planning

Is density a dirty word?

| olivialealwalker
This is the future we’re heading towards unless we change the way we deliver housing. Let’s not make the same mistake as America.
Image credit: Yann Arthus-Bertrand

My grandparents moved to Sydney’s North West because they wanted to farm and the particular rural lifestyle that goes with it. Over the last few years, there has been a massive shift in the area, with 5 acre lots turned into 300 m2 blocks. People still have a dream to live in a massive house with a backyard, but this dream has become unaffordable for many, and so they are creating demand in the suburbs of Western Sydney.

What this has essentially created is a suburban desert. Rather than a more affordable home, some sprawling, unconsidered developments are locking people into a less affordable lifestyle. There are no jobs nearby, so families need two cars to complete the hour long journey to work. There are no parks or shops to walk to, but even if you could, there is no protection from the sun on your walk, meaning people are feeling less healthy and more isolated. The homogeny of these developments means that people won’t be able to grow old in the same community they lived in, as there are no options to downsize.

The future that I’d like to see – density done well

Development that considers the local context, provides a diversity of offerings, is of a high quality, and with increased access to quality parks can be the future.

We know our population is growing, and we will need to build more homes. But rather than sprawling, disconnected spaces, imagine a future of medium density, quality communities where you can walk to most of the things you need. This model allows you to:

  • Have the space you need to kick a ball or walk the dog
  • Have a diversity of building types and sizes within a smaller area, meaning you can grow old surrounded by the same community
  • Walk to the shops or Saturday soccer, rather than having to jump in the car, and doing so on cooler, tree-lined streets
  • Going up, rather than out allows for better public transport services
  • With the right type of mixed use, work within your local community

There is certainly a place for suburbs, and I’ve seen them done really well. This is my vision for the future, because it means we can live in connected, healthy communities and not be disadvantaged when it comes to getting to work and education. Density doesn’t necessarily mean high-rise apartments, although every building typology has a place somewhere, but may be terraced houses as an example, each within walking distance to the amenities they need.

Let’s just do it

I know what it’s like to live in an area that isn’t connected and the impact that can have on everyday life. I also know what good development looks like, and how it can enable people to lead healthier, happier, more connected lives. Connection is both literally through digital and transport infrastructure and employment opportunities, as well as a feeling of being part of a community, which is incredibly important for mental health.

Those who say density is a dirty word are those who have had the privilege of living on a large block close to the city. When density is done well, it can build communities, enable people close access to work and all the recreation they desire. It also creates more space for parks, nature and to grow our food locally. Stop saying density is a dirty word and start thinking about smarter ways to deliver good outcomes for the residents who will inevitably live there.

Did the government just waste billions of dollars?

| olivialealwalker
Will Sydney’s new road infrastructure be redundant?
Image credit: The Daily Telegraph

In Norway, electric vehicles outsold petrol and diesel cars combined this year. In Australia, the government spent billions of dollars building new roads for existing vehicles. We’re spending big money locking in our current infrastructure system, but the world is moving on rapidly. What happens when electric vehicles (EV) and autonomous vehicles (AV) come in the next 5-10 years? Will our new roads be made redundant?

Data’s not actually your solution

At a building level, data is collected almost constantly, whether from heat sensors to improve the building’s efficiency to who enters the doors and how much water they consume. Sentiment in the industry is that we need to collect more data, but there’s a difference between smart buildings and smart people. You can collect as much data as you like, but it is only a solution when something is done with it.

Crown Casinos are an example of using tech well (the irony is not lost). By using a data analytics system to solve issues in the building, they’ve saved a massive 2.6 Gigawatt hours of electricity (equivalent to powering 2,200 homes) (and a lot of money).

What do bitcoin and buildings have in common?

Blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin, has the potential to transform the industry, and it’s starting to show legs. Power Ledger has made peer-to-peer electricity sales possible using this technology. I can by excess solar from my neighbour when I need it, and they can do the same from me, all managed automatically online, and potentially without the need for the traditional electricity grid.

