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To say Redfern–Waterloo has an image problem is something of an understatement. “Most people who live in Sydney probably don’t know much about this area. Most have never been here,” says Nigel Dickson while strolling around the back streets of Redfern. Dickson, Professorial Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of the Built Environment, says the area, just three kilometres from the city, has traditionally been isolated – in part by design. “For a long time it’s been bypassed politically and socially,” he says. “It had a large agglomeration of social housing which was built in the 1950s and 1960s. Big roadways were put in, encouraging people to just drive straight through without stopping.” And there are still some who question whether it’s safe to go to parts of the area – particularly at night.

Dickson knows Redfern- Waterloo intimately. He is one of two academics who has helped 24 students re-imagine the area up to 50 years from now, as part of the final unit of their Masters of Urban Development and Design (MUDD). The students have done intensive research, looking at issues including transport, housing, green space and business development. The work incorporates the views of residents, as well as some of Sydney’s most senior bureaucrats and councillors John McInerney and Irene Doutney.

At the heart of the semester long project was a week of intensive learning with one of the world’s leading urban planners, Professor Jonathan Barnett, from the University of Pennsylvania. Also a former director of urban design in the New York City Planning Department, Barnett says government planners and policy makers often don’t have the opportunity to take such an approach themselves. “These are ideas which have not come through normal outlets,” he says. “[Government planners] often don’t have the opportunity to sit back and say: ‘What if we made different assumptions?’ The people who are doing the work don’t necessarily see the design opportunities.”

Michael Neuman, Professor of Sustainable Urbanism and the other lecturer of the MUDD students agrees: “Our brief is of our own choosing. Just as companies have research and development to determine where their investment priorities are for the future – our research and design work is the same. It is geared to guide the investments for infrastructure and public sector improvements, as well as private sector development.” “We wanted to make the entire site more open and safe and vibrant and to provide more meeting spaces and community– oriented spaces, including outdoor spaces, plus more services and appropriate retail for all, including Indigenous community members,” he says. The changes mooted by the students include the redevelopment of housing commission, high-rise blocks into a range of housing choices for all incomes to alleviate social problems; the development of more low-rise public housing; and a high-rise development and improved amenities around Redfern Station.

MUDD student Max Stember-Young says his group wants to see light rail down Elizabeth Street. “It is the only street that connects the CBD, Redfern, Waterloo and Green Square. Green Square is significant because it is such a large-scale redevelopment and this will allow it to be better connected to the CBD.” Other plans include creating a pedestrian boulevard near Central Station; improved pedestrian crossings at Cleveland Street to better link Redfern and Surry Hills; bike lanes; and the introduction of a new train station on the Airport Line at George Street, Waterloo, linked to the possible establishment of convention facilities there.

The designs are so comprehensive the City of Sydney has asked the students to present their findings to major players at an exhibition in March 2012. The faculty also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the council earlier in the year. “It would be a dream if they took up our proposals, but even to have Town Hall consider our ideas is great,” says Stember-Young. “There is a large series of problems that have been created in Redfern (such as roads and social housing) and it needs a whole series of design solutions to bring about positive, community-needs-based change.”

Stay tuned for further updates.

Story credit: Susi Hamilton, UNSW journalist, Uniken
Photo credit: Uniken, UNSW