There’s more technological smarts in one teenager’s PlayStation than Australia’s entire planning system.
The nation’s paper-based patchwork of planning and building rules is smoked by the visual punch and sensational immediacy of gaming software and even DIY animations on YouTube.
How is it that Resident Evil 4 is smarter than the systems that shape our buildings, precincts and cities?
The Rudd Government’s $42 million commitment to online development assessment and conveyancing is news to cheer.
However, a quantum leap in policy imagination is possible.
That’s where the D_City project comes in.
D_City aims to map the spatial genome of Australian communities.
It’s Sim City meets Google Earth meets econometric modelling hot wired into real time socio-demographic, ecological and economic databases.
D_City’s standard accessory will be building information modelling (BIM) software. Think computer aided design (CAD) on crack with a steroid booster.
Imagine opening up Google Maps and clicking on the Australia Square building in Sydney. Touch the icon and every planning instrument relevant to the property and the surrounding precinct is revealed.
Click again and there’s the sales history of the asset along with its vital statistics, including the building‘s eco footprint.
Now, expand out to the locality and view key demographic stats, transport data, energy, water and IT capacity.
A side menu might provide a snapshot of major precinct assets (such as people and their earning power) or deficits (such as congestion ratios).
Imagine you’re redeveloping the building. You submit your development application electronically based on clear rules and objectives, after choosing the assessment track relevant to your project.
The DA includes a multi-dimensional building model that slots into the Google Earth-like frame. Old development gone, new one appears.
The BIM drawings allow planning assessors to easily understand every aspect of the proposed building, which they can ‘unfold’ to their hearts content.
Building aspect, shadows, massing, all are automatically available in four dimensions (including time).
Any necessary community consultation is now a lot easier, especially as D_City deals with the fact that most people can’t read maps, plans or diagrams. The community can see what they’re getting.
Now gravitate D_City to strategic planning.
The current planning system is flying blind and so it's little wonder we end up with accidental cities.
It’s not just a question of better databases that map population distributions, transport routes, congestion, urban density, well being indicators and eco systems.
It’s about linking these elements to better understand and shape urban hierarchies.
Econometrics is an effective problem solving tool because it looks at the complex interplay of multiple factors to better grasp impacts on economic growth, competitiveness, even welfare outcomes.
We need equivalent intelligent modelling systems for the spatial arena in which the economy and social opportunity are played out.
D_City will facilitate true strategic planning for the first time.
For instance, D_City will allow a rigorous analysis of employment land requirements and transport modes, better test residential densities as well as synchronise the roll out of infrastructure with future community needs.
D_City could even test ecological scenarios.
Surely it would be better to model hypothetical sea level rises and their impact on development rather than play the spatially blind guessing game that currently masquerades as policy thinking?
Cities are metabolisms. Like the human genome project, our efforts to crack the spatial genome should focus on the interplay of factors that deliver economic, social and environmental dividends.
In doing so, we can move from the legions of dry words and squint-inducing diagrams used to communicate policy to the content rich world of sensory law.
The community deserves access to policy objectives and planning rules that are as clear and easy to fathom as any movie or computer game.
Last month Sony released the latest app for PlayStation.
It’s called ‘Life’. We need a national effort to catch up to the gamers.
For more information on D_City, please click here.
Peter Verwer |
Thursday, 9 October 2008 10:23 AM |
2 Comments
Hotels – we all love them but somehow because the promise is so high, often we are left feeling just a little disappointed.
What are the small moments that bring the experience down? Expectations are in direct proportion to the room rate. A bargain room in Tokyo only needs a comfortable futon and the wonderful Japanese cleanliness to deliver happiness, but a pricey room in Europe will disappoint if it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles including soft bathrobes and a room with a view.
So following a quick survey with well travelled colleagues over a couple of nice chilled wines (on the travel account no less) and drawing on my own mixed experiences, here’s a list of what seems to hit the mark with corporate travellers in hotels.
Firstly, a quirky/smart/grand building, something that makes an impact when you first happen upon it. Whether it is a stylish boutique hotel or a famous pile, a good statement lifts the heart even before you walk in the door.
But then, nothing is worse than waiting… no matter how lovely the lobby. After a long trip or a long day, most of us want to be attended to and want to be seen immediately. A slow check-in or check-out is unnecessary in these days of electronic surveillance. Surely we could just swipe our credit cards walking in the door and all would be sweet.
Sparkling clean should go without saying, but a friend once pulled back the curtains on a US$750 per night New York hotel to find a half eaten sandwich sitting on the windowsill. Housekeeping was so slow to respond that she could only conclude they were no longer hungry!
Being able to open a window or at least control the air is important. Centrally controlled climates with only an off/on switch can be disconcerting when travelling, making for a pretty uncomfortable nights’ sleep. It must be more energy efficient, not to mention satisfying, for the guests to allow them to fully manage their own room temperature.
Bathrooms; I personally don’t need an over-elaborate bathroom and would prefer the space allocated to the sleeping or sitting area, but a decent hairdryer and soaps that don’t smell like paint stripper are the minimum.
Have you ever wondered what happens to all those left over half-used soaps and shampoos? With the current green agenda, I’m sure it won’t be long now before we see recyled soaps; or perhaps that is taking the green initiative too far?
Also, whilst I don’t need to have a party in the shower, there is nothing worse than standing in there with walls that are too close, a vaguely mildewy shower curtain flapping against your legs and a low pressure dribble passing as an energy efficient showerhead.
And, whilst it is good to be kind to the environment by not using too many towels, spare ones (large and fluffy of course) shouldn’t be too far away.
For business travel, the mini-bar and room service becomes important. We’ve all eaten a Mars Bar and a bag of cashews for dinner at the end of a long day when we can’t be bothered waiting for room service, but wouldn’t it be great to have more options.
I must say I have always found it amusing that some hotels manage to charge extortionate rates for the basic mini bar items including water, even where the tap water is undrinkable!
I’ve often wondered if hotels could improve their bottom lines by reducing the margins on the mini bar items and getting higher turnover; perhaps though, they bank on the mini bars being totally emptied (and I’ve heard even in some cases souvenired) simply because it is on the corporate account.
Finally, what happens when you leave? The more you travel, the more you leave behind. A hotel that can reunite you with your clothes, electronic gadgets, jewellery and notebooks as quickly as possible will always get my repeat business.
That’s a pretty small list of wants, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find should it?
But around the world I have had few hotel experiences that tick all those boxes. In Singapore and Hong Kong there are some fine examples, but the relaxed holiday mode when I have visited those cities makes everything more enjoyable.
Las Vegas hotels are in a category of their own but one favourite that meets most of the basics and has more is the Hard Rock Hotel. Relatively small, the music theme keeps any old rocker smiling – and I think that covers most of us!
The lifts are called “love in the elevator”, fire exits are branded “stairway to heaven” and the do not disturb signs say “I hear you knocking but you can’t come in”.
A different crowd frequents the Hard Rock Hotel bars too. One of my friends drank vodka gimlets there with Richard Branson during a “what happens on tour stays on tour” kind of night.
Tina Tang is general manager of commercial developments at Investa Property Group.
Tina Tang |
Thursday, 9 October 2008 9:51 AM |
