This plan is old. waitaminute, it's a HOPSCA!

This plan is old. waitaminute, it's a HOPSCA!

“In this satirical take on the trajectory of urban evolution, Hamilton pokes some rather pointed fun at the tendency of capitalist industry to relentlessly intensify the scale of real-estate development, in this nominally residential building are found not only shops, living space, and a steam-powered mass transport system, but also religious institutions and the houses of government —the public realm has been totally absorbed by the monolithic power of the private.” by Grant E. Hamilton 1895.

Judge was a weekly satirical magazine published in the United States from 1881 to 1947.

Read more on HOPSCA: www.karisinkko.com/hopsca.html

Common Planning Elements

What is the natural 'hit list' of themes / topics of planning? I think it should cover:

Built Environment
Heights, building mass, density, layout, character, road types, road surfaces, character.

Natural Environment
Water courses, parks, open spaces, recreation areas, character.

Social Environment
Social nodes, business activity areas, cultural facilities, entertainment districts, character.

Transport Environment
Road networks, traffic, activity, public transport, walkability, character.

Economic environment
Housing stock, populations, demographics, employment watersheds, cost of living.

Experiential Engagement - An analysis in terms of Planning and the community

Do these people pictured represent the community or are they users of this place?
Are they free riders that just use the place and the community pays for it? The community not only deserves to have a say in their future, they can make a valuable contribution through their detailed understanding of the place.
We have a responsibility to contribute, collaborate and debate outcomes on behalf of the common good as well as individual interest.
The outcome of urban design is as much about means as ends. Of course we need to engage the community in the process rather than only ‘consulting’ them. Good communication between stakeholders is vital.

With the orientation of Planning now creating focus towards communities since the 1970's (Duffy and Hutchinson 1997) with an emphasis on partnership, empowerment and consultation. To me I feel that the process is still top down, in that the political process that controls planning, well here in Australia removes the notion of one of the three, empowerment.

Can this empowerment be sourced from the key stakeholders that are within the communities context. As in do the public know what they think is right, well cars and housing currently go together like jam on bread. It's not necessarily a good thing on mass. But the lifestyle of a suburban dweller is actually more connected and community aware than a inner city dweller, as Brueckner and Largey put it, as social interactions go down as the densities go up (2006).

Creating livable urban environments – places that are good to live, work, and play – starts with the community. A consultation process that’s well planned, well carried out, and the right style for the community, will let you learn what people value, what things they want changed, and want they want council to manage.

"No other expertise can be substituted for locality knowledge in planning, whether the planning is creative, coordinating or predictive” Jane Jacobs.

So does this mean that we can have a social, dynamic society without a governing body? This is where community auditing can be used as a method of consultation (Murtagh 1999). But this analysis has to be done without prejudice and with the community in mind. But what if this process is not done correctly? The problem with analysis is that it takes a slice of attitudes and could also fail with reinterpretation by what was said and not written down.

What if the voice gets lost or is misunderstood by trusted people in the chain of authority? Jacob talks of the importance of “hop-and-skip” relationships. This relationship within the community relates to Highgate Hill and West End. As part of the development process, signs are placed in the public realm.

Such signs give notice publicly advertising the fact that something is going on and here it is. You’re able to find out what is going on before anything happens. All details are available; there are no middle men to hide key factors or to mislead infringing interests.

Remember that consultation without action is meaningless. With the information you get from the community let the community know how you'll use it. Allowing communities to self govern as well as developing broader policy direction than to micromanage is the step forward in achieving this.

Fleshing out HOPSCA: What is it?

HOPSCA is a prescribed type of mixed use not permitted to be made organically like 
ancient or medieval mixed use centers over centuries.The ingredients of a HOPSCA are its 
SCALE of a minimum of 15,000 resident population in medium and high density living units. Minimum of 10ha land component. 

ACTIVE TRANSPORT NETWORK that incorporates active and passive modes, non-motorised and motorised networks. 

RESOURCE STREAMLINING of HOPSCA's will contribute to social cohesion, efficiency and sustainability through sharing of resources. But they also seem to be targeted at the middle to higher incomes and also displace the local community as they are artificially created communities which I found somehow disheartening as I would personally like to see a more social housing to be included.

I think HOPSCA's are a good way to create economic centers in areas that have a low cost so that the developer profits by creating them. I looked at possible locations for a HOPSCA around the city of Brisbane in Australia based on having empty land, sites that could fit one and the lands proximity to transport networks (roads or rail). What I have demonstrated is that it would be more successful if it was better matched with the local area, I think connecting to the community is the most difficult part. I think it's important to have the existing community benefit from HOPSCA. 

How can the requirements of the community be met by a HOPSCA?

