs, such as the shipyard, and VEGA technology park. To separate the residential area from the shipyard and keep it quiet, a green belt is located to the north of the residential area.

Wang Chenyu

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B-B Section

MUDD 19 - City Visions

C-C Section

D-D Section


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Existing neighbourhood and greenspace in Quartiere Sant’Elena

A-A Section

Perspective

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Parco Recupero

Yu Haiwen

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Artist impression of recreation park

MUDD 19 - City Visions

This project develops the most prominent spaces in the ‘Punta della Marghera’ master plan. The landmark building, cruise ship terminal and park at the point of the site are designed as related spaces. The park incorporates architectural pavilions and recycled material to create a sequence of spaces. These pavilions host lively events in amongst the more tranquil green spaces. The aim of the design is to achieve a balance between artificial and natural elements. The landmark building is designated for a major cultural institution and is connected to the rest of the site via a series a small paths and a major waterfront promenade. The name of the scheme is ‘Parco Recupero’. In Italian ‘Recupero’ means recovery or revival and refers to the new uses on the site, the use of waste as construction material and the traditional function of a park as a peaceful place to psychologically rest and renew.


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Section A-A

Section B-B

Master Plan

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Activating and Connecting the Green Dock

Chen Yuhao

This scheme develops the Terminal-Commercial complex within the ‘Punta della Marghera’ master plan. In this scheme, the proposed cruise ship terminal is combined with a commercial centre situated in re-used industrial factories and warehouses. The scheme integrates the architectural design of the complex with the waterfront and park. The shape of the megastructure along the waterfront accentuates the industrial quality of the water’s edge and also creates open green courtyards at the back of the structure. When there are no ship at the terminal, the foreshore area is opened to the public and the free flowing landscape spaces provide direct access to the water. This movement is facilitated by the design of the terminal which is raised up on pilotis. The design is similar to the Vanke Centre functioning as a ‘Horizontal Skyscraper’.This is an industrial scale interpretation of traditional urban Venetian types such as the piazza, the campo, the fondamenta and sotoportego.

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Space Structure

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Preserving Strategy

Viewing Corridor

Functions


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Vanke Centre, Shenzhen, China (by Steven Holl)

Master Plan

Micro-Climate Design

Perspectives

A-A Section

B-B Boulevard Section

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Urban Axis

Urban Axis is a planned city that integrates the human scale of medieval Venice and the vast industrial scale of Porto Marghera into a functional urban precinct. The vision of the city is to establish a network of attractive open space to welcome international and local visitors arriving at the new Porto Marghera cruise terminal, and to create a series of liveable urban neighbourhoods for the Venetian population. The design of Urban Axis is based on the following elements:

Gianluca Gala Sussana Di Genaro Rituka Kapur Connie Lau Alessandra Marafetti

A linear park that runs the length of city and provides a green address for hotels and commercial towers.

A public transport corridor that includes light rail and connects the Green Spine with the cruise terminal and the existing Marghera train station.

Adaptive Reuse of the existing industrial fabric.

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Water linkage

Main streets

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MUDD 19 - City Visions

Lanes

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Boulevard

Master Plan

Campo and courtyards

Tram line and stops


An integrated system of open spaces, streets and building typologies that facilitate a range of urban functions and experiences.

The character of Urban Axis is represented by a hybrid of industrial scale and fine grain built forms.

building typologies

ogies ologies logies

ecca ca ecca

using ing using ops sops

l

formance

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tower

podium tower

office tower tower tower hotel retail housing office office office

office podium podium podium tower tower tower hotel shopping centre housing office office office

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concert hall concert/ performance

concert concert concert hall hall hall events

recycled recycled recycled building building building market market market

containers containers containers

studios

concert/performance concert/performance concert/performance office office urban form of retail retail retail flexible flexible space space space Three office dimensional the ‘urban axis’ flexible hotel hotel hotel hotel hotel hotel events events events housing housing housing festival festival festival pop pop pop upup up stores stores stores retail retail retail shopping shopping shopping centre centre centre studio studio studio exhibition exhibition exhibition housing housing housing housing housing housing recycled building

stecca

office housing exhibition

housing shops

recycled building

pavilions

office community housing studio exhibition

small shop market hall retail festival gallery ecycled building market market led building child care centre ffice retail e retail

ousing ng xhibition ition

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Section showing the scale of ship with respect to the cruise terminal

market stecca retail

housing festival shops containers flexible space pop up stores

containers

tower

flexible space office pop up stores

hotel retail housing

podium tower

concert hall

office hotel shopping centre housing

concert/perform events studio

containers containers Perspective of commercial area along main axis

flexible space flexible space festival pop pop up stores festival up stores

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Mercato Porto Margehra

Mercato Porto Marghera is a social place where visitors and local residents meet. It is designed to as a gathering space for people to celebrate the culture of Venice. Mercato Porto Marghera consists of four linked markets: the fish market, food and general market, art gallery and the wine centre, based on the an analysis of the Rialto Market. They are linked with a new canal system that reflects the land and water relationship of the traditional Venetian urban landscape. The design has the following elements: Contrasting scales – The market buildings, which have an industrial scale, are used as market structures. Their scale is balanced by the addition of human scale built forms and landscape elements to create different scales of three dimensional spaces.

Connie Lau Movements – The public domain plan informs the movement of visitors through a system of market and open spaces. Markets are designed as public rooms to create interest and intimacy.

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Public Domain Master Plan showing the relationship of of markets, public spaces, new canal and private spaces

View of new canal, exhibition silos and cruise terminal

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Food market, public square and canal


Organic Meeting Place – The market is located at the junction of the new tram line, the road network and the cruise terminal. This allows people to meet organically to perform all types of cultural, social and economic activities. Land and Water Relationship – A new canal loop bordered by a network of water edge elements such as fondamenta and campo is integrated with the market activities. The canal is also designed as a transport route for Venetian gondola and vaporetto, recreational space for water performance stages, and a market place for merchants to sell their goods directly from their boats. Together, the above elements are organized as a network of public spaces that bring the community and visitors together.

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Exhibition silos and fish market

Section of main food market, public square and canal

5 6

4 3

Markets Pescaria (Fish Market) Campo della Pescaria (Vegetaable Market) Tourist Market Warehouses associated with markets

2

1

Significant Places 1 Pescaria 2 Campo della Pescaria 3 Campo della Cordaria 4 Erbaria 5 San Giacometto 6 Campo San Giacomo di Rialto

Analysis of Rialto Market

Functions of Rialto Market

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Blue Green Hinge

The Blue Green Hinge develops the main green elements of the Urban Axis master plan shown on the preceding pages. A linear axis of parkland elements runs the length of the site and integrates different architectural and landscape programs. The spine provides a scenic experience for visitors. Storm water from the site is collected and used within the landscape areas. Water features are integrated into the green space. The green axis connects the park in the north of the site to the concert hall at the southern-most tip of the site. The green spaces offer respite from the high density precinct. The walking experience is enhanced through sculptural manipulation of levels within the park. The different levels open up view corridors to different parts of the site. The park is integrated with the road and public transport system and connects people from different areas to the concert hall and foreshore areas.

Rituka Kapur

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Sections along the water front A A

0 Master Plan

MUDD 19 - City Visions

100 200 300


Analysis of form of the green spine

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Open and semi open interactive public spaces

Perspective

Views of Board walk along the water edge

Section AA Image credit: Connie Lau, Rituka Kapur, Alessandra Marafetti, Gianluca Gala, Sussana Di Genaro.

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Venice Luce Passaggio

Felicia Maria Sugiaman

Luce Passaggio: The Passageway explores the industrial-scale site of Marghera and the necessary approaches to transform it into an intimate human-scale environment similar to that of Venice. A comparative analysis of the canal at the eastern edge of the Porto Marghera site, and the Grand Canal in Venice, facilitated an exploration into the treatment of the foreshore edge and clustering of activities. The adaptive re-use of existing industrial elements reinterprets the old in a revitalized and fresh context. Analysis of the regional framework revealed opportunities to use the project as a gateway to reconnect Porto Marghera to its surroundings. An important aim of the project is the ecological sustainability of the Venetian Lagoon. The aim is that by 2025 the Venetian Lagoon will be clean enough to swim in. The unique lagoon ecosystem will be regenerated using new filtration systems and re-vegetation with native species. Other strategies and design elements include:

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Artist impression of the pedestrian bridge and integrated restaurant. Images sourced: Providence River Pedestrian Bridge, Rhode Island and Pirrama Park, Sydney

1. Overhanging observation balconies

2. Promenade with integrated marsh ecosystem

3. Tidal floating jetties

4. Floating moored ships

5. Tidal promenade and stepping stones

6. Suspended balconies and bridges

Foreshore edge treatment stategies, adapted from Martin Prominski et al., River. Space.Design, Basel: Birkh채user, 2012.

MUDD 19 - City Visions

High Tide Water Level Low Tide Water Level


1. Strategies to define the foreshore and the edge of the site. 2. Maintain the industrial heritage of the site, reuse of shipping containers for architectural structures and reuse of a cargo ship as a public swimming pool integrated with nightclubs and restaurants. 3. Provide pedestrian and cycling connections to the site and surrounding areas, particularly over the highway to Forte Marghera and through the site in conjunction with the green spine network.

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Forte Marghera canal

Venice Lagoon ecosystem

Porto Marghera canal

Forte Marghera ecosystem

(www.magicoveneto.it)

(Scott Hawken)

Connection to Forte Marghera

(Armando De Bortol)

(www.magicoveneto.it)

Understanding the ecology of the site

Grande Canal, Venice

Porto Marghera, Mestre

Strategic diagram study

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Port(a) Marghera’s: Transport Hub Building & Surrounding Public Domain Caroline Pembroke

This design is focused on a transport hub building and the surrounding public domain. The project questions the role of a traditional transport hub building and attempts to provide a unique building that draws people to the site via varying modes of transport: locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. This proposal identifies the major buildings within the local precinct of the overall master plan as spectacular individual buildings in public space. A captivating and unique public domain is created to provide a special space for the tourists and locals visiting the precinct. The project’s hyper-modern program of spectacular developments and its proposed market driven mixed-use development model attempts to support a new urban future for both medieval Venice and the settlements of the mainland (Mestre and Marghera). A functional new proposal of activities has been designed around the re-zoning of Porto Marghera as a mixed use precinct and the construction of a new cruise ship terminal.

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1 Precinct Selection: Stadia a peidi - the site’s hyper-modern program for spectacular catalyst developments and market driven mixed use future essentially bridges the gap between medieval Venice and the city of future.

MUDD 19 - City Visions

2

4 3


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Industry

1

Cruise Ships

2

Precedents

3

4

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Darling Harbour Eveleigh Light Rail Corridor Master of Urban Development & Design - Studio 1

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“

One of Sydney’s problems is a dramatic loss of connectivity in the inner city. Turning the forgotten railway line into a light rail corridor has the potential of transforming kilometres of underused land in the middle of the city into a chain of activity nodes.


