Canberra as a Planned city: Early Urban Planning, Modernist and Americanisation of Australian planning Influence on Canberra

Just Our groups essay in a different format

Canberra as a Planned City

Canberra as a Planned City - How Early Modernist and American Influences shaped Canberra

To what extent has early modernist and American influences shaped Canberra as the capital city we see today?

The 20^th century oversaw many drastic changes as well as new inventions and technologies which would eventuate as pivotal tools and affluences in many western cultures. Along with these new elements came along a new page in urban and town planning. It was a century filled with change and a hungry desire for new directions and approach. It was during this period however where Australia witnessed a new birth of a city, a new capital in the name of Canberra. Canberra steadfastly evolved over a period of 100 years which oversaw new changes and philosophies in the approach of planning, with the likes of Le Corbusier leading the modernist charge, as well as rapidly growing American ‘Empire’ to which its cultural influences would spill across the Pacific. These influences would allow neighbourhood units to thrive, long transit freeways to connect place to place, employment to become a great possibility as well as the administrative centres which would house the Commonwealth government of Australia. Through this essay we will be assessing the modernist and American influences through plans, events, people as well as the competition which started it all.

Early Urban Planning - Pat WIlliams

There is no one definition of urban planning, but can be defined as a technical and political process concerned with the use of land and design of the urban environment, including transportation networks, to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities. It concerns itself with research and analysis, strategic thinking, architecture, urban design, public consultation, policy recommendations, implementation and management. (Taylor, 2007)Urban planning has been evident since the 5^th century mainly in the Egyptian civilisations, but recent archaeological digs are showing planning in most civilisations with buildings and sewage systems being efficiently placed in a settlement. Planning In early Australia was very minimal with most cities being placed on the east coast for trade purposes like most cities. Much like America and early Britain, the lack of strict development regulations saw dense urban neighbourhoods quickly sprawl out of hand eventually turning to slums. (Stout, 1998). This was evident in early Sydney (figure 1) and Melbourne, although this type of early planning was basic, usually only about the placement of infrastructure with no population growth, economics or environmental studies. Planning today has moved from just placement to a range of areas to a range of areas outlined in the definition above such as design and consultation.

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Figure 1. Sydney Harbour Bridge with HMAS Canberra in foreground taken from Farm Cove, 19 March 1932.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/national_library_of_australia_commons/6174055380/

Between 1901-1930 Canberra offers the best example of ideas and events associated with the garden city movement. In the initial design and location of Canberra as the capital several criteria had to be followed, the most significant includes 100miles from Sydney and agricultural background. This shows that a garden city influence was evident from the beginning.

The beginning of the 20^th century was the beginning of ‘city beautiful’ approach to town planning in Australia. (Freestone, 1986). This introduced the British Garden City movement developed in the early 20^th century by Ebenezer Howard known for his publication ‘Garden Cities of Tomorrow’ (1898). His strong dedication and advocacy to the Garden City model movement largely influenced the design of Canberra. During this time the garden city was accepted by most with George Taylor explaining in 1914 ‘We can build it as a model city and it’s sweetness will spread; for a garden city is a hundred times more useful, because of the inspiration it creates’ (Taylor, 1914)

Griffin’s design was mostly geometrical but took into account the topography of the site as well. This being an aspect of the garden city in his original plans, also including his tree lined streets and use of parks and gardens. (Freestone, 1986). The whole Manuka retail-complex was designed under the Garden City idea, each residence having open frontage to the street and having garden out the front. (Freestone, 1986).

Figure 2. Aerial View of Manuka Shops c1970s (Griffith, ACT).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/archivesact/6284669063/in/set-72157612716285327

The garden city idea later created satellite towns surrounded by green belts. This saw the city and its suburbs being separated by these green belts (open land), the original idea of it being to prevent the possibility of the city becoming congested.
The early planning of Canberra illustrates many aspects of the garden city outside of Australia including aspects of Washington D.C. Although Canberra was not initially designed as a garden city the geometrical contours and care for topography of Griffin’s plan and the Garden City advocacy from Howard saw the movement largely influence the way Canberra has been planned.

