Urban voids: the hidden dimension of temporary vacant spaces in rapidly growing cities

Abstract: Australia is one of the most urbanized countries in the world with over 68.7% of its population living in cities (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2011). The trend in rapid urbanization is predicted to continue over the next few decades, concentrating mainly on the capital cities where already around two-thirds of the population resides. As one of the most rapidly growing capital cities in 2009-2010, Melbourne recorded a population growth of 79,000 people, approximating a population increase of over 1,500 people a week. The predicted population growth Australian capital cities are expected to face over the next two decades has become a major focus in political, planning and design discussions as cities are facing immense challenges to the development of sustainable, healthy and livable urban environments in providing infrastructure, securing clean air, water and food resources, preserving biodiversity and cultural heritage as well as providing social balance and equality in publicly accessible spaces. Open and green spaces have become increasingly contested grounds in the context of urban densification with a need for securing resources and providing basic infrastructure for sustainable urban development. Recent evaluation of public land and open space availability commissioned by the Victorian State Government shows that established municipalities, especially the inner municipalities “generally have less open space per capita than outer and growth municipalities”. The report further argues that “public open space per capita in the City of Melbourne [is] projected to decrease significantly given its anticipated strong population growth”. (VEAC, 2011, p. 39) Facing these challenges, it has been called for an urban agenda and open space framework that match and balance the pace and intensity of the urban transformation and infrastructural decline. These actions not only call for the protection of current infrastructure but also for the creation of new open spaces. In this, it has been taken into account that the acquisition of new land for open spaces in established inner suburbs proves to be more challenging: “Land for open space may not be readily available where it is most needed or local councils may not have budget funds set aside for land purchases when suitable land comes on the market.” (VEAC, 2011, p. 42) As the report further identifies limited opportunities for transforming various available sites into new open spaces due to their smallness and fragmentation, it is apparent that one of the key issues here also lies in the open space classification, which commonly understands large and continuous spaces to be most appropriate sites for new open space. Strict programming of open space has, furthermore, created a condition where public activities are increasingly regulated and controlled. Many of Melbourne’s redevelopment show in this regard parallels to international examples where urban redevelopments produce new public spaces for consumption and economic activities rather than for social activities, wellbeing and inclusion, leaving only limited scope for residents to take authorship in the creation of their living environments. (Stevens & Dovey, 2010) 2 Since in current discussions little attention has been paid to the availability of temporary vacant space, this paper aims to discuss the hidden dimension and potential of urban voids in the example of Melbourne. The particular angle in which we frame this investigation is based on the concept of terrain vague which understands vacant spaces as opportunity for creative and spontaneous interventions in contrast to (over)programed and predictable places in our cities (De Solà-Morales, 1995; Lévesque, 2002). In recent years, numerous publications mostly focussing on the European (Overmeyer, 2002, 2007: Selle, 2003) and North American contexts (Waldheim, 2006; Corner, 1999, 2006; Oswalt, 2005; Berger, 2006; Gissen, 2009) have dealt with terrain vague as both theoretical and practical proposition. However, these discourses are largely informed by conditions and consequences of shrinkage and urban decline in their specific cultural context and are thus only marginally transferable to the Australian context. In this paper we aim to discuss the morphology and potential of temporary vacant spaces in the context of growth and transformation in dense and contested urban environments with specific focus on central Melbourne. First, we discuss the findings of mapping urban voids in a cross section in central Melbourne. Through this cross section that cuts through distinct areas in the process of transformation, spatial, morphological and temporal properties of vacant spaces are explored alongside issues of ownership and patronage. This cross section is a first investigation in a series and aims to establish a framework for understanding the conditions of urban voids in an inner urban context. Additional investigations will follow in sub and outer municipalities to draw conclusions from comparison of various conditions of growth, density and demographic. Further, we discuss the morphology and specific potential of urban voids through ideas of imperfection, the unfinished, uses and design responses. Through closely examining the qualitative aspects of urban voids in both active and passive terms, we aim to provide insight to what we view as potential. We argue that substantial increase of open space by utilizing existing and available vacant land offers the possibility to create a flexible network of small and large open spaces that accommodates to a range of diverse uses and functions. The paper concludes that temporary vacant spaces also have the capacity to offer counter perspectives to homogenized urban landscapes and to contribute to sustainable development in rapidly growing cities as connective tissue and mediator of transformation processes in social, cultural and ecological capacities.