Professor Karl Fischer

Dr Paola Favaro

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Darling Harbour Eveleigh Light Rail Corridor

Professor Karl Fischer

Looking through the windows of the City Visions exhibition, we can see that the area extending west from the CBD to Darling Harbour and right through to Pyrmont is already displaying all the features of ‘the new city centre’ as outlined in the introduction. With ‘Sydney 2030’, a typical strategic plan in its way. It includes proposals for more sustainable transport. But much of Sydney’s urban fabric suffers from a dramatic loss of connectivity in major parts of its inner city area. A most striking case of a decline in connectivity occurred in the process of converting Darling Harbour into an entertainment centre from the 1980s on. With its inward looking conception of buildings turning their backs on the rest of the city and severing the historic street grid in many places, Darling Harbour has fenced itself in. Up to the 1960s, its role as a major transport destination had been defined not only for cargo ships but also a goods railway line terminating at the railway yards at Eveleigh 4 kilometres to the South. Today, and in particular in the context of the current discussions about a light rail network in Sydney, it makes sense to turn the disused railway line between Darling Harbour, Redfern and the partly converted railway works in

MUDD 19 - City Visions


North Eveleigh into a light rail corridor with the potential of transforming kilometres of underused land in the middle of the city into a chain of activity nodes.

Visions’ context, in particular in terms of the windows of ‘the new city centre’ and ‘sustainable transport’, as well as ‘urban land recycled’.

The task of retrofitting Darling Harbour to connect with the city would be aided by the tram link as well as by opening up visual and pedestrian blockages on Broadway.

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Along the light rail strip, the individual projects of the studio have included paradoxical themes like bringing the Mortuary Station back to life and much-discussed ideas such as bridging the railway tracks near Redfern Station, thus contributing to strengthening the potential of the local commercial core as a second CBD. They have dealt with controversial issues such as how to serve the needs of the nearby aboriginal community. And finally they have worked on solutions for breaking up the isolation of exemplars of industrial conversion such as the Australian Technology Park. Connecting the Carriageworks cultural centre, one of the most exciting cultural venues created in recent years, with the cultural venues in the Darling Harbour convention / exhibition / entertainment precinct would make this project a classic case study in the ‘City

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Interweaving Urban Fabrics From City Centre to Powerhouse Museum Stefano Cendron Connie Lau Felicia Sugiaman

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Artistic impression

MUDD 19 - City Visions

This design project explores the first section of the Goods Line, which embraces the area between the Powerhouse Museum and Railway Square. The main goal is to revitalise key sites along the Goods Line through the new tram line and tram stops, integrated with new developments, physical and visual linkages and urban design interventions. The Ultimo Goods Line was an important mode of transportation to service the historical trading activities in Sydney Harbour. Darling Drive, Quay Street and Harris Street were three significant streets that provided the connection between Central Station, Ultimo and Darling Harbour. However, when Darling Harbour was redeveloped in the 1980’s, Darling Drive was turned into a service road for cars, tourist buses and trucks. Parking bays and multi storey car parks were constructed to front the road, which have completely removed any opportunity for pedestrian activities. Quay Street, and the connection between the rail and the harbour, were permanently blocked when the Sydney Entertainment Centre was constructed. Harris Street, is now


the only street linking Pyrmont, Ultimo and Broadway in a north - south direction. In the east - west direction, a number of local streets provided historical linkages between the CBD, Darling Harbour and Glebe. However, the reconstruction of Darling Harbour has again blocked these connections. The lifting of Pier Street as an overpass has compromised activities on the street level and worsened the connections. The proposed design scheme aims to rebuild these connections. It re-establishes the traditional grid street pattern that defines the surrounding areas to bring Darling Harbour, Central Station, Ultimo and the CBD together. It provides a range of fine grain pedestrian connections to provide different street level experiences. It facilitates developments within appropriate building envelopes. Most importantly, it integrates the tram line into this new urban environment to revitalise the area and introduces urban design elements to provide opportunities for pedestrian activities.

Mary Ann Street

Ultimo Road

George Street

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ABC extension building

Dr Chau Chak Wing Building UTS

Rail Yard with extension

Pier Street

Macarthur Street

Node building link George St - UPD

New Plaza

Powerhouse museum

Left: Ultimo Pedestrian Network view of the ABC extension Right: Powerhouse Plaza Below: Darling Drive in front of the old Rail Yard UPN and George Street elevation and section through TAFE building

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Transforming Redfern between Aboriginal Community and The New Centre Mohammad Shahroan Sun Xiao Wang Youding

Redfern aboriginal community issues and considerations: 1. Historically strong community; 2. Isolated community on the west side of the railway area; 3. Lack of effective public and open spaces; 4. Not enough housing suited for the requirements of the aboriginal community; 5. Many buildings in a poor condition Goal: 1. Improving the area and the living conditions of the community while keeping the historical and heritage characteristics Design Principles: 1. Retaining the street pattern; 2. Retaining the terrace houses; 3. Introducing a public green space; 4. Introducing new residential projects adapted to the requirements to this community such as special floor plans and communal rooms.

Xu Zhaoming

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Master plan

Section A-A

Section B-B

MUDD 19 - City Visions


Redfern City Centre issues and considerations: 1. Proposed light rail system; 2. Existing Redfern train station; 3. Lack of public facilities; 4. Existing surrounding human activities Goal: Creating a new city centre to integrate transit network to land uses and people. Design Principles: 1. Interchange station; 2. Multifunctional buildings; 3. New civic centre.

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Current Transportation Network

Proposed transportation network

Current cycling routes and major pedestrian paths

Proposed green network

Residential area movement analysis

Section C-C

Vision for the whole site

Perspective of the park

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Transitional Space

The principal vision is to utilize the abandoned goods line running along the project site as the central spine of the proposed development. The central spine will accommodate a combined route for a new light rail, pedestrians and bicycles. The implementation of a light rail route in the site creates the opportunity to develop a mixed-use development in the effort to reconnect the west area of the railway to the east side through Prince Alfred Park. The light rail corridor on the pedestrian street combined with a bicycle route as the central spine would provide more efficient transportation for the new proposed commercial centre and residents in surrounding areas.

Chen Dong

In the effort of promoting the Sustainable Sydney 2030 city vision of a liveable green network, the project proposed an extension of Meagher Street to connect Victoria and Peace Park to Prince Alfred Park with a corridor that supports the environment.

Rath Muengpaisan Ratih Renaningtyas Xu Yi

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Perspective view of the mixed-use development to bridge the disconnected east-west area of the railway

Section showing the development on platform covering the railway

Section showing the pedestrian bridge as an extension of Harris Street connecting to Prince Alfred Park

MUDD 19 - City Visions


The project proposed an addition of levels on existing buildings on the west side of Regent Street to provide a higher density of use and to improve the street space and proportion by aligning the height with the proposed commercial centre on the east side of Regent Street. A mixed-use type of residential and workplace function on the street extension is proposed to continue the residential character of Meagher Street. Mortuary Station will be activated with the introduction of a new public square surrounded by facilities available for public use. To improve the public domain the intersection of Regent Street and Cleveland Street is altered to provide a more well proportioned street intersection and to create a more direct connection to Redfern Street and Redfern’s urban centre. A commercial tower is proposed at the intersection as a new landmark of the proposed new commercial centre.

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New development integrated with light rail on Regent St.

Forming the intersection of Regent St. and Cleveland St.

Utilizing the goods line for light rail and shared pedestrian and bike path

Perspective view of the pedestrian bridge

The entrance platform of the pedestrian bridge from Harris Street

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Bridging Boundaries

Bianca Maria Francolini Liam Williamsz Xiao Ruyu

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Master plan

MUDD 19 - City Visions

The fourth site on the light rail encompasses two parcels of land separated by a wide railway corridor. The motivating concept ‘Bridging the Boundaries’ refers to physically connecting North and South Eveleigh as well as metaphorically unifying academia, fabrication and sales in a second campus for Sydney University in the Bauhaus tradition. The concept is also manifest in the integrated transport hub upon which, mixed use social housing is built. The site analysis arrived at five strategies; bridges, spine, public space, transport integration and second campus. The interrelated strategies combine to address the overriding problem of the bisecting railway, regenerating the ailing technology park and repairing the existing urban fabric. The proposal will build on the past success of the Carriage cultural works centre and introduce student accommodation, social housing, teaching and commercial space thus embodying the idea of ‘urban land recycled’.


113 Long Section

Long section

Perspectives

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Second Harbour Rail Crossing Master of Urban Development & Design - Studio 2

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“

The Second Harbour Crossing is an innovative idea of the NSW Government to have a high-speed link between Chatswood, North Sydney and Sydney.


Visiting Professor Nigel Dickson

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Second Harbour Rail Crossing: Development Opportunities

Visiting Professor Nigel Dickson

MUDD 19 - City Visions

The Second Harbour Crossing is an innovative idea of the NSW Government to have a high-speed rail link between Chatswood, North Sydney and Sydney. The idea exists in policy terms and was quietly announced to relieve future congestion that would result at Chatswood as a consequence of the proposed North West Rail link. It is potentially a powerful piece of infrastructure which would help link the global arc of wellestablished employment centres from the airport, to inner city areas, to North Sydney, St Leonards and Chatswood. Such a link could invigorate stagnant industrial and commercial areas at Artarmon and North Sydney, creating vibrant mixed-use precincts. It is now well established that Sydney is going through a strong growth surge with an expected 2025% increase in population over the next 15 to 20 years. This increase totals around 1.3 million people, which translates into a need for about 545,000 houses and 625,000 jobs. It is also evident that, as with many major western cities, this growth will be concentrated close to the inner city areas of Sydney; where walking and cycling will be the predominant transport modes. The placement of Metro Stations became the core issue of the studio, and there were lively workshops, involving government policy planners and representatives, to discuss these issues. One of the most important discussions involved questioning exactly where the new high speed line should be placed so as to have a strong positive effect on


land use, property value and inner city growth. There was also debate as to whether the line should be extended towards Parramatta or the Airport to better capture development opportunities. The students worked in small groups to produce three structure plans and urban designs for Artarmon, North Sydney and Sydney CBD precincts as well as ten detailed designs for individual urban places. The research and analysis critically examined existing government planning policies, land use, road access, topography, infrastructure and property values and potential redevelopment scenarios. The design work produced development scenarios for urban districts in Sydney and the lower shore areas of North Sydney. The bold design produced suggested a dynamic urban vision for inner Sydney, increasing FSRs, creating landmark towers and linking streets and arcades. The studio teams concluded that should the infrastructure be built it could generate a concentrated growth belt that could capture a large portion of Sydney’s development over the next 20 years. The urban design propositions suggest that should government land-use and transport planning be coordinated various opportunities would appear; the western and southern portions of the Sydney CBD could become an intense mixed use zone; Wynyard and Town Hall stations could be augmented and expanded leading to greater mixed use opportunities adjacent Darling Harbour; and a new vital mixed-use centre in North Sydney extending towards Chatswood as a lineal city could evolve.

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Project Sectioning

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Sydney 2031: Gore Hill New Urban Area Guo Beiyi Nguyen Hong Duong Wang Xiaobo Zi Jiyu

118 Left to right: Aerial map of the site, Combined constraints & opportunities, Susceptibility to change, Accessibility

Master plan

MUDD 19 - City Visions

The Sydney - North Sydney Integration, involves extending the North West Rail Link from Artarmon, St. Leonards and North Sydney CBD south to Sydney Central and this extension requires a new tunnel and new stations on these sites. A new railway station in Artarmon Industrial Area can be integrated with the Gore Hill Freeway to become a new interchange transferring approximately 50,000 people from the north region to Sydney Central. This railway station development could stimulate redevelopment of the whole site into a new high density precinct named Gore Hill Station City.


