{"id":10178,"date":"2015-10-02T16:48:35","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T06:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/news-media\/?p=10178"},"modified":"2019-07-24T16:23:43","modified_gmt":"2019-07-24T06:23:43","slug":"nsw-chapter-president-51015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.architecture.com.au\/news-media\/nsw-chapter-president-51015\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW Chapter President"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thoughts from a traveller<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve just returned to Sydney from three weeks away in Paris and London. It’s wonderful to visit these great cities and remind yourself how they are made. I found the joy of walking the streets of Paris tempered by the frustration of knowing that in Sydney our decision-makers keep trying to un-learn the lessons of our past, and un-learn the knowledge of how to make a great city. It\u2019s a frustration enhanced by the knowledge that Sydney still has the potential to be a great city that truly reflect its stunning natural landscape.<\/p>\n

It seems the “shock of the new” demands an attempt at a new way, which somehow means you throw out the rule book and hope the “Instagram” or “technology” will solve the inherent problems, yet tellingly they always seem to fail. Thankfully cities are dynamic places that are in constant re-making. But the wastefulness of building badly and then replacing one mistake with another one 25 years later is not the way to make a great city \u2013 but it\u2019s a pattern we keep repeating.<\/p>\n

It is also frighteningly true, as Amanda Burden [past director of the NYC Department of Planning and Chair of the City Planning Commission that commissioned the Highline] says, that you have to constantly fight for public space and domain. I guess this is our role as guardians of the city: to fight for Sydney’s public spaces. It\u2019s a great role for the Institute to embrace through advocacy.<\/p>\n

I wrote some notes whilst in Paris on what makes a good city…..these are largely what good architects know, what you as members know, what people like Philip Thalis and Peter John Cantrill advocate so graphically in their book Public Sydney<\/em>:<\/p>\n