UTS SERIES: There was pure inspiration and excitement in this podcast when I caught up with Jua Cilliers, head of the School of Built Environment and Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Technology Sydney. Chilliers brings global framing to her view of the urgent challenges we face with nature and biodiversity. Plus a huge dollop of gutsy ideas.
The challenges of nature make us catch our breath but the opportunities – what others around the globe have seized on – take it away.
Imagine a world where cars are not the dominant form shaping the landscape, where the city is designed for walkers, runners and cyclists. Or children.
Imagine passengers jumping onto a bus to find it crowded with plants – a travelling “forest” that takes you where you want to go – but from which you alight in a slightly altered state – keen to share your experience with your mates; maybe try a similar thing in your backyard or apartment balcony.
Jua Cilliers, head of the School of Built Environment, and Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is brimming with inspirational ideas. In general, they come not from Australia sadly but from her work on global networks that try to shift the trajectory from our impending crisis in nature and biodiversity to a nature-positive agenda. One that works for we humans – not cars.
The urban forest bus for instance was an idea actioned in the Netherlands, to raise awareness and put the focus back on urban greening.
Amsterdam pretty much also got rid of cars from the city, she notes, and people now ride bikes almost without fail. This, in a city where the weather is far from conducive to biking, if there is no other choice, come rain, hail or shine, people will ride. “City planning made it easy for people to bike,” she says.
Other European cities have transformed freeways into parks.
As professional planner and a member of both the South African Council for Planners and the Planning Institute of Australia, Cilliers is well qualified to predict that our urban future is not looking good. “We need to prioritise urban greening in quest of a sustainable future,” she says.
In 10 years, she says, urban greening won’t be a nice to have it will be a necessity, thanks to our changing climate. The momentum for urban agriculture and green infrastructure planning are slowly getting under way with more examples of urban food gardens, vertical gardens, and green roofs.
Nature will be increasingly important in cities in future, she says and more valued. For instance, in Belgium a community group transformed a car park into a green space for a week, despite retailers’ concern that their businesses might fail without parking. Instead, business grew and the shop owners backed the park to stay.
It’s the value generated by creating a lively, attractive space that people like, and value, Cilliers says. Alongside such spaces there’s often a boost to retail, tourism and a sense of community.
As retailers along high streets in Australia continue to fail and leave strips of forlorn shops, it might be worth thinking about. Local retailers might be surprised.
But the shift to value nature, important as it is because it shows its contribution to the GDP, can be a two-edged sword.
She warns it can turn nature into a commodity, which at the right price can be bought and dispensed with. The idea is not to put a price tag on the environment, but to value the environment to better understand the benefits it brings to societies and their host cities.
Cilliers is adamant that nature can benefit all of society.
Kids for instance.
Thinking about spaces that benefits children is high up on the priority list for her.. Especially in higher density buildings. We know density can be good, she says but it can also be dangerous.
“There’s a tipping point where children just disengage with their environments, and where they’re basically stuck in a high rise for the majority of the day, having short trips to school to wherever but not optimising that space around them.
“So there’s a big push to rethink density and different design and typologies.”
She’s working with the World University Network with stakeholders in Brazil, Africa and in the UK on a project that address this. It’s called “dangerous density”.
You can still have density, she says, but at the same time have to plan and provide access to nature.
With the International Centre of Local Democracy in Sweden Cilliers is working to go beyond child friendly cities to child focused cities that emphasise the need needs and the priorities of children.
“We’re looking at the sustainable development goals. And how these are mostly not aligned to the needs and the rights of children. We always tend to plan for the adult cohorts, right?
“So how we can adapt some of those sustainable development goals and really include our children, in our urban environment make a safe space for children, because if it’s safe and accessible and friendly for children, it would be a great space for adults.”
Children are our stakeholders, our future, she points out.
In all the work that Cilliers mention she’s inspired by her students.
The current crop she says, “want to see a change in the world, even more than the previous generation of students. Their social compass is very strongly set. I think it’s the right time because the world really needs people that can change the world and act.”
And the demand from the many industry partners that the university works with to snare the most talented students is growing thanks, at least in part, to skills shortage plaguing the built environment industry in particular.
“I get phone calls every day from industry wanting our students” Cilliers says.
- With Lyn Drummond