This development could create opportunities such as re-zoning the industrial land as residential and mixed-use, an interchange at the intersection of Gore Hill Freeway and the extension of the North West Rail Link. Moreover, St. Leonards station is an important location for jobs and population growth. The topography of the site presents advantages for residential development such as good views. Existing services, such as social healthcare and education, and existing infrastructure will be beneficial for the new 78.9 hectare development.

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Staging

Proposed Land-use map

Walking perimeter

31000 new dwellings 62000 people 8

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48000 jobs

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Legend 4 5 6 7

9.2 hectare of new green space

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Proposed Land-use map

Building Height Limit

Bird’s eye view along Pacific Highway

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Sydney 2031: Gore Hill Airport Transfer Centre

Wang Xiaobo Zi Jiyu

This phase of the project involves the construction of a new Airport/City Bus Service Centre to be built at Gore Hill at the junction of the Second Harbour Crossing and a new metro rail service from Chatswood to Airport and Parramatta via Sydney’s CBD. The principal vision is to create an integrated ‘Rail and Property Development’ like Kowloon Station in Hong Kong. It will be an efficient and convenient public transport interchange for new metro and buses and provide an airport check-in service. With the public transport interchange as the core, high-density and mixed-use developments are encouraged. The result is a vibrant precinct to live and work. The overall goal of the project is to implement a PPP-based (public private partnership) program. The ‘Rail and Property Development’ will provide 3000 housing and 9700 jobs, and the residence sales will fund $2.26 billion

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Above: Location Below: Bird’s Eye View Perspective

MUDD 19 - City Visions


towards the cost of the new transport interchange and new precinct. The transport interchange itself will provide 100 bus services per peak hour and 550 bus services per day. SUMMARY •

Total number of dwellings: 3000 dw

Max. Height: 70 storey

Total number of jobs: 9700

Total residential floor area (54%): 300,000 sq.m

Total number of population: 6000

Total commercial floor area(46%): 260,000 sq.m

Land Use: B4 Mix use

Car-parking capacity: 3200 cars

Gross FSR: 14

Bus parking-capacity: 50 buses

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Left: Section A-A. Right: Section B-B

Left: Shade Analysis Right: Perspective looking toward the park from station

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Sydney CBD: New East & West Rail Corridors

Currently, inner Sydney is home to approximately 23,000 people, living in 13,000 homes, and employed in 10,000 jobs. By 2031, it is predicted that Sydney’s population will grow, requiring more homes and jobs. This growth will impact on demand for public transport services. Sydney’s challenge will be to accommodate this growth, whilst supporting its high standard of living. Underpinning this is the necessity to maintain Sydney’s position in global competition with cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong. Our response to this challenge is a vision of a 24 hour economy. The project aims to improve streetscapes, transport access and pedestrian amenity in the CBD by reducing traffic and bus congestion while also increasing the percentage of journeys to work by rail, walking and cycling in the CBD to 80 percent by 2030. The liveability of Sydney’s centre must be improved in order to retain and attract talent. The introduction of a metro system from North Sydney reduces the number of buses entering the CBD and the metro system provides greater passenger choice and increase the

Joseph Heng Nadia Shevila Thohari Xu Quisi Zeng Cheng

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Circular Quay

Wynyard

Martin Place

St James

Housing Growth: 4,602 dwelling

Employment Growth: 32,684 jobs

Town Hall

Pitt Street Darling Harbour

Museum

Green Space Growth: 23,751 sqm

Proposed east alignment (stage 1) Proposed east alignment stations Proposed west alignment (stage 2) Proposed west alignment stations Existing railways Existing stations Light rail Light rail stops High susceptible to change sites Low susceptible to change sites Opportunities boundary

Central

Master plan

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attractiveness and reliability of public transport. The introduction of shared streets provides common spaces to be shared by pedestrians, bicyclists, and low-speed vehicles. Suitable office buildings will be transformed to serve residential use. Public domain improvements increase the attractiveness of being in the centre of the Sydney even as it becomes more intensely used and popular. The diagrams below show the strategic development zones designed to capture the lift in property values from the construction of the metro stations.

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454 8,757 2,083 12,500 c a

b Stage 1

d a b

East line Martin Pl Pitt St

1,265 9,377

800 2,050

Stage 2 High rise opportunity

c

Opportunity boundary

d

High-rise Opportunity Map

Staging

West line Wynyard Darling Harbour

Growth Projection

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


North Sydney: The New CBD

Caroline Pembroke Ryan Smith

North Sydney, as identified in the Metropolitan Strategy 2031 for Sydney is a major contributor to ‘Global Sydney’. It is an essential second CBD in Sydney that contributes to the Australian economy and retains Sydney’s global status. The 2031 Strategy aims to grow 114,00 jobs throughout Sydney CBD and North Sydney. As such, North Sydney has been identified as a strategic route for a Second Harbour Crossing. This project has identified a series of projects, at the capital works and public domain level, that can be staged and implemented looking forward to 2031 to accommodate growth. North Sydney will be intensified, through the creation of 38,000 new jobs, 776,000 sqm of additional office space, 30,000 new residents and 15,789 new apartments. The vision is for a dynamic North Sydney, where mixed-use development creates a friendly residential community and a competitive employment centre with A-grade office space.

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Above: Proposed Section. Left: Master plan showing the strategic moves in the development of the new CBD. Right: Strategies to improve connectivity.

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Restaurants and shops will activate and pedestrianise the streets, a mix of housing types will accommodate a range of new residents and soho-styled residential apartments above will take advantage of North Sydney’s iconic water views. The development of the light rail network on the north - south axis will link the intensified North CBD to Cammeray and North Sydney Oval. The capping of the Warringah freeway will accommodate new commercial development. The residential block facing the commercial development will be upzoned to allow intensification on the existing blocks.

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Visualisation of capping the highway (Source: Google Images 2013)

The light rail linking the new development

Visualisation of the light rail corridor (Source: City of Sydney)

New development capping the highway

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New Chinatown Master of Urban Development & Design - Studio 2

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Chinatown has outgrown the ‘enclave paradigm’ and has instead evolved into a dynamic global space. As one of the richest countries in the world Australia owes its prosperity to Chinese-Australian economic relations. Chinatown is an experiment in these new economic relationships and in new ways of city building for Sydney, Australia.


Dr. Scott Hawken

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In this course studio members investigated development scenarios for the southern end of Sydney’s CBD. Sydney’s high rise CBD is a relatively recent phenomenon of the second half of the 20th century. Post-war urbanisation largely erased the turnof-the-century medium density commercial building stock of Sydney. The CBD developed according to two primary phases of growth. The first involved a push to modernise in the immediate post-war period and the second phase involved the provision of premium floor space to position Sydney as a capital of finance in the 1980s and 1990s. This resulted in a relatively tight cluster of high-rise in Central Sydney’s downtown area.

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New Chinatown: Highrise or Heritage?

Dr. Scott Hawken

This studio is engaged with a suggested third phase of development at the southern end of Sydney’s CBD. The development of Barangaroo, significant high-rise developments such as the 230m World Tower, and the NSW government’s recent intention to develop the Central - Eveleigh corridor to potential heights of 90 storeys, all point to a high rise future at the periphery of the traditional high-rise core of the city. These developments and the future role of the CBD must take place within a much broader reconceptualization of the city’s three-dimensional form. This reconceptualization is occurring within the offices of Sydney City Council at this very moment under the direction of the ‘Central Sydney Planning Review’. This review is a 3 - 5 year process. This studio project is situated within the context of this real-life reappraisal and is intended to generate insight and imaginative possibilities for the southern end of the CBD, which due to its low height, proximity to the commercial centre of Sydney, and unrivalled access to multi-modal transport, has untapped development potential. However the development of the area is not straightforward. Sydney City Council has reservations about the redevelopment of the site and there has been development pressure from the owners of the various parcels who stand to gain a lot financially from raising the height limits for the area. How can the city respond to development pressures for commercial floorspace while evolving as a place where people actually live out their lives? Does there need to be a trade-off? Are the two kinds of development compatible? The answer is probably yes if the existing transport infrastructure is upgraded to both stimulate and support future investment and urban sustainability in the area. Development Scenarios Three major development scenarios were considered within the studio. Each vision adopted different approaches and boundaries with Chinatown’s special

MUDD 19 - City Visions


character area (SCA) as the focus. In broad terms the scenarios were as follows: 1. The retention and preservation of Chinatown as a special, intimately scaled pedestrian district characteristic of 19th and early 20th century Sydney. The development potential of the area will be captured by using transfer of development rights (TDR) to receiving parcels in other locations of the city such as the Central - Eveleigh development corridor. 2. Amalgamation and redevelopment of the site as an extension of the northern CBD to accommodate new demands for high-rise residential and corporate floorspace. This scenario will focus on developing a more positive engagement with a new Darling Harbour and greater integration between the CBD and Chinatown. 3. The final scenario explored a fusion of the above two approaches. The site was explored as a complex urban precinct incorporating new kinds of hybrid pedestrian and commercial spaces characteristic of ‘new Asian cities’ such as Hong Kong. How to incorporate new commercial high rise development with existing 19th and early 20th century building stock is a challenge that requires imaginative visions of alternative pedestrian realms and new public domain opportunities. Studio members explored the challenges and merits of each of these scenarios and ran feasibility tests for them with support from Lend Lease’s Glyn Richards. Each of the above ideas was developed by the class and presented to Sydney City Council urban design team. Any development potential of the area needs to be considered within the cultural and demographic transformation of the area. This was informed by Professor Donald McNeill who ran a workshop and presented a faculty wide lecture on the cultural and urban design dimensions of China.

future development. The studio sought to identify them and develop suitable development precincts that seek to achieve better outcomes for the public life of the city through considered and contrasting development options. Exactly what types are suitable for this area should be critically reappraised in light of recent research. Recent research seeks to demonstrate how Chinatown has outgrown the ‘enclave paradigm’ and has instead evolved into a dynamic global space. Professors Ang, McNeil, and others at UWS, are currently ‘documenting the transformation of Sydney’s Chinatown into a transnational and hybrid economic and cultural space in the context of the rise of China.’ This transformation is immediately evident from the life at street level but is also apparent from more abstract in depth analysis of demographics and investment. The transformation of Chinatown takes place within a new relationship between Australia and China. Rather than an enclave the area can be seen as a mirror or emblem of the new commercial and cultural bonds between Australia and its major trading partner - China. As Chinatown has evolved so Australia’s economic identity and prosperity has become dramatically more connected with China’s transformation into an economic superpower. As one of the richest countries in the world Australia owes its prosperity to ChineseAustralian economic relations. Chinatown is an experiment in these new economic relationships and in new ways of city building for Sydney, Australia.

