space laboratory for architectural
research and design
Professor Steffen Lehmann
Recent interest in the city of Newcastle and the growing importance of regional cities in Australia is set to bring more investment to the city and transform and upgrade the City Centre. The new City Centre master plan currently being developed has the potential to shape our city in a way which will affect all residents. Public discussion about what we want for the city will soon be initiated. To this end, a reference group of architects, urban designers, planners and other professionals will be set-up by the state government. This is to be commended.
So, which influences should define the architecture of a contemporary, vibrant City Centre to take full advantage of its existing heritage buildings and its greatest asset: the waterfront? Is it possible to define, preserve and perhaps even strengthen the typical character of a city such as Newcastle in terms of urban design? I believe so.
Logical focal points for inspection are the water edges, the harbour, and the existing street grid, leading to a re-discovery of the urban ground plan. There is no need for 'radical new ideas of city' or for a 'nostalgic urbanity'. There are, however, some lessons to be learned from the urban renewal processes of other cities (Berlin, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Sydney), and innovative principles used there could well inform Newcastle's future. In fact the urban renewal of the City Centre started over ten years ago, from which time there has been a 15 per cent increase in population. People move back to the inner city area.
The most basic requirement for the city's renewal is the requirement for a transparent, democratic process, in which alternatives are developed, presented, discussed and critiqued.
Every major new project should be informed by public debate and decided by an open architectural competition with architects from beyond our state limits invited to participate, and a regular series of 'Newcastle Architecture Talks ' should be initiated.
I present here some concepts for discussion.
New architecture in the city must be integrated in an overall 'Vision 2020' and relate to the specific Newcastle context and distinctive topography, in order to reinforce the identity of the city. For a sustainable City Centre, it seems imperative to develop an overarching vision that counters sprawl, curbs commuting and promotes increasing urban density. It is less environmentally damaging to stimulate growth within established cities, rather than sprawling into new, formerly unbuilt areas. It helps reduce our automobile dependency; carbon dioxide emissions will not be reduced as long as we continue to build suburbs at low densities on the urban fringe, and as long as populations decline in the historical, inner city areas.
Urban design competitions should be conducted for the various areas in the City Centre, in close consultation with the future users and investors. Each project should offer special functions in an 'activated ground floor', in relationship to public space.
A strong focus on quality public space will be essential. Public space is the fundamental basic order of the city, and the city administration is responsible for the quality of these spaces. Public space consists of streets, squares, the foreshore promenade, green spaces and public art. The city centre needs a rich mix of all types of typical inner-city uses: office buildings, hotels, department stores, university buildings, residential buildings, shops, cinemas, squares and good landscaping. Variety and versatility are important ingredients to encourage and promote successful, productive interaction. With a Public Space Program we would raise the benchmark of Newcastle's urban quality and create a strong identity. Currently, most public space still carries the industrial qualities of the former Newcastle, and we need to make those spaces more charming and memorable. Great cities have identifiable characteristics, offering a high quality of public space, where it's enjoyable to walk around.
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 A City Centre cut-off from the waterfront: such links across the heavy railway line have never worked well |
An increase in density requires a well-designed network of connected public spaces. Such connectivity matters and a fine grain pedestrian network will deliver many benefits. Newcastle's historic street network with relatively small city blocks and the associated historic frontage lines of the streets and squares need to be respected. The existing heritage buildings offer precious authenticity and character, and many of those buildings are vacant, waiting for creative re-use. The vision of moving significant parts of the University to the City Centre, to create an inner-city campus, needs to be properly looked at. But just imagine: 3,000 students working in the city, living around this new campus in affordable housing, and populating new bookshops, cafes and public spaces - it would immediately accelerate the urban renewal.
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| Too precious to be used for car parking: prime public space overlooking Newcastle Beach should be turned in an attractive belvedere. The quality of our public spaces is crucial. |
Let's have new buildings with a clear readable entrance and preferably be made of Newcastle-typical façade material, establishing coherence and continuity. An urban atmosphere derives from density and from the materiality of the city, such as the colour and texture of the sandstone or type of brick used, not from buildings consisting solely of a curtain wall of glass. This is especially important for the first four storeys (the 'street wall'), as they define the street space. A city needs walls and openings that mark the transition between buildings' interiors and the city. Pedestrian arcades or awnings, for instance, could be built a more generous two-storey high to offer shading and weather protection to the shop fronts.
The disappearance of heavy industry allowed Newcastle to develop in a new way. Much of this new image is based on tourism, which creates jobs. In this context, it is important to encourage investment and to upgrade Nobbys Lighthouse and Fort Scratchley to become attractive tourist destinations.
Newcastle has one of the most interesting histories of Australian cities and we need to build on its unique character. Newcastle benefits from a large number of beautiful historic buildings, and this heritage should be used to inform how we deal with new buildings.
The aim of any new development is to get the right mix of usage, scale and density. Such an objective would seek to maintain independent buildings on individual lots, as the urban lot is the source of urban context which visualises the varied individual building facades (rather
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| Historically important buildings offer an exciting opportunity for creative re-use, such as the former Northern Railway Hotel or the Post Office.These vacant buildings are waiting for appropriate adaptive re-use. |
than a 'super block'). Historically this is the scale of the 'urban house', and individual lots should not be merged into a 'mega lot'. Of course, we do not want a city with a density as intense as Hong Kong or Singapore. However, cities like Barcelona, Paris or Bologna show us it is possible to create a great city centre with a compact and spatially complex model. Over the last decade we learned that internalised 'public' space in shopping malls can never really compensate for the loss of public street space. This is why I am an advocate of a compact city model, from which we might develop new building typologies appropriate for the context and climate.
A new focus on public transport and well-designed urban infrastructure also needs to be part of any master plan. Rather than putting more car parking space in the City Centre, it would be better to offer a good public transport system (for instance an efficient light railway running in the green corridor of the removed heavy railway). We need to properly deal with the issue of the rail corridor. The removal of the last 500 metres of heavy railway would reconnect urban
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| After removing the heavy railway tracks, a 'green corridor' is available to reconnect the City Centre with the harbour, and offers space for an efficient, modern light railway system. |
life with the harbour waters and open up tremendous opportunities. Anything less — for instance a few additional crossing points — will deliver a much less desirable compromise.
The question of the right parking ratio in the City Centre will need to be assessed very carefully. The new master plan should not encourage increased automobile use, but instead promote travel on foot, bicycle and public transport.
The re-introduction of modest, calmed vehicular traffic to Hunter Street Mall, where you must drive at walking pace, will attract high-quality retail back to the City Centre (where currently only 28 per cent of Newcastle's retail space can be found).
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With those key elements embedded in an overarching strategy, central Newcastle could be turned into a model of a 'Sustainable City'. However, there is currently no overarching vision in place, and political leadership is needed to tackle those priorities. In our research, a series of catalyst projects (10 Demonstration Projects) with huge potential for change have been identified. The time is right, and the recent trend towards an urban renaissance, re-valuing the urban lifestyle, will help to deliver the objectives of a sustainable 'Vision 2020': a notion of a socially-inclusive, sustainable and accessible waterfront City Centre.
Uni/RAIA Lecture 