White immigration started as early as 1827 with blocks of land being used for farming and trade purposes. Later in 1901 the federation of states created the commonwealth of Australia, creating links to Britain, Which saw us join them in WW1 and the idea of Canberra as the Capital city. This saw many British immigrate to Australia due to freedom and work opportunities. Also during this time increased European migration was evident, this was because of the white Australia policy only allowed ‘similar skinned’ people into Australia. Skilled workers were also needed for the design and creation of Canberra and other major cities, attracting everyone from engineers, surveyors and architects all the way to labourers and farmers to Australia to start a new life. This diversity influenced Canberra’s future planning and the way Canberra functioned into the future.
Major immigration Australia began during WWII, during the abolishment of the white Australia policy, further diversifying and growing Australia and its need for planning.

Figure 3. Griffin’s Plan against Canberra in 2007.

http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2007/04/bestlaid_plans_.html

Modernist Planning - Alex Troy Elsworth Adkins

Modernist planning is a relatively recent move in planning theory. Modernist planning theory began around the 1890’s in America (USA) when people started moving from rural and regional areas to urban areas and large cities. This shift from rural to urban areas saw populations of cities boom; between the 1860’s and 1910’s New York’s population went from 470,000 to 5 million people, Philadelphia’s population tripled to 1.5million and Chicago’s population went from 112,000 to 2.1million in the same time frame. This obviously put a lot of stress on infrastructure and planning. Modernist planning theory was put forward to solve these problems, a fundamental part of modernist planning is buildings and being able to build larger and taller buildings to house everything from people to business, (LeGates & Stout, 1998).This began with the birth of the skyscraper which happened in Chicago in 1885 with the world insurance building but since then skyscraper have grown to become taller and cover the landscape of large cities to create their identity, (History, 2013).

The skyscraper allowed modernist planning to house the large populations of cities. A large part of modernist planning is also transport and the motor car, with the automobile becoming more popular and affordable more and more people owned it, (Benevolo, 2013). Modernist planning set out to try and make commuting as easy as possible. The motorway and freeway were built, more roads and bigger roads were built basically in modernist planning theory getting from A-B should be as easy as possible so massive roads were built, (LeGates & Stout, 1998). Then physical and psychological problems started to emerge from environmental degradation, pollution, no areas of recreation or green spaces. People who could started moving out of the cities in to suburbia and then commuting in creating sprawl, more pollution and more need for roads, (Richard T LeGates, 2013). These were issues which planners had to address and Ebenezer Howard’s garden city movement directly addressed but this also caused a shift in modernist planning. Modernist planning no longer just looked at building taller and making so called ‘megacities’ modernist planning shifted to try and become a sustainable form of planning theory. Modernist planning shifted its focus to the community and open spaces were included for recreation, 4-12 story developments, with shops and cafés at the base, offices close by and everything within walking distances; New urbanism, (LeGates & Stout, 1998).

New urbanism                                                                 Kingston foreshore Development

Canberra is a modernist city; it displays all aspects of modernism. Modernism didn’t really start in Australia to around the 1910’s when people relocated from the ‘bush’ to the cities, Canberra is a planned city and it came about in 1913 when modernist planning theory was really taking hold in Australia due to most of Australia’s planning being influenced by the US. Canberra began with a quick influx of people mainly public servants to build this capital with exciting plans put forward by Burley Griffin. What was not foreseen by the government or Canberra was the First world War and Second World War along with the depression had crippled Australia and strangled and enthusiasm for Canberra. Canberra’s future was uncertain but the National capital planning and development committee (NCPDC) wouldn’t let Canberra fail the lake was built, other government departments were moved to Canberra and built around Parkes and Barton. Civic centre was developed with shops and business by the NCPDC and they looked to the federal government for Canberra to have its own University and ANU was established in Acton in 1948, (Reid, 2002).

Canberra from the 1940’s to plans for Canberra now

Canberra’s architecture then changed its landscape taking a much more modernist planning view from the 1950’s onwards building many more apartments and housing more people also new parliament house and other key landmarks like the high court, national gallery and national museum, (Gordon, 2006).while this encouraged people to come to Canberra and with apartments and taller building there was more room to house them, the people who came to the ‘bush capital’ to live wanted the bush life style so Belconnen, Woden, Tuggeranong areas were created to house people and with Canberra’s population reaching over 100,000 people and every household owning a car Canberra’s road system become front and centre. The national capital development commission (NCDC) came up with a solution the ‘Y plan’ this was based on the modernist planning theory of getting people from A-B as quick as possible. The plan was developing Canberra as a Y with Belconnen and Gungahlin as the top two point’s central Canberra around Civic and parliament in the middle and Woden to Tuggeranong at the base, (Reid, 2002).

