Redland city youth and public space report : provisions for good practice

Written for Redland City Council in collaboration with the Capalaba Stakeholders Group. The provisions detailed in this report constitute a protocol agreement developed through the Capalaba Stakeholders Group between 2009 and 2011 around young people and public spaces in Redland City, Queensland. These provisions include agreed principles, standards and responses to tensions or unacceptable behaviour, how various tensions and problems can be resolved in constructive ways and how people, including young people can work together to make a public or community accessed space safe and accessible. It is based on the recognition that young people are part of the community and that strategies to resolve tensions that arise should be inclusive and employ a mixed methods approach.

Impressions of China : Zhang Yimou's outdoor theme productions

This thesis examines contemporary mediated spectacles used in regional tourism strategies. In recent years there has been growing occurrence of ‘formatted entertainment models’ in China. With this in mind, this thesis explores the ways in which traditional cultural resources are being converted to generate diverse, hybrid commodities. The unique business model of Zhang Yimou, known as the Impression Series provides the case study. The thesis examines multilayered representations of products which continuously form, and are formatted, under the logic of the cultural market. The case study highlights the revival of traditional Chinese culture, a new branding of the Chinese national image and rising ‘soft power’. Primarily, the thesis argues that personal celebrity endorsement is replacing political propaganda heroes in promoting an alternative image of China. Zhang Yimou and Impression West Lake function as a dual branding mechanism that combines ‘people marketing’ and ‘place marketing’ for the development of a ‘created in China’ cultural commodity as well as for the generation of positive economic outcomes. Secondly, the thesis identifies how natural resources linked with a local tourism industry are articulated into cultural products and how this is experienced by visitors. Culture is a core component of China’s ‘soft power.’ Cultural experience’ strategies such as Impression combine global marketing and local cultural forces. The thesis argues that a creative entrepreneur has more advantages in promoting ‘soft power’ than governmental propaganda strategies. Thirdly, Impression West Lake encapsulates the rise of the creative entrepreneur with the help of local government authorities. Even though government cultural policy-makers can facilitate the cultural infrastructure, they ultimately rely on the entrepreneur’s creative vision and understanding of the market. Finally, based on the study of Impression West Lake, the thesis outlines future opportunities for social, cultural and economic reform in China.

Morphological design control for large-scale city development : a new proposal

Whereas many good examples can be found of the study of urban morphology informing the design of new residential areas in Europe, it is much more difficult to find examples relating to other land uses and outside of Europe. This paper addresses a particular issue, the control and coordination of large and complex development schemes within cities, and, in doing so, considers commercial and mixed-use schemes outside of Europe. It is argued that urban morphology has much to offer for both the design of such development and its implementation over time. Firstly, lessons are drawn from the work of Krier and Rossi in Berlin, the form-based guidance developed in Chelmsford, UK, and the redesign and coordination of the Melrose Arch project in Johannesburg, SA. A recent development at Boggo Road in Brisbane, Australia, is then subjected to a more detailed examination. It is argued that the scheme has been unsatisfactory in terms of both design and implementation. An alternative framework based on historical morphological studies is proposed that would overcome these deficiencies. It is proposed that this points the way to a general approach that could be incorporated within the planning process internationally.

Imagining the city : using fiction to explore urban environments

The paper will describe the ongoing project, Imagining the City: Brisbane Short Story Competition. In 2010, as part of a study investigating urban planning and the gentrification of inner city landmarks, QUT researchers developed six personas to help inform the design of city apartments. Rather than view these personas as static, the authors solicited creative responses to promote further development. Submissions of short stories based on one of the persons, and set in Brisbane, were invited from the general public. Successful stories will be published in an online anthology and as an iPhone application. The paper draws on ethnographic fiction theory to answer the question, how can research, specifically persona and use scenario, be transformed into fiction? The authors suggest that such creative responses in the form of fiction may be useful for urban designers.

Engaging the metaphorical city : Brisbane male fiction 1975-2007

Brisbane writers and writing are increasingly represented as important to the city’s identity as a site of urban cool, at least in marketing and public relations paradigms. It is therefore remarkable that recent Brisbane fiction clings strongly to a particular relationship to the climatic and built environment that is often located in the past and which seemingly turns away, or at least elides, the ‘new’ technologically-driven Brisbane. Literary Brisbane is often depicted in the context of nostalgia for the Brisbane that once was—a tropical, timbered, luxuriant city in which sex is associated with heat, and, in particular, sweat. In this writing sweat can produced by adrenaline or heat, but in particular, in Brisbane novels, it is the sweat of sex that characterises the literary city. Given that Brisbane is in fact a subtropical city, it is interesting that metaphors of a tropical climate and vegetation occur so frequently in Brisbane stories (and narratives set in other parts of the state) that writer Thea Astley was prompted at one point to remark that Queensland writing was in danger of developing into a tropical cliché.

