TOD Tour – reflections on return to Adelaide

The past 16 days visiting some of Europe’s leading urban development and regeneration projects have revealed a number of opportunities to positively shape Adelaide’s future urban form – and several lessons learnt by other cities and best not repeated.

Consistent keys to success demonstrated in London, Manchester, Stockholm, Malmö, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Rotterdam include the need for public transport infrastructure to precede residential development, with the key to successful public transport being its frequency, reliability and ease of use.  Most commonly, public transport means trams or fast trains – depending on commuting distance.

Obviously, this requires significant up-front funding by the public sector- but comes with significant social and commercial returns.  Across all the projects we inspected, the cost of rolling out public transport is perceived to have been returned by the increase in values of development undertaken along public transport corridors.  In this way, Governments have used public sector money to de-risk private sector investment and therefore attract that investment – both in property and commerce, with long term benefits in the expanded tax base, employment opportunities and the improved social environment.

This requires long-term thinking.  In the words of Manchester Council’s Deputy Leader, Councillor Jim Battle:  “Think long-term.  If you think short term you will be disappointed.”  It also requires certainty.  A common factor in the success of the major projects inspected during the tour was long term commitment to long-term plans, shared by all sides of politics, demonstrated by strong civic leadership and private sector partnerships – and contributing to a “de-risked” environment attractive to private sector investment.

A great deal of thought – and often significant funds – have been invested in planning and establishing the quality of the public realm within the successful projects we saw.  In many cases, there has been an emphasis on quality over quantity with such an approach also demonstrating the value of thinking “long term”.  In South Australia, we are on the right track with apparent bi-partisan support for the 30 Year Plan for Greater Adelaide.

But a good urban environment alone does not guarantee success.  Urban renewal and/or the creation of new towns or urban villages must be linked to economic activity.  The cornerstone of Manchester’s Salford Quays project is MediaCityUK – the new home for the BBC, ITV, Coronation Street, SIS and the University of Salford.  Similarly, Malmö’s new Vasta Hamnen waterside precinct is anchored by a fledgling IT industry, a university and the activity generated by tens of thousands of students who live, work and play in the precinct.

In summary, South Australia is in the fortunate position of being able to apply the best thinking in the world to its future – and we should not fail to take up this opportunity.  In terms of transport infrastructure, we appear to be on the right track, but momentum must not be allowed to slip.  This – and other investment – will require clever funding solutions to support new projects and de-risk the involvement of the private sector.  We need to do more work in this area.  We are planning for our long-term future but somehow need to ensure bi-partisan, multi-level Government buy-in to the delivery of that plan.  And we need to continue to attract smart, new industries to the State to underpin our State’s economy and support the infrastructure to ensure its sustainable future.

Innovative housing in Copenhagen

For over 150 years Adelaide has been used to medium density two storey townhouses and duplexes.

In fact, they are in high demand in the city and North Adelaide and their modern equivalents can increasingly be found in the inner suburbs.

Over the past few days in Copenhagen we have seen more contemporary examples – stacked on top of each other.  Typically, each apartment has two levels – with the ground level apartment having a small front yard and the top apartment having access to its own roof garden.

Often grouped within a courtyard complex offering additional secure public play spaces, these four level buildings have a number of advantages which I am confident will lead to their strong adoption in Adelaide. Firstly, they make very good use of space, with the land they free up creating great community spaces. Secondly, they are relatively inexpensive to service with shared lifts.

They are also relatively efficient to construct using concrete facade technology, with a range of facades designed by a variety of architects able to be applied to create variety and interest.

This style of home would fit well with Adelaide’s desire to lift densities while ensuring affordability and amenity. And, above all they are not new to our city apart from being stacked on top of each other, rather than side by side. As a result, we could expect strong market acceptance.  With luck we’ll soon see them in our city, too.

The importance of landmarks

A common feature of many of the new urban villages we have visited in Scandinavia particularly has been a significant landmark which identifies its location for miles around.

In Malmö, Sweden, we inspected the sustainable city development of Western Harbour – once home to the global Swedish shipbuilding firm Kockums, but since the shipyard’s closure 20-odd years ago the site of significant revitalization and re-urbanization.

Where shipyards once stood is a university with 25,000 students, a significant business area and homes for 10,000 people.

While the towering gantry crane which once dominated Western Harbor has gone, it has been replaced with the landmark HSB Turning Torso – a 190 metre high apartment and office tower which can be seen easily from the the city of Malmö and by visitors crossing the 14 kilometre bridge from Denmark to Sweden.

Like the new town of Ørestad which has several multistorey buildings to differentiate it from other centres, Western Harbor is easily navigated by reference to the landmark tower.  It’s an approach we should perhaps consider as we develop nodes around Port Adelaide, West Lakes and even Bowden.

Hammarby Sjöstad – a development with vision

We’ve just had a vision of what Port Adelaide could be… the new residential development of Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm – like Manchester, the product of a failed Olympic Games bid, with lasting benefits for the community.

Hammarby’s success also stems from an up-front investment in transport infrastructure but most of all, its activation through multiple uses, ground level retail, open space, bike paths, and soft edge waterfronts with play spaces, water grasses, boardwalks, and jetties… complete with families fishing.

Hammarby is also – like Adelaide – the product of a 30 Year Plan called Vision 2030, which envisions 150,000 additional residents in a city which is user friendly and which has the lofty goal of being fossil fuel free by 2050. Success factors at Hammarby include vision, organisation, and a management program encompassing land use, transportation, construction materials, energy use, water and sewage and waste handling.

Stockholm city controls the land (accumulated through buy backs) with developers then invited to become involved.  To date, 33 developers and 30 architectural firms have delivered 60 buildings in the half completed master planned community.

Interesting to note is the fact that even though a ratio of 0.25 cars to one dwelling was planned, 0.7 per unit has been delivered.  Despite this, ferry transport has been so popular it has replaced the need for a proposed road bridge.

On the subject of bridges, in every water development we’ve seen, the bridges have made significant character statements.  So too should the proposed bridge linking the redeveloped Adelaide Oval and the Riverbank precinct.

Hammarby Sjöstad on Wikipedia

Thirty minutes from Heathrow to hotel

This morning was a bit like living the dream … And not just because we were sleep deprived from 20 hours on a plane.

Transport oriented development works.  Within 15 minutes of clearing customs at Heathrow we were on an (electric) express train heading into London.  Fifteen minutes later we were at Paddington Station, and five minutes later, after walking along the banks of the restored Paddington Basin canal, we were at our hotel in the new Paddington Central mixed use development.

Not even a sign of a car the whole way!

Exploring the canal development (“The Waterline”) reveals high rise housing, offices, restaurants and open spaces including moorings for dozens of traditional canal boats, mostly converted to holiday homes but some as offices – all bringing the former industrial area back to life.

Changi Airport – running like clockwork

Our five hour stopover is in Singapore’s Changi Airport – a small city in itself.

Overall, the airport covers more than 1300 hectares; the terminals span more than 104 hectares; more than 3.3 million passengers pass through annually and 1300 people work here.

And it works like clockwork!  Great planning.

Just as an aside, Changi Airport was reportedly reclaimed from the sea (all 870 hectares of it); and all the terminals and tarmac constructed in the same time as it took South Australians to agree to install lights at AAMI Stadium.

It’s an example of having a plan, delivering on it and then enjoying the benefits.  It’s a lesson we might do well to keep in mind as we implement the 30 Year Plan for Greater Adelaide, the redevelopment of Adelaide Oval and the Riverbank Precinct.