In the world of medicine, until relatively recently the World Bank reports that “medication doses [were] typically adjusted for patient size with women considered ‘small men’” – Martin writes that “despite women, girls, and sexual and gender diverse people making up over 50% of the world’s population, it seems Western planning, like medicine, has had a similarly blinkered view of men as the locus for the universal model.”
“While gender inequality impacts people of all ages and backgrounds looking at the person specifically, not typically, is paramount because people experience public spaces differently based on their gender, sex and sexuality and in an intersectional way through overlapping identities of age, race, culture, gender, location and religion which in turn can increase inequity, vulnerability and discrimination. Therefore, averaging in the context of how we design the city is unhelpful. “
By designing cities based on a mean, diversity is flattened. It is imperative that cities are designed in a way that doesn’t over-simplify diversity.
Martin highlights consideration of distance between centres of activity as one central pillar of gender sensitive urban design. In practice this can look like increasing accessibility to local centres, decreasing distance between public hubs, and building spaces that encourage interaction.
Read more ideas and techniques on how to integrate gender sensitive thinking into planning and place design in the full article, published on Cities People Love.
Image by Molly Coulter, graduate landscape architect at OCULUS and AILA Fresh Co-Chair.
The mist garden, and urban heat:
In In A Warming World, Consider the Mist Garden, Alexandra Lange highlights the resurgence of mist gardens as a “more sustainable and accessible option for keeping hotter cities cool.”
Fog and mist installations are proving to be effective and versatile, as they are a low-maintenance way to cool off hot spaces, making them accessible in the summer heat, she writes. Fog doesn’t require the upkeep of a water body, and can embody a space and then be taken away without creating an area that is lacking without it, a seasonal problem for pools that are empty in winter.
“Fog is an atmospheric effect that has shown itself to be environmentally responsible, ephemerally beautiful and large-scale spectacular in artists’ hands many times before,” Lange writes.
In New York City, a ‘mist garden’ designed by landscape architects Quennell Rothschild & Partners has been installed to complement the giant ‘Unisphere’ sculpture at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, with great success.
“The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation was looking for a water feature designed for cooling off, rather than decoration, that would also conform to the city’s new usage restrictions … A water feature that would delight, but also be visually strong enough to stand up to the 140-foot-tall Unisphere.”
The design of the feature references the plaza’s Art Deco history, and creates an accessible, ephemeral reprieve from the summer heat, in the middle of the neighbourhood’s largest park.
Fog, Lange says, could be an effective and sustainable mechanism to increase the liveability of city spaces in the face of climate change.
Street Furniture Australia’s entire product range and manufacturing operation has received carbon neutral certification through Climate Active™. Achieving carbon neutral certification marks a significant milestone in our operation and the culmination of a four year long process of detailed measurement and analysis. Climate Active™ is the only Australian government-backed carbon neutral certification programme for businesses to measure, reduce, and offsets their carbon emissions. It is one of the most rigorous carbon-neutral programs in the world. An approved Emissions Reduction Strategy (ERS) is central to achieving certification through Climate Active. Street Furniture Australia has elected to use SBTi validated science-based targets to ensure their ERS is meaningful and aligns with the 2015 Paris Agreement – to limit global temperature rises to 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels. For those emissions that can’t be …
Linea Bin is the newest addition to Street Furniture Australia’s minimalist Linea range. Built from stainless steel for strength, durability and a refined aesthetic, it has been thoughtfully designed with input from landscape architects and waste managers to deliver hygiene, accessibility and sustainability in the public realm. Built to LastA robust stainless steel frame and panel system ensures Linea Bin performs in high-traffic environments. A full-height stainless steel 316 piano hinge and splash tray provide exceptional strength, hygiene and corrosion resistance, withstanding daily impacts from trolleys and cleaning equipment. “Durability was paramount,” says Pearson Bulmer, Senior Industrial Designer at Street Furniture Australia. “Every detail needed to perform in the public realm for years to come – but also be designed for disassembly so parts can be repaired, replaced or recycled …
With the look and feel of natural timber, backed by 12 months of performance testing for the public realm, engineered wood joins Street Furniture Australia’s selection of batten materials. Designers and place custodians can now choose from three batten options to achieve a timber look: natural Spotted Gum hardwood, low maintenance aluminium Wood Without Worry, and engineered wood known as Onewood HRT. See our Engineered Wood: Onewood HRT brochure or book a presentation. What is engineered wood?Onewood HRT (Homogeneous Reconstituted Timber) is a solid engineered timber, made from fast-growing FSC and PEFC-certified poplar and eucalyptus fibres that are compressed under heat and pressure with a resin binder. It is solid throughout with an organic grain and, like real hardwood, can be sanded to refresh. Street Furniture Australia partners with a …