Yes, more funds = more development. I wonder what the percentage of types there are. Perhaps it's Hotel 30%, Office 10%, Park 5%, Shopping 15%, Convention 10%, Apartments 30% of the space. Also, stages of development are also to be considered but they need to be self supporting. Unité d'Habitation, of course. 

Having uses in one building. Howards scale is very large, but not the scale of HOPSCA. It is more like Le Corbusier, perhaps in between these.

The hub of this is the predetermined mixed use of Hotel, Office, Park, Shopping, Convention, Apartments (HOPSCA) is that they are flexible in terms of scale of operation. Depending on how it is funded, is it public (Government) or private (Venture) created? Because of it's scale, it has a major influence in shaping larger Planning Policy. Some developments I have seen are done in stages, they respond to the markets need for office spaces or retail. So, predicting these market forces will shape HOPSCA. How they relate to the larger environment is also a matter of looking if they provide a gap in the market as well. So regionally you need to see it's context and it's catchment of influence for each service.

A HOPSCA can also be funded by the Government like Liverpool One in which business also made it happen. Everybody loves Profit :) I believe that people are considered after all people are customers as well. So are you saying that a HOPSCA is more about Real Estate than a TOD or mixed use is? On LinkedIN there's about 70 people that identify themselves with HOPSCA. Perhaps I'm an idealist when it comes to Planning.

1.- Houses = residents < They live in the complex. 
2.- Services = customers < Traffic from outside to the complex but also from residents. 
3.- Offices = workers < Majority of people that live in the houses go to the offices. 
4.- Transport = users <Visitors to the complex, but not a Transit Orientated Development. 

5. Parks = residents+users <These as well as visitors 
6. Convention = Residents < as well as Hotel guests 

7. Hotel = Residents < A majority would work and live within the HOPSCA 

In some ways it models what a small village is like. Perhaps making things simpler to understand is the key to having larger support by Governments. The term "City within a City" has been used also to make this clearer. It tries to provide services like a city on a smaller scale, but perhaps it needs to grow like a village to town then to a city so that it can be financially flexible. 


Perhaps the time/scale of such a development could be made like a growing town, bit by bit so that it can evolve like a city.



I would like to thank Mehmet Rıfat Akbulut; JOSÉ GUADALUPE PACHECO ESTRADA & Aman Trehan in discussing these on LinkedIN.

(Sir) Walter Burley Griffin & Marion Mahoney: Canberra, Castle craig & Nolli maps.

If you hadn't noticed, I put the brackets for sir in Walter's name because really he does deserve that honour. Why you ask? he didn't bring much to the architectural landscape in Australia did he? Well, to answer that question is a bit complex. In one way he did with the elephant in the room, Canberra the capital of Australia.

Walter and Marion Burley Griffin? Marion Mahoney & Walter Burley Griffin :-)

The Griffiths saw Australia as a potential location to perfect American civic ideals and dreams. The newly formed federation of Australia's states in American eyes was seen as a declaration of independence, but in Australia, it was based on imperialism and this degree of liberty was not received well. The ideals that were given towards the development of American governmental areas was the notions of grandeur and statehood, of nationalism and defiance of the old world. The levels of bureaucracy also lead to the jaded outlook on Australia's willingness to let go of the system, crushing the Griffins belief in a new Australia.

When working with Frank Lloyd Wright, the perception of design was developed by mimicking the idea that the roof lines where low and horizontal, mirroring the prairielands. This idea, was translated by The Griffiths towards the idea of "Better design would matter in improving the quality of life" and that it was needed to have architecture makes itself visible. Marion adopted the Japanese style of drawing that included nature into the drawings which created atmosphere and a sense of place. In doing this it soften the appeal of the drawings rather than being architectural drawings. After winning the competition to develop Canberra through the use of 12 metre panel sections, they dove into the political landscape which was negative and bureaucratic as politicians and rival architects (whom then became advisors to the board) raised objections to the design.
Walter had said at the time " You become one of three things, a parasite, a panderer or a recluse. An architect can't be a recluse".

The current thought was for man to dominate the landscape, by sculpting it, removing unwanted mountain tops to form its own capital. They had a tremendous relationships with the understanding of soil and habitats as well as of local plants and how to use them. They understood the Genus, the plants colouring and time of bloom. it was a high admiration of Australian nature.

The Griffins as a couple, developed "Castlecrag estate", housing constructed using a knit-lock system that was Incidental to the landscape a natural community atmosphere that it felt like that it rose from the ashes. It was a rock bound woodland that offered a possibility of developing a community than the usual subdivision. Became a focal point of bauhinia lifestyle of the 1920's. A  balance between life and work which was unheard of in that time and place.