The plan is based on sprawl and requires people to spend a lot of time in a vehicle and polluting a lot. With a shift for Canberra to have a viable public transport system and double in size over the next 50years sprawl isn’t seen as a viable option and new modernism is seen as the way to go for Canberra planning with developments like Kingston foreshore, city to the lake, south quay and more high-rise developments varying from 4-28stories with Belconnen and Woden planned to have the tallest building in Canberra in the coming years infill modernist planning a new urbanism styled planning is the future of Canberra’s planning, (ACT Government, 2013).

Americanization of Australian Planning – Joseph Sutton

Modernism has been a part of an Americanisation of planning that has influenced Australian cities. Canberra was designed during the early phases of urban planning models and Walter Burley Griffin’s plan was the start of American planning ideas being introduced to Canberra.

Griffin’s plan was influenced by the L’Enfant Plan that was used to design Washington DC. Both Canberra and Washington have been planned with major landmarks being on a certain angle and distance away from each other. The areas surrounding the centre of the city are noted for having low density buildings and many parks situated near a lake. The street layout is also arranged with hexagonal and triangular angles spiralling off each other, these main roads being major tree lined avenues lining up with the city’s landscape and topography with a grid layout of roads filling in between. The angles and shapes that the major landmarks of both cities have been designed on make for good scenery for residents and visitors. Griffin also took inspiration from the Burnham Plan which occurred in his home city of Chicago in 1909 which was based on having the city closely situated to lake. This concept is based on the City Beautiful movement and the ideas of the Garden City. The ideas are based on having a capital city that is aligned perfectly to make for a healthy city with beautiful environments and scenery. Having been designed by an American, there would always be an influence from American planning ideas in Canberra and that would develop as planning entered the Modernist period. (aph.gov.au)

Walter Burley Griffin had a very strong relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright was a very influential planner in America who had strong designs for housing. His ideas were very architectural based which added more American influence to Australia’s capital. Added American influence came when the competition to design Parliament House was awarded to architect Romaldo Giurgola who had spent most of his career in America. Adding a further American influence to Canberra, this time it was the most important building in the country. (griffinsociety.org)

The relationship between America and Australia was at its strongest around the 50’s and it was then that Canberra begun to fully develop into the city it is today. At the time American planning theories were introduced to Canberra. Heavy use of the car lead to highways being built in America and being introduced to Australia, they were used to connect the new town centres of Woden and Belconnen to the centre of Canberra and the city has continued to expand. This has altered the design of central Canberra with Parkes Way becoming a major road taking traffic away from Constitution Avenue, one of the main roads in Griffin’s plan. The major use of highways however has made Canberra’s heavy use of the use of car a problem with very little public transport causing congestion on roads. The first shopping mall was introduced to Australia during the 1950’s. They were a sign of American consumerism and were the centre part of Woden and Belconnen. The Shopping mall helped shape the way in which Civic works now, away from the original plan of having the major shopping complexes situated around the Sydney and Melbourne Buildings. (Freestone, 2004) (Legates Stout 1998)

The neighbourhood unit is an American planning theory that is very evident and noticeable and the majority of Canberra suburbs. Designed by Clarence Perry, the neighbourhood unit was introduced to Canberra during the 40’s and was a very popular model with Canberra planners. The idea was that the school and local shops are located in the centre of the suburb. The residential houses are located around the major complexes in the suburb. The main idea behind this is that everyone can find their daily needs within their own neighbourhood. The schools and shops are often surrounded by green spaces and parks adding to the Canberra theme of the garden city. This a major influence from America that is seen in all town centres and is the most influential American planning theory to have an impact on America. It serves as a low density version of New Urbanism which comes from the ideas of Modernism. (Freestone 2010)

All of these models and ideas came to Canberra during and part of the Modernist movement in urban planning. The design of Canberra today has been influenced by American ideas during the Modernist period and shapes the city that we now know today.

Canberra as a ‘planned’ city -  Boutros Hanna

Canberra is one of the very few cities around the world to be labelled a ‘planned’ city (others which include Washington and Brasilia). Its planning process since the founding of the nation’s capital has never gone unnoticed. Its finely-implemented neighbourhood units (inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright), its well-coordinated freeways which connect all parts of Canberra, and its approach to the Garden City concept all makes Canberra unique among the rest of the other major cities in Australia. Canberra’s story of how it came to being was indeed that of blood, sweat and toil. 