Power Ledger is using blockchain technology to sell power between neighbours and could be the future of electricity.
Image credit: Power Ledger

What does this mean for you?

Technology is changing rapidly, and it is important to be prepared for what is coming next. How are you preparing for future technology changes, to ensure your work won’t become redundant? Publications like The Fifth Estate are a great way to keep up with what is happening in the industry.

White Roof Revolution

| olivialealwalker
Fairwater, Frasers Property Australia’s development in Blacktown, is the perfect example of my vision.
Photo credit: Frasers Property Australia

There is a phenomenon called the ‘Urban Heat Island Effect’, where built up areas are significantly hotter than rural areas. In part, it’s caused by replacing vegetation with heat absorbing materials like concrete buildings and tar.

Due to the topographical shape of Sydney, Western Sydney suffers quite severely from Urban Heat Island Effect. It can be up to 10oC hotter than the city during a heat wave, and this has significant impacts on the community. For example, you’re 3 times more likely to die from the heat in Western Sydney than you are closer to the coast. You’re electricity demand is also 100% greater during heat waves, which means higher electricity costs and greater risk of blackouts (Guide to Urban Cooling Strategies, 2017).

I love Western Sydney, and this is not the future that I want. So I’ve come up with a plan.

The White Roof Revolution

Do you know the feeling of jumping into a black car on a really hot day, and wishing it was white? The same thing happens with our buildings. Dark-coloured roofs can be up to 30oC hotter than lighter roofs as they absorb much more of the sun’s rays.

Light roofs reflect more of the sun’s rays and absorb less heat than dark roofs, and as a result, they can be 30C cooler on hot days.

This matters for three reasons: comfort, cost and community.

Comfort: Your home can be 4.7oC cooler with a white roof than a dark roof – and that’s a big difference during a heatwave. It’s the really extreme temperatures that kill vulnerable people like our elderly, so 4.7oC really matters.

Cost: That same temperature difference can also save up to 34% on your air conditioning cost. With electricity prices so high, that can mean a lot to marginalised people.

Community: Where every roof in your street is black, this heat load impacts your ability to safely walk along the streets during hot days, increasing isolation and obesity.

Can you imagine walking through this suburb on a hot day? Black roofs effect communities ability to connect and be healthy (Holsworthy, Western Sydney).
Photo credit: Andrew Merry

White roofs don’t just benefit homes – they’re a solution for every type of building. DHL Supply Chain has painted Sky Cool, a reflective white paint, on some of their existing warehouses, and reduced their energy bill by 25%, saving more than $40,000 a year.

The vision

I want to turn every roof in Western Sydney white.

A lot of quality research has been undertaken to date, such as by the CRC for Low Carbon Living and Western Sydney Region of Councils. There’s a disconnect between the work done by institutions and government and the decisions that are made on the ground by developers, builders and ‘mums and dads’ who are making the best decision they can with the information that they have.

The solution could look like policy recommendations, guerrilla roof painters (like this group in New York) or a commitment from companies to only install white roofs in exchange for a discount. My aim is to understand how roof-colour decisions are made by undertaking interviews, and develop solutions driven by the problem.

Join me!

If you have any ideas related to this or want to get involved, comment below. I’d also love to hear your ideas for making the world a little better!

Will your property be insurable?

| olivialealwalker
Flooding in the Hawkesbury – the risk remains and yet we seem to have forgotten.
Photo credit: NSW SES West Sydney

Has your project considered past and projected climate-related risks? Your insurer certainly has!

It’s been 152 years since the great flood in the Hawkesbury, which killed 20 people, including 12 members of the Eather family. The river rose 19 m above its normal level, which is the height of a 6 story building! My great-grandma used to share the stories that her grandmother told, of grand pianos floating down the Hawkesbury River in a flood. How quickly do we forget the disasters of the past in our planning?

