Urban Broadcast Collective

In the wake of London’s catastrophic Grenfell Towers fire, and of local incidents including a balcony fire at Melbourne Dockland’s LaCrosse Tower, governments are increasingly acting to limit the use of Aluminium Composite Panels (ACP) and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) cladding. Also referred to as flammable or combustible cladding, use of these materials – especially in buildings over 3 levels – is now presumed non-compliant with building and construction codes in Victoria. In its 2017 report the Victorian Cladding Taskforce found the widespread use of combustible cladding to have been enabled by a poor culture of industry compliance; issues with supply and marketing of materials; and multiple regulatory systems failures. In this episode of This Must Be the Place Elizabeth speaks with Sahil Bhasin, National General Manager of Roscon – a building consultant group specialising in expert reports – about his perspective on the causes and costs of the combustible cladding problem (AKA ‘fiasco’). Sahil provided advice to the Senate Committee for Building Defects, and to the Victorian Cladding Taskforce. Here Sahil explains what combustible cladding is, why and where there is so much of it (look, low cost, easy to install, etc.), applicable standards, enforcement and data gaps, and who is paying for the scramble to rectify. He also offers a glimpse into the black hole of governance decisions behind it. The episode considers the effects of decades of cumulative legislative changes including to insurance, building surveyors, and building authority jurisdictions, combined with a construction boom. Compounding difficulties of ongoing compliance, Australia faces the legacy of thousands of buildings already swathed in combustible materials. In Victoria tens of thousands of buildings, and hundreds of thousands of people, are in the midst of auditing and rectification set to last several years. Owners Corporations are grappling with estimates as high as $40,00 to $60,000 per apartment and millions of dollars per building, and an uncertain process within which properties are in limbo. A theme is governments passing the costs of fixing cladding onto apartment owners. For example courts ruled that, as a result of legislative changes, the Victorian Building Authority cannot order directions to builders to fix non-compliant buildings after owners move in. Combined with audits and with changes exempting builders from home warranty insurance for buildings over three levels, homebuyers particularly in high-rise buildings have few consumer protections. With major builders going into administration, there are also often few legal recourses. To Sahil, “the government’s got itself to blame and the consumers are the ones paying the price”. Sahil argues recently announced loan schemes are not only unfair, but are political spin and too complex to work in practice. Sahil says cladding is a bigger problem in Victoria than figures often cited. And that new construction continues to use cladding, even in the same municipalities currently issuing hundreds of notices to owners: “the message isn’t getting to the core, which is the builders”. Also included are perspectives on: lack of warranty insurance; misleading language of suppliers, media and the politics of risk, devaluation, commercial buildings, differences between Australia and UK, the role of fire engineers, resourcing issues including essential services audits, fixes (avoided), and the power and influence of the building industry. With an aggregate bill of billions of dollars, the fallout from cladding is unfolding through industries, property markets, and legal systems. As well as immediate practical challenges, the cladding story raises broader questions around the nature of risk and liability in our buildings and cities, and the frameworks that govern them. Disclosures: Elizabeth owns and lives in an apartment in an impacted building. Sahil’s company consults for buildings with cladding.

