Keywords
urban design, urban planning, Australia
Summary
The tension between proposals for urban change and a desire to protect the existing ‘place-identity’ of established neighborhoods is a key issue of contention in many communities, with a broad range of developments resisted on the basis that an existing place-identity would be damaged or destroyed. This paper sets out to explore some of these tensions, and to uncover ways in which urban design and development might contribute to the creation of new identities that do not destroy the existing meanings and experiences of place. Reporting the findings of empirical research undertaken at the highly-awarded ‘Subi Centro’ development in Perth, Australia, the paper discusses how conceptions of place have in this case both shaped and been shaped by urban redevelopment. Subi Centro is found to have helped construct, and to an extent actualize, a place-identity that had previously been based less on contemporary experiences in place, than on an imagined, and largely fictional, lifestyle. A perceived disparity between this lifestyle-based place-identity, and the lifestyles and attitudes of Subi Centro’s residents is now a significant part of the scheme’s narrative of place. Through an investigative approach combining extended interviews, document analysis and detailed mapping of the urban form, the paper sets out to unravel some of the complexities of place. The findings of this work raise questions over the ability of planners and designers to incorporate notions of place in the redevelopment of existing urban areas.
Date of Original
1-1-2008
Volume
1
Issue
2
Broad Type
Article
Specific Collection
Multi: the RIT Journal of Diversity and Plurality in Design.
Notes
Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to the RIT Digital Institutional Repository in August 2025; Some links embedded into the PDF may not work