Flood risk in the Hawkesbury

According to the Insurance Council of Australia, the Hawkesbury-Nepean valley has the highest flood risk in NSW. Despite this, homes are currently being constructed in low-lying areas on the floodplain.

While these risks have been reduced by Warragamba Dam, they certainly haven’t gone away. If the flood of 1867 occurred today, there’d be approximately $5 billion in damage. Discussion of raising the dam wall is at loggerheads – although it would reduce impacted properties in a 1 in 100-year flood event from 5,000 to 1,000, the upstream impacts to Aboriginal heritage sites and areas of high ecological value, are unacceptable.

Are insurers passing the buck?

Planning isn’t considering future risk. Sea level has already risen by 4.7 cm on the east coast of Australia, compared to the long-term average, and it’s going to continue to do so. If we keep going with business as usual, nearly 10% of Australian homes could be “uninsurable”.

“If you build a house now, by the end of its operational life that risk will have significantly more than doubled … So what used to be the one-in-200-year flood zone is the new one-in-100-year zone. These are the properties that will become uninsurable.”

Dr Karl Mallon, 2019

Where insurance is available, policies often require a return to the previous condition, which does nothing to alleviate the risk of damage caused by further floods.

What can we do as an industry?

The more properties that mitigate for climate risk, the less damages occur during extreme weather events, meaning insurance premiums come down for everybody. Adaptation strategies include not building in certain areas in the first place! They also include:

  • Installing white roofs to keep homes cool during heatwaves;
  • Establishing community development programs, so neighbours support each other;
  • Installing water tanks for use during periods of drought; and
  • Building the ground floor above minimum heights, to reduce flooding risk; and
  • Personally, develop an emergency plan. The Red Cross has great resources available.

Once again, our building standards don’t do enough to curb climate risks. Your project needs to go beyond code to ensure that it is insurable in the future.

References:
– NSW Government, 2018. Flooding in the Hawkesbury Nepean Valley. Viewed on 24.3.19 at
http://www.infrastructure.nsw.gov.au/media/1525/hnvflooding_factsheet_feb2018.pdf
– Dalberger, J. 2019. Warragamba Dam: Dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t. Viewed on 24.3.19 at https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/urbanism/environment/warragamba-dam-damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-dont/
– Ting, I., Liu, R., Scott, N., & Palmer, A. 2019. The runaway insurance effect. Viewed on 19.3.19 at
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-13/climate-data-reveals-australias-worst-affected-regions/10892710?pfmredir=sm
– The Red Cross. 2019. Get Prepared App. Viewed on 24.3.19 at
https://www.redcross.org.au/get-help/emergencies/preparing-for-emergencies/get-prepared-app

Are our cities balanced?

| olivialealwalker
This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is ‘Balance for Better’. We’re doing it in the workforce, but what about in our cities?
Photo credit: Michelle Hadchiti

Last Friday was International Women’s Day, and I was blown away by the bombardment of stories and lessons from inspirational women all over the world.

(Side note: why can’t every day be International Women’s Day? This year it resonated much more strongly for me, and I think it’s because I’m starting to see a real shift happening in the workplace, with our leaders, well, showing leadership, and meaningful initiatives being implemented, making balance seem achievable).

Warning: not suitable for use by XX chromosomes

It’s been reported recently that more women die in car accidents, because the safety features have been designed for men’s body proportions.

Similarly, our homes and public open space are also not as safe for women, with women aged 25 – 44 in Australia more likely to be killed or maimed by domestic violence than any other risk factor.

Safer spaces

The development industry has a role to play to ensure that places are safe for women. When designing to CPTED* principles, apply a female-focused filter. For example, when I walk through one park late at night, I feel really safe, because there are a row of apartments which overlook me. On other routes, I’m terrified, because it’s just closed shops, and so I make eye contact with every street camera so they can find me if needed.

If you have community development programs, consider how these can have an element of connecting women to the assistance they need to escape from a domestic violence situation.