In this episode of This Must Be The Place Elizabeth speaks with Michael O’Neill, one of the volunteer organisers of the group “Yarra Pools”. Yarra Pools are a community-led proposal to reintroduce recreational swimming to the lower reaches of the Yarra. While swimming in the upper Yarra – Laughing Waters, Pound Bend, Warburton – is popular, swimming in the lower urban reaches is now not only rare but technically illegal (due to boating regulations). Not that, as is noted, many people are being held back by the letter of the law. Swimming in the urban reaches of the Yarra dropped off steeply about 50 years ago, mostly in the wake of environmental movement. Through the 1970s Melbournians became more aware of the scale and implications of pollution, and much less inclined to gleefully drench themselves in the Yarra’s soup of raw sewage, industrial goobers, tyres, and frightening compounds. Things like the traditional 3-mile swim to Princess Bridge became the equivalent of incredulously remembering how your Dad used to smoke in his office. The environmental movement has since achieved huge gains in cleaning up the Yarra. Yet awareness has made people more wary of urban waterways. Michael characterises the cleanup of the Yarra as being about halfway there. The biggest remaining challenge is stormwater – AKA diffuse source pollution. Part of the idea for the urban pool proposal is about using swimmability as a benchmark – making the Yarra clean enough to swim in would represent a tangible and relatable measure of liveability. It would tie together the many cumulative efforts of environmental improvements including green roofs, tree canopy strategies, environmental allocations, and water sensitive urban design. Inspired by similar proposals and examples worldwide – Thames Baths, Plus Pool New York, Helsinki, Brisbane - Yarra Pools is developing and testing the idea of a river pool on the Yarra River. They see it as a swimming spot but more generally as a social and meeting space. The chosen site is Enterprise Park opposite the Casino – perhaps best known for recent controversies about Melbourne’s homeless population. Michael discusses the history of the site including its status as an Indigenous meeting space and as site of first contact. He discusses the involvement of indigenous groups and indigenous design principles in developing the Yarra Pools project, and the history of swimming at the spot - “it’s not new what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to bring something back”. The pool idea is one example of how becoming aware of what has been lost can be a way of reimagining a future. Also discussed is the “big journey to go on with regulators”. In olden-days Australia, people traditionally swam in rivers – pre-Olympic pools were areas of town rivers. Municipal chlorinated pools emerged alongside these spots as a sort of formalized offshoot, then outstripped them for reasons of pollution, public health, and local and national pride. Now, pubic pools are themselves under threat and river pools rarely contemplated. Both face the challenges of financialisation and risk mentalities. With pools seen as financial liabilities and as risks, this fuels a cycle of restrictions and cutbacks, undermining the benefits of spaces. Michael points out that this mentality has not (yet) been applied to parks. Yarra Pools’ vision is to create a space more akin to open space, with a cost model that keeps general access cost as low as possible, and facilitates community involvement. Yarra Pools see themselves as positive disruptors – if it doesn’t happen now, someone will take up the idea eventually. Michael points to the success of Eastern Beach in Geelong – a pre-Olympic swimming spot restored using proto-crowd funding. Yarra Pools are on a timeline from 2016-2023. See their website to fill in a survey and see other updates. p.s. apologies, the sound quality drops substantially about 10 minutes due to a Dictaphone mishap. yarrapools.com/

In this special episode from the Planning Institute of Australia national congress, UBC co-founder and National Award Winner for Planning Excellence, Tony Matthews (@drtonymatthews), chats with fellow award winner, Thomas Gardiner, Young Planner of the Year. Thomas, a graduate of the Griffith University planning program, reflects on his success on the national stage, life in regional Australia and how it accelerated his career. He talks about the exciting projects he’s currently spearheading and offers practical advice to young and aspiring planners. https://app.secure.griffith.edu.au/news/2018/05/11/griffith-urban-planning-experts-notch-up-more-prestigious-awards/

Podcasts from Perth: A UBC Special Edition from the Planning Institute of Australia National Congress 2018. In this special episode from the 2018 Planning Institute of Australia national congress, UBC co-founders Paul Maginn (@planographer) and Tony Matthews (@drtonymatthews) were fortunate to sit down and chat with Peter Tinley, Minister for Housing, Veterans Issues and Youth and member for Willagee in Perth’s southern suburbs in the Western Australian parliament. Peter Tinley entered WA state politics in 2009 as a member of the Australian Labor Party. Prior to his polticial career, Peter spent 25 years in the army, 17 of which were spent in the Special Air Service Regiment. In 2017, Peter became Minister for Housing, Veterans Issues and Youth. Paul and Tony talk with Peter about thoughtful density, urban renewal and his aspirations towards improving housing quality, affordability and access in Western Australia. https://www.premier.wa.gov.au/Ministers/peter-tinley/Pages/default.aspx

Podcasts from Perth: A UBC Special Edition from the Planning Institute of Australia National Congress 2018. In this special episode from the Planning Institute of Australia national congress, UBC co-founder Tony Matthews (@drtonymatthews) chats with Chris O’Connor, an Australian planner who took his career to the USA, where he now runs a successful planning consultancy. Chris discusses his experiences of working in planning in America, including his time working in both San Francisco and Austin, Texas. He talks of a radically different professional and cultural context, starting out overseas with no connections and the embracing the entrepreneurial backbone of American life. Chris and Tony chat at length about inequality in San Francisco and why there are more dogs in that city than children. linkedin.com/in/chris--oconnor

