Children learn and grow with play, especially outdoors, though research shows that children are now only spending two hours or less outside – 36% less than previous generations. Hayball associate and Landscape Australia writer Natalia Krysiak returns from her travels in Tokyo feeling inspired with ideas of how to create cities that support the wellbeing of children and encourage outdoor play.
Krysiak describes the excitement of active children in the densest city in the world, Tokyo. She says, “Scattered among the trees are a mud kitchen, a zip-line, a secret tree house and makeshift cubbies used by children of all ages and abilities: the type of play that childhood dreams are made of.”
Tokyo offers 80 playparks like this connecting children to unstructured nature-based play and Krysiak sees this as “a benchmark of a great city: one that is designed to facilitate rich, meaningful childhood experiences for our youngest citizens.”
“Designing neighbourhoods where children can play in nature is increasingly critical as cities densify and open space becomes more precious.”
Krysiak believes the key elements when designing cities for our youngest generation is ensuring that children can have independent movement through safe streets to schools, playful community spaces and rethinking the ‘traditional’ backyard.
Read more about “small” urban interventions that can profoundly impact the health, wellbeing and happiness of children.”
Kick-starting the development of the urban digital twin
“The push for technology without a proper process is a recipe for failure,” says Helber Lopez, Solution Manager with infrastructure engineering software company Bentley Systems, in an opinion piece for digital construction news site BIMplus.
Lopez writes about important questions for all stakeholders involved in developing their urban digital twin. He firstly asks all to agree on the meaning of ‘digital twin’ as the connection of the physical and digital worlds to enable stakeholders to make data decisions.
Lopez says, “Openness is a catchword. Be sure you know what that means for each offering. Every city has grown its own ecosystem of systems and data formats and you must make sure that your urban digital twin can connect and consume data without conversions. Imports and exports are not going to cut it for the level of automation expected from efficient administration.”
Lopez says that an urban digital twin needs to solve a problem that the city has and bring value to its people. He asks, “But how can we gauge their value when most cities in the world have not even started discussing them? This is a chicken-and-egg problem, and many municipalities have not the slightest motivation to take on risk.”
The Street Furniture Australia factory, in Regents Park, Western Sydney, is both a manufacturing hub and R&D studio for our Australian-designed and made street furniture products. We run fun and informative group events for customers throughout the year, to share how products are designed, tested and built, and the latest products and projects. Director of Tract Julie Lee said: “It was a great opportunity for our team to look behind the scenes and understand the innovation, research and climate positive outcomes Street Furniture Australia is focusing on. Thank you for having us!” The 2-hour tour (plus travel) includes: Places are limited for the 2024 dates below. To register please contact Sally Morrison on smorrison@streetfurniture.com, or book your ticket on Eventbrite. Thursday, 11 April 20248.45am – 11am Thursday, 25 July 20248.45am …
Cumberland City Council, the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and Street Furniture Australia in November co-hosted a factory tour and knowledge exchange for Councils about creating great public spaces and local manufacturing. Guest speakers presented enriching case studies and conversations about Country, climate, culture and community at the Street Furniture Australia factory, which is located within the Cumberland LGA in Western Sydney. 55 people attended the event. Head of Marketing and Innovation with Street Furniture Australia, June Lee Boxsell, said, “Activating Western Sydney was a fantastic opportunity to share ideas on bringing joy to our local communities while also celebrating the completion of Merrylands Civic Square — a remarkable human-centred development at the heart of Cumberland City Council. “With Street Furniture Australia positioned right at the doorstep of Western Sydney-based …
Broadcasting from a shipping container studio in South Fremantle in the city of Perth, Western Australia, independent not-for-profit community radio station Freocast shares music and storytelling by local voices. A passion project for Fremantle architect and long-serving community radio broadcaster Nick Juniper, the online station is supported by volunteers and local partners to broadcast a range of community-based shows and DJ mixes, and hosts events onsite. Juniper says the station creates a connective space: “Fremantle has a very strong, engaged and passionate community, and I created Freocast as a way of providing an opportunity for a wide variety of voices and opinions to have a chance to broadcast,” he told StreetChat. “We also felt strongly about creating a physical space where the community could come together, connect, listen to music …
Australian Bird of the Year: Swift Parrot The critically endangered Swift Parrot has been crowned Australian Bird of the Year in the Guardian / BirdLife Australia’s biennial 2023 poll, a public voting contest that aims to raise awareness of conservation issues. After a successful online campaign by conservationists, concerned about dwindling numbers with only 750 of the Swift Parrots remaining in the wild, BirdLife describes this year’s outcome as “a huge win for threatened species everywhere.” Samantha Vine, BirdLife Australia’s Head of Conservation and Science, says, “We are watching extinction in real time for the Swift Parrot.” Alex Croft of BirdLife Australia says the Swift Parrot won with a grand total of 11,171 votes and the first time for ‘swifties’ to have taken out the title. The Tawny Frogmouth was …
Three landscape architects share their thoughts on the Voice History is calling as Australians head to the polls for a referendum on October 14, 2023, to vote on enshrining an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in the Constitution. The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) said it encourages all members to “engage deeply with the available information, contemplate its implications, and arrive at an informed stance that aligns with your values and beliefs. “As landscape architects, we often find ourselves at the intersection of nature, culture, politics and history, aiming to craft spaces that resonate with the stories and experiences of those who inhabit them. This unique position imparts a special responsibility upon us to be both informed and sensitive to the cultural dimensions of our work.” AILA has compiled referendum …
New research: planting trees in cities could save lives New research from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health suggests planting more trees could lead to fewer deaths from increasingly high summer temperatures in cities. The researchers say increasing urban tree coverage to 30% could reduce temperatures by approximately 0.4%, which could reduce heat-related deaths by 39.5% according to the study’s modelling. Lead author, Tamara Iungman, says, “We already know that high temperatures in urban environments are associated with negative health outcomes, such as cardiorespiratory failure, hospital admission, and premature death.” Her team wants to influence policymakers to make cities greener, “more sustainable, resilient and healthy.” Co-author Mark Nieuwenhuijsen says, “Planting more trees in cities should be prioritised because it brings a huge range of health benefits beyond reducing heat-related deaths, …
