Wednesday 21 November 2012

Americanisation of planning


Being a relatively young nation, Australia often lends its municipal design to ideals and techniques from foreign influences. The Victorian style buildings that dot the streets of inner city Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne, the large green botanic gardens, the long sweeping boulevards, and the striking civic buildings are all but examples of such influence. Arguably, in the urban planning context, one influence that is regarded above all others is notably an American one.

The original competition to design Canberra in 1912 was won by an American; Sir Walter Burley Griffin, and the successful City Beautiful movement is encapsulated almost perfectly in its concentric circles and numerous civic buildings. Since its inception, Canberra has been regarded somewhat of an urban planning playground lending itself to administration experimentation. The changing face of the Canberra scape gave way to the Y-Plan; a design based on a group of self-sufficient centres linked by arterial roads. Such a design was born during an era where the car was booming and allowed for the average citizen to reside some distance from the city centres, enjoying the suburban lifestyles that was once confined to the wealthy. However, the explosion of this new form of personal transport saw an even bigger increase in infrastructure spending, and following the simultaneous trend within the United States, saw the focus primarily on roads. Unfortunately, this lack of insight has resulted in much of the problems that Canberra faces today such as exaggerated urban sprawl.



In some regards, such design decision can be forgiven as the intensification of urbanisation since the end of World War 2 was experienced at unprecedented levels. Globalisation contributed greatly to this scenario and it was only natural for Australia to utilise the concepts from the facilitator of such an achievement who heavily promoted the production of cars.

In some regards, Australia has started to mould the planning theories for itself. The invigoration of new urbanism highlights the requirement for denser social centres. America has provided much influence over the years but as Australia begins to decouple its reliant on cars, its own design will begin to be noticed.


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