A city is more than just buildings

Release Date: Oct 25, 2009  |  Author: Photo courtesy of The Adelaide Review

A city is more than just buildings

10/25/2009 9:16:00 PM

Creativity and innovation are paramount as Carnegie Mellon Professor Laura Lee weaves a collective vision for South Australia’s built environment

The outgoing sixteenth Adelaide Thinker is Resident, Carnegie Mellon University Professor Laura Lee, says that the future of Adelaide’s built environment lies in integrated strategy.

“I want to play to South Australia’s unique strengths and how those get translated into the built environment. I want to see real outcomes. The potential here is extraordinary and the work goes far beyond the time you are here,” Professor Lee says.

Professor Lee sees herself as more of a connector than a creator; as part of a team taking on ideas from global and local designers, city planners, business people and the public and feeding them back in to the community.

“The integrated design strategy that we put forward is a collaboration between the city and State Government and will look at quality of life issues that go beyond individual developments to a real collective consciousness about the city and space.

Every year the Premier of South Australia, Mike Rann, invites two or three world-class thinkers to Adelaide to live and work. The Thinkers undertake residencies of 2-6 months, in which they assist South Australia to build on its climate of creativity, innovation and excellence. The Thinkers in Residence provide the State with strategies for future development in the arts and sciences, social policy, environmental sustainability and economic development.

“South Australia is a very creative environment. It is an incubator for ideas. It’s a place where it’s very easy to collaborate,” Professor Lee says.

“By and large most people love the Central Market – it is a quintessential experience in Adelaide. If you could extend the feeling of that space into other spaces they would say “yes, I want more of that” but they don’t have enough of it happening to say “we want more North Terrace” or “we want more Jam Factory.”

Professor Lee says it’s important that design is about creating places and spaces where people feel a sense of belonging, connection, identity and value.

“Right now there is a lot of development activity ... but the design layering, which is qualitative, hasn’t been considered. We need to try to leverage what the planning document guidelines suggest so that it’s about quality and innovation.”

Professor Lee stresses that it is constructive feedback that will produce tangible results, not whinging.

“I was in the Barossa (Valley) this week meeting four of the councils. I encouraged them to communicate what they thought was their vision on their own terms and work together as opposed to rejecting what has been proposed. (They need) to come forward with an idea and let it be embraced. People need to look at things proactively,” she says.

“The advantage of Adelaide is that it has great bones. It has inherited one of the world’s premium examples of city design.”

On the subject of Victoria Square, where Carnegie Mellon University is situated, Professor Lee talks about the importance of integrated strategy.

“Obviously Victoria Square is a major capital investment for the city and state. I think it is probably the biggest bone of contention in the city. I want to talk about the process that the city has gone through that has set that up for success. It would be preferable that there is an integrated design strategy for the entire city and Victoria Square would be one of the first manifestations of that. One of the benefits of integrated design is that it helps politicians and other investors organise their priorities and get maximum impact out of one decision.

“I find a good analogy (for design) is holistic medicine. If you just look at isolated symptoms, you may not be able to serve the patient. The same thing applies with design. If you are just looking at one precinct, say Victoria Square, as the heart, if we looked at going ahead and developing it without considering the arteries, with all best intentions, it may not survive because it’s not getting the blood it needs. It is important to see the sequence in which we implement things to ensure the greatest chance of success.”

“I am incredibly passionate about this place. You can taste that there is an opportunity for change here and people are really hungry for it. In many ways, I am just a voice for that passion,” Professor Lee says.

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