A case for more thoughtful development 

The current battle between NIMBYs (Not in My Back Yard) and YIMBY’s (Yes in My Back Yard) is pitting retention of heritage and new development against each other. However, our State – revered for its sustainability, culture and liveability – demands and deserves we have both, and we can. Despite strong misconceptions, a heritage-based approach, rather than being a barrier to this change, is the key to achieving the best of both. Why? Because a heritage-informed lens retains the values that represent our past and identity, as well as gaining innovative new design that reflects and addresses our current needs. This thoughtful approach creates streetscapes and community areas that we can be proud to look back on in the future.  A TIMBY (Thoughtfully In My Back Yard) approach.

A thoughtful, place-based approach is not just a heritage principle, it is a key urban design and sustainability principle. It involves understanding local context and responding to the specific conditions, nuance and distinctiveness of a place. This approach ensures the qualities that draw us to live in these spaces are not lost in the process of change. Instead, thoughtful change adds a new layer of richness.

A cookie cutter approach to planning, designed only to increase housing density, would be of great concern. A formulaic, one-dimensional approach that doesn’t consider local fabric, values and community will lead to vacuous, lifeless places and buildings that ignore the qualities that make our places genuinely liveable.

One only has to read the recent proliferation of articles about the quirks and joys of peoples’ respective local neighbourhoods and why they live where they live, to reinforce that it is the fine grain and detail of places that make them liveable. How do we ensure these qualities are retained through change if we don’t identify and factor this local nuance into the design process?

Every place has its individual values and influences that need to be identified and understood to make evidence-based decisions to ensure that what we are creating sits sensitively within and alongside our existing environments. Understanding context and community results in more inclusive design and retains the distinctiveness of individual places and neighbourhoods through change. Transparency and community involvement in the planning and design process from the outset can also lead to smoother implementation.

We must be careful not to mistake planning as the only design tool we have. Planning is one consideration in a multi-faceted design process, the success of which relies on how all design considerations come together.  A TIMBY approach is multi-disciplinary, requiring a design and development process that considers a number of perspectives with advice and knowledge from many disciplines. This knowledge should be led by place and be consistent with urban design principles. These include amenity, open space, sustainability, green areas, texture, delight, the old and new, to name a few. The best design outcomes are born from a collaborative effort, encompassing a collection of ideas and perspectives from all stakeholders, particularly the local community in question.

Few people are aware that Victoria is home to four of just forty three of the world’s UNESCO Cities of Design (Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong and Melbourne). These global Design Cities share similar characteristics such as an established design industry; cultural landscapes maintained by design, built environment design schools and design research centres. We have the skills. Why would we jeopardise this globally recognised, vibrant cultural landscape in a rush to increase density by approaching it purely as a numbers game?

This designation demands that culture and creativity be the strategic driver of sustainable urban development, not a single minded, knock-down-rebuild mentality that ignores our rich cultural heritage and landscape. Again, this does not mean that new development cannot occur. But it must be sensitive, innovative and sustainable to retain our City of Design values.

A YIMBY knock-down-rebuild approach also ignores opportunities for the utilisation of existing buildings and sites for exciting and innovative adaptive re-use developments. Adaptive re-use is a powerful sustainable development tool. It contributes less waste, helps mitigate climate impacts and leads to far more interesting and diverse neighbourhoods than a knock down and replace approach.

In France, for example, architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philipp Vassal won the Pritzker, the world’s most prestigious architectural prize, for a series of projects where they refused to raze existing public housing, apartment blocks and museums. Instead, they renovated existing units to provide light-filled spaces, improved thermal properties and extended and added more units to cater for increased demand. A thoughtful approach such as this, utilising existing buildings, can actually improve the liveability and sustainability of our existing housing stock.

Closer to home, consider Collingwood Yards, an Arts Precinct developed through adaptive re-use of the former Collingwood TAFE. While not a housing development, this project has created essential community infrastructure. This cultural precinct will play a vital role in retaining a sense of identity and supporting community connectedness as density increases in the neighbourhood around it.

The desire to speed through decisions to address the housing crisis should not come at the expense of good design outcomes that retain the qualities and heritage we value. We need considered, evidence based and informed solutions applied. A more thoughtful (TIMBY) approach responding to place and community will not jeopardise meeting our density targets. It will ensure that the resulting housing and neighbourhoods are healthy, sustainable and delightful.

Victorians proudly appreciate and understand the culture, distinctiveness and vitality of this great State. We love where we live! Together, let’s use this as our strength and foundation for future planning. This collective view could be our advantage as we thoughtfully increase opportunities for housing, thoughtfully plan for higher density living and thoughtfully maintain and enhance community. By doing so, we will be providing appropriate, desirable places to live, work and play for now – and into the future. We stand to lose a lot if we don’t – together, we can retain, maintain and grow Victoria – thoughtfully.