Among the guests gathered at UNSW on Monday afternoon to peruse the high intensity work produced in just three weeks as part of the Sydney Urban Lab was Helen Lochhead.
The Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales was there to review the ambitious work from our next crop of urban designers. They’d been led and mentored by Seidler Chairs Richard Hassell and Mun Sum Wong of Singapore based WOHA architects.
But Lochhead had just been recognised in the Australia Day Honours with an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) along with the City of Sydney’s long term chief executive officer at the City of Sydney, Monica Barone and several other green stars.
So, we felt compelled to see if we could prise a few words from her about the award and, given her multi-disciplinary background, perhaps something about the built environment in general and the polarised debate around housing, zoning and heritage that’s erupted in Sydney in recent months.
Lochhead’s AO citation names one of the most extensive lists of professional engagements and awards you’re likely to see.
But despite this, it was her work to support women in the built environment that she regretted was omitted from the list. Something most definitely mentioned by many grateful women amid the flood of congratulations she received.
In a quick chat after the student event, Lochhead said a big impact came from the PechaKucha style event she initiated, where women from the broad spectrum of the built environment professions, including architects, urban, industrial and interior designers, project and construction managers, landscape architects and developers, shared quick takeaways with the audience. This needed to include their background and career journey, what they had achieved and insights or lessons learnt they could share with others.
Known as Engaging Women in the Built Environment, the event started with 100 people; by the second year, it had 1000 respondents, and by year six, it had moved to the Town Hall, with 500 people on the waiting lists, she said.
“You never knew what kind of wisdom or deep connection would come out of such a short brief [format]”.
Women architects have made big advancements in the past 10 years she says and acknowledges her AO may be one sign of this.
Long work hours, a traditional barrier to women juggling professional and family roles, are now less prevalent.
“You can’t get young people to work long hours anymore,” she said, quoting earlier light hearted remarks by Richard Hassle and Mun Sum Wong.
Women also have a bigger stake in the professional mainstream today, no longer needing to find “an alternative way through”.
Programs such as the architects’ Champion of Change and greater emphasis on all types of diversity – not just women – have opened more doors.
Housing, zoning and the media beat up
Among the guests gathered at UNSW on Monday afternoon to peruse the high intensity work produced in just three weeks as part of the Sydney Urban Lab was Helen Lochhead.
The Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales was there to review the ambitious work from our next crop of urban designers. They’d been led and mentored by Seidler Chairs Richard Hassell and Mun Sum Wong of Singapore based WOHA architects.
But Lochhead had just been recognised in the Australia Day Honours with an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) along with the City of Sydney’s long term chief executive officer at the City of Sydney, Monica Barone and several other green stars.
So, we felt compelled to see if we could prise a few words from her about the award and, given her multi-disciplinary background, perhaps something about the built environment in general and the polarised debate around housing, zoning and heritage that’s erupted in Sydney in recent months.
Lochhead’s AO citation names one of the most extensive lists of professional engagements and awards you’re likely to see.
But despite this, it was her work to support women in the built environment that she regretted was omitted from the list. Something most definitely mentioned by many grateful women amid the flood of congratulations she received.
In a quick chat after the student event, Lochhead said a big impact came from the PechaKucha style event she initiated, where women from the broad spectrum of the built environment professions, including architects, urban, industrial and interior designers, project and construction managers, landscape architects and developers, shared quick takeaways with the audience. This needed to include their background and career journey, what they had achieved and insights or lessons learnt they could share with others.
Known as Engaging Women in the Built Environment, the event started with 100 people; by the second year, it had 1000 respondents, and by year six, it had moved to the Town Hall, with 500 people on the waiting lists, she said.
“You never knew what kind of wisdom or deep connection would come out of such a short brief [format]”.
Women architects have made big advancements in the past 10 years she says and acknowledges her AO may be one sign of this.
Long work hours, a traditional barrier to women juggling professional and family roles, are now less prevalent.
“You can’t get young people to work long hours anymore,” she said, quoting earlier light hearted remarks by Richard Hassle and Mun Sum Wong.
Women also have a bigger stake in the professional mainstream today, no longer needing to find “an alternative way through”.
Programs such as the architects’ Champion of Change and greater emphasis on all types of diversity – not just women – have opened more doors.
Heritage makes a city interesting
On the rising call to increase density around stations and downplay heritage, Lochhead says we need a more nuanced view. Not all density needs to be focused around train stations. Places of high amenity, parks, waterways and places in transition, may be more logical locations to concentrate new housing in many parts of Sydney.
“It’s also important to realise that some of the best heritage and places of character are often around those train stations because they were developed in the 1880s right through to the 1920s.”
Think about the western rail line around Croydon, Summer Hill, and Newtown or the north shore line– little villages with their own local identity, schools, post offices, and banks.
Can the feds get involved – again?
In the face of powerful competing forces where short term economic imperatives can outweigh longer term benefits for a broader population and city, Lochhead agrees there is a case for the federal government to again take an interest in cities and planning.
The Hawke government’s Building Better Cities program in the 1990s was a good example of how this could work.
It was a more holistic approach to urbanism and densification. It wasn’t just about densification. It was about building better cities and quality urban life, and so included three tiers of government working together to deliver more ecologically sustainable development that included the provision of open space, transport and affordable and social housing, she says..
Today’s debates are very polarised, Lochhead says. Instead, we need to be more focused on what we all agree on.
As chair of several community consultative committees, she sees a range of different voices, with some things negotiable and others not.
The question needs to be “What are the imperatives that we all fundamentally agree are important?” and then “figure out how to come to a consensus that is in the long-term public interest for a liveable and sustainable city.”
Is the oppositional Westminster model outmoded?
The Westminster form of government based on opposition is possibly outmoded, she flags. The teals rose up because they felt they could not gain a viable voice within the two major parties, and they wanted their voice heard.
So, there’s hope?
“Well, I’m a designer, so I’m a very optimistic person and say, ‘What can we do about it? How can I help?’”
That doesn’t mean consultation paralysis, she emphasises. It’s about a shared vision that everyone can buy into: “Which is a healthy, equitable and green city, which is sustainable, and sustainable from an economic point of view. I mean, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who didn’t agree with that.”