Urban Affect

Social sustainability: a framework for design integration

Allison Heller — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 06:59:26 +0000

Social sustainability has long suffered from perceptions of it being a somewhat “fluffy” addendum to urban design and masterplanning processes. So it is heartening to see a growing recognition of the positive impact of rigorous and systematic social planning and social impact assessment processes in the development of our urban environments. After all, what are [...]

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Business sustainability for resilience – workshop

Allison Heller — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:43:25 +0000

The current economic climate across large parts of the globe has thrown up a series of issues around building resilience into business models – models that are socially as well as economically sustainable. Terms such as “shared value,” “social return on investment” and “socially networked economy” are now heard throughout boardrooms, and management is under [...]

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Earthships are coming to Oz

Allison Heller — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 09:53:36 +0000

Earthships are really quite something. The concept grew from the desert of New Mexico, where then-architect (now “biotect”) Michael Reynolds began experimenting with “radically sustainable” architecture. It’s radical in that it is entirely self-sustaining, including grey and black water reuse, which nourishes plant life of sufficient quantity to feed the household. Without going to [...]

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Measuring social impact: challenge and consensus

Allison Heller — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:11:27 +0000

Measuring social impact raises a range of challenges for practitioners, not least of which is the current lack of consensus on applicable tools and measures. The University of Technology Sydney’s Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre (CCS) brought together a range of minds to examine these issues at a recent symposium. The stimulating event saw new [...]

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Urban inspiration at Bike Tank

Allison Heller — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:58:37 +0000

It’s a precious gift to feel supremely energised and inspired at 9am on a Tuesday morning. And that’s the gift the innovative Bike Tank – “a think tank that you cycle to” brought to me and no doubt quite a few other Sydney-siders this sunny spring morning. Wandering into the workshop in the big, fab [...]

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Community engagement – with a twist

Allison Heller — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 06:54:52 +0000

Here’s a lovely example of community enagement, courtesy of my partner’s recent trip to his Toronto hometown. The posters inform the community that the neighbourhood is undergoing an “extreme makeover” – no doubt involving construction noise, traffic impacts and disruption in their “favourite neighbourhood.” But the tone is happy and upbeat in its warm appeal: [...]

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100 days on… where’s the vision Minister?

Allison Heller — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 10:07:59 +0000

Planning Minister Brad Hazzard’s first 100 days in office have been an eventful time for the planning and development sector. The State Department has seen a merger of plannning and infrastructure functions and a renaming along those lines. Major legislative instruments have been overturned or dramatically amended. Arguably the most high profile (and controversial) of [...]

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Democracy is not a free ride

Allison Heller — Sun, 01 May 2011 13:31:04 +0000

The following words were spoken by Sean Penn, playing US diplomat Joe Wilson in the movie Fair Game (2010), which is based on a factual story. Penn/Wilson was addressing students following the leaking of the identity of his wife Valerie Plame. As you may recall, the career of Plame – a CIA operative – was [...]

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McMansion mash-up

Allison Heller — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:58:34 +0000

An inspiring story which has come about through Taronga Zoo’s Green Grants program… it goes something like this: Step one: Take one McMansion Step two: Deconstruct it Step three: Reuse the building materials to build a bunch of smaller, eco-friendly homes on the site. This wonderful Reincarnated McMansion concept by architect and artist Mathieu Gallois [...]

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Power to the people? Balancing state significant development and localised community interests

Allison Heller — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 02:00:31 +0000

As the state of New South Wales looks forward to a change of government on March 26, one question on the lips of those working in the development sector is what the incumbents plan to do about Part 3A of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.Introduced in 2005 by former planning minister Craig Knowles, [...]

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