Reimagining Sydney Harbour
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UIA 2017 Seoul World Architects Congress O-0268 Reimagining Sydney HarBour Lochhead, Helen* Professor and Dean, Faculty of Built Environment, UNSW Sydney, Australia Abstract Sydney Harbour is arguably the city’s only great public space; and perhaps its most contested. This paper will elucidate how social activism, aligned with vision, public patronage and brave design interventions have shaped Sydney over 200 years into the memorable harbour city it is today. Since the 1980s however, large-scale private development facilitated by government has progressively posed major challenges. The paper highlights the need to remain vigilant if the harbour is to retain its valued status. Keywords: urban regeneration, sustainable development, landscape, waterfronts, public space 1. Introduction Sydney, Australia’s largest metropolis at 4million people, is one of the world’s most extraordinary harbour cities. A 320-kilometre shoreline is ringed with the city’s most valued landscapes and places, cultural icons, infrastructure and development. The harbour is arguably the city’s only great public space; and perhaps also its most contested. Yet, despite this tension, it has retained an enduring resilience, beauty and value. The power of social activism, conscious design and continued investment in the public domain have all been instrumental in sustaining these values. But now, the accelerated pace to become a global city has been compounded by an unprecedented scale and quantum of new development that has raised the stakes. The future of the harbour is at a critical point if the city is to balance the imperatives of economic growth and identity with the intrinsic qualities that make it appealing as a livable, global city. The objectives of this paper are to (i) illustrate through a chronological overview of Sydney Harbour’s urban evolution, the competing tensions between environmental and development agendas, (ii) demonstrate the role of social activism in positively shaping and calibrating the planning and design of the waterfront (iii) reveal the paradigm shift that is now impacting Sydney Harbour’s distinctiveness and amenity. The paper is drawn from research and insights gleaned over 2 decades working as a design practitioner with government agencies and is supported by primary and secondary sources to provide context. 2. Context There is no doubt the public domain, with its competing demands, is contested space and Sydney Harbour, being the jewel in Sydney’s crown, is the most contested space in this city. This has meant, over many years, conflicts between various interests seeking to either exploit, or protect the intrinsic values of the harbour shoreline. The civic conscience safeguarding the genius loci of Sydney Harbour has most often been voiced by provocateurs such as architects, planners and conservationists (including resident action groups and trade unions) who have not only challenged the prevailing pro-development interests, but proposed alternative ideas. Not all these proposals have been good, and not all have been realized, but harbour speculations have been a constant in Sydney’s recurring cultural narrative and ensured robust debate. Many constructive * Contact Author: Helen Lochhead UNSW Sydney Tel: +613856148 e-mail: [email protected] UIA 2017 Seoul World Architects Congress 1 proposals have been achieved with the alignment of successive colonial then state and local governments with clear commitment to public policy and projects of vision, substance, and design intent. As a result, Sydney has a legacy of significant projects shaping its unique urban landscape. Iconic developments such as John Bradfield’s Sydney Harbour Bridge1 and Joern Utzon’s Sydney Opera House2 with its sail-like roof forms have elevated the city’s positioning on the global stage; it is difficult to imagine the city without them. Other discrete actions and policies driven by broader public values have cumulatively resulted in much more than the sum of their parts. Take for example, the enviable necklace of foreshore parklands, aggregated over 200 years through various means from reservation through resumption, reclamation and restoration. Some lands, alienated from the early colonial era for military purposes have ceded large tracts of bushland to later generations. Other redundant industrial sites, now rehabilitated, have been hard won. The most memorable of these projects are imbued with the palimpsest of the place, each intervention contributing another bespoke layer of experience and meaning. What is evident is that the harbour’s enduring resilience, beauty and value is in no small part due to strategic investment in the public domain by federal, state, and local governments – and more often than not in response to community voices and campaigns. Achieving this has not been easy and continues to pose challenges to the harbour as public space. 3. Colonial imaginings of Sydney HarBour The early pattern of Sydney’s development was driven by the geography of a drowned river valley that shaped its distinct form and character, of ridge-top roads and street spurs that run down to the water, of green headlands and protected bays and anchorages. Despite the city’s early focus on the harbour as a place of commerce, transport and industry - a resource to exploit - there was a counter narrative from the earliest days of colonial settlement. Tim Bonyhady offers the proposition of an emergent conservationist view from the late th 3 19 C borne out through subsequent actions to preserve the foreshores, often in the face of opposition. As early as 40 years after European settlement Governor Darling imposed a 100ft waterfront reservation on all foreshore grants. Whether this was envisaged for public benefit or mere utility, from the outset, these reservations were incrementally alienated by development. Sydney, like all growing cities, even with the best of intentions, has had to deal with the politics of competing agendas throughout its history: economic growth versus environmental protection, public versus private interests, conservation versus renewal. At key moments, these tensions initiated civic awakening, debate and protests that resulted in pivotal transformations. For example, in the late 19thC, budding environmentalists and North Sydney Council were instrumental in stopping mining and conserving the Cremorne peninsula in 1889. Cremorne Point Reserve, is one example of how the 100ft reservation was transformed into public foreshore parkland. Public debate, as well as popular commentary across the decades testifies to the value placed on this extraordinary asset and the deep concern about the alienation of public waterfront land. Progressive legislation has aided and abetted the cause – the Public Parks Act (1854) and subsequent amendments in 1884 were recognition of public recreation as a value in its own right.4 The anti-privatization of the harbour foreshores movement was bolstered by champions such as Niels Nielsen, the NSW Secretary of Lands, who resumed Neilson Park and Bradley’s Head.5 This came at a time when the town planning movement was set to make its mark lobbying government to acquire public open space for the benefit of all citizens. This earliest chapter in Sydney’s history was a barometer for the future. An imperative to act, to challenge the status quo, was borne from adversity, both real and perceived, as well as opportunity. UIA 2017 Seoul World Architects Congress 2 4. Reimagining in the first half of the 20th century At the turn of the 20th century an imperative to drive economic growth unleashed powerful forces of industrialization and modernization. A range of actions and reactions were triggered. Slum clearance and redevelopment of the overcrowded Rocks precinct, the site of Sydney’s earliest white settlement, was triggered following the outbreak of bubonic plague in 1900. This process of cleansing and regeneration was underscored by a drive to shape a more productive and dignified use of valuable urban space. The Sydney Harbour Trust was created with a remit that included efficient harbour management and the wholesale redevelopment of the wharves in Darling Harbour and Walsh Bay. Sydney’s main maritime gateway, Circular Quay at Sydney Cove, was also targeted, a recurring hotspot in the city’s history. The 1908-09 Royal Commission for the Improvement of the City of Sydney and its Suburbs provided a stocktake of the city’s major infrastructure needs and collated an extensive inventory of public works for decades to come.6 The focus was again on reimagining the waterfront for efficiency, health and - more as a by-product – beautification. These large infrastructure projects were the first of many, including the Harbour Bridge in the inter-war period, that definitively shaped the character of Sydney’s inner harbour. These city-making initiatives that delivered other significant public benefits including open space and public housing. While such major government initiatives have helped shape the modern harbour, community-based movements have tempered wholesale renewal. From the early 1900s, a counter narrative expressed regret at the passing of the historic fabric of the city and sought to retain valued heritage. Protests at the alienation of waterfront land for private use injected early citizen vigilance entwining environmental concerns and right to the city thinking. Community campaigns eventually led to the progressive introduction of foreshore building lines by Sydney Harbour municipalities providing some checks