Streetnotes Winter 2004

Carolyn Whitzman

Everyday landscapes, memory, and planning: reflections on reading the city

By Carolyn Whitzman, PhD
Lecturer, University of Melbourne
students: 
John Paul Collins
Chin Ling (Jeanny) Lui
Sarah Morrissey
Sze Nga (Gladys) Ng
Deborah Payne

Student Project
Mélanie Thomas
The Colonisation of Gardiner’s Creek - 
situated in Boroondara, Melbourne, Australia
 
 

I teach a junior level undergraduate course at the University of Melbourne called ‘Urbanization and Urban Development’.  It is intended to introduce urban theory to students in an undergraduate planning program, although students in Geography and other Arts subjects also enroll.

Despite a crisis of faith in government planning that stretches back at least to the 1960s, planning education is still trapped in a ‘rational comprehensive’ model that downplays critical social theory in favour of a spurious set of ‘expertises’ in planning legislation and technical design skills (Beauregard 1989, Sandercock 1998, Gleeson 2003).  An introductory assignment in ‘reading the city’ was intended to unpack the notion of planner as expert, by asking students to analyse a favourite place in Melbourne, based on their own senses and memories.  They were asked: “What hints are there of its history?  Are there signs of upward mobility, or of decline?  Is it becoming more of a ‘global’ place, and if so, how”?

Students responded with enthusiasm, imagination, and insight to this assignment.  One student, Deborah Payne, used her own memory as well as her mother’s memory to describe the decline, fall, and possible resurgence of a small shopping strip in the suburb where she has lived “all my nineteen years”:
 

“…When my family first arrived in Kilsyth [an outer eastern suburb] in the early 1980s, Collins Place was a busy, thriving shopping strip that was as much a meeting place for the local neighbourhood kids as a place of business….

“Collins Place began to deteriorate around 1988/89 with the departure of the Commonwealth Bank.  The closure of banks was a national trend, in this instance being spurred by the close proximity of another Commonwealth Bank less than one kilometre away at the Kilsyth Shopping Centre.  This duplication of services also forced the post office and chemist to vacate, which was then followed by the green grocer and the hardware store.  As part of another national trend, the adjacent petrol station also closed up, and the concrete space has remained desolate ever since.  The only shops that have remained from the original line up are the milk bar and the medical centre.  The former is most likely supported by the primary school located across the road and the latter doesn’t need attractive shops surrounding in order to bolster business…

“The activity level has been influenced by the changing structure of the neighbourhood…. While it gradually developed into a working class area, by 1985, it was still fairly sparsely populated.  Most of the houses surrounding the shopping strip are older style weatherboard originally built for the middle class but in my time have primarily been occupied by a lower socio-economic demographic.  In the late 1990s however, several new estates were developed such as Alpine Way and Eden Way.  These introduced higher income earners into the area.  Currently the area is being invaded with plans for subdivision.  There are three properties subdividing in my street alone. This constantly changing residential structure means the needs of the neighbourhood are also changing, which could present an opportunity for Collins Place…

“It has experienced a slight resurgence with the opening of a coffee shop with sidewalk tables, and the old wooden playground has been replaced with brightly coloured, plastic equipment… When on my observatory visits there were several groups of women conversing outside various shops and young children occupying the playground against a background of even more kids yelling at the school.  However, while there was not much rubbish littered out in front, only five steps away around the back of the strip there were piles of garbage and discarded household items, along with an aggressive looking dog.  Moreover, of the shops I entered and what I gathered from the outside, there was been no substantial renovation, only fresh paint.”

Deborah's Kilsyth: a declining commercial strip

Two students described very different reactions to living in Box Hill, another eastern suburb that is undergoing rapid change.  For Sarah Morrissey, the traditional aspects of this ‘middle suburb’ predominate:
 

“Margaret Street, Box Hill, is known as ‘the street with all the trees’.  In spring and summer the street is covered by a beautiful green canopy and in winter and autumn the street and homes are constantly being rained down on by red and brown leaves….

“Box Hill has been a popular place for people who want to live near the city, but who would like the ‘Great Aussie Dream’ of owning one’s own home with a garden… Box Hill does not have much vacant land left to develop, so a culture of home renovators and subdividers is emerging… Homeowners are constantly working on their homes in the street, either for investment purposes or to be proud of their homes, and it is clear how their style is ‘copied’ from other areas… Dark green, maroons, and creams are the most common heritage paints used, and makes the street appear welcoming and as if in a cottage style area…

“The ‘clean up’ of the area which was once considered full of drugs and violence has begun… There are still signs of this bleak past, which was really only in the 1990s [such as] security doors on patios and supermarket trolleys on the road.  It appears that this period is ending with newer homes not being fitted with quite as extensive physical security measures.  This may be indicative though of our expansion in technological security measures, such as alarms instead of physical measures….

“Although there are many occurrences of the younger 20 or 30 something’s renovating, there are still many people aged over 60 when you walk down the street.  They are watering or tending to their gardens (always full of blooming flowers), fetching the mail in their dressing gowns and feeding their cats.”