The southern end of the CBD for a long time consisted of second rate commercial floorspace and was largely a ghost town outside of office hours with Chinatown as a vibrant enclave in the centre of this. In the last two decades the area has been transformed into a major residential district with the demographic including new migrants to the area, a considerable number of rental properties owned by both foreign and local investors and Australian’s experimenting with a new unfamiliar high-rise way of life. Within the general physical orbit of World Square, the CUB site and Market City, Chinatown has expanded to include plural ethnic, cultural and commercial, identities. This cultural context provides a vibrant, but nevertheless fragile, neighbourhood context for any

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The choice of Sydney’s Chinatown for a design studio is a bold one, not least because of the multiple challenges it poses that are very unusual in the Australian context. On the one hand, Chinatowns have always been framed as ‘other’, difficult to decipher for those ‘outside’ the community, and particularly confronting for those in the local state who try to make sense of what has sometimes been a deliberately constructed defensive enclave. On the other, the state itself has often felt moved to ‘pull back the bamboo curtain’, to quote a Sydney Morning Herald headline from the 1980s, and regulate the mah jong parlours, restaurant kitchens, and youth street culture that sits uneasily with the regulatory and supervisory roles of council, immigration department, and police.

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Professor Donald McNeill Professor of Urban & Cultural GeographyAustralian Research Council Future Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society University of Western Sydney Professor Donald McNeill contributed to the design studio. With colleagues Kay Anderson, Ien Ang, Alex Wong, he is working on a three year Australian Research Council Linkage grant on the future of Chinatown, partnering with the City of Sydney.

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Happily, today’s urban design profession has diversified, and successive generations of Australian designers would now list a Chinese or Asian genealogy as one of the contributors to their social identity. Larger proportions of the Sydney population are now aware of the subtleties of identity, will have spent some time in a major Asian city whether as tourist or worker, and will have formed a more sophisticated understanding of the forces, tastes, and symbols that are shaping the district today. The fact that Sydney now has a range of largely autonomous alternative Chinatowns, such as Hurstville, Chatswood, Eastwood, and Cabramatta, means that the role of the post-war, city centre neighbourhood based around Dixon Street is subject to ongoing transformation. With this context, it is interesting to consider how the three scenarios proposed in the studio – from the megascale, high density and tall buildings associated with the ‘Hong Kong’ option to the sutured and ventilated option of an active building conservation, and with a hybrid of tall buildings with a fine-grain of public and commercial space between – might sit against the multiple market forces and state interests in the area. Certainly, there has been little desire to revisit the open antagonism that existed between Frank Sartor and some local landowners and developers in the early 1990s. The Moore councils of the City of Sydney have, instead, found a serendipitous climate existing throughout the central business district for tall buildings, some conservation of key heritage buildings, and small scale business units suited to the specialist services long on offer in the neighbourhood, from acupuncture to travel booking, female fashion to comics. What does this mean for urban design as a practice, though? The two versions of the City of Sydney’s Chinatown public domain strategy that appeared in 2009 and 2011 reflect some of the dilemmas. The cover of the first, draft document contained a tableau of photo images grabbed from the shop windows and lamp-posts of the neighbourhood: a vibrant, colourful, chaotic mix of neon, characters, adverts, and symbols that marked a transition point for the pedestrian entering the district from George Street or Darling Harbour. This was a montage of photos of things: neon signage, red lanterns hanging outside a restaurant, a display of fruit and vegetables entirely labelled in Chinese, a glimpse of a tiny, bustling kitchen, the front window of a massage centre, and ornamental lions for


sale for superstition or souvenir. The cover of the final document is a more sober affair: the same tableau, the same red shading, but instead a conscious focus on the public domain – street furniture, trees, and the building facades that are loosely regulated within the Local Environmental Plan. This would seem to mark the tension faced by most urban designers: the former represents the vitality and diversity that is seen as a normative good by designers and place-makers; the latter, the limited, prescribed version of urban design characterised by its requirement to deal with issues of standards, laws, compliance, and risk minimisation, leavened by the ability to create a streetscape of ordered tones and shapes. These, the council’s spaces for intervention, are strikingly limited: some thoughtful but minor capital improvements such as street furniture, planting, improved circulation, better signage and orientation. Nonetheless, as with the council’s first wave of intervention in the 1980s, with its arch, pagoda and Dixon Street pedestrianisation scheme, the ability to clearly mark the space as being somehow different from its surroundings is made clear. The council has quietly introduced a new aesthetic, with new commissioning practices. Working with the 4A Asian art gallery’s director Aaron Seeto, we see a deliberate attempt to broaden conceptions of what Chinatown might be: an opening to other Asian cultures, as well as a reinvestment in the established, embedded streets which fits with their accorded special development status. The pretty interpretation of Chinese graphic traditions offered by the information kiosk, the new, vaguely deconstructivist street furniture, and the wonderful oddity of the sky blue anime spirits dangling above pedestrian heads in Kimber Lane are all strikingly bold, yet largely unobtrusive, interventions in the ‘traditional’ streetscape, without upsetting too much colonial vernacular or Cantonese heritage as it goes. Yet what makes Chinatown so different in Sydney is the existence of large scale, mixed use buildings that ultimately structure the streetscape. Dixon House (Hong Kong owned) and Sussex Centre (Genting, Malaysia) are thus significant spaces because they pack a huge amount of activities and tenancies within the space, vastly increasing the foot traffic on Sussex and Dixon streets. Market City and The Peak condominium, by virtue of sitting on top of the heritage podium of Paddy’s Market, provide a similar anchor to the southern end of the neighbourhood. And against the odds, the World Square megablock has emerged as a pivotal space: important for Korean commercial activity, hosting a Miracle Asian supermarket, and including a BUPA with Feng Shui interiors, the block’s porosity has allowed Chinatown to morph into ‘Asiatown’ as pedestrian traffic and small business spreads East as far as Elizabeth Street. It plays its part in allowing the high profile arrival of new Asian-originating food formats, such as the Din Tai Fung dumpling chain (glass windows opening the

kitchen theatre onto the street) and the high end China Republic restaurant. Of course, the area is complicated by the multiple Asian national, subnational and ethnic identities that have come to co-locate in this southern section of the CBD. For Ien Ang, this is an increasingly complex place: ‘The overall feel of the area, then, is one where varied signs of Chineseness are enmeshed within a manifestly multicultural, Asian-accented mix in the context of a distinctly Australian ambience. Sydney’s Chinatown is therefore more characterised by an Asian hybridity than by an intimate, communal Chineseness.’ (Ang 2013, pp.8-9). It is a very different Australian urbanism from that described by Kay Anderson in 1990, whose study of Sydney and Melbourne Chinatowns revealed a circular relationship between the urban landscape and political practice: ‘Chinatown was still a product and symbol of some essential ‘Chineseness’, some inherent difference against which mainstream Australia was set… Beliefs about race were continuing to shape planning decisions which in turn were further inscribing in the urban landscape, the assumptions on which the institutional practices were predicated’ (Anderson 1990, p.145) Anderson was writing about the 1980s, at a time which now seems very distant to the urgency of the supercharged Asian growth dynamics of today. The planning and design strategies that are shaping Chinatown will continue to navigate between representing cultural particularities and the mainstream modernity of the citywide design codes, height limits, and strategic zoning. One test of this will be the interplay of the district’s two Chinese gardens. On the Darling Harbour side, the Chinese Friendship Garden remains a hugely valuable island and morphological oddity, one of the largest formal Chinese gardens outside China, a legacy of the residual land of the Darling Harbour master plan which will likely be invigorated with the current, post-monorail and convention centre phase of development. On the other, Council’s ‘new Chinese Garden’ will provide a major challenge on how to integrate new, identity marked, public spaces in a way that reconciles ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’.

References: Anderson, K. 1990, ‘Chinatown reoriented: A critical analysis of recent redevelopment schemes in a Melbourne and Sydney enclave’, Australian Geographical Studies, 18 (2): 137-54. Ang, I. 2013, Precariously at home: Chinatown in Australia, Australia in Asia, Public Cultures guest lecture, University of Melbourne. <http://public-cultures.unimelb. edu.au/sites/public-cultures.unimelb.edu.au/files/Precariously_at_Home.pdf>

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A New High-rise Future

Sun Xiao Xiao Ruyu Xu Yi

This scenario transforms the current Chinatown to a high-rise area through amalgamation and development of the current special character area as a cluster of superblocks. In effect the site becomes an extension of the northern CBD accommodating new demands for residential and commercial space. However it contrasts with the financial core of the city with an increased emphasis on pedestrian connectivity and car free spaces. This is predicated on the site’s proximity to two future metro stops. New spaces are provided to boost tourism and to create a new modern image of Chinatown that speaks to the future. Foreign investment is used to drive the vision. A mix of residential, retail and commercial floor spaces is included in the area which is promoted as a vital 24 hour economy in the style of Hong Kong or Shanghai. To achieve this vision, future demographic changes in Chinatown, transport links to Chinatown, open space provisions in Chinatown, urban design fundamentals and design controls and codes were considered.

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Bird’s Eye View of The new Chinatown Development

MUDD 19 - City Visions


The amalgamation of the various blocks makes possible the implementation of mega-developments to rival World Square and the new Lend Lease development of Darling Harbour. A ‘reborn’ Dixon Street is inserted into the new development. This bigger, better, flashier, greener Dixon Street distinguishes the precinct from other areas of the city. High-rise towers above the pedestrian realm are designed to allow solar access. The area provides a dramatic new skyline for Darling Harbour. The proposed light rail and pedestrianisation of George Street will also provide a new face to Chinatown along its eastern edge.

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Long Section

Current Chinatown

New Chinatown

New Kimber Lane Perspective View

New Dixon Street Perspective View

Master plan

Perspective View

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


A Cultural and Economic Hybrid

This vision for Chinatown consists of two main elements: a fine grain architectural and streetscape character, and a diversity of cultural activities. To facilitate this, the proposal uses floorspace bonus as a mechanism to expedite the process of urban regeneration. The result is a fusion of slender towers with an intimate public domain network at street level. The scheme engages with the developers, allowing them to choose whether to take up the additional floor space. In return, the developers must deliver a range of public amenities, throughways and open spaces within each the developments as suggested in the Master Plan.

Connie Lau

This scheme identifies four precincts and develops their distinctive character through strategic public domain improvements designed to stimulate investment and encourage engagement with the floorspace bonus scheme. Underpinning the above is the integration of the new light rail and the metro line into the urban form. The stops and the stations

Rath Muengpaisan Ratih Renaningtyas Felicia Sugiaman

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Block A Block B Scale 1: 2,500 Light Rail/Stop Proposed Light Rail Stop Metro Line/Stop Existing Open Space Existing Thru Site Link Proposed Open Space Proposed Thru Site Link Development Sites Block C

Bird’s Eye View of the New Chinatown

Block D

Master Plan

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Open Space Network and Tenancy Mix


logically become hubs in each precinct. Development opportunities around these hubs will be facilitated by the improved public domain, through the injection of public squares, through site links and laneways. The idea is to create a web of walkable networks linking the public transport nodes around Chinatown. To preserve the richness of the heritage and cultural character, the scheme also defines specific architectural treatments to guide adaptive reuse of heritage buildings, giving land owners additional floor space in return for sensitive additions to the heritage items. The scheme recognises the market force to expand and modernise the traditional Chinatown, represented notably by the World Square development. Overall, the scheme delivers 140,000m2 of additional floor space and 20,000m2 of additional open spaces. A network of public transport system interweave amongst these spaces, providing the fine grain streetscape and cultural activities that represent the character of the New Chinatown of Sydney.

