Towards a Tropical Urbanism for Cairns, Australia

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.19.2.2020.3774

Keywords:

Tropical Urbanism, Urban Design, Urban Planning, New Urbanism, Regionalism, Critical Regionalism, Cairns

Abstract

This paper engages with debates about tropical cities and climate responsive design to consider the emergence of two local government master plans and one planning scheme provision explicitly addressing the tropical climate in Cairns, Australia. The undergirding concept of these initiatives is a terminology of Tropical Urbanism, a simultaneously environmental and social/cultural term that captures issues such as climate, lifestyle and identity in the constitution of the urban fabric. Through a detailed reading of the documents, combined with interviews with local architects and planners, this paper positions Tropical Urbanism as an environmentally aware version of New Urbanism and as a distinctive language of urban design emerging in the regional context of tropical Australia. Place-based initiatives such as these are important to improving the design outcomes and sustainability of regional cities, and we suggest Tropical Urbanism could be further reinforced by the social/cultural and political nuances of a more progressive Critical Regionalist approach.

Author Biographies

Lisa Law, James Cook University, Australia

Lisa Law is a geographer with interests in the politics of urban spaces in Southeast Asia and tropical Australia. Her research crosses a broad spectrum of social and urban issues, including: the changing meanings of public space, embodied experiences of migration and the politics of the tropical built environment. Lisa is currently developing two research projects in the field of tropical urban design. The first traces the history and current governance of tropical architecture/urban design in Northern Australia (projects include Tropical Sustainable Design Case Studies, Ingham CBD Master-planning). The second traces how this knowledge might be put to use in the disaster field in Southeast Asia (see Resilience in Monsoon Asia). Lisa is Editor of Asia Pacific Viewpoint a Wiley journal publishing articles in geography and allied disciplines about the region. Prior to commencing her appointment at James Cook University, she was employed at the Australian National University, the University of Western Sydney, the National University of Singapore and the University of St Andrews in Scotland.

Urbi Musso, Independent Scholar, Cairns, Australia

Urbi Musso is a Senior Planner at wildPLAN, with over 12 years’ experience in the property and development sector, spanning real estate, property/planning law, property valuation and urban planning.  Her expertise includes master planning, land use planning in remote and Indigenous communities and community engagement services. Urbi is a member of the Planning Institute of Australia, receiving recognition for Planning Excellence as Young Planner of the Year (Tropical North Queensland Branch), going on to receive the Judge’s commendation for the State award in 2018.  She has a Bachelor of Planning (Honours) degree from James Cook University in Cairns.  Her Honours thesis was an early exploration of Tropical Urbanism in Cairns.

References

Anderson, A. & Law, L. (2015). Putting Carmona’s place-shaping continuum to use in research practice, The journal of urban design 20(5), 545-562. https://doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2015.1071656

Anderson, A. & Law, L. (2013). Tropical urban design in Australia. In J. Byrne, B. Chandler & B. Echberg (Eds) Urban Voices: Celebrating urban design in Australia (pp.78-81). Urban Design Forum Incorporated, Melbourne.

Architectus (2011) Cairns City Centre Master Plan. Available from: https://issuu.com/cairnsregionalcouncil/docs/cairns_city_centre_master_plan_final_october_2011.

Bay, J.H. (2001). Three tropical design paradigms. In Tzonis, A., Lefaivre, L., & Stagno, B. (Eds), Tropical Architecture: Critical regionalism in the age of globalisation (pp.229-65). Wiley-Academy.

Bay, J.H. & Ong, B.L. (Eds) (2006). Tropical sustainable architecture: Social and environmental dimensions. Architectural Press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780080470924

Bridgeman, D. (2003) Acclimatisation: Architecture at the top end of Australia. Royal Australian Institute of Architects, Canberra.

Cairns Regional Council (2020). Statistics and facts: Population data. Available from:https://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/region/facts#:~:text=Population%20data,over%20the%20last%2010%20years.

Cairns Regional Council (2016). CairnsPlan 2016 Version 2.1. Available from: https://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/building-planning-business/planning-schemes/v2.1.

Cairns Regional Council (2010). Mount Peter Structure Plan: Summary Report, Mount Peter Master Planning Group. Available from: https://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/65186/Part-1-Final-Summary-Report.pdf.

Chang, J. & King, A. (2011). Towards a genealogy of tropical architecture: Historical fragments of power-knowledge, built environment and climate in the British colonial territories. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 32(3), 283–300. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9493.2011.00434.x

DPZ Pacific (2010). Mount Peter, Tropical Urbanism: A Design Approach, Cairns Regional Council, Available from: https://www.cairns.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/14275/Part_5.12_Tropical_Design_Tech_Report-C.pdf.

Eliasson, I. (2000). The use of climate knowledge in urban planning. Landscape and Urban Planning 48(1-2), 31-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-2046(00)00034-7

Ellis, C. (2002). The New Urbanism: Critiques and rebuttals. Journal of Urban Design 7(3):261-291. https://doi.org/10.1080/1357480022000039330

Emmanuel, M.R. (2005). An urban approach to Climate-Sensitive Design: Strategies for the Tropics, Spon Press.

Fantin, S., Alwood, B. & Law, L. (2015). Design for climate change: Tropical Australia, Sanctuary, 30, 83-85.

Fantin, S., & Fourmile, G.G. (2014). Wabu Gadun Bulmba Gurriny Mukanji Centre: A Case Study of Intercultural Design Practice. [Leadership in Indigenous Research Special Issue], eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics, 13 (1), 24-33. https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.13.1.2014.3385

Frampton, K. (1983). Towards a critical regionalism: Six points for an architecture of resistance. In H. Foster, (Ed). The anti-aesthetic: Essays on postmodern culture. Bay Press, Seattle.