Walter Burley Griffin master planned community 1932. Features Marion's illustrations showing a typical front yard. Also features a floor plan

The organic nature of the master planned community featured walking paths in the back yards as well as roundabouts at the end of culdesacs.  This type of street pattern evolution was before the warped parallel street design of the 1960's, loops and lollipops of the 1970s and the lollipops on a stick of the 1980's as mentioned by Southworth.

Castlecraig flies in the face of the evolution of street design showing gradual adaptation of the car.

The Griffins wanted the capital and the projects they worked on to be fitting into the subtle nature of the landscape, as the landscape was the natural asset that Australia's built environment where as from when they move to India they adopted the local vernacular.

I'm Not The Girl Who Misses Much - Pipilotti Rist 1986.

5' , Betacam SP, PAL, couleur, son

Collection: Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (France)

I like it. <- How benign those comments are in something that is an adaptation of the first line of the Beatles song ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’. If you know that when that song was released it was seen as a sexual interpretation as the gun is a metaphor (even though it came from a cover of a actual gun magazine). 

In her 1986 reappraisal, I feel that it is a lack of being noticed as a woman, one that in opportunities to express herself emotionally, in a world that is predominantly masculine. She sees other women finding partners and in herself, feels that she must be lacking making her insecure as a child would. 

As the observer, your annoyance is demonstrated by your uncomfortable replies, ones that alienate her even further so that you can't relate and question why and try to understand. It's an awesome work, that in so few minutes says so much in it's density. It really demonstrates the formulaic movie genre, having one hour and thirty minutes of something that amounts to nothing changing in your life.

KS.

Knowledge systems, masses and the future

I've come to the realization that a majority of people believe that the knowledge they hold allows them to be come fixated on a style or movement but not the people that it affected. The depth of knowledge of something really doesn't allow you to have a better understanding, but an appreciation that something had happened and that this should be defended as a truth. As we gain more information and belief, we start to develop a right and become ignorant of the possibility that the created structures of a movement can't be wrong or misguided and elevated towards something that it is not.

Ideas are not perfect, not every system is equal. Anybody who feels that this can change would have to wait for the Earth to be burnt to a crisp before power and control is relinquished. I'd rather turn my back on a civilization that ignores problems on a global scale than one that hushes them under the carpet and say's it's beyond our control. But I can't. I'm stuck in this society pushing my wheel like everyone else, I'm not a savior or a divine being able to wipe away the tears of everybody's hurt in the world. Nor would I want to be the person that can. I think that we as a society need to face the pains that every other human experiences, this can be achieved, it is just the power and control is not as simple devices to be given up. I look at mainstream media, it was the case that one station would show a liberal philosophy, and the other labor. Each had their own standpoint and didn't balance their story to the viewers discretion. As this is the medium of choice, yes, the internet but not everyone is tuned in and this is not a medium of the masses. At a point, where does everyone have access to the town crier, one who brings the news to everyone in earshot. If messages are passed from one to another, do we hold this news to be true?

So how is it important to view the opinions or attitudes that are held to be the truth, when their is two sides to any story. That even the killer has been brought up by a family that loved them, played in the street and that fate has decided that they had to act on their actions, for them to become a different person in life. Each system of society is different, governed by the system that it supports, which comes first? The system or the society? They evolve from the other, each driven by the actions of that society. Do we allow a system to punish those who bribe or corrupt people of position, does the punishment allow for those who commit these actions really 'get away with murder'? The cold face of reality comes knocking when we discover the truth about something that should of been regulated and controlled, or does this irregularity create more work to 'improve the system' and it's progress towards a new truth. Is it the truth or the fact. Fact is a date or parsnip of information that is sieved and filtered, to give a factual basis of information. Is it then just another truth. Is that truth just then another interpretation of what we hold has valuable and something of worth.

So what do we want in our lives? the basic needs really. Food, warmth, company and shelter. What if all these came free? What if all of these things where a standard and what else would we then aspire to do. Would we then educate, create and design? Would we be able to look past our differences in boarders and language, facing a fear and despair towards others because it feels like our voice is not heard? I don't think I ask for much, people hold onto what has been in the past, it is after all, hard to forget or forgive somebody whose father had killed their own. I think that even if we are all at the level of the basic, that we would then be able to forgive and forget, but to forget how bad things have been is also ignorant. We hold onto these things because it makes us to who we are, in one way. It creates solidarity and a commonality that we are not alone. for some reason we all forget that we are born from our mothers and fathers. We are all loved, even murderers, we are not shown how to deal with the latter as much as how we know how to respect people in the street. In nature the order of the groups is kept under control as the basic needs are not met. They are constantly unable to gain a foothold or sanctuary against the tides of time. We are beyond this, we have created problems that are of our own making.

We create a world of deceit, mistrust and murder. But, we can be rational and forgiving, we do have nobler beliefs that can be given the time of day. We can be more than what we where, more than how we where.