Sarah's Box Hill: gardens full of blooming flowers

Gladys Ng, however, found that Box Hill confounded her idea of what a traditional Australian suburb was like:
 

“I am an international student from Hong Kong. I have been here in Melbourne for more than two years. I have lived in Box Hill since I arrived. My friend told me that Box Hill is a convenient place where lots of Chinese gather. I could never imagine this when I was in Hong Kong. Box Hill is a place which changes my own definition of ‘suburb’.

“Renting is very common in Box Hill, especially for overseas students. They (including myself) love to live in such a modernized but still quiet suburb…”

“The best known way of going to Box Hill is by train… Box Hill station is the only indoor station… apart from city loop… Indoor stations give people a feeling of modernity, as opposed to uncovered stations with poor facilities. Tram 109 is… a new project that enables people to travel to Box Hill more conveniently. The design of the tram terminal is very modern. It gives people a feeling that this tram line extension project is well financed.”

Good rapid transit connections
Edwards 2003
 

 I was surprised that relatively few students chose to analyse a space in Melbourne’s downtown.  One who did, John Paul Collins, focused on a new park as the symbol of the redevelopment of Melbourne’s downtown as a place for ‘safe’ cultural consumption:
 

“The newly developed Birrarung Marr park precinct located in central Melbourne is an example of how a changing society inscribes new meaning and uses to previously derelict landscapes. Officially opened in 2002, Birrarung Marr is the first major parkland development in Melbourne City for over one hundred years. The site presents a radical departure from other parks around central Melbourne, its modern design reflects a shift in community tastes and attitudes towards public space and outdoors living.  Most significantly the site also reflects the integration of Australian indigenous culture into mainstream commercial and cultural consumption….

“The park uses mostly native flora and has an artificial billabong wetland area.  The term ‘Birrarung Marr’ comes from the Woiwurrung language of the Wurundjeri people, the sites original inhabitants.  Birrarung translates as ‘river of mist’ while Marr means ‘side of the river’.  These features make Birrarung Marr a novelty landscape for both locals and tourists, with certain aspects of the park forming an urban monument to the previously lost indigenous culture. These characteristics support local tourism and the growing popularity of non-threatening representations of Aboriginal culture…

“Unlike older public spaces, Birrarung Marr is highly integrated into the commercial and cultural trends of the surrounding economy.  While other older style parks and gardens in central Melbourne were designed to contain visitors through winding paths and secluded gardens, the modern design of Birrarung Marr reflects a shift in global taste towards public spaces that are simple, safe and functional.  As a result, the park views incorporate the city landscape as well as the Yarra River.  The surrounding city is incorporated into the site, reflecting popular recreational trends that demand public spaces that can be adapted to combine a number of activities such as leisure, sport, socialising and even shopping. Instead of settling in one site, users are encouraged to explore and possibly spend money in the surrounding spaces such as the city, Federation Square and Southbank. Through incorporating its surrounding attractions, Birrarung Marr represents a public space of the future, promoting a lifestyle that encourages freedom of movement and rapid financial turnover.”

John Paul’s downtown: safe, simple space 
 

But for Jeanny Lui, downtown redevelopment has more personal connotations, as a new apartment building along one of Melbourne’s best known commercial and office thoroughfares provided a home which was now threatened by rising rents:
 

“When I knew that I had to do an assignment about a place that I spend a lot of time in and am familiar with, I decided to write about Collins Street.  I came to Melbourne two years ago and I chose to live in the city as I thought it would be more convenient for me to go to school and Chinatown.  After searching through many apartments for a few months, my housemates and I chose one in 325 Collins Street.

“In Collins Street, I can find office buildings, shopping malls and historical buildings…. The prices of the products in the brand name stores are relatively expensive.  The rental prices of apartments in Collins Street are also high.  That is why I can no longer live in Collins Street as I am not able to bear the high rent for my apartment any more…”

I wish I had left more time after the assignments were handed in to discuss the contrasts between reactions to similar spaces.  I also am not certain that all of the students got the message that urban theorists, as well as urban residents, develop ideas about cities based on everyday observations.  A later assignment which asked students to use theory to analyse a recent planning development did not go as well as the first assignment.  But I was extremely impressed by the way that the students were able to describe and analyse their perceptions, emotions, and memories in creating and re-creating a sense of place over time.  In the case of future planners, I hope that the assignment suggested ways of involving community memory and knowledge in defining problems and suggesting solutions.  In the case of those students who do not become planners, I like to think that the assignment offered a chance to express their expertise in knowing a particular place.
 

References
 

Robert Beauregard (1989) “Between modernity and postmodernity: the ambiguous position of US planning”, Environment and Planning D: society and space 7, pp. 381-395.

Richard Edwards (2003) “Various Train Photo – X’Trapolis - 876M at Box Hill station during test trials between Camberwell and Box Hill” Retrieved from August 11, 2003 from http://www.lexicon.net/met/trains/photos/richardedwardphotos/Xtr-876M-BoxHill.jpg

Brendan Gleeson (2003) “The difference that planning makes”, Environment and Planning A 35, 765-770.

Leonie Sandercock (1998) Towards Cosmopolis: Planning for multicultural cities (John Wiley).
 
 

(c)Carolyn Whitzman 2004
 
 
 

contributors' notes