Australia had just become a nation in 1901 however a new nation needs a new capital city. Sydney and Melbourne fought intensely for the nations bragging rights to host the nation’s capital. However, a compromise was ultimately reached and recorded in section 125 of the Australian Constitution that Melbourne would temporarily host the nation’s capital until a new location (needed to at least 100 miles from Sydney) was discovered and built (Reid, 2002). Charles Scrivener, the surveyor responsible for an appropriate sight, had preference a horseshoe-shaped territory which needed to include a large water catchment. Canberra was ultimately chosen which then allowed competitors to begin work on their drafts to design the new capital city. The competition was announced in April 1911 and many competitors worldwide participated, not to a surprise that the majority of those entrants were from the United States. One entrant, Chicago-based Landscape Architect Walter Burley Griffin, would submit a draft heavily inspired by Washington DC’s planned elements and outlines (Griffin, 2008). Burley’s design of asymmetric elements were designated to accommodate public buildings. Griffin, in his writings says that “The prime object of the Capital City is not an intensive commerce of the throng but the housing of various specialized deliberative and educative activities demanding rather the quiet zones”. His winning design was an arrangement of axes which would place education in one zonal are opposite a variety of headquarters. The Executive, judiciary and legislative components would feature as the predominant elements of the proposal. Garden frontages were initially formed through these coordinated axes so that they did not primarily serve as thoroughfares for communication (Griffin, 2008). Another element of Griffins design proposal were the protection of surrounding hills. This ensured the pristine landscape of Canberra was well preserved (Reid, 2002).

There were no doubts about America’s influence on Canberra as a ‘planned city’. The freeways, housing, neighbourhood units as well as the axis that form the political circles of Canberra. Bear in mind that Canberra was built from a raw site as a result of a compromise – just like Washington. Griffin compares Washington’s geographical location to Canberra’s, asserting “Washington, located politically near the earliest settles coast of a continental area equivalent to Australia, was to represent the civic ideal of an autonomous nationality” (Griffin, 2008). Griffin had apparently worked with the famous Frank Lloyd Wright for a number of years leading up to the competition. It was his time at Wrights studio where he gained most of his influence for designing Canberra as the future capital of Australia. Organic architecture seemed to be the lesson of thought from Lloyd Wright’s studio that invoked Griffin’s future aspirations for Canberra. “Based on careful observation of nature, building not only should appear to grow easily from their site, but each part should conform to the patter of the whole of the design” (Griffin, 2008).

Canberra’s planning during the course of the 20^th century oversaw the Federal Capital Commission (1925-1930) which its primary role was to construct and administer Canberra. Their proposals included the 1925 Gazette proposal which contrasted Griffins road plan as well a proposed government group which was designed to build an administrative centre which was again further entailing Griffins proposal. Canberra grew steadfastly during the course of the 20^th century however 1966 oversaw a new proposal which further exacerbated America’s influence in Canberra alone. The National Capital Development Commission invited American transport consultants to assist in updating a transport plan which would accommodate a further 500,000 people. This plan would ultimately envisage the future growth in Canberra’s suburbs. This plan was called the Spatial Plan or simply the ‘Y’ Plan as proposal radiated from the city centre (Overall, 1995). Woden and Tuggeranong would form the tail of this plan while the northern suburbs of Belconnen, Gungahlin and Sutton would form the two branches which would ultimately form the ‘Y’ shape. This plan was designed on the assumption that Canberra would remain a car-reliant society where its citizens would use public transport to a minimal extent. This plan provided a development of ‘satellite’ towns in which town would have a major shopping centre, office blocks and entertainment facilities which would serve as a ‘magnet’ in drawing people away from the city centre. The freeways would serve as transit links which was aimed at attempting to avoid large numbers of vehicles through local neighbourhoods. School ovals, community facilities and churches were to be within walking distance from the home. These elements of implementation within the 1967 Spatial Plan reverberate strongly around local communities in the United States. Most neighbourhoods from the1950’s had implemented these proposals which were first evident during the post war era.

