The retrofitting of our post WWII suburbs will be a major focus for policy makers, designers and developers. The opportunity is to quantify burgeoning consumer demand and enable an emerging form of urbanism - away from the city centre.

Image - Education City Dve Springfield QLD AUS: student Housing in the emerging regional Centre of Springfield.  An example of urbanism in the suburbs designed by Deicke Richards.

Posted by: Peter Richards - Deicke Richards and Andrew Hammonds

By any measure Australia has great cities full of remarkable urbanism - getting better by the day. As Peter has previously discussed in his blog The State of Australian Urbanism, they benefit from:

• high density,
• compact development with old and new offices and mixed-use developments with less car parking,
• excellent public transport,
• infrastructure and remarkable public buildings and
• great streets,public spaces and parks.

A strong urban mindset prevails, combined with an underlying congruence between policy making and delivery by Government and private sector. Developers build urbanism because someone wants to have an office in it or live in it, even apartments!

Has this success created issues for urbanism in suburban and regional Australia? Perhaps city centres have been so successful they drain investment away from other places? Whatever the reason, the urban mindset that flourishes in the city finds it hard to venture out to the urban fringe, especially in newer areas. 

And yet according to Ellen Dunham Jones in the USA:

• 85% of households in 2025 will not have kids
• 77% of Millenniums/Gen Y want to live in urban core
• 75% of retiring baby boomers say they want mixed use and mixed age

We need to future proof the suburbs for burgeoning consumer demand for urbanism. We can provide the benefits customers want - affordable housing; affordable living; safety; fitness – physically and mentally; less money on transport; more time, less congestion; convenience; choice and opportunities. In doing so we also save money, as Joe Nickol states "in a world where slow growth is normal, society can't afford the costs of our shopping centres"

10 steps towards walkable places.

Image: A new street based retail development which meets several of the steps. Interesting spiel from the developers website. "The world's most prestigious shopping destinations are streets famous for their signature stores. Rodeo Drive, Fifth Ave, the Champs Élysées. Finally, Australia's Gold Coast has its own unique street, created by Niecon, in the heart of upmarket Broadbeach. Welcome to Oracle Blvd."

Posted by: Andrew Hammonds

Source: Switchboard

Kaid Banfiled provides an excellent summary of Jeff Speck's new book, Walkable City. 

1. Put cars in their place. “Traffic studies are bull****.” Increased roadway traffic capacity can lead to more, not fewer, cars on the road. The resulting “induced demand” creates unanticipated consequences not only for traffic on freeways but especially in neighborhoods and down-towns. Streets struggle to function as critical public spaces for animating city life. 
2. Mix the uses. “Cities were created to bring things together.”  The research shows that neighborhoods with a diversity of uses – places to walk to – have significantly more walking than those that don’t. 
3. Get the parking right. “Ample parking encourages driving that would not otherwise occur without it.” Another quote we use in our course is "any place worth it's salt has a parking problem"  James Castle. Jeff shares a number of successful examples which consolidate parking for multiple buildings and businesses and enforce higher prices, especially for kerb parking. Add a comment
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