Environmental Design and Public Health in Victoria

Yesterday the Parliamentary Inquiry into Environmental Design and Public Health in Victoria, tabled their report in the Legislative Council.  To view the report click here.

"This report explores the compelling evidence linking ...public health challenges to the planning and design of our urban environments. We know that there are a range of health benefits from designing environments that encourage physical activity through walking, cycling and using public transport. We know that open space and green areas not only provide opportunities for physical activity but also benefit mental health. We are also increasingly aware that the style of sprawling low density, car‐oriented residential development that characterised Victorian urban fringe areas in the past can be a barrier to people making healthy lifestyle choices.

This report emphasises the importance of considering health in the design of our communities, such as: creating environments that promote physical exercise and social interaction; providing access to healthy, fresh food; facilitating access to green and other open public spaces; and ensuring inclusivity and accessibility in the built environment.  Such health‐promoting elements can be purposely designed into the built environment, or, as is too often the case, designed out."

Urban Renewal and Social Housing Seminar

Urban Renewal and Social Housing Seminar

This seminar will see a panel of expert speakers examine three major contemporary developments in Melbourne, to highlight the issues and opportunities surrounding urban renewal and social housing.

Marius will talk about how the multi-year Carlton Redevelopment, which integrates affordable housing via a major urban renewal project, delivering 1100 private, social and retirement housing units via a development plan framework. The project has been a catalyst for related initiatives in sustainability, community engagement, infrastructure and services.

Matthew will examine the Port Phillip Housing Association’s approach - its key objectives as well as the benefits and challenges associated with partnering with the private sector. There will also be discussion around the built form, such as the issues of type and quality in private versus community housing, and the social aspects of housing - community consultation, place management and potential outcomes.

Dom will talk about The Nicholson in East Coburg, a highly innovative, place-managed, mixed-tenure, mixed-use apartment complex constructed using Unitised Building’s factory-based modular construction methodology. Dom will also discuss how it could serve as a commercially replicable model for the integration of social and affordable rental housing into inner-city private sector developments.

FACILITATOR: Steve Dunn - Director, Structure Planning, Growth Areas Authority

PRESENTERS:

Marius Vogl - CPP and registered architect in the Department of Human Services

Matthew Reszka - Director of Reshape Development

Dominic Arcaro - Chief Development Officer at Places Victoria

Please register online or fill out the flier and return to Eula ateblack@planning.org.au or via fax on 03 9347 2900. If you have any inquiries please contact Mateusz at mbuczko@planning.org.au.

http://www.planning.org.au/events/event/housing-seminar

Our Dwindling Food Variety

The infographic linked below shows how many varieties of fruits and vegetables people used to be able to buy. Now this shows American data, and no doubt there were many regional variations and also many cases of the same vegetable having different names in different places, but even so, the idea that we could go from 544 varieties of cabbage to 28 is startling.
National Geographic Magazine - NGM.com

There's no reason to believe that Australia is any better than America in this regard. I think it's a big issue for planning, albeit tangentially. Unusual varieties of food plants thrive in conditions where lots of people are growing their own food and saving and sharing their own seeds. This encourages regional genetic diversity amongst plants, as people with varying climactic conditions will only save the seeds that perform best in their environment.

To me this suggests that planning and urban design policies which discourage home gardens work against food security by reducing the conditions which encourage genetic diversity in food plant species. I refer to policies which restrict garden size, estates that are 'designed' so that all front gardens must look similar and which reduce social interaction. Vegetable gardening often flourishes in conditions where people can share their oversupply of produce and also share their seeds. It promotes social interaction.

I would like to see planning and urban design policies which encourage the humble vegie garden more. Maybe the big developers could plant espaliered fruit trees along driveways as part of the landscaping package in new estates. Even better, perhaps they could set aside land for community gardens: there could even be a trade-off of smaller lot sizes for dwellings but mandatory access to a plot in the community garden - similar to the allotment policies previously practiced in Great Britain. Councils should not ban people from planting out their nature strip with food plants if they want to.

I would also like to see garden design fashions encourage productive gardening. I'm seriously considering ripping up my front lawn and setting out a vegetable garden instead. Why should a front garden have to consist of a lawn and garden beds? Yes I might lose a few carrots every now and again but the way I see it, if someone is desperate enough to steal vegies, well I don't mind making the donation.

Creative Public Art

 How great are these? Shepparton has hit on a creative and relatively inexpensive way to create public art through the town. It becomes both a community engagement activity as well as a tourist attraction.

The cows link back to the region's dairy heritage. Some of these were done by professional artists, some were done by locals. There's a strong sense of whimsy.

This is just a small sample of the many cows around the town. They aren't all the same template - some of them have clearly been created individually from the frame out.

 I also love that they have someone who moves the cows around on a regular basis. This would hopefully mean that the display never gets 'tired', and that even the locals discover new elements to the installation all the time.

This seems like a great public art model to me.

Rockhampton in QLD has a similar display of fibreglass cattle, however there aren't as many, they aren't as gloriously painted, and they are very definitely bulls, not cows.

Victorian Government Reveals Wind Farm Bans

Victorian Government Reveals Wind Farm Bans:

'via Blog this'

The Victorian Government "will amend planning laws to give households power to veto wind turbines within two kilometres of their homes. Turbines will also be banned in the Macedon and McHarg ranges, in the Yarra Valley, on the Mornington and Bellarine peninsulas, and within five kilometres of the Great Ocean Road and the Bass Coast."

I am going to be interested to see the consequences of this decision for planning as a whole. The Minister seems to be saying that preservation of the landscape needs to take precedence over other planning considerations. Yet many forms of development can change views and alter people's perceptions of their environment. So the question is, does landscape impact now need to be given greater weight in the assessment process? Will it mean that anyone proposing a development has to mitigate their impact on the landscape as much as possible?

This is a big issue for planning major infrastructure such as roads and power, as they are highly visible and impossible to disguise.

It is also an issue in terms of what factors are given greater weight in planning decisions - facilities which benefit the whole community, such as power generation, or the views of a small number of individuals. Previously it has always been assumed that everyone in society has to accommodate some elements of development that they may not like, because they serve the greater good. It's almost impossible to escape something undesirable in the modern landscape, whether it's a road, a drain, a power line, a factory or whatever. But they are part and parcel of living in an industrialised society. In other words, you've got to accept the bad along with the good if you want to receive the benefits of modern technology. So why should the impact of wind energy turbines be considered any differently to the impact of any other form of infrastructure?

I wonder if it is because there is an attitude than new energy generation isn't needed, because of the power stations in the Latrobe Valley? And seriously, has any wind turbine opponent ever gone and had a look at their landscape impact?! Why is it wind energy that is so divisive?

It will be interesting to see if large scale solar power generation or geothermal power generation plants generate the same opposition as wind energy.

The spread of Diabetes since 2004 - Slate Labs

The spread of Diabetes since 2004 - Slate Labs

This is a fascinating look at the spread of disease. I have another map somewhere which shows access to healthy food options, and there's a direct correlation. I'll hunt it out and post it.

The map is interesting because it shows that 'lifestyle' diseases are geographically based. The next step of course is working out what it is about those areas that makes them unhealthy .. urban form? Access to fresh food? Transport infrastructure? Culture?

It would be very interesting to do a similar mapping exercise in Australia and work out if we also have geographic clusters of disease.

Urban Demographics: Parking Rates Worldwide

Urban Demographics: Parking Rates Worldwide

I always knew parking rates were a rip-off in Melbourne!