Overall, Canberra has been highly influenced by America alone. The Modernist movement began in American and would become a dominant force in planning throughout most of the 20^th century. The movement successfully implemented transport in cities and towns to accommodate its citizens, especially the motor vehicle through the idea of the freeways. The New Urbanism, as mentioned by Robert Freestone, is the most influential aspect of the Modernist Movement in the United States as well as the neighbourhood unit. Through these elements, Canberra was able to transform into a capital which can be recognized with similarities to Washington D.C. Walter Burley Griffin, who was inspired by the new American planning theories has successfully managed to make Canberra an ever-evolving city with its sustainable and adjustable elements. Canberra will continue to grow as a capital city if the legacy of Walter Burley Griffin continues to live on through our planning and ideas. It is important that we understand that what we plan today in the nation’s capital may affect future generations yet unborn.

Peer Review: Our group consisted of Boutros Hanna, Alex Adkins, Pat Williams and Joseph Sutton. We had collaborated together on how the modernist movement and American influence played out in the planning process of Canberra. We were lucky enough to meet with a man who has overseen the expansion of Canberra throughout the decades, former chief planner Geoff Campbell. Through our meeting with him on the 28^th November, 2013, he was able to elaborate on the Spatial Plan of 1967, the Federal Government and theNCDC’s role in Canberra’s planning and the neighbourhood units which are evident around Canberra today.  Alex Adkins did his research on the modernist movement and their influences in Canberra, Pat Williams pursued the earlier forms of planning which led to the coming of the modernist and American influences. Joseph Sutton explained America’s strong influence on Canberra during the many years of planning while Boutros assessed Canberra from within including the design competition and the Y plan of 1967.

 

 

 

References

ACT Government, 2013. Territory Plan. [Online]
Available at: http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/ni/2008-27/current/default.asp
[Accessed 27 November 2013].

An Ideal City - The 1912 Competition to Design Canberra. 2013. An Ideal City - The 1912 Competition to Design Canberra. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.idealcity.org.au/. [Accessed 27 November 2013].

Benevolo, L., 2013. Origins of Modern Town Planning. [Online]
Available at: http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/origins-modern-town-planning
[Accessed 27 November 2013].

Capital City Conundrum: An Exploration of Canberra as the Nation’s Capital, 2012, accessed from http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/2011-2012/Canberra (Accessed 26-11-13)

Freestone, R., 1986. Canberra as a Garden City 1901-1930. s.l.:s.n.

Freestone, 2004, The Americanisation of Australian Planning, accessed from http://learnonline.canberra.edu.au/pluginfile.php/786893/mod_resource/content/1/Freestone%2C%202004%2C%20The%20Americanisation%20of%20Australian%20Planning.pdf (Accessed 26-11-13)

Gordon, D. L., 2006. Planning Twentieth Century Capital Cities. Middlesex: Routledge. History, 2013. Home Insurance Building. [Online]
Available at: http://www.history.com/topics/home-insurance-building
[Accessed 27 November 2013].

Griffins, D, 2008. The Writing of Walter Burley Griffin. 1st ed. Melbourne: Cambridge Press.

Legates Stout, 1998, Modernism and Early Planning, accessed from http://learnonline.canberra.edu.au/pluginfile.php/786876/mod_resource/content/1/LeGates%20%20Stout%2C%201998%2C%20Modernism%20and%20Early%20Urban%20Planning.pdf (Accessed 26-11-13)

Overall, J, 1995. Canberra: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow. 1st ed. Canberra: Cambridge Press.

Reid, P., 2002. Canberra Following Griffin. 1st ed. Canberra(ACT): National Archives of Australia.

Urban Nation: Australia’s Planning Heritage, 2010, accessed from http://books.google.com.au/books?id=dUrqBbqbZfkC&pg=PA196&lpg=PA196&dq=neighbourhood+unit+canberra&source=bl&ots=PUShd6r-JV&sig=h-Ue5bAYPRH3mbxVa7uKFprrYXw[PH1] &hl=en&sa=X&ei=FymXUuivL82aiAf90oGgCA&ved=0CCoQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=neighbourhood%20unit%20canberra&f=false

Robert Freestone, p.196. (Accessed 28-11-13)

Walter Burley Griffin Society: Significance and Influence http://www.griffinsociety.org/Introducing_the_Griffins/significance.html#flw (Accessed 28-11-13

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Seminar 8: The Americanisation of Australian Planning

Australian planning has always been strongly influenced by other nation. In early colonisation it was a strong British influence in Australian urban and regional planning and this continued all the way up to the early 20^th century. By the 20^th century Britain had been over taken as world’s number one superpower and although still very influential on Australia globally the world was more influenced by Russia (USSR) and the USA. Russia was a communist nation for most of the 20^th century and didn’t really represent are democratic capitalist ideals so Australia in many ways looked to the USA as an example and this transferred to planning. The Americanisation of Australian planning started in the early 1900’s and continued till the First World War. After the First World War Australia were not happy with Americas stance not to get involved and Australia shifted back to the UK as did planning then the Second World War happened and Australia were defended by the USA. Our political focus shifted back to the US and as did Australian planning and this continued for the rest of the 20^th century and into the 21^st century.

