Placemaking: everything old is new again

Same as it ever was

Since the dawn of time, humans have proved themselves gregarious, tribe-based social creatures ingeniously capable of modifying the environment around them. Through successive agricultural, industrial, and technological revolutions, towns and cities have evolved to meet the needs of their inhabitants, but the principles of success have remained the same.

For places to have a sustaining sense of identity and attraction they must effortlessly provide pathways for people to interact, transact, and orbit around each other. In modern urban-design terms this is the concept of ‘loose links’ – the number and pattern of associations you develop within a place become the ties that bind people to place.

It’s important because in a world in which social media connection has taken the place of real-world human interaction we are gradually losing our sense of connectedness, confronted as we are by an ever escalating range of informal connections that offer little but information exchange, not personal or meaningful interaction.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

The physics of urban design are deeply fascinating to me. We know now in fairly conclusive terms that the more interactions that exist between people – whether planned or accidental – the greater the beneficial impact on productivity and wellbeing. In other words, as people agglomerate in a place, their collective strength and output is much greater than the sum of their individual lives.

Regardless of whether you’re developing major mixed-use masterplanned communities or smaller-scale developments or high density infill, the requirements for creating a place that can generate this network effect remains remarkably constant. There are five major drivers:

1 | Passive and active connections
Architects think about buildings, but urban designers think about the spaces between those buildings and how those places of public domain can nurture a range of planned and accidental interactions between people. Walking the dog or taking the kids to the playground provide ways to associate with the people in your neighbourhood. The higher quality the amenity, the greater it will be used and more social engagement generated as a result. This applies equally to the aged as it does to the young family.

2 | Education and learning connections
An important connection for young families is with other parents just like them. The proximity of schools, the availability of sporting grounds, childcare, parents’ groups and even adult education help to cement a community’s bonds and fuel the human potential of all that participate.

3 | Health and wellbeing connections
Associations built up around health management evolve as to the way health services are delivered through outpatient clinics and day surgery centres, and are some of the most important links that older people and families with babies need in common. The associations you have with your doctor and dentist, as well with neighbours that know you and will check in on you from time to time, are critical for breaking down barriers of social isolation.

4 | Retail and entertainment connections
It used to be that we congregated in churches but these days we do our congregating in different ways. Modern retail centres provide a place to buy a new shirt, eat a meal, see the latest movie, or even catch a local band. Serving a multiplicity of uses, these retailtainment centres provide an important local backdrop to our social lives. Frasers Property Australia is deeply invested in ‘super-neighbourhood’ retail centres, in which the drive for social connectedness underpins all design and leasing decisions.

5 | Employment connections
How we work, where we work, and the lengths we travel to get to work are changing with the spread of digital infrastructure. The rise of co-working spaces, home offices, and better public transit all lay the foundation for more work-based interactions – and options – further strengthening their stability and productivity as workplaces, and embrace flexibility and improved communication technology.

The theory in practice

I’m proud to say that I lead a business that walks the walk when it comes to creating vibrant, connected, social communities.

Central Park in Sydney is a superb example of higher density living connected to amenities that make this much more than a complex of 2000 apartments – there's an 'eat street', two hotels, student housing, offices, 28,000 sqm of retail and a cineplex all sustained by its own on-site energy system. The result is a conscientious community with a strong sense of place and multiple interaction points for its 5000+ residents.

In Victoria, the Burwood Brickworks community will combine architect-designed residential homes, aged care and health facilities, the world’s first 6 Star Green Star sustainable shopping plaza, urban farm and restaurant, cinema and landscaped open space that allows you to walk or cycle across the whole neighbourhood and into the neighbourhoods beyond. Central parklands and an urban plaza will provide a beautiful, serene space to meet and socialise.

These are just two in a portfolio of projects across the country that reflect a defining belief that we hold at Frasers Property Australia: placemaking is about people.

We know we’ve been successful at our jobs when we see the way life is enriched by all the important associations people develop in their communities and the value they ascribe to those connections. The new friendships. The nod of recognition to neighbours, shopkeepers or service providers. The kids playing together in the park at sunset. Most especially, that sense of achievement that comes from knowing they’ve made a life to be proud of.

For me, no matter the pace of change these days, the ability to create these kinds of outcomes is a pleasure and privilege that never gets old.

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We acknowledge and thank our collaborators:
Central Park Sydney | Sekisui House Australia