UNSW Built Environment: Resilience in Urban Design

4th International Urban Design Conference 2011

Would you like to contribute to the debate on resilient cities? The 4th International Urban Design Conference is calling for abstract submissions from those who are interested in presenting at the 2011 conference. This year’s theme is Resilience in Urban Design through measures such as supported interconnectivity, appropriate densification within urban footprints, multiple transit modes and walkability, socially inclusive design, economic resilience, and adaptive built environments.

Resilience in Urban Design is a chance to reinforce and highlight these resilient solutions for our citywide planning, design & infrastructure – to be able to successfully address emerging challenges brought about by climate change, peak oil crisis, population growth, social disengagement, technological disparity, rising pollution and waste, demands on food production, rising carbon emissions, and diminishing habitat and biodiversity.

Authors or organisations interested in submitting a paper or presenting a workshop are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 250 words outlining the aims, contents and conclusions of their paper or presentation; or about their intended role in a workshop.

Abstracts close at the end of April, however due to the long Easter break you may want to submit yours soon.

For more information on submission details, please visit the International Urban Design Conference website.

 

UNSW Built Environment Event: 3rd International Urban Design Conference

The 3rd International Urban Design Conference is being held from 30th August to 1st September 2010 at the National Convention Centre- Canberra.

“Designs On Our Future”

What impact will the debate over sustainable population for Australia have on our existing cities?  The conference will examine how our new cities are conceived and our existing ones are adapted, re-designed and managed.

The conference will focus on a variety of themes and topics:

• Growth
• Demographic change
• Housing diversity and affordability
• Settlement patterns
• Preparedness
• Resilience
• Infrastructure and sustainability in the “New” Australia
• Transport system requirements
• Energy efficient building design
• Effective governance and leadership
• Sustainable higher density development
• Renewable development
• Managing the carbon footprint of new and existing cities
• The future of public spaces
• Food and resource vulnerability

Who Should Attend

The Conference attracts delegates from a wide range of backgrounds including:

• Policy makers • Politicians • Senior public servants • City Governance personnel • Development Industry • Design professionals • Architects

• Landscape Architects • Engineers • Town Planners • Urban Designers • Consultants • Social planners • Demographers

Confirmed keynote presenters include:

The Hon Anthony Albanese MP – Leader of the House; Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government

Jeremy Harris – former Mayor of Hawaii, Sustainable Cities Institute USA

Richard Murray – Executive Director, Policy Co-ordination and Governance, Australian Treasury

Prof Richard Weller – Winthrop professor of Landscape architecture, University of WA

Prof Peter McDonald – Director of the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute and Australian National University

Rod Fehring – Executive General Manager, Australand Limited

Mark Fuller – Managing Principal, AECOM Design + Planning

The 2010 conference will provide an opportunity to examine what’s working well nationally and internationally in meeting the challenges which confront fast-changing communities.

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SENSORY DESIGN ON TWO FRONTS – Architecture and Urban design

Minu Lee, Bachelor of Architecture (Honours)

As part of my honours thesis this year, my research is based on the belief that if we as designers are to enhance people’s experience in the city, we need to broaden our spectrum of our senses such as vision, smell, sound, touch and taste. Senses have gained significant interest within design practice and design research over the past few decades, and it is true indeed, that we can no longer ignore the important role that senses play in the built environment.

At the same time, it is also true that this notion of sensory design has been significantly underplayed in the field of architecture and the broader urban design.

My purpose in carrying out this research is to provide a new perspective in the field of urban design and architecture by identifying literatures that provide an understanding of the senses in both fields by examining key precedents that lend insight into the potential for sensory-rich designs. Through analysing the values and ideas of the senses in the larger scope of urbanism as well as specific focus of architecture, the aim of this research is to explore and understand the engagement of all our senses, not just the visual, in attempting to see how we can change the way city is read.

My design proposal was to date, carried out in light of the literature reviews dedicated to the position sensory design have in the profession of architecture and urban design today.

The outcome is to produce a model based not just on relevant precedents carried out by different architects, it is also to best understand the City of Sydney Council’s recent, varying urban scale measures and guidelines that are increasingly emphasising the need to engage our senses in everyday life.

For the profession, the outcome would be a reflection of the significance in engaging our senses, not just to the individual architecture, but to a greater focus on our urban future and how we would be able to associate our human feelings in the midst of such rapidly changing city. For me, the success of this thesis will not be measured solely on gaining greater understanding and implementing such concepts.

As a student, through critical, in-depth analysis of diverse literatures, the ultimate aim is to test out how my perspective towards design improves in light of studying wide range of literatures.

As mentioned in the beginning, what I have gained throughout the process can be judged on its relevance to the intended outcome of providing a new perspective in the field of urban design and architecture by analysing the findings and, eventually, testing the findings by seeking to apply them to related built forms in Sydney.

There is no doubt much more thinking and analyses of the literatures are required, as well as detailed enquiry into selected precedent studies, which will be pursued in the following semester.