America had an immediate impact on Australia’s planning it introduced The Aesthetic city, The city functional  which had a big influence in our post world war II war and community reconstruction. American planning also had a huge influence on our traffic studies and freeway design. Americanisation helped us taper current planning theories to suit our society like the new Australian urbanisms. This also led for questions to be asked when planning cities such as whether functionality or beauty is more important for the cities design. Looking at Americanisation of local planning we don’t really have to go far Canberra was designed by American architects Walter Burleigh Griffin and Marion Burleigh Griffin and Canberra itself has some very American planning styles with a lot of modernist planning and many similarities with Washington DC and the aesthetic city feel.

Seminar 7: New directions in planning theory by Susan S. Fainstein

In the paper ‘New Directions in Planning Theory’ written by Susan S Fainstein outlines the three major new directions of Urban and Regional planning these three new directions in planning theory are the communicative model, the new urbanism and the just city.

The Communicative Model

The communicative model is just that its communication, it’s the pragmatic model, knowledge is derived from experience; it involves rational communication and provides information to all participants so no one groups dominates and everyone can have a say and get a wide range of views out on the table and hopefully you end up with the best result for the community, social structures and economics for the area. This theory does have flaws though, it does not take in to account powerful groups being involved in the process, it doesn’t believe that bureaucratic model may produce a desirable result and this theory takes a long time to receive tangible results.

The New Urbanism

The new urbanism isn’t really a new planning theory      its old planning theory new urbanism is going back to the pre post world war era when sprawl began and cars and fuel were cheap, cities were polluted and rich people moved to the fringes to get a higher standard of living. Now we see issues with sprawl and that sort of planning it’s much better when a facilities, amenities, recreation, community, home and employment are within walking distances it cuts down pollution and congestion and increases the quality of community and economy and this essentially is ‘New Urbanism’ . New urbanism isn’t necessarily good if proper consultation with the community doesn’t take place people feel not involved and marginalised and as a result the crime rate may rise and they environment will worsen.

The Just City

The author of this paper Susan S Fainstein is a real advocate for just cities so this creates a bias in the writing of the paper but ‘the Just City’ is just that a just city. The just city is an ideology is a city of a utopia, it is heavily politicised and a radical plan. It’s essentially planners trying to create their image of a perfect city which on the face looks good but has many problems in practice. The positives of this city are it is a utopia, it has perfect equity of all people in the city, everyone has the same rights and participation is encouraged. The flaws in this planning theory is that an ideal city is subjective everyone has a different view so it’s hard to design and it has a definite focus on the upper and middle classes and does not affect the people its most important to the lower class.

Seminar 6: Anglo-American town planning theory since 1945: three significant developments but no paradigm shifts

The reading this week of Anglo-American town planning theory since 1945: three significant developments but no paradigm shifts was written by Nigel Taylor. Nigel Taylor focuses on three aspects of the shift in planning theory since 1945 and this is the main feature of the reading.  The first of these was the shift in the 1960s from the view of town planning as an exercise in physical planning and urban design to the systems and rational process views of planning. The second, the shift from the view of town planning as an activity requiring some technique enterprise to the view of planning as a political process of making value-judgements about environmental change in which the planner acts as a manager and facilitator of that process; and the third, the shift from 'modernist' to 'postmodernist' planning theory. Modernist and postmodernist planning has been the planning theory really followed over the past 15 years.

