How would you design the city of the future?

remember being impressed many years ago after reading a book for children titled “My Place”. At the moment, I cannot remember the name of the book’s author.

The reason the book made an impression on me was that it

Traced the history and development of an area of Sydney from 1788 through until the book was written in the 1990s. It traced the developments that took place as what had been a very open, virgin area was gradually reduced by population.

First of all the open land became a farming community country. Then it became A series of 1-acre blocks with houses built on spacious grounds. Over time the blocks became smaller through subdivision and the houses became more numerous.

I’ll always appreciate this book showing me just how the functions of urbanisation can have both advantages and disadvantages.

People could be forgiven for thinking the issue of urbanisation and density does not impact Australia. On the map, Australia is a large landmass, being the largest island in the smallest continent on the globe. However, a quick study will reveal how much of Australia is quite unappealing and indeed uninhabitable for large groups because of a lack of natural resources including water and because of the harshness of the climate.

What’s happening in Australia as our population increases in density is that we are increasingly urbanising and building out our seaboards of the eastern states (Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria), and encroaching on all habitable lands in South Australia. The southern coast of Australia is reasonably sparse from the west of Adelaide through to Albany on the southern coast of Western Australia.

From then on the density picks up again and goes all the way around The southwest and west coast of W.A. all the way north to the other side of Geraldton.

When I was born in 1946 Australia’s population was just touching 7 million. Our population is now closing in on 27 million and our immigration intake into Australia is in order of 400,000 people a year.

I having an almost exponential increase in people. When it comes to building houses and apartments the progress is rather more arithmetic. Our rent prices in Australia are through the roof and the number of rental vacancies in order of less than 1%.

In this context, building a city becomes a real problem. Australia’s major cities are growing outwards through suburban sprawl and as time goes On, going upward through high-rise and density apartments.

For me, urbanisation and building into the cities’ futures would offer a real challenge because so much of the construction is rapid, haphazard, and I believe downright shoddy. Wild construction is happening at a rate of knots, Housing suppliers are nowhere keeping up with what Australia demands.

My thoughts about constructing a new city are at best, confused.

In some parts of Australia (for instance Cooper Pedy in South Australia and Lightning Ridge in New South Wales), houses are being built underground. That’s because of the harsh climatic conditions in which these places are located.

I couldn’t envisage an underground city, although everything is possible, because of the claustrophobia of sunlight and being closed away from the elements. But maybe the underground has to be the way to go because you can only build so far out from the city centre before all the cities and towns start connecting the new finish up with one megacity.

This is certainly an interesting juxtaposition of all of this. On the one hand, you have a vast opening expensive continent and on the other dense crowded congested and evermore crushing city populations.

I think I would resist the offer becoming a city planner and retire to one of those more remote corners of Australia where I could live in peace and reflect.

Call this a planned escape from an impossible task