Goad, P. (1999). Troppo. Pesaro Publishing, Sydney.

Harun, N.Z. & Abdullah, A. (2018). Tropical urbanism: Greenery and walkways in mediating identities. In Kassim, J., Mohd, S. Nawawi, N. & Ibrahim M. (Eds). Modernity, Nation and Urban-Architectural Form, Palgrave Macmillan, Cham https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66131-5_6

Heritage Alliance (2011). A thematic history of the City of Cairns and its regional towns. Department of Environment & Resource Management, Cairns, Queensland.

Knaap, G. & Talen, E. 2005, ‘New Urbanism and Smart Growth: A Few Words from the Academy’, International Regional Science Review, 28 (107). https://doi.org/10.1177/0160017604273621

Law, L. (2019). ‘The tropical backyard: performing environmental difference’, Geographical Research 57 (3), 331-343. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12348

Law, L., Safarova, S., Campbell, A. & Halawa, E. (2021). Design for liveability in tropical Australia. In: R. Wallace, S. Harwood, R. Gerritsen, B. Prideaux, T. Brewer, L. Rosenman, & A. Dale (Eds.), Leading from the North: Rethinking Northern Australia Development. ANU Press.

Lefaivre, L. & Tzonis, A. (2012). Architecture of regionalism in the age of globalization, Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203720806

Lefaivre, L. & Tzonis, A. (2001) Tropical Critical Regionalism: Introductory comments. In Lefaivre, L., Tzonis, A. & Stagno, B. (Eds). Tropical architecture: Critical Regionalism in the age of globalization (pp.1-13). Wiley-Academic.

le Roux, H. (2003) The networks of tropical architecture. The Journal of Architecture 8 (3), 337-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360236032000134835

Naylor, S. (2010). The Ethos of ‘the Queenslander’: A Journey into the Art of Building in North Queensland. eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics, 9. https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.9.0.2010.3424

Oppermann, E., Brearley, M. Law, L. Smith, J.A., Clough, A. & Zander, K. (2017). Heat, humidity and health in Australia’s tropical monsoon zone: A critical review of heat stress in a changing climate. WIREs Climate Change 8 (4),1-23. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.468

Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) (2017). Tropical Urbanism—Cairns City Image Study (QLD), available from https://www.planning.org.au/awards/Tropical-Urbanism---Cairns-City-Image-Study-QLD.

Pressman, N. (1996). Sustainable winter cities: Future directions for planning, policy and design. Atmospheric Environment 30 (3), 521-529. https://doi.org/10.1016/1352-2310(95)00012-7

Queensland Department of Local Government and Planning (QDLGP) (2011). Next Generation Planning: A Handbook for Planners, Designers and Developers in South East Queensland, Brisbane.

Safarova, S., Halawa, E. Campbell, A., Law, L. & van Hoof, J. (2018). Pathways for optimal provision of thermal comfort and sustainability of residential housing in hot and humid tropics: A critical review. Indoor and Built Environment 27(8):1022-1040. https://doi.org/10.1177/1420326X17701805

Schröpfer T., & Menz S. (2019). Evolution of high-rise greenery in Singapore. In: Dense and green building typologies. Springer Briefs in Architectural Design and Technology. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3035-3_3

Spicer, C. (2016). “The Cyclone which is at the Heart of Things”: The cyclone as a trope of place and apocalypse in Queensland Literature. [Special Issue: International Day of the Tropics]. eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics, 15 (2), 57-67. https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.15.2.2016.3542

Swyngedouw, E. (2013). The non-political politics of climate change, ACME 12 http://www.acme-journal.org/vol12/Swingedouw2013.pdf

Tay, K.S. (2001) Chapter 13: Rethinking the city in the tropics: The Tropical City Concept’. In Lefaivre, L., Tzonis, A. & Stagno, B. (Eds) Tropical architecture: Critical Regionalism in the age of globalization (pp.267-306), Wiley-Academic.

Tzonis, A. & Lefaivre, L. (1981). The grid and the pathway: An introduction to the work of Dimitris and Suzana Antonakakis, Architecture in Greece 15.

Winter, T. (2011). Recycled buildings: Challenging sustainability in an era of air conditioning, ICS Occasional Paper Series, University of Western Sydney, 2(2).

eTropic

Downloads

Published

2020-12-21

How to Cite

Law, L., & Musso, U. (2020). Towards a Tropical Urbanism for Cairns, Australia. ETropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics, 19(2), 52–71. https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.19.2.2020.3774

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 2 (2020): Sustainable Tropical Urbanism

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2020 CC-BY

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who submit articles to this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors are responsible for ensuring that any material that has influenced the research or writing has been properly cited and credited both in the text and in the Reference List (Bibliography). Contributors are responsible for gaining copyright clearance on figures, photographs or lengthy quotes used in their manuscript that have been published elsewhere.

2. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License that allows others to share and adapt the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

3. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository, or publish it in a book), with proper acknowledgement of the work's initial publication in this journal.

4. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access or The Open Access Citation Advantage). Where authors include such a work in an institutional repository or on their website (i.e., a copy of a work which has been published in eTropic, or a pre-print or post-print version of that work), we request that they include a statement that acknowledges the eTropic publication including the name of the journal, the volume number and a web-link to the journal item.

5. Authors should be aware that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License permits readers to share (copy and redistribute the work in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the work) for any purpose, even commercially, provided they also give appropriate credit to the work, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do these things in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests you or your publisher endorses their use.