Slum vs Sprawl

The First Post

So… let’s actually get this thing going now…  After a month or so now of sitting at my desk idly wondering what this PhD is all about I figure the best way to shack that nagging sense of drifting in a sea of literature review is to just start to write :) So here it goes:

This blog is a tentative/experimental (they do blogs now? 2012? really?!) method towards documenting the developing research of my PhD at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. 

“How to act responsibly in a global market place and in a period of unprecedented urban change?„, Practitioners… are engaged in this process…In a globalizing world, spatial and temporal compression provide the context…to think more about practice beyond the boundaries of [our] own cultures”
- Bull, C. & Parin, C. (2007). Cross-cultural urban design: Global or Practice?. Routledge: London.

The research submits that a new design methodology is needed to understand and plan for the extreme conditions in this ‘age of global urbanism’. Underpinning the comparison of informal settlements to current planning processes lies the notion that

 “the future of the… city lies not in modernism’s large-scale master plans or New Urbanism’s nostalgic community planning.  Instead… favour the realities of urban space; finding hidden opportunities in what already exists in our cities”[1].

The research will study examples of the super dense and super spread urban systems of contemporary cities and analyse the processes which have led to these.  A new methodology for design intervention may emerge from these which contests the current paradigm for applied density in Australian.  By suggesting patterns of development and encouraging and facilitating small-scale investment in urban centres rather than submitting to larger-scale property ownership and land development, the aggragate and complexity of best practice sutainable urban systems may be achieved; creating places which respond to and complement human desire for enclosure, community and proximity.

Rust, Motram and Till et al (2007) define Practice-Led Research in Art, Design and Architecture as “research in which the professional and/or creative practices … play an instrumental part in an inquiry” (p.11). It is my ambition to ultimately test and develop the research undertaken here through practice as an urban designer in the future. Throughout the process I will be actively seeking and creating projects with which to test my research in real world situations; examples of this include design competitions; commercial practice; open source architecture platforms; aid organisations; public forums; university design studios and community collectives.

Whilst a portion of this project will be undertaken overseas; it is ultimately my intention to apply lessons learned in this research to the formation of design practice in Australia.  Whilst Australia’s underprviliged class may not suffer from the incredible population growth of other countries; housing affordability; ambitions and necessities of increased density; poverty; and fair and equitable access to public space are equally of concern here.  Inequitable distribution of affordable housing in Australian city centre’s is increasingly forcing out the lower classes. 

Equally, and perhaps most distressingly, the sustainability of remote indigenous communities has much improvement to attend.  This research will quite simply allow me a legitamite platform for the (aspiring) formation of a design practice formed around social justice ethics.  In my (recent and limited) experience the commercial design sector rarely affords the room to (particularly as a recent graduate) expand on the depth of education one is allowed in a university environment.  It is my hope that a combination of design research and design practice is not impossible.

Forthcoming posts will aim to be less rambling and hodge-podge; and generally more coherant.