Great Places, for Life - The Great Places Edition

Great places are critical to the fabric of cities. The focus on liveability is shifting urban planning toward self-sufficient, community-shaped local centres or regional hubs that are well linked by frequent public transport. Place attributes – such as culture and environment, spatial characteristics, transport, recreation, housing, and schools – are valued highly in liveability indices as measures of attracting international talent and investment.?

In this edition of Great Places, for Life, we look at how our places continue to evolve in response to community expectations of the great places of tomorrow.

News:

Design team announced for the City of Melbourne’s Greenline Project

WSP has been named as part of a collaborative design team led by ASPECT Studios and TCL team to create the Greenline Project design for the City of Melbourne. This ambitious redevelopment will span 4km of the North Bank of the Yarra River – Birrarung, creating a series of ecologically and culturally rich spaces that connect people, their city, and the water. Read more

News:

Great places recognised at 2023 Victorian Architecture Awards

Congratulations to all the winners at the 2023 Victorian Architecture Awards . WSP proudly played a part in many of the winning projects including University of Melbourne Student Precinct; Nightingale Village, built to foster community in and around its residences; Victorian Family Violence Memorial, a space sculpted by landscape; and Wardle’s Bendigo Law Courts, which took in deep considerations of the built and cultural heritage of place. Find out how we can help create great places like these iconic projects in Victoria.?Read more

Insight:

Data after dark - using technology to revitalise Sydney's night-time economy

WSP and Urbis have partnered to support the New South Wales (NSW) 24-hour Economy Commissioner in strengthening Sydney’s growth for industries that operate outside standard business hours, and the communities they serve.?

The Data after Dark Project, which is being funded via the Digital Restart Fund’s Smart Places Program, will deliver an integrated data analysis platform that will be used to help inform decisions and measure the effectiveness of initiatives aimed at revitalising night-time economies in Greater Sydney and across NSW.?Read more

Webinar:

Safer cities by design

Safer public places are essential for community wellbeing. In a report undertaken in partnership with The Helen Clark Foundation, our New Zealand experts discuss how coordinated urban design interventions can help make us feel safer. These will become critically important as our cities become denser and there is more demand for public space.

The paper sets out how recent thinking on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) can contribute to safer cities. It discusses the conditions necessary for this to succeed, so that urban public space is open to all who want and need to use it. Read the discussion paper

Insight:

Strategies for reducing embodied carbon in design, construction and operations

As consultant engineers, we play a critical role in reducing the carbon footprint of buildings. While we often default to optimising building systems for operational energy efficiency, we also need to consider the embodied carbon of building materials and construction processes. In this article, our WSP experts outline strategies for reducing embodied carbon in design, construction and operations. Read more