National Museum of Australia - Modernist Design

Kingston Foreshore Development - Modernist Planning

The reading also focuses on paradigm shifts. A paradigm shift is defined as a fundamental change in the underlying approaches and assumptions and that is really what the reading is looking at its looking at the paradigm shifts in planning theory since 1945. These shifts are things like architects not being used as planners because design isn’t the most important aspect, planners have to be able to understand the social and science aspects, what implications are for the community, economy and environment not just the design. The conclusion this reading draws is really that planning is constantly subjected to paradigm shifts and it’s not an exact science or 1 type of planning which is accepted as the best. Planning is constantly changing and decisions need to always be made as to where we want planning to head, what direction planning will head in whether it will focus on environmental stewardship, economic development or community structures. I think regardless of which way planning heads there will be a much increased emphasis on sustainability

Seminar 5: The Communicative Turn in Planning Theory and its Implications for Spatial Strategy Formation: By P Healey

In this paper Patsy Healy outlines the shift that planning has experienced throughout its history. Urban and Regional planning initially wasn't really planning at all, it was more just design architects trying out there plans to build urban areas not really taking into account the community or practicality of that. Then planning moved on to understanding you need to plan urban and regional areas for them to work efficiently, so planners would draw maps and implement them with the best of intentions but these maps, designs and plans were doomed to fail for one key reasons, if you don’t communicate with the community either the plan won’t work in that community or an amazing plan for that community was designed and it is really what the community needs but they will reject it because they feel like they haven’t been consulted and their concerns have been skipped over .

Newport

Patsy Healy recognised this, and took not of a shift in planning theory from just plan, design implementation to consult, plan, consult, design, consult, implement, and receive feedback and criticisms. This shift in planning theory was huge for many reasons one your plans were/are effective in that community, two it increased the time and planning spent on design, increased the planning processed involved in urban and regional planning and flow onto to an evolution in how to consult with an increase in the quality of technology. Within the seminar the example given showing how community consultation has evolved in planning theory and spatial strategy was the Newport local development plan.  The Newport local development plan used advanced planning techniques to improve the towns community, economy and environment they began this with a comprehensive consultation and background research they then developed land use plans and land requirements for spatial strategy, looked at employment and education to improve the local economy, consulted through many different and open forums such as the internet, town hall, phone, community facilities, libraries and around the town more generally. The addressed and resolved issues consulted again and then finalised the report document and submitted it for critique. This resulted in a workable plan for the community and improved the economy, environment and community.

Seminar 4 - Contested Cities: Social Process and Spatial form

This seminar was based around David Harvey’s work on social process and spatial forms. David Harvey touches on big issues for planning and constructing cities and also developing current urban areas and making them work. Community vs. functionality is a big issue and it’s hard to say which one is better, what good is a great community which can’t function? And what good is a well functioning urban area without community? One could argue you can’t have a good community that can’t function and you can’t have a functioning urban area without community, it doesn’t work like that, there has to be a balance.

D Harvey touches the fact that the urban landscape of the city creates fundamental social inequalities. A class and income effect which means some people will thrive earning a lot of money and living in affluent areas, well others dwindle living in poor and dessalent areas. You can’t have the one extreme without the other and this creates great urban expanses such as expensive aesthetic buildings and areas as well as urban downfall secluded societies in the form of slums. This seems to be unavoidable in today’s society and with vastly increasing populations in major urban areas it only seems to be getting more extreme.

Solving this problem is where the community vs. functionality comes into things. If you redevelop a slum you have to deliver a dense urban development to house the residents of the slum in and the maintenance of that new urban area will only happen if the residence are happy and want the new development, many are not. The slums may be dirty and not nice to look at but they have a strong sense of community as shown in the documentary slumming it so to just redevelop it you have to consider how the community would continue to work and make the urban landscape look nicer. Not just develop non- functioning vertical slums.

Seminar 3 - A ladder of Citizens participation

Citizen participation – isn't probably thought about when thinking of planning very much. But none the less is such a significant part of planning and making sure Plans are good and work well. Sherry Arnstein developed a ladder of different levels of community consultation the ladder begins with a section called non participation which involves Manipulation and therapy – these are consultation areas are really basic you tell the community the good things that you think they’ll like and then keep the negatives secret till the plan is implemented.

The second section of the ladder is tokenism which consists of Informing, consultation and placation – in this section you tell the community what you intend to do and you may even hear feedback from them and possibly take that on board but basically you have an idea and vision and that’s what’s going to happen regardless of what is said you just hold it as a token so the community feels like its involved. The final section of the ladder and the most important, the section which will result in the best outcome for all stakeholders and society in most cases is citizen power this includes partnership, delegated power and citizens control – in this section you allow the community to engage in the plans and add their ideas and criticisms so you end up with a plan that works in the community. A good example of poor community consultation that was given in the seminar was the highway across the south Bronx, joining the more affluent areas of New York with Manhattan with no consideration of the poor people in-between no consultation was given to the impoverished people affected by this plan and as a result many people were displaced and made homeless while others received a distinctly lower standard of living due to a lack of involvement and consultation.