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Development Scheme

Development Staging Showing the Future Evolution of Chinatown

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


A Pedestrian and Heritage District

Naama Boxer Chen Dong Jiang Fan Ziad Naim

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Master Plan

MUDD 19 - City Visions

This scenario seeks to identify and intensify the many distinctive and positive qualities of Chinatown such as its intimate pedestrian scale and good solar access. The proposal revitalises the heritage fabric of Chinatown while complementing it with similarly scaled developments on available sites within the Chinatown special character area (SCA). A vision for the area as a fine grain walkable, 24/7 precinct, with a tenancy mix consisting of retail, food and specifically ‘Chinatown style’ commercial office space is promoted. The group identified the following positives opportunities and obstacles for future development of the precinct. Opportunities for Chinatown include its significant food and retail businesses which contribute to the late night economy and entertainment. China Town has a strategic location between the Central Business district and residential city south and west and can therefore serve as an entertainment district for a wider catchment. Challenges for Chinatown include its isolation. It is surrounded by arterial roads that separate it from the waterside landscapes of Darling Harbour. Walkability is usually interrupted by car traffic and restricted by inadequate footpaths and pedestrian spaces.


However, the property values of Chinatown are suppressed by current building height restrictions. This has resulted in badly maintained and out of date building stock. Strategies for the development of the precinct sought to preserve the intimate scale of the area while capturing the property values through the transfer of development rights (TDR). TDR raises capital for the refurbishment of the heritage building stock as well as increasing development potential in nearby receiving sites (coloured in green). Financial incentives for a vibrant tenancy mix are also introduced as part of the TDR strategy to make the heritage buildings more economically viable,. Walkability in the area is also increased by widening the pedestrian areas and reducing car lanes and on-street car parking and introducing development incentives for the construction of commercial arcades and throughways at street level. A new ‘highline’ like pedestrian connection to the Chinese Gardens is also introduced to capture commercial and recreational opportunities within Darling Harbour. The probable gentrification of the area is moderated by the scheme’s sensitive approaches to heritage.

Master Plan

China Town present and future

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Visions for Canberra Master of Urban Development & Design - Studio 1

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Reviving Canberra’s ‘Market Centre’ as a multi-functional district.

The original plan for Canberra presented a long-term vision for a growing city. North of the lake, a municipal centre in the west was to be connected with a market centre in the east by a lakeside boulevard reflecting the notion of ‘indefinite expansion’. The market centre was later abandoned and developed as a military precinct. Its vast surface car parking provide scope for the development of a multi-functional district, which the studio explored.


Professor Karl Fischer

Dr Paola Favaro

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Canberra: Reviving the Market Centre as a MultiFunctional District

Professor Karl Fischer

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Looking at Canberra from the City Visions perspective reveals that for the period around 1910, the plan for the capital presented by Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mahoney Griffin in 1911 is one of the great classic ‘Big Plans’. It conjured up visions of monumentality in the city centre; it included models of dense living as well as new garden suburbs; it envisaged tram and train mobility in addition to fast moving automobile traffic; and its approaches to urban forestry, urban agriculture and water recycling allow the plan to be described as an example of sustainability planning par excellence – long before the term was invented. Presented in a superb set of drawings, the competition scheme echoed principles of the L’Enfant plan for Washington DC, Haussmann’s Paris and Burnham’s plan for Chicago, and combined them - in a fascinating way - with those of the Garden City and the American parks movement. The conditions of the competition of 1911 had suggested an initial population size of 25,000 with a potential to grow up to 75,000 within a foreseeable time span, in fact based on the growth model of Washington. But Griffin’s plan was looking at a time span of one hundred years. He was looking at a point of time where we are today – and beyond. Therefore he warned: ‘We must not plan for a village… This is done where town planning is not practiced.’ And he pointed out that ‘any arrangement looking forward one hundred years has to be elastic’, and yet to define an urban design structure and a functional disposition of districts ‘in their right relationship to the city in


its later development.’ (Australian Commonwealth Parliamentary Papers, No. 346, II, 1023). It is this long-term perspective which led him to design a city centre which was not only monumental in style but also in its dimensions. The raison d’etre of the capital, the government centre, formed the middle of the formal monumental composition. North of the lake, a municipal Centre in the west was to be connected with a market centre in the east by a lakeside boulevard of cosmopolitan splendour reflecting the notion of ‘indefinite expansion’.

less car-dependent multifunctional district replacing the vast parking grounds in front of the buildings of the military institutions. The studio demonstrates that the eastern corner of Canberra’s central triangle would be a highly attractive site for a precinct development in line with the principles which Griffin had proposed for much of the central area north of the lake: fairly compact building types were to enable a great number of people to enjoy the spectacular views of the lake and across the water to the government group according to ‘the principle of the greatest good for the greatest number’, as Griffin argued.

In the stagnation period of the inter-war years, this long-term perspective was replaced by the notion of developing Canberra as a small garden town. The market Centre and the associated railway station were abandoned. Following World War II, the undeveloped corner of the triangle was turned into a monofunctional military Centre with vast parking grounds. Meanwhile, the strategies of urban development and design developed in the 2010 period have opened up new perspectives. While the predicament of the patently unsustainable urban form of car-based suburbs continues, a range of advances into the direction of a higher degree of sustainability are at least on the horizon. Most notably, they include the introduction of a light rail system, the beginnings of which have been approved by government. In the context of a strategy of linking Canberra to the lake, light rail connections have been suggested, which would also increase the potential of establishing a

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Connecting Russell

Canberra’s contemporary urban character is often described as an ‘urban laboratory’ - transforming the blend of City-Beautiful and Garden-City elements, post-war social, economic, cultural and political factors have greatly influenced the city’s form. As a result the Griffin’s plan has only been partly realised. Today the city is cut off from the lake, its blocks dominated by poorly planned office precincts, which diminish the qualities of the capital.

Rituka Kapur Carlos Bartesaghi Koc

‘Connecting Russell’ focuses on regenerating a piece of Canberra to provide new land use, parkland and waterfront access opportunities. It re-interprets the geometry of the Griffin Plan by identifying strong axes to several varied precincts.

Raffaele Villano

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Master plan illustrates the connection of Russell with the Parliament House by tram and redesigns the connection of CauseWay

Light Rail Network Cycleways Network Crossing Ramps over tunnel Pedestrian Network

Mobilities

MUDD 19 - City Visions

Main Streets (High Vehicular Activity) Tunnel Depression Local Streets (Medium Vehicular Activity) Pedestrian Public Domain Pedestrian Private Domain

Street hierarchy

Water Catchment Fountains System Drainage System

Open space networks

Drainage and water system


The character of Russell is enhanced through the creation of a new urban district that increases living and working densities whilst maintaining a relationship to the scale of the mature landscape. A sustainable-mobility approach has been used to establish a legible street network. Contemporary pressures such as local traffic congestion have been considered particularly east to west between Civic and the airport. Strategically the project places emphasis on the city approaching and addressing its parkland and waterfront with a multi-functional edge street. The plan envisages walkable blocks with a range of building types and subdivisions supported by low-carbon and responsive transport systems such as light rail.

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Long Section - the housing typology compatible with the terrace and geography of Russell

Long Section shows the terrace and the ideas of designing the Market Place and Parks Way

Parkes Way Precinct Detail

Perspective of view

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Attending to Russell

Russell constitutes the third corner of the Griffin’s Parliamentary Triangle. Whilst Civic and Parliamentiary Zone have developed as their own citydistricts, Russell has not received the same attention through Canberra’s 100 years of development. ‘Attending to Russell’ aims to remedy the unfinished nature of Russell as a precinct in order to complete Griffin’s structural vision for the centre of Canberra.

Jane Anderson Wang Chenyu Yu Haiwen

The strength of the Griffin Plan is honoured by the reinforcing of Commonwealth, Kings and Constitution Avenues as well as The Causeway as primary civic spines. The contemporary proposal layers a further hierarchy of streets and walkable blocks interspersed with a linked network of green spaces to add variation and interest.

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Master plan - implement the idea of small block suitable with human scale and public transport system

MUDD 19 - City Visions


The plan provides for mixed use development to allow for Canberra’s growth in a flexible manner, depressing Parkes Way and integrating Kings Park with a civic frontage in the form of a smart-boulevard, and introducing light rail to Constitution Avenue.

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Long Section A-A illustrates the block and space for pedestrian and vehicles

Long Section B-B illustrates the design access to the lake from Russell and the main ideas of public space

Street Section

Detail Plan - the zoom in of public and semi-public space for pedestrian

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Renewing Russell

‘Renewing Russell’ aims to address the sustainability of Canberra’s centre by planning for a reduction of car use in the long term. Public transport, walking and cycling are promoted in a network of finer grain blocks providing interest and activation, and access to lakefront parklands. Five key strategies have been employed in the plan: 1. Light rail linking the renewed Russell with Civic, the airport and Parliament

Huynh Thi Mai Phuong Mu Cong

2. The development of a public domain network with a focussed main street centred through the precinct 3. The renewal of extensive existing surface car parks for urban occupation

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Master Plan - the map illustrates the visions for Russell by changing the Parkes Way and renewing the area by a variety of building types

MUDD 19 - City Visions


4. Layering of green streets and urban parks 5. The introduction of a mix of uses to encourage a vibrant precinct

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Long Section 1- the high level will be five or six storeys, only the strategic building has a height of 20 storeys

Long Section - the section of Parkes Way illustrates the access to the lake

Traffic System

Green Space

Above: Perspective Left: Critical Diagrams

Height level

Figure Ground

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Reinterpreting Russsell

Griffin’s functional concept for Russell has only been partly implemented with a lack of connections between surrounding suburbs and the lakefront and an abundance of surface car parking prevailing, something of an ‘urban desert’. A first order objective of the project is to reinterpret Griffin’s vision for Russell by connecting Russell to the significant surrounding public open spaces, and introducing vibrant urban spaces and uses by civilising the current ‘through-traffic’ conditions.

Chen Yanxi Chen Yuhao Nguyen Khanh Tung

Key strategies of the plan include: 1. The introduction of light rail through the centre of the precinct in a wide main street.

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Master plan of Russell

The Connection between Russell and Canberra city Existing Landmarks and Views

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2. The establishment of a boardwalk system exploring the Jerrabomberra wetlands and interpreting the alignment of The Causeway. 3. The reworking of Parkes Way as a suppressed through-route, reclaiming urban land at the surface. 4. A series of open spaces along this new frontage connecting local streets to the park and lake beyond.

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Open Spaces & Water Collection

Traffic

View from Ainslie Mountain

Pedestrian & Cycling

Functions

View from East Basin

Section 1 Vision from Kings Park to Constitution Ave.

Section 2 Section cross the Parks Way, Cause Way and Constitution Ave.

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014


Communication in Urban Design Dr. Scott Hawken, Jodi Lawton of Lawton Design

UDES0010 critically reflects upon and re-presents the year’s work of the MUDD Program within a clear, challenging theoretical framework. The Course demands creativity, commitment and understanding from all participants. The yearbook and exhibition emphasise studio work, since the communication of urban design principles, patterns of urban life and urban development scenarios is the central concern of the MUDD Programhowever, the theoretical content of the other core courses must be factored into the theme and content of the various communication components.

