Alumni

There are a number of different criteria to determine the liveability and efficiency of a city. Arguably they are all subjective, to one degree or another and such judgements can be highly personal. My own ideas of what makes a city liveable have varied throughout my life. Now that I have a young child, my idea of liveability has changed considerably and has become predictably suburban.  

Perth is an interesting test bed for thinking about liveability more generally. Perth’s idea of a prized lifestyle has historically been based on natural amenities- Swan River, the beaches, the Scarp, the bush and open spaces. In the last five years or so this has been changing as people discover the attractions of urbanity – the cafes, good restaurants, street life and markets. We are realising that having such cultural amenities is not mutually exclusive to the natural amenities which have been the bedrock of Perth’s identity for so long.

My book ‘Take me to the River’ explores and elucidates how European Australian culture has responded to the landscape of the Swan River and the Swan Coastal Plain more generally. This is important research in that we believe it should inform future planning policy in relation to the Swan River. Without understanding planning within a historical context, we risk making the same mistakes over and over again, uninformed by history. 

Stage two of the research for the book is still in an incipient form. We are working on issues through the Australian Urban Design Research Centre’s (AUDRC) penultimate thesis studio, exploring with Master’s students in urban design how to structure urban densification in a way that maximises the ecological health of the Swan River.   

I am a researcher and architect at the AUDRC – a UWA research centre focussed on the design of cities. I have been connected to UWA since doing a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture in the late 90’s and a PhD which concluded in 2010.