Podcasts from Perth: A UBC Special Edition from the Planning Institute of Australia National Congress 2018. In this special episode from the Planning Institute of Australia national congress, UBC co-founders Paul Maginn (@planographer) and Tony Matthews (@drtonymatthews) chat with keynote speaker Stephanus Cecil Barnard. Having seen grinding poverty, ineffective government and a lack basic services in rural Africa, Cecil decided to pursue a career as a planner to make a real difference to the lives of ordinary people. His career took him to regional Australia, via seven African countries. He recently became deeply interested in the implications of artificial intellegence for planning. In this interview, Cecil shares his thoughts with Paul and Tony on the future of planning and the impacts that AI, machine learning and big data will have on the profession and its ability to deliver quality developments and effect social good. https://twitter.com/kalahariozzie

Podcasts from Perth: A UBC Special Edition from the Planning Institute of Australia National Congress 2018. As the share of Australia’s ageing population increases this points to an increasing number of people with dementia. Dementia is the greatest cause of disability amongst Australian senior citizens. In this special episode from the Planning Institute of Australia national congress, UBC co-founders Paul Maginn (@planographer) and Tony Matthews (@drtonymatthews) chat with Jason Burton, Head of Dementia Practice and Innovation at Alzheimer’s WA. A dementia specialist for 30 years Jason highlights the need for planners, designers and architects to be mindful of the prevalence of dementia and the spatial perception challenges within our cities for those with this health condition.

Podcasts from Perth: A UBC Special Edition from the Planning Institute of Australia National Congress 2018. (@drtonymatthews) put on their bicycle helmets and clips and take a ride with James Thoem and Michael Wexler, from Copenhagenize Design Co in the first of a series of special podcasts from the 2018 Planning Institute of Australia’s National Congress held in Perth from 9-11th May. James and Michael outline the philosophy of the Copenhagenize Design Co, what bicycle urbanism is, and its role in helping making cities more liveable spaces and capacity for enhancing health and well-being. Find out more about the Copenhagenize Design Co at https://copenhagenize.eu/

Musicians, memoirs and maps: a bookish Curtin-side chat with Sarah Taylor and Sam Whiting. In this episode of This Must be The Place Elizabeth is joined by Sam Whiting, a PhD candidate and lecturer in popular culture in the school of Media and Communications at RMIT; and by Dr Sarah Taylor (Elizabeth’s sister), who recently completed a PhD on the historical geography of live music in Sydney and Melbourne and who is now a data scientist, also at RMIT. Sam’s PhD explores small live music venues: how they work as concentrations of cultural & social capital, and as places where acts get their first break. His study sites are The Old Bar and The Tote, in Melbourne’s inner north. Sarah’s PhD compared spatial patterns of live music in two cities over three decades, during which Sydney’s live music scene declined, and Melbourne’s grew, albeit both in spatially uneven ways. Sam and Sarah spoke with musicians about how they got started with gigs, and their experiences in different venues and cities. Inspired by Elizabeth recently reading autobiographies by Phil Collins and Johnny Marr, they discuss the ways musicians live and remember their lives in the context of spaces and places.

What role does the government play in facilitating displacement through transit-led development? We often hear about the role of the private sector, private landlords, and the purchasing power of individual real estate buyers in urban renewal, gentrification and displacement debates. The planning of new transit systems and overheating housing markets has renewed interest in understanding the role of government in neighbourhood change, specifically in the context of gentrification and displacement. “Many people conflate gentrification and displacement.” Professor Karen Chapple Karen Chapple and her team developed an online “neighbourhood early warning system;” a set of interactive maps that shows the current and future transformations that are underway in the San Francisco Bay Area, in the United States. “The city is always undergoing a process of renewal in some form.” Associate Professor Kristian Ruming The neighbourhood early warning system is a part of The Urban Displacement Project, which characterises Bay Area neighbourhoods (via census tracts) according to their experience of gentrification and risk of displacement. The early warning system - which is used by tens of thousands of unique visitors each year - develops a gentrification index that characterises places that historically housed vulnerable populations but have since experienced significant demographic shifts alongside real estate investment. “I think we should look at world’s best practice, which is almost the opposite of what we do in Australia” Professor Peter Phibbs We're talking to Professor Karen Chapple, Associate Professor Kristian Ruming and Professor Peter Phibbs about what urban renewal, gentrification and displacement look like in San Francisco with rent control and Sydney without it.