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Communication in Urban Design involves written, graphic, verbal and coordination skills. In principle, the class is run as a design practice with teams and team leaders organised to undertake specific tasks to non-negotiable deadlines. The basic philosophy is to adopt the processes of a design office, where the rapid execution of tasks to exacting standards is a daily occurrence. The principal aim of the course is to reflect upon the year’s work and to re-present our urban design projects in the established folio format of the MUDD Program that has a print run of approximately 600 copies. This provides more than a record of the work produced over the previous twelve months; it presents the key findings of our investigation of urban issues in Sydney, Canberraand other great international cities of the world. In 2013/2014 international cities studied were Venice and Hamburg.

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151

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MUDD 19 Class

1

2

3

4

6 5

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8 7

10 9

12 11

14 13


MUDD19 1. Chen Dong, 2. Wang Chenyu, 3. Chen Yuhao, 4. Xiao Ruyu, 5. Jiang Fan, 6. Sun Xiao, 7. Xu Yi, 8. Rituka Kapur, 9. Chen Yanxi, 10. Park Eunju, 11. Yu Haiwen, 12. Huynh Thi Mai Phuong, 13. Rath Muengpaisan, 14. Nguyen Khanh Tung, 15. Ratih Renaningtyas, 16. Caroline Pembroke, 17. Felicia Sugiaman, 18. Connie Yin Yee Lau.

15

16

17

18

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MUDD Alumni List

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AFGHANISTAN:

BOTSWANA:

Mohammad Nadir Omar (2005-2006)

Nchunga Kanyenvu (2005-2006)

AUSTRALIA:

BRAZIL:

Jorge Alvarez (2005-2006), Tracey Bentick (2004-2005), Genevieve Blanchett (20122013), Adrian Bonanni (2005-2006), Emma Booth (2010-2011), Jillian Bywater (2007-2008), Gilead Chen (2005-2006), Irene Hiu Wah Chan (2004-2005), Anthony Charlesworth (2008-2009), Laurence Cheung (2008-2009), Jacqueline Connor (20072008), Jaclyn Cowan (2011-2012), Carlo Di Giulio (2009-2010), Glenda Marie Dunn (1999-2000), Greg Dyson (1999-2000), Mathew Egan (2010-2011), Duncan Fraser (2005-2006),Sylvia Georges (1999-2000), Shaheer Gobran (2005-2006), Marika Hahn (2005-2006), Amanda Higgins (2006-2007), Joseph Heng (2012-2013), David Hunter (2011-2012), Nick Jonmundsson (20102011), Leonard Kelly (1996-1997), Kuo Felix Chein-Peng (2000-2001), Vincent Shie Yue Lam (2000-2001), Marc Yves Lane (20092010), Connie Yin Yee Lau (2013-2014), Cindy Sin Yee Lee (2008-2009), Evelyn Kin Wah Lee (2009-2010), Lei Pei (2004-2005), Louis Louis (1998-1999), Amelia Lynch (2004-2005), Samir Mahmoud (2004-2005), Carla Mamaril (2006-2007), Peter Mann (1998-1999), Celeste Martin (2012-2013), Peter McManus (2009-2010), Sabina Miller (2012-2013), Clement Miu (2005-2006), Richard Mullane (2006-2007), Andrew Napier (2001-2002), Sally Ng (1996-1997), Carmel O’Connor (2006-2007), Salma Osman (20122013) ,Trevor Patton (1996-1997), Caroline Pembroke (2013-2014), Glen Rabbitt (19961997), Mark Raymundo (2007-2008), Brett Roantree (2008-2009), William Robertson (2011-2012), Venetin Aghostin-Sangar (2012-2013), Lorraine Sarayeldin (2003-2004), Eden Shepherd (1999-2000), Ryan Smith (2012-2013), Felicia Sugiaman (2013-2014), Jason Taylor (2007-2008), Ludwig Tewksbury (2001-2002), Vanessa Trowell (2006-2007), Kirrily Vincer (2007-2008), Stephen White (2001-2002), David Wolski (2012-2013), Ada Wong (2005-2006), Peter Woodley (20052006), Howard Yu (2002-2003), Bonnie Kin Yi Yue (2011-2012), Jess Yue (2007-2008), Karen Wang (2007-2008), Zhu Weijun (20062007)

Ana Cristina Lage (2000-2001)

BANGLADESH: Anis Uddin (2000-2001), Mohammad Omar Sharif (2009-2010)

BHUTAN: Latha Chhetri (2004-2005), Karma Dorji (2003-2004), Tshering Dorji (2011-2012), Chhado Drukpa (2008-2009), Sailesh Humagai (2006-2007), Tashi Penjor (20082009), Karma Wangchuck (2000-2001), Tashi Wangmo (2003-2004)

MUDD 19 - City Visions

CAMBODIA: Chanritthy San (2008-2009), Sok Toeur Sim (2012-2013)

CANADA: Anthony Ferri (2009-2010), Sean Galloway (2000-2001),Wan Gilbert Pui Ban (19992000), Su-Jan Yeo (2004-2005)

CHINA: An Jing (2008-2009), Bai Fan (2009-2010), Bi Lei (2007-2008), Bu Jinbo (2009-2010), Cai Zhenbo (2008-2009), Chang Lulu (20112012), Chen Dong (2013-2014), Chen Weilun (2001-2002), Chen Li Wen (2006-2007), Chen Xiaofeng (2004-2005), Chen Haifeng (1999-2000), Chen He Ying (2007-2008), Chen Jing (2010-2011), Chen Ping (20102011), Chen Wei (2009-2010), Chen Wei (2011-2012), Chen Xi (2010-2011), Chen Yanxi (2013-2014), Chen Yuhao (2013-2014), Cheng Pengfei (2004-2005), Chu Ting Ting (2002-2003), Cui Zhen (2012-2013), Dai Wen (2012-2013), Duan Yan (2010-2011), Feng Xiao (2007-2008), Fu Yuan Yuan (2002-2003), Fu Xin (2011-2012), Gao Fei (2007-2008), Gao Jie (2011-2012), Ge Qiaoying (2010-2011), Gong Li (2006-2007), Gu Bing (2006-2007), Gu Yan (2003-2004), Guo Beiyi (2012-2013), Guo Shijie (2012-2013), He Jun (2008-2009), Hu Min (2002-2003), Hu Xin (2003-2004), Huang Luohua (2008-2009), Huang Po-Chun (1999-2000), Huang Wen-Ying (2006-2007), Ji Ziyu (2012-2013), Jia Liyang (2008-2009), Jiao Tong (2011-2012), Jiang Fan (20132014), Jiang Xiao (2010-2011), Lai Disi (2008-2009), Lei Gangrong (2005-2006), Lei Gao (2005-2006), Li Chengwei (2011-2012), Li Ding Qing (2008-2009), Li Jian (2001-2002), Li Jing (2011-2012), Li Li (2011-2012), Li Weiwang (2003-2004), Li Weiwei (2011-2012), Li Yi (2008-2009), Li Yue (2006-2007), Li Xiang (2010-2011), Liu Fan (2007-2008), Liu Xiaomeng (2012-2013), Liang Jin (20062007), Lin Zhijie (2006-2007), Ling Yun (2008-2009), Liu Jian (2006-2007), Liu Liya (2011-2012), Liu Shuyi (2003-2004), Liu Ting (2006-2007), Liu Zhouqin (2011-2012), Long Jun (2012-2013), Lu Xijun (2011-2012), Ma Jiting (2009-2010), Ma Qiao (2008-2009), Ma Xiayang (2004-2005), Ma Xinzheng (20112012), Ni Yun (2003-2004), Qi Zhifang (20102011), Qiu Xiaojing (2004-2005), Ren Jingya (2010-2011), Sang Xiaojing (2004-2005), Shen Licen (2010-2011), Shen Jun (2011-2012), Sun Bing (2009-2010), Sun Xiao (2013-2014), Su Zhi (2003-2004), Tang Hao (2008-2009), Tao Yueshan (2010-2011), Wan Guyi (20122013), Wang Bo (2002-2003), Wang Chao

(2002-2003), Wang Chenyu (2013-2014), Wang Geng (2008-2009), Wang Jian (20112012), Wang Mengya (2010-2011), Wang Sheng (2006-2007), Wang Shu (2007-2008), Wang Xiaobo (2012-2013), Wang Xinbo (2012-2013), Wang Yan (2004-2005), Wu Han Qing (2005-2006), Wu Hao (2010-2011), Wu Qi (2008-2009), Wu Yifei (2003-2004), Wu Yue (2004-2005), Wu Zhi Yong (2005-2006), Xiao Ruyu (2013-2014), Xie Hong (2002-2003), Xie Xiaopan (2003-2004), Xie Qin Yi (2006-2007), Xie Yan (2004-2005), Xing Yan (2001-2002), Xu Hanbing (2005-2006), Xu Jiaoni (20112012), Xu Ke Fei (2001-2002), Xu Pian Pian (2006-2007), Xu Shan Shan (2009-2010), Xu Yi (2013-2014), Xu Ying (2010-2011), Xu Zhiyuan (2007-2008), Yan Jia (2004-2005), Yang Fan (2010-2011), Yang Ke (2001-2002), Yang Lei (2002-2003), Ye Chen (2007-2008), Yin Yin (2002-2003), Yu Haiwen (2013-2014), Yu Lechuan (2003-2004), Yu Rong (19961997), Yu Xiang (2007-2008), Yu Yehang (2010-2011), Yu Zhi Zhe (2001-2002), Yuan Zeng Cheng (2012-2013), Zhe (2001-2002), Zhai Xiaoling (2008-2009), Zhang Chun (2002-2003), Zhang Detong (2003-2004), Zhang Meng (2011-2012), Zhang Minjie (2010-2011), Zhang Wei (2010-2011), Zhang Yanan (2011-2012), Zhang Xian (2008-2009), Zhang Xiao Chen (2010-2011), Zhang Xin (2009-2010), Zhao Ruyun (2009-2010), Zhao Jiuzhou (2009-2010), Zheng Yufei (20112012), Zeng Xin (2004-2005), Zhen Bo (20042005), Zhou Boying (2011-2012), Zhou Ruizhe (2012-2013), Zhou Yimin (2006-2007), Zhu Chao (2010-2011), Zhu Wen (2011-2012)

COLOMBIA: Carlos Frias (1997-1998)

ERITREA: Gabriel Tzeggai (1996-1997)

FRANCE: Pascal Bobillier (2005-2006)

GERMANY: Vera Graefin Von Schwerin (2004-2005)

HONG KONG: Chiu Chi Yeung (2005-2006), Louis Hok Man Lee (2002-2003),Lee Mo Yi (2004-2005), Sum Wing Sze (1999-2000), Phyllis Wong (20032004), Yu Lap Kei (1998-1999)

INDIA: Srikanth Adigopula (1999-2000), Jahnavi Ashar (2007-2008), Nidhi Bhargava (20052006), Guru Prasanna Channa Basappa (2006-2007), Amitabha Choudhury (19981999), Devaki Darshan Bubbar (1995-1996), Niladri Dutt (1997-1998), Shalinee Dutt (20052006), Jude Fernando (2000-2001), Deepak George (2003-2004), Leslie Thomas Jacob


(2001-2002), Rituka Kapur (2013-2014), Neha Lala (2009-2010), Vikram Mathew Ninan (2000-2001), Jagdeep Oberoi (2001-2002), Ashutosh Vadnere (2004-2005), Kashyap Rangan (1999-2000), Munir Vahanvati (20042005)

