In the world of medicine, until relatively recently the World Bank reports that “medication doses [were] typically adjusted for patient size with women considered ‘small men’” – Martin writes that “despite women, girls, and sexual and gender diverse people making up over 50% of the world’s population, it seems Western planning, like medicine, has had a similarly blinkered view of men as the locus for the universal model.”
“While gender inequality impacts people of all ages and backgrounds looking at the person specifically, not typically, is paramount because people experience public spaces differently based on their gender, sex and sexuality and in an intersectional way through overlapping identities of age, race, culture, gender, location and religion which in turn can increase inequity, vulnerability and discrimination. Therefore, averaging in the context of how we design the city is unhelpful. “
By designing cities based on a mean, diversity is flattened. It is imperative that cities are designed in a way that doesn’t over-simplify diversity.
Martin highlights consideration of distance between centres of activity as one central pillar of gender sensitive urban design. In practice this can look like increasing accessibility to local centres, decreasing distance between public hubs, and building spaces that encourage interaction.
Read more ideas and techniques on how to integrate gender sensitive thinking into planning and place design in the full article, published on Cities People Love.
Image by Molly Coulter, graduate landscape architect at OCULUS and AILA Fresh Co-Chair.
The mist garden, and urban heat:
In In A Warming World, Consider the Mist Garden, Alexandra Lange highlights the resurgence of mist gardens as a “more sustainable and accessible option for keeping hotter cities cool.”
Fog and mist installations are proving to be effective and versatile, as they are a low-maintenance way to cool off hot spaces, making them accessible in the summer heat, she writes. Fog doesn’t require the upkeep of a water body, and can embody a space and then be taken away without creating an area that is lacking without it, a seasonal problem for pools that are empty in winter.
“Fog is an atmospheric effect that has shown itself to be environmentally responsible, ephemerally beautiful and large-scale spectacular in artists’ hands many times before,” Lange writes.
In New York City, a ‘mist garden’ designed by landscape architects Quennell Rothschild & Partners has been installed to complement the giant ‘Unisphere’ sculpture at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, with great success.
“The New York City Department of Parks & Recreation was looking for a water feature designed for cooling off, rather than decoration, that would also conform to the city’s new usage restrictions … A water feature that would delight, but also be visually strong enough to stand up to the 140-foot-tall Unisphere.”
The design of the feature references the plaza’s Art Deco history, and creates an accessible, ephemeral reprieve from the summer heat, in the middle of the neighbourhood’s largest park.
Fog, Lange says, could be an effective and sustainable mechanism to increase the liveability of city spaces in the face of climate change.
The Street Furniture Australia factory, in Regents Park, Western Sydney, is both a manufacturing hub and R&D studio for our Australian-designed and made street furniture products. We run fun and informative group events for customers throughout the year, to share how products are designed, tested and built, and the latest products and projects. Director of Tract Julie Lee said: “It was a great opportunity for our team to look behind the scenes and understand the innovation, research and climate positive outcomes Street Furniture Australia is focusing on. Thank you for having us!” Place Design Group Associate, Liam Isaksen, said: “The factory tour is a fun experience to learn about the design and manufacturing process of public furniture we use in landscape architecture design. Seeing the work behind the scenes and …
Did you catch these most-read case studies, furnishing tips, new product announcements and special industry events in your StreetChat updates in 2023? Each month our StreetChat enewsletter publishes new projects, products and trends from the public domain; subscribe to receive it in your inbox. 10. Which design firm can see Longhorn Cattle from their office window? 2 countries. 9 cities. 300 landscape architects. Street Furniture Australia and USA partner Spruce & Gander visited offices in Australia and Texas. There were key similarities and some notable standouts. 9. Jazz at The Mint: Product and Book Launch Sydney landscape architects gathered at the iconic Mint Courtyard to launch a design book by our founding directors Darrel Conybeare and Bill Morrison, and expansions to the Linea collection. 8. 2023 Good Cause Giveaway goes to …
Street Furniture Australia has designed and built prototype charging stands as part of a Transport for NSW program to deliver free phone chargers at 15 Sydney train stations. Developed by Street Furniture Australia’s inhouse industrial designers in collaboration with Transport for NSW, the prototypes offer wireless, USB-A and USB-C charging, and can power 7 devices at once. They were built at the Street Furniture Australia factory in Western Sydney. Two Power Spots are now installed at Liverpool and Campbelltown stations. The $1 million Power Spots Project rollout to 15 transport hubs including Bankstown, Hurstville, Lidcombe, Penrith, Wynyard, Central, Town Hall and Bondi Junction will be completed by late 2024. NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the Power Spots provide peace of mind: “In the modern world, our phones are our …
