Emergence of new cities, high-speed rail between major cities, and increased appetite for self-contained studios in home builds – these are some of the trends one urban planner predicted will change the shape of Australian cities over the next decade.
Mike Day (pictured above), a partner at planning and design practice Hatch RobertsDay, the urban solutions division of Hatch, also shared insights into some of the enhancements he believes Australian cities need.
Owning and running a private vehicle currently ranges from $12,000 to $20,000 per year, according to RACV and RACQ, while the latest findings from the Transport Affordability Index showed that almost 15% of its income on transport costs.
Day said private vehicle transport costs in disconnected suburban growth areas will become more expensive than housing in the future and that the future success of the growth areas of cities would be dependent on a more “urban” form of “walkable neighbourhoods” and varied modes of transport.
These contemporary neighbourhoods will feature the early introduction of transit schools and separated dedicated walking and cycling paths, leading to the formation of 15- and 20-minute neighbourhoods’ that “allow residents to leave their homes for daily essentials without relying on a car,” he said.
These urban patterns will be enhanced by the emergence of mixed-use developments, which will create self-contained communities framed around pedestrians, cyclists, and diverse forms of micro-mobility, such as e-bikes, mid-tier transit, and small-scale electric buses.
“Walking should be the ‘privileged mode,’” Day said. “Children should be able to walk and cycle to school from day one in new residential neighbourhoods. Novel methods of providing ‘interim schools’ should be mandatory in all new housing estates.”
He noted that successful interim “schools in houses,” “schools in offices,” and “schools in shops” have been trialled in South Australia and Western Australia and have wider application in the Eastern States.
Many pilot programs across the world have introduced car-free school zones, including in Toronto in 2019, where students were encouraged to walk and cycle to school.
“Adopting the 15- and 20-minute neighbourhood principles across new developments would allow children to walk or cycle to school from day one no matter where they live,” Day said.
There should be more distributed workforce and hybrid workplaces in the growth areas of our capital cities, Day said.
“Businesses have had three years of remote and hybrid work, and many have chosen to keep the hybrid workspace model to maintain a more sustainable and healthier lifestyle, save costs, and retain employees,” he said. “Commuting is debilitating for employees and reduces time spent with family members. The business sector should be gearing up to produce ‘satellite’ workspaces in emerging urban growth areas.
“Many businesses are terminating long-term leases and increasingly choosing flexible office spaces with shorter-lease terms due to the emergence of hybrid workplaces. Many have adopted co-working spaces for their cost-effectiveness and flexibility.”
The Australian co-working office spaces market is expected to grow by more than 4% annually between 2023 and 2028.
To provide attainable housing and jobs in new self-contained cities serviced by high-speed rail in rural areas, Day said potential sites for new cities should now be considered.
He pointed out that eight cities can potentially be built along a Sydney-to-Melbourne high-speed rail line which “could provide distributed workplaces and much more attainable housing for residents within proximity to the mega cities of Sydney and Melbourne.”
“When developing these new cities, we must learn from history and consider major environmental factors, such as flooding,” Day said.” Building in resilience to environmental disasters requires transformative action years ahead of construction. Unprecedented floods in NSW and Queensland have resulted in devastating outcomes. While relocating existing flood prone settlements to higher ground and creating new towns might be challenging and expensive, disastrous events years in the future can be avoided.”
Day said Australia should now consider new technologies to create liveable and sustainable cities connected by world class high-speed rail between Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne.
“We should look to countries such as France, where rail travel is promoted and flights less than an hour are prohibited, or China, where they have developed trains which reach speeds of 600 km per hour,” he said. “That would see high-speed rail travel between Sydney and Melbourne take one and a half hours.”
Connecting the eastern states with a high-speed rail link, in turn, presents a unique opportunity to create value-capture of rural landholdings near the stations, including the provision of attainable housing and enterprises. The sale of land near the stations will significantly defray the cost of building high-speed rail connections.
Demand for dwellings will significantly rise in the coming years, and Day said studios above garages or granny flats are a novel and cost-effective solution for housing key workers and people of modest means.
“Low-cost investment options, such as granny flats, can help meet the increased demand and population growth,” he said. “Ancillary dwelling or granny flats can be built in rear yards or above rear garages and are significantly cheaper to build than houses. At around $100,000 to build, they can be rented out for around $100-200 per week. They help keep families together through intergenerational living and are a more attainable option for many young people.”
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