“There's Something about Subi”: Defending and Creating Neighbourhood Character in Perth, Australia

Abstract

Planning policy in Australian cities currently favours a more compact urban form, but proposals for higher-density development are frequently resisted by residents who argue that the ‘character’ of a place would be damaged or destroyed. This paper explores the factors underlying this resistance and assesses the extent to which character can be designed for. The paper relates a case study of the Perth suburb of Subiaco, where the design of a major redevelopment project was shaped by the form of surrounding areas, but where long-standing residents claim that it is ‘out of character’ nonetheless. Reflecting on the case through theories of place, urban design and ‘affordances’, it is suggested that this rejection of the project owes much to the way that urban designers focused on replicating certain physical features of Subiaco's character, while neglecting a host of everyday social and experiential meanings that were of equal significance to residents.

Acknowledgements

This research formed part of the Australian Research Council Linkage project ‘The Character of Urban Intensification’ (LP0669652) which was funded from 2006 to 2009. The authors would like to thank the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments and suggestions.

Notes

1. All interviews (20 people) and the focus-group session (3 people) were undertaken by the first author. The average duration of the interviews was just over an hour. Two architects, three urban designers, one planner, one project manager, one journalist and two academics were interviewed, along with three local councillors (who also spoke as residents). Seven other residents were formally interviewed, comprising a mix of redevelopment advocates and opponents. Approximately one-third of all resident interviewees lived, or had lived, at the new Subi Centro project; the remainder lived or had lived in older parts of Subiaco to the south of the rail line. One interviewee had recently moved from an older part of Subiaco to Subi Centro. The research and the focus-group session were reported in the local media at the time.

2. When residents discussed local employment opportunities and services in Subiaco, they would typically refer to the wide range of independent stores, businesses, cafes and restaurants in the commercial centre, the markets, cinemas and theatre, the several local hospitals and schools, and the light and heavy industry around the rail station.

3. Current development is underway in both the Centro North precinct (due for completion in 2014), and the 4.4 hectares Australian Fine China site (SRA website, 2011a).

4. Affordable housing is defined by the SRA as either ‘Affordable Owner Occupier Housing’ where eligible people co-own the dwelling with the State Housing Authority or another housing provider through the SRA's shared equity scheme, or social housing which is rented to eligible people by the State Housing Authority or a not-for-profit housing provider (SRA, no date). This definition then includes government housing.