While a good example of good citizens participation was given in the presentation through the Murfreesboro citizens participation plan which is government going out of its way to get feedback on its plans and policies from all members of society whether disabled, abled, any race, old, young and in-between all members of society. Consultation is so important in planning as you may be an expert in planning but if the plan doesn't fit in with citizens and the community it is useless and won’t work but plans with good community consultation create great initiatives and a better society. 

ACT Plan - Future Plans for canberra

ACT PLAN: Canberra's to the lake combining Canberra's city centre to the lake and making city hill a well used central park and commerce area. This plan will include prime land realises for businesses along the lake at West Basin and also around London circuit. This plan will connect the west basin to the city buy bridging over parks way as can be seen in the pictures which I think is a great idea.

This development is hoped to make the lake and city more lively bringing alfresco dining and restaurants to the lake. This development also includes turning the civic swimming centre into a new ports stadium with around 30,000 seats and a roof allowing the venue to have more of a multipurpose due to it also being able to be used for concerts and other things. Also in Canberra the roof will be a handy asset to getting people to attend events especially in winter. This development will also included a revamped constitution avenue making it a real hub fro Canberra with a lot more shops, business, government buildings cafes and restaurants along it.

The problems I personally have with this plan is a loss of parking most central car parks are being replaced with buildings and although the businesses will be required to supply parking the parking will be at a much lower level then is currently supplied which with extra buildings and a stadium will not work. A solution to this could be public transport but buses just aren't suffice you need a proper heavy metro rail to get people to use public transport which I have outlined in this article - http://www.alexaplanningblog.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/metro-rail-network-for-canberra.html - 

Another problem I have with this plan is safety if you are going to start using city hill as a major park and place of commerce you need proper underpasses below the road to avoid accidents.

What do you think? Let me know comment!

Seminar 2 - Modernism and Early Urban Planning

Modernism and early Urban Planning (1870-1940)

Modernism began around the 1890’s when people started moving from regional areas to urban cities mainly for work and to be closer to ports and markets. Urbanisation didn't really begin in Australia until the 1910’s when there was a shift away from the bush to urban metropolises. This lead to the industrial revolution and modernist planning really took of being able to build much larger buildings then before (birth of the skyscraper). This shift saw cities populations boom between the 1860’s and 1910’s New York's population went from 479,000 to 5 million, Philadelphia’s population triples to 1.5 million and Chicago expanded from a modest 112,000 to 2.1 million. This influx of people quickly led to problems not only physical but psychological and mental as well. The physical problems cities encountered with this influx of people where transport, congestion, space, environmental decay and serious physical health issues from a lot of pollution and poor sanitation, psychological and mental issues related to peoples life styles due to being stuck in traffic people could spend less time at home with family, loss of green space meant it was harder for peoples recreation (sports), socialising and just the general beauty of these areas.

Chicago

New York

A solution to these problems of urbanisation and modernism came about through Ebenezer Howard in the early 1900’s who had a vision of spreading cities out and having gardens and green spaces for aesthetic, recreation and environmental reasons. This garden city vision began with Letchworth in the UK the first garden city. What garden cities provide is an all round higher stand of living and a much healthier life style, garden cities balanced urbanisation with green spaces and solved modernisms problems. People in garden cities are more spread out with better transport to solve congestion and pollution issues and the parks and open areas create a lot of areas for recreation and socialization. Quickly the garden city movement swept across Europe and then across the world.

Letchworth Garden City

Canberra

Planning issues that came about after this swing from modernism to garden cities where modelling issues cities where being designed with 2D modelling programs on planners computers and without public consultation which lead to expensive mistakes. Streets were built without taking into account the topography and where to steep plus layouts didn’t mesh with peoples lifestyles in these garden cities this lead to infrastructure building becoming a lot more expensive and peoples lifestyles not fitting into these cities. This was until 3D modelling came about which was a huge technological leap forward in planning now plans could be drawn up using these programs taking into account topography and you could get a good idea if the plans would work and could show your plans to all interested parties/stakeholders and consult with them to improve the plans and get the best outcome for all involved.

3D Modelling