Great Open Space and Great Cities
Civic spaces
As more people live in our cities and towns, often in dwellings with smaller or no private open spaces and backyards, there is ever increasing pressure on parks and public spaces.
With smaller dwellings comes an increase in the number of lone person households and that can bring with it social isolation.
Social isolation is a significant issue for various reasons including;
Social isolation increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, and early death.
It’s linked with depression, anxiety, and cognitive decline.
People who are isolated often engage in less movement.
Less connected people are less likely to work, shop locally, and contribute to the economy.
When people aren’t connected, communities are less able to respond to challenges like natural disasters, economic downturns, or pandemics.
Sporting clubs, volunteering groups, cultural activities all suffer when fewer people feel connected or welcome
Civic spaces are not a magic bullet for social isolation but they can make a massive difference
They can become a community’s primary outdoor focal point
Represent a good response to the challenges of increasing residential density and expensive land
Respond to the need for spaces to connect e.g. sole person households
Often vary in scale…usually over 2,000m2 but can be smaller
Can contain versatile multi-use spaces frequently activated by public events and pedestrian traffic.
Often are co-located with community facilities
Ideally are in proximity to commercial and mixed land uses and public transport hubs.
A1 Strategy and Infrastructure we know the bigger isn’t always better when it comes to public space.
Urban Greening
A1 are keen advocates for urban greening especially where our streets and parks will cool our city and weave nature into the urban fabric.
We know that climate change will result in a significant increase to the number of hot and very hot days.
Trees and greening can
cool the air and surfaces
increase property values
filter urban pollutants
increase urban biodiversity
encourage walking and lower car use
create safer streets
store and sequester carbon
Some hints to help your urban greening include
Focus a major greening program on “shade hungry” locations, and expand to comprehensively transform the City
Identify locations throughout the city where increased shade will bring passive cooling benefits and support walkability.
Identify urban biodiversity opportunities and triage greening and restoration efforts to increasingly weave ecology throughout the city and into urban areas.
Optimise the planting of trees in carparks and new residential subdivisions and encourage the planting of trees in schools, private properties and roads.
Support the greening of private lands through staging “Green Day” festivals, free tree giveaways, promoting the value of trees and backyard biodiversity
Start with planting 1 additional street tree for every resident over the next 5 years.
Linear Parks
At A1 we love a large park or a great little civic space, but the future of open space is increasingly linear.
There definitely more long and “narrowish” parks being developed, especially along rivers, creeks and drainage areas. Often these spaces create great opportunities from previously little used areas.
Connectivity is increasing valued for a swag of reasons
Create safe links for people to travel to work, school, shops etc
Walking is the most popular recreation activity
Integrating opportunities for fauna movement
Improve water quality with wetlands etc
The linear areas are often supported by nodes like picnic spots, playgrounds, skate and sports areas, cafes etc.
There are all sorts of variations of linear parks;
ecological corridors that can be large regionally significant or smaller often along creeks
they can be walkways providing safe links to schools shops etc
they sometimes start as temporary road closures
they can be in the form of streets that look more like parks
Parks and open space planning and management
Long term planning of parks and open space
As more people live in our cities and towns, often in dwellings with smaller private open spaces and backyards, there is ever increasing pressure on parks and public spaces. Understanding population growth and taking a very long term view of how we can best respond to the needs of future populations is fundamental to ensuring we have liveable places.
At the same time, budgets are scarce, and the costs of acquiring land, developing, managing and maintaining parks competes with a diverse range of a of priority areas like roads, safety, technology, stormwater and other important infrastructure and services.
Organisations also face challenges such as aging populations, climate change risks and associated weather events, increasing community expectations, obesity and health issues etc.
A1 Strategy and Infrastructure have extensive experience in developing and implementing strategically focused plans that have the support of stakeholders, represent expenditure in parks as a solid investment and generate plans that deliver value for money, affordable, targeted and pragmatic responses.
A1 take a long term view of how our services can be used to help build the capacity and capability of organisations. Working with your staff we combine their knowledge and experience with that of A1’s so that learning outcomes are optimised.
New parks and upgrading existing parks
A1 have a track record of success in the development of parks and open space areas. With decades of experience, and having been responsible for the delivery of literally thousands of small and large park projects we have a solid understanding of what is required to create attractive, popular, affordable spaces. From small urban plazas, to local and district recreation and sports parks, through to City transforming regional parks, A1 understand what is required and how to successfully complete park projects.
Our approach draws on the talent , knowledge and skills of our network of partner consultants. As a guide, and depending on the complexity of the project, we can better ensure projects success and draw on Australia’s best consulting and design specialists in areas such as Landscape Design, Architecture, Civil and Structural Engineering, Town Planning, Sports and Facility Development , Irrigation, Arboriculture, Community Consultation and Engagement, Economic Value and Benefits Assessment, Natural Area and Biodiversity , Event Site Readiness, Climate Change Resilience etc.
At A1 we understand that securing support and funding for projects is not always easy. We are here to help build compelling cases for your future projects with business cases, options analysis, whole of life funding considerations, grant applications, graphic design and promotional material. We can’t guarantee funding, but we will optimise your chances of securing stakeholder support and funds.
We work with your project officers as we scope projects, develop business cases, develop project plans, undertake risk assessments, consider stakeholder needs and communication planning, estimate costs and contingencies, and forecast likely delivery schedules. in doing so, staff not only build their capabilities, but improve the social, environmental and economic outcomes of future projects.
Managing and maintaining existing parks
A1 Strategy and Infrastructure have extensive knowledge and experience to help organisations in the management and maintenance of both built and green assets.
Most parks estates don’t have large expensive assets, but they more than make up for that with large numbers of lower value, small and important assets. Often overlooked from an asset management perspective are green assets like trees, gardens and turf grass. A1 understands the importance of these assets and we know just how expensive they can be to manage well. They can be even more expensive not to manage well.
Trees can be one of the highest risk assets for many organisations, sports turf, if not subject to wear based maintenance regimes can see fields closed or players injured, and garden beds have relatively short lifespans making species selection critical and especially in times of climate variability, combined with what can be very high maintenance costs.
Information on the condition of park assets is often lacking, and A1 understand that decisions sometimes need to be made with less than optimal information. We can assist with solutions that will build the quality of information for those assets that are the highest risk from a safety and user perspective.
A1 aim to build the capabilities of staff as part of our services. In doing so the “value add” continues well beyond any single engagement
Land acquisition and divestment investigations and due diligence
With our extensive background in land acquisitions, A1 have the experience and track record to help organisations investigate potential land acquisitions for important community assets such as parks and community facilities .
The acquisition of land is an important decision and numerous factors need to be considered to ensure that the business case is solid.
A1 also add value to this by considering possible alternatives including non asset solutions such as optimising existing sites, leasing etc.