24 Plans Revealed For Australia’s Urban Survival

A shortlist of 24 proposals addressing the most crucial issue facing mankind – how to manage our burgeoning cities – and that dare to imagine Australia’s urban spaces in 2050 and beyond has been announced today (Friday 18 December).

The proposals were selected from 129 submissions entered into the national Ideas for Australia’s cities 2050+ competition, run by the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale Creative Directors, John Gollings and Ivan Rijavec, to source material for next year’s exhibition in the Australian Pavilion in Venice.

The team’s two-part ‘NOW + WHEN Australian Urbanism’ exhibition will highlight three of Australia’s most interesting urban regions as they are ‘NOW’, before dramatically representing around seven futuristic urban environments from the competition as they may be ‘WHEN’ we reach 2050 and beyond.

The competition fired the imagination of Australia’s architects and designers, resulting in inspired, possible solutions and imaginative proposals addressing the critical issue of Australian urbanism – examining possibilities across the terrestrial, underwater and airborne realms.

Shortlisted ideas range from proposals for:

· New cities housing between 50,000-100,000 people in current desert areas to address our expected population growth;

· Cities in which urban development is concentrated in ‘peripheral’ areas, such as large landholdings on university campuses, ‘big box’ shopping centres, business parks, industrial estates, recreational reserves, and market gardens to establish a series of interlinked, self-sustaining districts dispersed along a transport ring.

· Cities which feature a ‘tartan-like texture of pure urban areas (or cells), pure rural cells, and cells which are a hybrid of rural and urban’, providing a ‘vital flexibility for a sustainable future’.

· Cities designed for ‘urban life without fear’, based on the belief that ‘any design for a good, sustainable city for the 21st century will demand a theory of hope and the desirable’.

· Cities in which ‘within tightly controlled boundaries exist Multiple Cities’. Cities which address issues such as: what if a city grows not out, but up or down? What if a city’s growth boundary is not on its periphery but at its heart? What if new planning initiatives were introduced governing the use of air space? ‘A Green City, where the top plane provides wind and solar energy to power (and cool) the multiple cities below’, as well as all food production.

· Cities ‘woven into the landscape’ – balancing dense human settlement with flora and fauna biodiversity, with major roadways converted into natural landscape corridors.

· Cities hugging the coast from Noosa to Geelong to accommodate population growth and the preferred coastal climate; connected by a ‘very fast train running from North Qld to Victoria; pockets of vertical sprawl; new cities in pristine locations such as Botany Bay and the Royal National Park. …/more

Co-Creative Director and well-known Melbourne-based photographer John Gollings said: “The large number of entries and range of approach and philosophy exceeded expectations. We felt that more than 50 per cent of the entries could have made an important contribution to the Venice Architecture Biennale, and narrowing the selection down to 24 was difficult.

“Of great interest now, is that these varied ideas must be turned into tangible 3D models which can be screened as virtual, built projects for exhibition in the Australian Pavilion in Venice. This process will challenge the normal speculative imaging often produced by architects, and lead to new presentation techniques benefiting the whole profession as the world embraces 3D, virtual, and holographic media. From the test results with our 3D projectors, now running in Melbourne, the Australian pavilion at the 2010 Venice Biennale will be a standout attraction.”

The Creative Directors said those shortlisted were far more than hypotheticals. Each uniquely responded to future challenges including population growth, environmental degradation, dwindling resources and climate change. Each entry reflected a highly creative diversity of possibilities fused with a diversity of design that mapped out possible cities of the future.

Co-director Ivan Rijavec, Principal of innovative Australian architectural practice Rijavec Architects, said: “NOW+WHEN Australian Urbanism has spotlighted our most pressing national concern – how we best manage our cities and their future growth.”

“We currently have 93 per cent of Australians living in urban environments being affected every living minute by the way in which our cities function. Our management of these centres is fundamental to arresting global warming, and it wouldn’t be too an extravagant a claim to say there’s nothing more important in the contemporary Australian debate.

“The number of responses received for this competition confirms that in Australia and internationally, urbanism – more than at any other period in history – has become fundamental to our prosperity and critical to our survival.

“Venice itself has shown how a city might blossom in a global context, but also how the vicissitudes of a changing world can turn it into a caricature of itself – some 60,000 people live there, while more than 20million visit it annually. It floods 50 times a year and, saving protective measures, by 2030 it will be under water.”

12th Venice Architecture Biennale – Confirmed Dates:
Vernissage: 26, 27, 28 August 2010;

Exhibition: 29 August – 28 November 2010

This update for the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale is proudly sponsored by Zip Industries.

The Australian Exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale is a major project of the Australian Institute of Architects. The Institute would like to thank sponsors Austral Bricks, Virgin Atlantic Airways, Zip Industries, Autodesk and Architecture Media. The Institute also recognises the significant contribution of Network Venice practices and donors, and gratefully acknowledges the help and support given by the Australia Council for the Arts, including the use of the Pavilion for this exhibition.

For information, full submissions, and images of ‘NOW + WHEN Australian Urbanism’, contact:

Australian Institute of Architects | Media Contacts

Trish Croaker, National Media/PR Advisor

The Australian Institute of Architects is the peak body for the architectural profession, representing more than 9800 members across Australia and overseas. The Institute actively works to improve the quality of our built environment by promoting quality, responsible and sustainable design. Visit the Institute for more information – architecture.com.au .

Venice Architecture Biennale 2010 – shortlist of submissions: WHEN Ideas for Australia’s Cities 2050+ competition

REF#
SUBMISSION TITLE
ORGANISATION
CONTACT
STATE

6
Sydney 2050: Fraying Ground
Terroir
Gerard Reinmuth
NSW

15
Networks Eco-polis
Whitford and Brearley
Steven Whitford
VIC

23
Urban Life Without Fear
Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning, University of Melbourne
Justyna Karakiewicz
VIC

30
A Future Australian City
EDMOND & CORRIGAN
Maggie Edmond
VIC

31
Mould City
Colony Architects
Peter Raisbeck
VIC

33
Sedimentary City
University of Queensland
Brit Andresen
QLD

34
Not All Arrows Hit the Target
NH Architecture
Francesca Black
VIC

49
Multiple Cities
John Wardle Architects
John Wardle
VIC

52
biomimetic city
Arup Sydney
Alanna Howe, Alexander Hespe
NSW

fmd architects
Fiona Dunin, Alex Peck, Martina Johnson
VIC