Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications
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ItemSustainable urban systems: Co-design and framing for transformation(SPRINGER, 2018-02)Rapid urbanisation generates risks and opportunities for sustainable development. Urban policy and decision makers are challenged by the complexity of cities as social-ecological-technical systems. Consequently there is an increasing need for collaborative knowledge development that supports a whole-of-system view, and transformational change at multiple scales. Such holistic urban approaches are rare in practice. A co-design process involving researchers, practitioners and other stakeholders, has progressed such an approach in the Australian context, aiming to also contribute to international knowledge development and sharing. This process has generated three outputs: (1) a shared framework to support more systematic knowledge development and use, (2) identification of barriers that create a gap between stated urban goals and actual practice, and (3) identification of strategic focal areas to address this gap. Developing integrated strategies at broader urban scales is seen as the most pressing need. The knowledge framework adopts a systems perspective that incorporates the many urban trade-offs and synergies revealed by a systems view. Broader implications are drawn for policy and decision makers, for researchers and for a shared forward agenda.
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ItemFuture Finance and Business: Potential for Disruptive Contributions to Urban Decarbonisation and Resilience(Victorian Eco Innovation Lab (VEIL), 2015)
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ItemVisions 2040 - Results from the first year of Visions and Pathways 2040(Victorian Eco Innovation Lab (VEIL), 2015)
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ItemLeeuwarden European Cultural Capital Eco-Acupuncture: Catalysing Urban Transformations(VEIL, 2015)We are almost halfway through the period that has been described as ‘the critical decade’ (Hughes and Steffen, 2013), being the time in which our decisions and actions on climate change will determine whether we succeed globally to limit temperature rise to less than 2 degrees. It is increasingly recognised that the main focus for global action in this decade will be cities. More than half the world’s population now reside in cities and their contribution to global greenhouse gas production is estimated at 75%, even though they occupy only around 2% of the global land area. Nearly half of the world’s cities are already experiencing the effects of changing climate (UNEP 2011). The implication is clear – over the coming decade cities will be engaged in a significant and rapid process of transformation, of existing urban infrastructure and established pattern of living, as they de-carbonise their economies and to adapt to climatic changes that are already becoming evident. In this period of climate transformation, it is the very essence of what makes cities so socially and culturally successful –their complexity – that presents the greatest challenge and, importantly, offers the greatest hope for success. Cities are a human invention; as they grow, their infrastructure, their physical form, their cultural characteristics become intertwined systems – complex and embedded, forming together the very essence of a particular city – making rapid transformation very difficult. These tightly interlinked systems support urban life, giving each city its particular cultural and economic identity (or in more current parlance, its liveability). The ‘de-carbonisation’ of the city involves, for example, a process of ‘dis-embedding’ of all its fossil fuel energy dependencies – reducing total energy consumption and switching to noncarbonaceous energy sources. That will require changes to many physical elements of the city (most obviously buildings and transport). Also, the infrastructure and form of any city reflects the climate conditions of its location. New climate patterns and extremes weather events can threaten the resilience of established infrastructure. Climate responses – mitigation and adaptation – means transforming the infrastructures of provision of cities (e.g. energy, water, food, transport, shelter, waste, products and services and information). One characteristic of the development of the infrastructures of provision for most cities is an increasing separation of consumption from production; most of the resources on which city life depends are produced well beyond the city boundaries, isolating them from the lived experience of urban citizens. Sometimes the very idea of the city is that it is a ‘refuge from nature’, obscuring the real bio-physical dependence of the city on natural eco-systems (as well as the social processes that turn those ecosystems into goods and services). In the last decades, interest in cities as a focus for action on climate change has derived more from a recognition of their apparent agency –the expression of interest, willingness and ability to make changes. The process that resulted in the application and selection of Leeuwarden as an EU Cultural Capital is an example of a wider phenomenon – the increasing evidence of the social, cultural and political interests of cities as actors in national and even international affairs. Cities (and networks of cities) are active in adopting greenhouse reduction targets and investing in programs to reach them. The contribution of cities to national economies in many nations is disproportionally significant and that reflects their success in providing the conditions that support creativity and innovation.
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ItemEBD: Ecological Business District(VEIL, 2010)New mixed-use developments present a unique opportunity for an innovative response to the challenge of climate change. We can now build new communities that demonstrate ways of living within the limits for greenhouse gas production proposed for 2050. Such communities can model desirable low-carbon lifestyles – ways of living better while consuming less – and test innovative products and services that could form the basis of our coming low-carbon economy. The EBD [Ecological Business District] is a design vision from the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab (VEIL). VEIL was established in 2006, funded through the Victorian Government Sustainability Fund. A collaboration of four leading design universities and a network of design professionals, VEIL forms an ‘open laboratory’ for new ideas for technical and social innovation for a ‘lowcarbon’ economy and a resilient infrastructure. VEIL delivers future concepts and prototypes for goods, services, built infrastructure, systems and lifestyles, for a sustainable Melbourne in 25 years time. This six-month EBD project, for the site known as ‘E-Gate’ (between Docklands and North Melbourne), culminated in a substantial exhibition of work in the Docklands in February 2009. That vision, for a new high-density ‘eco-city’ next to the CBD, can claim considerable influence on the direction in which development of that site is now taking. In the words of Minister Tim Pallas (Roads, Ports and Major Projects) at the opening of the EBD exhibition: “…What could be done with this new land? This is where projects such as Eco City have great value. All good strategic planning begins with a discussion and I, for one, believe that this dialogue is always improved by the number of intelligent voices involved. In this case we have a brains trust of students and academics from four leading universities, as well as local and international experts generating some very exciting ideas…[VEIL’s] ideas will have a real influence on the site’s future.” This booklet lays out the vision for this innovative and experimental ‘city within a city’, with design work across a range of scales from the urban to the domestic that are able to support a diverse, low consumption, highly productive and truly sustainable community.
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ItemTowards a New Manifesto for Sustainable Design(Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Rmit, 2006)The editors note that the aim of this book was to produce a series of critical papers from academics and designers on the issue of sustainability and its meaning for designers.