Fear of Crime in Expatriate Australians in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam

This is an analytical report of a qualitative study of fear of crime in six Australian expatriates living in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) Vietnam. Addressing the primary question of what changes, or impacts upon, fear of crime in Australian expatriates in HCMC Vietnam, the research paid particular attention to studying the differences in fear of crime when respondents became expatriates, and the impact of incivilities and access to media. Each of the respondents indicated that they felt safer in Vietnam than in Australia. An analysis of the respondents’ responses indicates that this feeling of safety did not occur on arrival but after a short period of adjustment. The findings of this research support the existing theories on fear of crime and highlight the importance of context in predicting the impact of such factors as media and incivilities. The study has practical applications for both private and public sector organisations seeking to deploy staff to HCMC and adds to the current significant body of fear of crime research by specifically examining the issue of fear of crime amongst expatriates.

Strolling through the (post)modern city: Modes of being a flaneur in picture books

The city and the urban condition, popular subjects of art, literature, and film, have been commonly represented as fragmented, isolating, violent, with silent crowds moving through the hustle and bustle of a noisy, polluted cityspace. Included in this diverse artistic field is children’s literature—an area of creative and critical inquiry that continues to play a central role in illuminating and shaping perceptions of the city, of city lifestyles, and of the people who traverse the urban landscape. Fiction’s textual representations of cities, its sites and sights, lifestyles and characters have drawn on traditions of realist, satirical, and fantastic writing to produce the protean urban story—utopian, dystopian, visionary, satirical—with the goal of offering an account or critique of the contemporary city and the urban condition. In writing about cities and urban life, children’s literature variously locates the child in relation to the social (urban) space. This dialogic relation between subject and social space has been at the heart of writings about/of the flâneur: a figure who experiences modes of being in the city as it transforms under the influences of modernism and postmodernism. Within this context of a changing urban ontology brought about by (post)modern styles and practices, this article examines five contemporary picture books: The Cows Are Going to Paris by David Kirby and Allen Woodman; Ooh-la-la (Max in love) by Maira Kalman; Mr Chicken Goes to Paris and Old Tom’s Holiday by Leigh Hobbs; and The Empty City by David Megarrity. I investigate the possibility of these texts reviving the act of flânerie, but in a way that enables different modes of being a flâneur, a neo-flâneur. I suggest that the neo-flâneur retains some of the characteristics of the original flâneur, but incorporates others that take account of the changes wrought by postmodernity and globalization, particularly tourism and consumption. The dual issue at the heart of the discussion is that tourism and consumption as agents of cultural globalization offer a different way of thinking about the phenomenon of flânerie. While the flâneur can be regarded as the precursor to the tourist, the discussion considers how different modes of flânerie, such as the tourist-flâneur, are an inevitable outcome of commodification of the activities that accompany strolling through the (post)modern urban space.

Sections of the city : architecturalising the tools of urban morphology

The study of urban morphology has become an expanding field of research within the architectural discipline, providing theories to be used as tools in the understanding and design of urban landscapes from the past, the present and into the future. Drawing upon contemporary architectural design theory, this investigation reveals what a sectional analysis of an urban landscape can add to the existing research methods within this field. This paper conducts an enquiry into the use of the section as a tool for urban morphological analysis. Following the methodology of the British school of urban morphology, sections through the urban fabric of the case study city of Brisbane are compared. The results are categorised to depict changes in scale, components and utilisation throughout various timeframes. The key findings illustrate how the section, when read in conjunction with the plan can be used to interpret changes to urban form and the relationship that this has to the quality of the urban environment in the contemporary city.

Their space, my space, our space? Report of the 2009 Redland City Council Youth and Public Space Survey

This report analyses data collected through the Redland City Council’s Young People and Public Space Survey of 2148 high school students aged 12-19. The survey conducted in 2009 explored their sense of safety and experiences in public spaces across the City, and views on what Council could do to improve these. It is apparent they base their assessment of a space as ‘public’ on their ‘use’ of a space alone or with friends, and where strangers may be present, rather than on a type of ownership of a space (public/ private). The findings of the survey are summarised according to the themes of safety, community attitudes towards young people being in public spaces, young people and authorities, young people’s views of what is needed, and understanding different young people’s experiences of public space.