Adams, Rob
From CollabLandWiki
Adams, R. 2005. Melbourne: Back from the edge In City Edge: Case Studies in Contemporary Urbanism, edited by E. Charlesworth 14-32. Oxford: Architectural Press.
An analysis of the strategy used by Melbourne city to tranform the city after it started to decline to end up in a pretty dire position by the 1980’s. There was fear that the city was heading towards the ‘doughnut syndrome’, a city without a strong central core. The reading discusses the subtle changes implementd by a strategy rather than the big popular projects that have contributed also to the revitalisation of the city centre.
The 1985 strategy plan used was a document with desired outcomes for the city. It outlined:
- The central city was to move away from its role as a five day twelve hour central business district and towards a seven day twenty four hour central activities district. One of the main ways of achieving this was to increase the central city population by 8000 over 15 years.
- Existing building stock was to set the context, while the remaining areas were to become key development areas where government would work with developers to aid redevelopment.
- The features of Melbourne’s cityscape were to be preserved (gentle rolling topography from Yarra River, major waterways, the city’s formal grid, the city’s formal parks and gardens
It is then outlined why this strategy was successful. The 3 key reasons were:
- Political support
- Design-led delivery
- Public/private relationships
For full analysis visit my blog. Under Reading Notes #3 posted on 18th July is where the Melbourne reading is. Note that design-led delivery breaks down into further catergories and are worth looking at.
Points
- To have residents living in the city almost instantly makes the city 24/7
- Christchurch shares similar issues with Melbourne with a central city grid and the risk of the doughnut syndrome
- The importance of masterplans to allow the vision to be realised but the importance of action plans to get the vision moving
- The overall important of a strategy and all its components.
Points
- Urban design vs landscape architecture. Can Cathedral Square be successful before the city itself has sensible urban design patterns/intentions.
