Students are given a ‘wicked problem’ of identifying and trying to resolve the complex and conflicting systems of urban renewal at varied planning horizons in scale and time. The urban industrial waterfront site at Gin Drinkers Bay offers multiple difficulties associated with access, connectivity, identity, contamination and inefficient land use. In assessing the area from differing micro and macro perspectives, students are led though systematic techniques to help enable them to evaluate and filter out relevant and targeted project programming inputs through the generation of overarching project goals, sustainability objectives and detailed and localised implementation strategies.
Explorations include projecting complex urban scenarios forward with vision and flexibility, ranging from infrastructure and urban morphology to social and natural systems, the norms for which are anticipated to change dramatically through the future periods of implementation. Such approaches are developed for critical decision making at an urban scale, specifically highlighting the necessity for understanding policy, funding and recurrent cost implications over the short, medium and long terms as well as the resultant implications for landscape design.
Deliverables are presented through a variety of media including class presentations using time control techniques, individual and collaborative video documentary, and final submission of a Project Study Report accompanied by a promotional video.