Diverse development

It’s common knowledge that teams and projects work better with diverse thought (which may be gender, cultural background, age or even different thinking styles or skill sets). Yet, I often see project proposals where the ‘meet the team’ page is a collage of white middle-aged men. I see these and cringe because the chances of the proposal being considerate of diverse customer needs is unlikely.

You can help #BalanceforBetter by ensuring that there are an equal number of women in your architecture, landscape architecture and development teams, including the companies you choose to engage with. Ideas are generated based partially on our own lived experiences, and so women design best for other women.

My challenge for you today is to question:

  1. How are you involving women in the important, decision-making conversations?
  2. How are you ensuring that we create spaces that are safe and useable for women and children?

May everyday by International Women’s Day!

*CPTED is crime prevention through environmental design and considers how we design our outside areas e.g. fences, parks, line of sight, to prevent crime.

References:
– Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. 2018. Family, domestic and sexual violence in Australia, 2018. Accessed on 11.3.19 athttps://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/domestic-violence/family-domestic-sexual-violence-in-australia-2018/contents/summary
– Stavely, J. 2019. The reason why a woman is more likely to die in a car crash than a man is. Accessed on 11.3.19 at https://www.mamamia.com.au/car-crash-statistics/

People-first public transport

| olivialealwalker
One path to Epping Station – mostly undercover, they should count themselves lucky!
Photo credit: http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Epping,_New_South_Wales

I make the ten minute journey to Epping Station, twice a day. Some days, it’s quite pleasant. It’s those 40oC days, or when the rain soaks through to your bones, however, that I and my fellow commuters offer each other looks of condolences. You see, while Epping Station is a junction of three major train lines which connect people to education, recreation and employment, the space outside the station has a great impact on its commuters.

How does Epping Station have it so wrong?

In the next four decades, the population of Sydney is expected to grow to 8 million (Greater Sydney Region Plan, 2018). As our population increases, there is going to be an increasing need to connect people to public transport services. The usual car-centric commute to work negatively impacts society through increased air pollution, poor health outcomes and traffic congestion.

Sydney’s urban sprawl means that Epping has a legacy of large house blocks and a mentality that everybody should own a car, or three. The roads have been designed, albeit poorly, with cars as a priority. As a result of this legacy, the walkability around Epping Station is drastically reduced.

Epping Station is surrounded by four-lane roads, and I make that awkward eye contact with people trapped in their cars on my walk, for there are no barriers between me and the road. There is no vegetation, and no protection from the elements – rain or too much shine. In addition, there’s no way through the park that bypasses stairs, meaning you’re a little stuck if you rely on wheels. Once you’ve trekked up the hill, you wait at the traffic lights. And you wait. And you wait.

What are the opportunities?

The solution to this seems so simple! By focusing on putting people first on the commute to public transport, we can remove some of the barriers to its use, and enjoy its benefits for society and the environment. I suggest that local councils:

  1. Map the ‘commute to your commute’ routes. What paths are people taking? Are they protected from traffic, physically accessible for all and have clear lines of sight (for safety)? Are they vegetated and protected from the elements, both heat and rain? What is the wait like at traffic lights? Once we understand the way people get to these sites, we can improve them.
  2. Block all vehicle access (except emergency) to the streets directly surrounding public transport hubs, to increase their safety; and
  3. Reactivate this newly created people-only space around train stations, with cafes, pharmacies and other things you need on your commute.

Long-term, there’s an opportunity to ensure density around these transport routes, ensuring the above principles are captured.

Sydney is a sprawled city and the outer-suburb legacy of the car-first mentality is reducing the uptake of our public transport services. By putting people back at the heart of public transport, most importantly for the journey to transport hubs, we can have better outcomes for human health, air quality, traffic congestion and the local economy. Come on City of Parramatta, let’s do this!

Thanks for joining me for my first post. Stay tuned for more musings!

Reference:
– Greater Sydney Commission. 2018. Greater Sydney Region Plan: A Metropolis of Three Cities. Viewed 2.3.19 at https://www.greater.sydney/