State of Australian Cities Conference 2015 Image Analysis of Urban Design Representation Towards Alternatives Robyn Creagh Centre for Sport and Recreation Research, Curtin University Abstract: This paper is a critical exploration of visual representation of urban places. This paper examines extracts from one Australian case study, the document An Urban Design Framework: A Vision for Perth 2050 (UDF), and makes comparisons between prior analysis of urban plans and the visual language of the UDF. Three alternative representations are then briefly discussed to explore some ways in which urban places are understood and communicated outside of urban design and planning frameworks. This paper is the start of a project rather than the culmination and sketches future directions of enquiry and possibilities for practice. The overall focus of this analysis is to reveal the way in which attitudes to place, roles and process are revealed through visual sections of city vision documents. The paper concludes that the visual representations in the UDF are not neutral and that these representations correspond to discursive traits seen in urban plans. These traits conceptualise place history as unproblematic and without authors, construct authority within technical process, and limit the role of place occupants as opposed to designer or planner. Parallel to moves to challenge the language of urban plans this paper illustrates that it is also important to challenge the visual language of urban design. 1. Visualising urban design for Australian cities Urban design plans and frameworks are part of the tools and outputs of city making in Australia. The way that these documents are constructed tells us about the built environment profession’s understanding of urban places and the perceived role of various players in this context. Recently there has been much interest in the structure of city plans, however as yet there is little equivalent work on urban design policy documents. This paper is a modest contribution in this direction and takes a visual approach to a single case study. The visual approach is taken here to complement textual analysis of planning discourse. This can perhaps be seen as part of a larger move towards engagement with visual artefacts of planning (Healey 2004, Duhr 2003), and in critical engagement with digital visual materials of collaborative planning (Bamberg 2010, Wagner 2012). In order to understand policy and (extra-policy) documents as part of the process of making urban places it is useful to understand the way in which images communicate about the people, places and process of planning. The overall focus of this paper is to reveal the way in which attitudes to place, roles, and process are revealed through visuals included in city vision documents. This exploration is significant because changes to visual approaches to representing urban places, like changes to textual modes or styles of city plans (MacCallum & Hopkins 2011, p. 287), are also changes to the practice of urban design and planning of which these documents are a part. The case study discussed in the second part of this paper sits within the context of urban planning in Western Australia. MacCallum and Hopkins (2011) analyse 50 years of urban plans for Perth, Western Australia. Their focus was to highlight the relationship between local planning practice and trends in international planning theory. They undertake this through a critical discourse analysis focusing on four textual features of the plans: construal of substance, construction of agency, generic structure and presentation. This analysis was less focused on what was proposed in the plans as the way in which the proposal was communicated, in particular comparing the representation of the “nature of the plan,” “institutional roles,” “public,” “treatment of space,” and “legitimacy claims,” (MacCallum and Hopkins 2011, p. 504). Their analysis suggests that the approach of the Western Australian plans echoes concurrent trends in international planning theory which, they argue, highlights the significance of urban plans as materials to reveal changes within historical approaches to urban planning. MacCallum and Hopkins give some consideration to use of “maps, illustrations, cover design and general layout/formatting” (2011, p. 505). They highlight the way in which attractive layout is used in more recent plans to “sell” the plan to a general audience. However, in comparison to the detailed analysis of the textual content of the plans the visual analysis is slim. A deeper analysis of the visual content of plans and associated documents is possible. Visual representations also form part of discourse, and with the State of Australian Cities Conference 2015 bias in academic communication towards print based mediums, it is important to also focus on critically engaging with the visual methods of practice. Particularly in the context of urban design, the visual aspects of documents can stand as a summary in processes of further design response and interpretation. Further, the visual context of development in urban centres is no longer limited to design plans and supporting documents. City of Perth, like many aspiring global cities, uses a broad range of media to promote a particular vision of the city. These media range from bus-stop and cinema advertising to documents such as An Urban Design Framework: A Vision for Perth 2050 (City of Perth 2010) which this paper takes as a case study. Urban plans are not the only documents to contain images and text about urban futures and a new methodological engagement is needed to understand contemporary planning and urban design practice in this context. Lees (2003) highlights the value of anthropological approaches to urban studies, and this seems particularly pertinent when we see city visions spread through everyday contexts in addition to the professional sphere. In particular the nexus between design, planning and visual anthropology practices may prove a fruitful methodological starting point. This paper identifies parallels with three general continuing traits MacCallum and Hopkins highlight within the West Australian urban plans: the conceptualisation of place history as unproblematic and without authors, the construction of authority within technical process, and the limited role of place occupant as opposed to designer or planner (2011, p. 505). MacCallum and Hopkins’ analysis of Perth’s urban plans echoes Tett and Wolf’s (1991) horizontal study of North American urban plans in highlighting various means in which the authors of the plans’ views are validated while the community is silenced. Finnegan’s (1998) earlier narrative study of the development discourse of Milton Keynes, in the UK, also identifies some similar traits. In particular parallels can be seen in the centralising of the planner/developer as “unquestionably the story’s glorious hero” while “the people” or “the citizens” “lurk behind the scenes” in a secondary role (Finnegan 1998, p. 34). Likewise history is represented as unproblematic and without authors, “its relevance extending no further than its capacity to explain current conditions” (MacCallum and Hopkins 2011, p. 505). Finnegan provides context to this trait through narrative theory. The history of the development site is not relevant to the ‘story’ of the development plan or design framework which starts with the current planning process (1998, p. 33). There are also differences: while the discourse of Perth’s urban plans draws on the authority of the planning bodies constructed through reference to technical process, the narratives of the Milton Keynes Development Authority draw from images of the organic development of cities. This first section of the paper (1) has provided some context to the enquiry. The second section of this paper (2) is the case study. Three images are discussed and connections to MacCallum and Hopkins analysis are made. The third section of this paper (3) describes three works which offer alternatives to the mode of representation found in the case study and urban plans more generally. The fourth section of this paper (4) outlines advantages to incorporating alternative visual approaches within urban design frameworks or other similar extra-policy documents, particularly within the Australian context. 2. Visual representations from City of Perth’s Urban Design Framework The three image extracts below are taken from An Urban Design Framework: A Vision for Perth 2050 (UDF) (City of Perth 2010). This document makes a useful case study: It sits between the city planning framework and operational policies, and embeds other relevant documents including consultation documents, corporate plans, development plans, independent studies into Perth’s urban design, and local government planning studies. The UDF is a highly illustrated document and the text is written for a broad, rather than technical, audience. The purpose of the document is described as to help “ensure that the built environment we create reflects the community’s vision and the Council’s strategies” and to underpin “an integrated approach to better physical environments” (City of Perth 2010, p. 10). Although hardcopies of the draft were produced, it is now accessed by download from the City of Perth website. The UDF functions on several levels for different audiences. The primary audiences of the document are both internal and external. Internally the UDF works as a reference point for City of Perth planning officers, to clarify a vision for the