Good morning, Kaya – and welcome to the latest edition of Urban Scrawl! We're excited to bring you lots of thought-provoking reading in our eighth edition.
We enjoy sharing interesting ideas with you, our member community, who are just as curious and passionate about ways to improve our region as the team at Committee for Perth is.
If you’ve come across any research, books, podcasts, videos and ideas, please don’t be shy about sharing! Let us know at enquiries@committeeforperth.com.au so we can make sure our member community gets the benefit of your knowledge, too. Together we can achieve so much more.
Happy reading, Paula Rogers & Francien Boom
Committee for Perth |
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INTERNATIONAL INSPIRATION |
How can we reimagine experiences to engage visitors beyond the traditional exhibit model? That's the question the gurus over at Moment Factory are addressing through creative placemaking, crafting transformative, immersive experiences for centuries-old establishments. The spectacular lightshow they created to highlight the beautiful interior of Montreal's Notre-Dame Basilica can only be truly appreciated by witnessing (or watching) the show – see the video above.
With the success of events like Perth's Lightscape in King's Park (now in its second year), Vivid Sydney and Singapore's Marina Bay Light and Water Show 'Spectra', there's enormous potential to add to Perth's tourism offerings. Events of this magnitude can drive significant economic activity and public activation, as demonstrated by Vivid Sydney in 2023, which generated approximately $206.1 million in spending in NSW across 23 nights. Perth already hosts a number of remarkable light show events throughout the year, presenting a further expansion to established venues. Whether it's envisioning multimedia to light up the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, the Bell Tower or Perth Town Hall, how can Perth leverage these types of experiences to bring people together? |
“The Mindfulness City in Gelephu will be a showcase for sustainable and value-driven urban development for future generations”. It might seem like an urban designer’s Utopian dream, but this is the vision that underpins the proposed 1000km² master plan for Gelephu, marking Bhutan’s most exciting and ambitious urban development to date. At its core lies four guiding pillars: mindfulness and wellbeing, sustainability and nature, wisdom and values, and innovation and growth.
The masterplan for "Gelephu Mindfulness City" shows a low- to mid-rise metropolis built around a network of inhabitable bridges, which will "house" key features of the city such as a new international airport, a university, a hydroponic greenhouse, a cultural center, a spiritual center, and a hydroelectric dam.
Designed by BIG, alongside ARUP and Cistri, the master plan draws its inspiration from Bhutanese culture, the principles of Gross National Happiness, and the country’s strong spiritual heritage. Situated in Southern Bhutan near the Indian border, Gelephu aims to leverage its strategic location to stimulate economic growth, offer opportunities to the local population and retain talent. The initial phase of the project is expected to be completed over the next five years, with the plan fully realised over the course of 20-30 years.
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The Global Cities Index by Oxford Economics ranked Perth globally at #23. This index evaluates 1,000 cities across five key categories: economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. Through the examination of 27 indicators, this index offers a nuanced perspective on what makes a city attractive to residents, visitors, and investors alike.
Some noteworthy statistics: Perth cracked the top 2.5% of cities worldwide, third position among Australian cities and secured the 23rd spot overall, between Luxembourg at #22 and Denver at #24. Perth was in the top 100 for all categories, except quality of life. The quality of life category encompasses factors including life expectancy, income per person, income equality, housing expenditure, recreation & cultural sites and internet speed indicators.
The index highlights Perth’s key strengths as high GDP growth, good air quality and high GDP per person, attributed to the mining sector. However, it also sheds light on its weaknesses, including large temperature anomalies, less economic diversity and slow internet speed.
We’re a long way away from dial up internet speed, and data shows that there is a general underinvestment in internet connectivity infrastructure in Australia as a whole, due to various factors such as lack of industry competition, remoteness and e-infrastructure.
Committee for Perth will use these strengths and weaknesses as opportunities for improvement and will continue to challenge and advocate for policies that prioritise economic diversification, increased broadband speeds, and sustainability initiatives to mitigate climate change.
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Have you been stuck in traffic this week? Traffic congestion, and its social, economic and environmental impacts, presents critical challenges to cities worldwide. With a population of 1.7 million in 2023, Aucklanders are open to the idea of congestion pricing, as found in new research commissioned by policy and advocacy organisation the Northern Infrastructure Forum (NIF), and delivered by Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, a think tank and research centre at the University of Auckland. Using a panel of 30 participants, the research involved exploring the views of the community on congestion pricing, or time-of-use charging, using deliberative democracy principles. Is this a road Perth should explore?
