streetchat

By Winnifred R Louis. Parks that ‘feel’ unsafe can become trapped in a vicious cycle fuelled by underuse, writes psychology professor Winnifred Louis for StreetChat, but these public spaces can be saved. WL: This is a write-up of a presentation that I gave for the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA), and I want to credit their event which was very interesting and fun. If you are wondering why we need to think about fear in parks, my answer is that it is important on two fronts. One, for managing actual risks for park users, and two, managing their risk perceptions. There are a heap of guidelines and standards that address the first task, and one reason for the AILA event was to raise awareness of new guidelines (about mitigating the …

by Jason Packenham. Urban leaders are reimagining Australia’s future cities, starting with Streets 2.0 – a cross-disciplinary forum held in Sydney – with the conversation to continue in March at the Cities 4.0 Summit in Melbourne. With autonomous vehicles on the horizon, now is the time for such events. Provocative discussions at Streets 2.0 raised as many questions as answers. In continuing this provocation, this piece is as much a recap as it is a wondering of where to from here. What do we mean by the street? What role do streets play in our cities today? What do we want and need from them? Looking forward, what is their role in a future with autonomous vehicles? How do we achieve some of the grand visions of Streets 2.0? Are they possible? …

by James Grant. Landscape architects are forging a Living Cities Alliance to advise the government on how to create more liveable, green cities. Leaders from more than 50 urban planning, infrastructure, utilities and greening organisations met with MPs in Canberra, at a workshop hosted by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA). James Grant, Principal at JMDdesign in Sydney, AILA National Councillor, Chair of the AILA National Advocacy Committee and Advocate of 202020 Vision, shares his perspective. The Living Cities Alliance is a great initiative led by AILA to inform government policy and influence how our cities are shaped in the future. It has an emphasis on liveable cities, quality public space and green infrastructure. Importantly it places landscape architects at the fore in the government’s mind when it comes to …