INDONESIA: Maria Adriani (2006-2007), Ari Arwin Aldrianzah (2000-2001), Esa Anugerah (2007-2008), Evy R Anwar (1998-1999), Ira Astriani (2000-2001), Agus Surjawan Batara (1997-1998), Diah Piyaloka Citaresmi (2002-2003), Mario Daenuwy (2004-2005), Agem Dendihardo (2004-2005), Ary Ediyanto (2005-2006), Novi Rozana Gantaman (1997-1998), Felicia Gunawan (2011-2012), Aloysius Iwan Handono (1996-1997), Yennie Hartawan (2001-2002), Irene Irma Hendranata (2002-2003), Buddy Indrasakti (1996-1997), Andri Irfandri (2000-2001), Busono Wibowo Isman (1997-1998), Firsta Ismet (19971998), Raynaldo Kurnioseputro (2012-2013), Puri Advanty Indah Lestari (2005-2006), Handi Limandibrata (2002-2003), Yolanda Louhenapessy (1997-1998), Febriane Makalew (2004-2005), Lulu Muhammad (1996-1997), Akbar Nusantara (20052006), Windiani Octavia (2000-2001), Tiyok Prasetyoadi (1997-1998), Doni Priambodo (1999-2000), Yudhie Prastowo (20012002), Fachri Dwi Rama (2006-2007), Ratih Renaningtyas (2013-2014), Dian Erliana Sari (2000-2001), Monik Setyaningsih (20012002), Sibarani Sofian (1998-1999), Realrich Sjarief (2009-2010), Purnama Hadi Sunarya (1996-1997), Achmad D Tardiyana (19981999), Gunarti Tanudjaja (1996-1997), Wiranti Teddy (2006-2007), Nadia Shevila Thohari (2012-2013), Francisca Ira Tjahja (2000-2001), Susanti Widiastuti (2002-2003), Dyah Titisari Widyastuti (2000-2001), Ichsanna-Samba R Widyastuti (1996-1997), Virendy Wijaya (2007-2008), Annisa Yumaladini (2010-2011)

MALDIVES: Ibrahim Rafeeq (1997-1998)

(2000-2001), Tsai Hui-Chu (2009-2010), Stephanie Wang (2000-2001), Wu Ju Fang (2004-2005)

MEXICO:

THAILAND:

German Castillo (2009-2010), Rodrigo Ochoa Jurado (2006-2007), Gerardo Ortiz (19981999)

Suphot Chaisilprungrueng (1999-2000), Nattakarn Chompootep (1999-2000), Piyachat Kangsdal (2003-2004), Pochara Kittisakdi (2000-2001), Rath Muengpaisan (2013-2014), Thanong Poonteerakul (20032004), Sompatsorn Bamrungsak (1996-1997), Sirat Wattanavijarn (2000-2001)

NEW ZEALAND: Paula Costello (2008-2009), Kuhu Gupta (2009-2010), Michael Kemeys (2010-2011), Feng Hui (2006-2007), Liu Yu-Ning (20012002), Szeto Chi Wah (1998-1999), Imogen Williams (2007-2008), Timothy Williams (2008-2009), Charles Wang (2010-2011)

IRELAND: Sarah Rock (2001-2002)

UKRAINE:

Amna Majeed (1995-1996), Waqas Jamil Afridi (2006-2007)

Oleksandra Babych (2001-2002)

UNITED KINGDOM:

PAKISTAN:

Clare Billingham (2002-2003), David O’Brien (1995-1996)

Amna Majeed (1995-1996), Waqas Jamil Afridi (2006-2007)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Gilo Goro Henao (1997-1998)

PHILLIPINES: Herman Calangi (1999-2000), Roberto Evangelio (1998-1999), Anthony Yan (20112012)

SINGAPORE: Ahmad Kamal Abdul Ghani (2002-2003), Choo Hin Yin (1995-1996), Foo Kai Kiat (2005-2006), Lee Fook Ngan (1999-2000), Loh Chin Hui (2001-2002), Malvin Soh Keng Chuan (2002-2003), Wong Yen Nee (20092010)

MALAYSIA: Lee Ling (1997-1998), Leong Siew Leng (1999-2000), Ooi Li Jou (2009-2010), Krisada Sungkram (2009-2010), Tan Boon Loke Johnson (2001-2002), Yong Chenhow (20042005)

Erik Adams (2010-2011), Ryan Andersen (2005-2006), Gabe Bayram (2002-2003), Nathaniel Bettini (2009-2010), Kevin Brake (2002-2003), Nick Chapin (2001-2002), Pasqual Contreras (2009-2010), Alec Gelgota (2012-2013), Peter Hinteregger (1995-1996), Maggie Hoi (1998-1999), Russell Kosko (1998-1999), Shihomi Kuriyagawa (20112012), Kathleen McDowell (2007-2008), Susan McLaughlin (2007-2008), Geoffrey Morrison-Logan (1997-1998), James Shelton (2004-2005), Max Stember-Young (20112012), Erica Tinio (2009-2010), Reginald Wheeler III (2002-2003)

VENEZUELA: Giancarlo Cerutti Di Ludovico (2003-2004)

SOUTH KOREA: Jue Hee Nam (1997-1998), Jang In-Taek (1998-1999), Jung Jinmo (2004-2005), Kim You Jung (2005-2006), Kwak Kye-Bong (1998-1999), Lee Yuntai (2002-2003), Park Eunju (2013-2014), Shin Woo-Hwa (19981999)

JAPAN: Tsuyoshi Otawa (1996-1997), Takeshi Suzuki (1999-2000)

Urun Demir (2003-2004), Duygu Ince (20052006)

PAKISTAN:

IRAN: Mahmoodreza Vahidi, Sahar Rahmanynejad (2010-2011), Lili Halimian Avval (2010-2011)

TURKEY:

SRI LANKA: Jue Hee Nam (1997-1998), Jang In-Taek (1998-1999), Jung Jinmo (2004-2005), Kim You Jung (2005-2006), Kwak Kye-Bong (1998-1999), Lee Yuntai (2002-2003), Shin Woo-Hwa (1998-1999)

VIETNAM: Dao Chi Trong (1997-1998), Huynh Hung Kiet (2011-2012), Huynh Thi Mai Phuong (20132014), Khuc Thi Thuy Ngoc (2010-2011), Nguyen Hong Duong (2012-2013), Nguyen Khanh Tung (2013-2014), Nguyen Truc Anh (2000-2001), Nguyen Thai Tran (2001-2002), Pham Thi Thu Huyen (2006-2007), Phu Duc Tu (2000-2001), Tran Tuan Anh (1999-2000), Vo Anh (2007-2008)

TAIWAN: Chiu Kuo-Wei (2001-2002), Grace Hu (20052006), Hao-Ting Chung (2011-2012), Kao Min Chun (2009-2010), Ko Chuan Hsin (19981999), Ni Ming-Te (2001-2002), Tsai Chicheng

2013 - 2014 Graduating Class in Blue. Graduating Class and former graduates are listed according to the International Studio year.

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Alumni Profiles

156

Sibarani Sofian Director, Design, Planning + Economics, AECOM Indonesia MUDD 1998/1999

MUDD provided me with the fundamental practical and theoretical training in the field of urban design that enabled me to embark on my professional career with confidence. It wasn’t easy for a nonEnglish educated person like me, but the encouraging environment of the campus, and the diverse range of professional and cultural backgrounds of my classmates, helped build my confidence. In the 1998/1999 program, we had a good mix of students from Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, India, Republic of China, Taiwan, South Korea, Mexico and the United States which enabled me to expand my professional network and deepen my understanding of different cultural values. The high quality education provided by Professor Jon Lang, Professor Sandy Cuthbert and Professor James Weirick, Peter Williams and other academics in the MUDD Program was valuable to my training as an urban designer. The focus of the program on East Asia at that time was also timely, as urban development there was booming. Back in 1999, we went on a field trip to Nusa Jaya, Johor, which in the next decade became ‘Iskandar Development’, a mega-projects that I’m re-visiting in my current role as project director with AECOM. As the Director of Design and Development at AECOM for the South and South East Asia Region, I’m working on numerous strategic urban projects. The projects aim to create high quality environments for people to live, work and play. Every day I use my skills and experience that I gained

MUDD 19 - City Visions

from my campus days with the MUDD programs. I have had senior positionsw in various companies including SOM and EDAW. I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to lead design practice in the global consulting company of AECOM to transform cities in South East Asia. One of the projects I am most proud of is ‘River of Life’ (www.rol.my), the largest river transformation project in Malaysia. We won the project through international competition and now have a USD 32 million commission. This project will transform the unsightly Klang River of Kuala Lumpur City into a 14km long green eco-corridor which will stitch different parts of the city together. Another project that I enjoyed working on is ‘Ancol Eco Park Jakarta’ where we transformed an underperforming golf course into a public park. The park has multiple functions as a green lung, animal habitat, flood mitigation landscape and recreation. Now, the project is a model for other new ‘eco parks’ in Jakarta. Asia is now the ‘playground’ of our profession, with exciting projects that are multi-cultural, multi-dimensional and fasttrack. Thinking about my time at UNSW, I am confident that I made the right choice by taking my very first steps towards a career in Urban Design with the MUDD Program.


Cindy Lee Senior Urban Planner at Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate, ACT Government MUDD 2008/2009

The MUDD Program was the key stepping stone in my education, leading me to a career that I am deeply passionate about. I left Adelaide and the architecture profession to gain new experiences in the world of planning and urban design in Sydney where I attained a research/ graphics position at City Plan Urban Design, Sydney and a position in the MUDD Program. Before I entered the MUDD Program I had little understanding of what urban design and development truly involved. The MUDD Program gave me a strong basis of what urban design was all about, how complex it is, and most importantly how rewarding this field of work can be.

for the ACT Government’s Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate, I have the opportunity to work with local communities to develop long-term master plans for local town centres in the ACT. My work has also crossed over into areas such as social planning and infrastructure. Transport planning has been of particular interest and has involved me learning about detailed bus operations and how to redesign a centre to allow for improved connections and efficiencies for transport, traffic, road and pedestrian infrastructure. My work has also involved drilling into the details of ACT planning regulations and providing urban design advice for development applications.

Reflecting back, the challenging teamwork and variety of students in the program showed me how different backgrounds and cultures could experience, use, and design a place in so many varied ways. Our visit to Istanbul was a highlight of the program. We learnt how to approach an unfamiliar city, with so much history and culture, and to produce numerous possible design solutions. The knowledge and experience I gained through the MUDD program nurtured my excitement for the many facets of urban design and development.

Canberra is an intriguing place but not one that is easy to understand. However, it is evolving and its outlying areas are becoming more city-like. Even though parts of Canberra are often overlooked, the polycentric layout provides many hidden gems only a local can show you. I see a huge potential for Canberra to become a leader in sustainable urban development one day.

A key component of my current work as an urban designer is about bringing together the diverse backgrounds and oftendiverging viewpoints of a community, help form numerous options and eventually a plan that allows a place to develop positively into the future. Working, now,

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Acknowledgements Professor Karl Fischer and Dr Paola Favaro acknowledge the help of a number of people who contributed to the Session 1 and 2 introductory urban development and design studio UDES0001. The excellent tutors in Sydney for the Ultimo UDES0001 and Canberra UDES0001 studios were Benjamin Driver and Sheila Tawalo from Hill Thalis Urban Projects, together with Linden Crane from Jane Irwin Landscape Architects. Great guest lectures were given by MUDD alumnus Kevin Brake from AECOM; Dr Elizabeth Farrelly, Architecture Critic of the Sydney Morning Herald; Professor Robert Freestone; and David Holm from Cox Richardson. During the study tour of Canberra a comprehensive briefing was provided by Ian Wood-Bradley of the Economic Directorate, ACT Government.