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The panel developed a set of principles aimed at informing the design of a time-of-use charging scheme, which was presented to council, transport authorities and central government. The primary objective of the scheme must be to reduce congestion. The other key principles are to strategic use of discounts and exemptions to mitigate social impacts, revenue must be used exclusively to provide transport options for Aucklanders, and above all keep it simple and transparent.
This new research has got us wondering about congestion pricing in other parts of the world. Congestion pricing has been gathering momentum in cities worldwide, including Singapore, London, Stockholm and San Francisco, with varying strategies and systems in play. Singapore was first to introduce congestion pricing back in 1975, whilst London’s ‘Ring of Steel’ charges drivers £15 per day to drive in its congestion zone. To combat air pollution, promote public transport and alleviate traffic congestion, the city of Milan introduced an innovative road pricing scheme. This initiative mandates an entry fee, waived for vehicles meeting specified emission standards, in order to improve the quality of life for citizens and visitors.
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Finances have led to a rethink of Saudi Arabia’s 105-mile-long linear city 'The Line', which has been scaled back by 98.6% of its original design, down to 1.5 miles. |
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| Have some time up your sleeve? Here's some of our suggestions for this month's watching, listening and reading: |
WATCH: Shubhendu Sharma, a Bengaluru-based industrial engineer and eco-entrepreneur, Ted Talk on how to plant a tiny forest near you. Bringing back lost forests, he says, can improve our planet and our lives.
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LISTEN: Generation Z - those born between 1997 and 2012 - are playing a bigger role in shaping the way we'll live, work and play over the next decade. Futurist, Dr Ben Hamer, shares more about these 'digi-sapiens' and what we can expect from them in the future in his ThinkerTank Gen Z podcast.
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Sometimes the best research comes from people who are living and breathing a city, like Hassell Perth's Principal Peter Lee who shares his love for Hanami (more specifically their teriyaki scallop), the Eagles and Optus Stadium. |
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It’s the weekend. Are you an early riser or lazy starter? What’s your typical Perth weekend morning?
I’m not a late riser but it is never quite as early as it is mid week. A typical weekend morning starts with reading the newspaper and wandering down to Lady Annie coffee shop in Beaufort Street, Mt Lawley. Then off to Bunnings or to visit one of my daughters and my grandsons.
Will you be eating out this weekend? And where? If we are not down at the farm I will be eating out – Hanami Japanese Restaurant in Beaufort Street at the end of our street. What’s your favourite local dish?
The teriyaki scallop dish at Hanami is my favourite dish in Perth – I order it every time I go there. What will you be listening to? Reading? Watching? Now it’s winter I will be watching and listening to the footy, I love the West Coast Eagles – my wife and I are note holders and have been members since day one – these days I watch with both great hope and trepidation.
The best way to spend a Sunday afternoon in Perth? Walking down to Beaufort Street for a quiet long lunch with family or friends, unless there is footy on.
From an architect’s point of view, what’s your favourite building in Perth?
Optus Stadium and its surrounds is my favourite building in Perth – it was a great pleasure to work on the design of the stadium and all the things we planned about how it would operate have worked out. It’s world class and something I’m very proud of. One last question. If you could do one thing to improve Perth, what would it be?
Two things, firstly about 5 times as many people living here in the city centre, and secondly making the waterfront busy, accessible and interesting. |
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FROM THE COMMITTEE FOR PERTH RESEARCH LIBRARY |
With the completion of the data collection phase for 2024 Perth Perception Survey , Urban Scrawl felt it was timely to revisit an earlier study from this series. Introduced in 2012 and commissioned every three years, the study explores residents’ overall satisfaction with living in Perth and its drivers. It also examines the perceived advantages and disadvantages of living in Perth and people’s expectations for the future.
Perth Perception Survey 2021 found that Perth residents were more satisfied with living in the city than in 2012, but not compared to the highs of 2015. The main reasons for living in Perth were consistent with 2018, but safety was more important than ever - most likely due to WA being relatively unimpacted by Covid, which also contributed to higher appreciation of Perth's low density living. The study found few Perth residents are aware of current growth projections, and fewer again feel we’re prepared for a population of 3.5m.
We look forward to sharing the results of Perth Perception Survey 2024 with you later in the year. |
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Committee for Perth conducts its work on Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar. We recognise their peoples' ongoing connection to land, culture and community and in doing so, pay our respects to Elders past and present. |
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