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For their contribution to the Session 1 UDES0002 advanced Studio on the transformative impact of the Second Harbour Rail Crossing on the CBD’s of Sydney and North Sydney, Nigel Dickson thanks Dr. Garry Glazebrook - Transport Consultant, and Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures UTS; John Richardson - Director, Cox Richardson, Architects & Urban Designers; and Luke Franzmann- Program Director, Planning & Programs, Transport for NSW. Dr Scott Hawken thanks the following for their contribution to the Session 2 UDES0002 Studio on the future of Sydney’s Chinatown. The conceptual basis of the Studio was formed through conversations with key people within the intellectual policy landscape of Sydney: Professor Donald McNeill from the ARC funded project ‘Sydney’s Chinatown in the Asian Century: from ethnic enclave to global hub’ at the Institute for Culture & Society, University of Western Sydney; Amy Bendall, Jesse McNicoll and Ben Pechey, members of the urban design team at Sydney City Council involved in the background studies of the Central Sydney Planning Strategy; Glyn Richards from Lend Lease; and Philip Thalis from Hill Thalis Urban Projects. The rich intellectual content presented by the above friends and colleagues of the MUDD Program was integrated into the Studio through a series of seminars and workshops. Thankyou also to Emeritus Professor Jon Lang and Dr

MUDD 19 - City Visions


Gethin Davison, who contributed to the Studio through participating in design critiques as well as the final design jury. For his urban economics overview for the UDES0003 International Studios in Hamburg and Venice, we thank John Zerby for his stimulating and provocative presentation on north-south tensions in the Eurozone and the prospects for fiscal union in the EU. Dr Scott Hawken and Dr Paola Favaro thank the following people and institutions who contributed to the UDES0003 Venice Studio. First a very warm thankyou to the generous and deep intellect of Professor Enrico Fontanari of the Università IUAV di Venezia without whom the Studio would not have been possible. Thankyou to Professor Franco Mancuso for his magnificent introduction to the urban morphology of Venice; to Stefano Gambin and Matteo Giona for presenting their thoughtful findings from their masters research projects; Marco Ballarin for the tour of the inspirational WAVE 2013 exhibition on futures for Marghera; and to Enza Santangelo for her insight and support as class tutor. Thankyou, of course, to all the Italian students from IAUV who participated in the Venice workshop of the Studio. The Australian students learnt so much from their collaboration with the poetic and wonderfully creative students from the Università IUAV di Venezia: Gianluca Gala, Gioavanna di Gennaro, Alessandra Marafetti, Margherita Sambo, Mirko Tucakov, Stefano Zeni, Mirrna Zordan, Silvia Annoe’, Erika Facchin, Andrea Manente, Zaira Gasparini, Leonardo Formoso, Sussana Di Genaro. Thankyou also to Peter John Cantrill, Dr Katrina Simon and Nigel Dickson for participating in the final design jury. For their contributions to the UDES0003 Hamburg Studio, Professor James Weirick and Professor Karl Fischer thank our hosts at HafenCity University (HCU) Professor Dr Michael Koch and Professor Dipl.-Ing Jens Usadel for the theme of the workshop, background data, studio space, excursions and design jury critiques. We are particularly grateful to Professor Dipl.-Ing Bernd Kniess and the HCU University of

the Neighbourhoods for their exceptional hospitality granting the UNSW students free accommodation for the entire period of the Workshop and to Professor Usadel for contributing his invaluable knowledge of Hamburg, Wilhelmsburg and the Elbe Islands. We thank Professor Dr Dirk Schubert (HCU) for his introduction to Hamburg housing typologies on a memorable walking tour, to Thorsten Gödtel (HafenCity GmbH) for his comprehensive tour of the HafenCity waterfront development, as well as Andrea Behnke and Tanja Jauernig (HCU) for their superb tutoring and help at many levels, and to HCU student Momke Sosna for her contribution to our group projects. At the Hamburg IBA Development Agency, we thank General Manager Uli Hellweg, as well as René Reckschwardt and Silke Schumacher for the exceptional briefings, hospitality and data support we received at the IBA-Dock; at the Behörde für Stadtentwicklung und Umwelt – the City of Hamburg planning agency – we thank the head of regional planning, Dieter Polkowski for his briefing on the ‘Growing Hamburg’ metropolitan strategy. For our introduction to the life and landscape of Wilhelmsburg, we thank our formidable bus driver and Australia enthusiast Rolf Utzt. Thankyou also to Kevin Hoffman and Arlene Segal for participating in the final design jury back in Sydney. Professor Michael Neuman thanks the following contributors to UDES0004 History & Theory of Urban Development & Design: Laurence Loh of Arkitek LLA, Penang, Malaysia; Assistant Professor Camilla Perrone, Department of Urban & Regional Planning, University of Florence, Italy; and tutor Tracie Harvison from the UNSW BE Ph.D Program. Professor Neuman also thanks MUDD alumnus Max Stember-Young for his editorial contribution and production of the final report of the 2011 Jonathan Barnett/Nigel Dickson/Michael Neuman RedfernWaterloo Studio, funded by the City of Sydney Local Community Grants Program, which was published in March 2013. Emeritus Professor Jon Lang and Professor

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James Weirick thank the following colleagues and professionals for their Urban Development & Design Case Study presentations in UDES0006: Professor Karl Fischer for Unterneustadt neighbourhood, Kassel, Germany; Michael Harrison, Architectus, for the Epping Town Centre Urban Activation Precinct; Professor Ken Maher, Hassell for the Darling Harbour West Redevelopment (Sydney International Convention, Exhibition & Entertainment Precinct); Jan McCredie, McCredie Urban Design for the Wellington, New Zealand 2040 Spatial Strategy Plan; Jesse McNicoll, City of Sydney for Green Square Town Centre; and Arlene Segal for Modi’in New Town, Israel. For their contribution to UDES0008 Planning & Urban Development, Dr. Gethin Davison thanks Jane McCredie for her presentation on Pyrmont Urban Design Strategy; Phillip Bartlett, Director, P&J Projects for his case study on the Green Square Town Centre Implementation Plan; and Stephen Moore, Principal, RobertsDay on the DCP for the Newmarket site, Randwick. Scott Hawken thanks Anne Warr of Anne Warr Heritage and Bob Perry of Scott Carver for their vital contributions to UDES0009 Urban Landscape & Heritage UDES0009. In addition, the MUDD Program extends sincere appreciation to the distinguished scholars and generous sponsors without whom the joint production of the Stadvisionen 1910 | 2010 and MUDD19 City Visions exhibitions would not have been possible. The Berlin Stadtvisionen exhibition and associated catalogue were prepared under the direction of Professor Dr Harald Bodenschatz from the Centre for Metropolitan Studies, TU-Berlin and Dr Hans-Dieter Nägelke, Director of the Architecture Museum, TUBerlin. The project was supported by the German Federal Office for Building and Regional Development (BBR) and the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building

MUDD 19 - City Visions

& Urban Development (BMVBS). Further partners were the Berlin Senate and the Council of Berlin Mitte. Contributors included Christoph Bernhardt, Peter Bishop, Dorothea Brantz, Michael Braum, JeanLouis Cohen, Johannes Cramer, Dieter Frick, Corinne Jaquand, Undine Giseke, Christina Graewe, Claudia C. Gotz, Jacky Grimshaw, Ulrich Hatzfeld (BMVBS), Michael Hebbert, Aljoscha Hofmann, Harald Kegler, Uta Keil, Sabine Konopka, Michael Krautzberger, Celina Kress, Vittorio M. Lampugnani, Peter Lemburg, Mario Lorenz (deserve design group), Regula Lüscher, Christoph Mäckler, Ariella Masboungi, Cordelia Polinna, Kristen Schaffer, Franziska Schilling, Barbara Schönig, Wolfgang Sonne, Albert Speer, Robert Winterhager, Markus Tubbesing, Nicole Wolf and Peter Zlonicky. Curatorial direction, translation and production of the English version as shown in London, Glasgow and Sydney were carried out by Cordelia Polinna, Tobias Goevert, Kalin Coromina, Jim Hudson and Karl Friedhelm Fischer. The Stadtvisionen 1910 | 2010 Exhibition was brought to Sydney as an outstanding analysis of city making a century apart and as a teaching resource by the UNSW MUDD Program on the initiative of Professor Dr Karl Friedhelm Fischer with the support of the Goethe Institute, Sydney. We extend sincere appreciation to Director Dr Arpad Sölter for his enthusiastic endorsement and effective funding of the project, together with the technical support of Cultural Officer Jochen Gutsch. The 2014 Reid Lecture and MUDD19 City Visions exhibition were made possible with generous support from sponsors Scott Carver, Bates Smart, Colin Stewart Architects, fjmt, JPW, Allen Jack + Cottier, ae design partnership, Architectus and HASSELL; donors Rose & Jones, Mia Creek Pty Ltd and Redd Investment Group, and funding from the Faculty of Built Environment, UNSW. For this we extend our deep appreciation.


MUDD 19 Collaborators The Master of Urban Development & Design Program welcomes students from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines, which adds to the richness of the program. In 2013 - 2014, MUDD welcomed a number of outstanding students from other Built Environment programs to complete studios as elective components of their degrees.

Alice Reily

Nur Atiqah Binti Muhamad

Master of Planning UNSW

Master of Architecture UNSW

Bianca Maria Francolini Bachelor of Architecture Politecnico di Milano

Carlos Bartesaghi Koc Master of Sustainable Development UNSW

James Arnold

Jane Anderson

Master of Planning UNSW

Master of Planning UNSW

Liam Williamsz

Maria Laurentia Stephanie

Bachelor of Architectural Studies UNSW

Bachelor of Planning UNSW

Master of Planning UNSW

Mohammad Reza S. Kermani Master of Sustainable Development UNSW

Momke Sosna

Mu Cong (Monica)

Naama Boxer

Raffaele Villano

Hamburg International Studio

Master of Planning UNSW

Bachelor of Architecture Technion Israrel

Bachelor of Architecture IUAV Venice

Stefano Cendron

Wang Youding (Richard)

Xu Zhaoming (Green)

Ziad Niam

Master of Architecture IUAV Venice

Master of Planning UNSW

Master of Planning UNSW

Master of Architecture UNSW

These students have proved valuable members of the MUDD program and have contributed a great deal to the studio projects they have participated in, and to the learning and development of their fellow students.

Joy Liu

HCU

Master of Urban Development & Design 2013-2014

161


Sponsors The Master of Urban Development & Design Program thanks our sponsors and donors for their generous support in 2013 - 2014 for the 7th Annual Paul Reid Lecture in Urban Design and the MUDD19 Yearbook and Exhibition.

Pl atinum

G o ld

162

S ilve r

Bro nze

S tad tv i so ne n S p o nso r

Do no rs Rose & Jones Mia Creek Guest House Redd Investment Group




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