Australian Technology Park

The Australian Technology Park is a business and technology centre in Eveleigh, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located about 3 km south of the Sydney central business district, adjacent to Redfern railway station spread over 13.9 hectares of land.

Established in 1887 with the Eveleigh Railway Yard as its centrepiece, the Australian Technology Park was once the location of Australia’s largest industrial complex.

After the slow decline of the steam age, this magnificent but neglected site was given a new lease of life in 1995, when four of Australia’s leading Universities secured a combined investment from the NSW State and Federal Governments.

This marked the start of a vigorous transformation that both embraces the future and celebrates much of its rich cultural heritage. 

Due to the position and the hight of the buildings, they can create a big shadow.

The NICTA(Australia's information and communication Technology) Research Centre of Excellence. 

The typography of this area, infrastructures are built on different levels.

The inside of Technology Park. A lot of heavy machines. There are not in use and are protected by the fences now.

It is an open space for conferences. Offices are on the second floor, stairs are nicely connected each floor.

The East Wing of Technology Park. A very large open space. Sunshine can only go through the windows a little bit and one side of this area is really dark. 

Tracks are built at the top for transferring goods between offices.

Urban Graffiti near Redfern Station

I've found many urban graffiti near Redfern Station. They can always express underlying social and political messages. I couldn't read the meaning of these graffiti, however they bring vitality and colours to the city.

City of Sydney Model

Really grand model in the Town Hall building. The scale is 1:500.

The City of Sydney model is one of the finest urban models of its kind. It includes all existing buildings and proposed building development in the Sydney local government area. The model can be used to test shadows and sun access. The model is constructed from timber and plastics and finished with automative paint.

The buildings in the model are colour coded according to their current building and development status as follows:

cream-coloured: existing development

brown: individual heritage buildings

blue: development approval (construction not commenced)

red: under construction 

white: pending development approval and building study envelopes

GuangZhou, China - David Holm

COX Architecture's new project calls for a new financial CBD distinct from the existing traditional social and cultural CBD. Their current work captures the key points in major developments that utilize existing infrastructure, curiously overlooked in re-establishing a community grain with dense cities. Their winning design establishes a strong connection with the dynamic Pearl River and engages the new typology of a quay that will allow increased waterside development and pedestrian activity. The project is looking to establish urban controls for a new 4 million square metres of floor space and their strategy organises this around a central park, the new quay and a major transport hub that sits beneath the iconic sustainably driven high rise tower.

MLC Centre

The MLC Centre is a skyscraper in Sydney, Australia. The office building is 228 metres high and has 60 storeys.

The building is a stark white, modernist column in an octagonal floorplan, with eight massive load-bearing columns in the corners that taper slightly towards the top. It is one of the world’s tallest reinforced concrete buildings.

The building was designed by Sydney architect Harry Seidler. The MLC Centre has many entrances and connected with the underground food court and railway station. The open square is surrounded by bars and cafes with nicely arranged white umbrellas to protect customers from bad weathers.

Building frontages on Belfour Street

The building frontages are quite special on Belfour Street. They have small gardens, stairs to access the building and an open space with random stuff which looks cluttered. I think although things in the open area are in a mess, the residents still use this area for a rest sometimes. They've got umbrella, sofa, chair, small tables and plants are used to decorate the area a little bit. And not only one unit building has this kind of frontage, all the units on this street has the same building frontage which makes it quite unique.

Alexandria

Alexandria is an inner-city suburb of Sydney. Alexandria is located 4 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the City of Sydney.

It is an industrial area in Sydney, trucks increase the local noise level. The biggest changing form past to now is the increasing number of cafes in this area.

Streets are the fundamental to create city shape. When observe a street, we should observe its width, function, traffic flow, bicycle lanes and residential around. We passed by the streets and lane ways which are parallel to Botany Road and cross with Reserve Street. We discussed the reasons to have parking areas in front of the buildings which can increase window shopping. The residential building types around are typical Australian terraces. As mentioned before, it is a noisy place, street trees can help to absorb noise. 

Exhibition - Intertexture urban design studio

I went to the intertexture urban design studio – Zhenjiang exhibition. It is an overseas studio with 10 UNSW architecture students, 10 landscape students and 10 architecture students from Eastsouth University, Nanjing, China. The program lasts for 3 weeks focusing on redevelop an old dockland. This place is near the river, surrounded by new modern developed commercial area on the east, old residential areas on the south. Most of the groups planed to keep the several heritage buildings in this area, reutilize the air-raid shelter in the center, and demolish all the rest areas. Rebuild the demolished areas with new residential areas, retails and green spaces. The strategy is to guide the travellers from west to the new developed area and connect the west and east areas. They also planed to convenient the residents around, providing them with more facilities, entertainments and commercials.

It is interesting to learn their development stages from observe the site, analysis the site, plan and design to the final presentation. It is amazing to see their different approaching to analysis and redevelop the area and it is quite inspired for me from their different great concepts.

Short stay in Canberra

I went to Canberra and stayed there for two days. This is my first time been to Canberra, due to the limited time, I couldn't look into the details of the city. I just got a quick glance of the city, however I still find something different about their urban design comparing with Sydney's urban design.

Canberra is the capital city of Australia and it is Australia's largest inland city. It is unusual among Australian cities, being an entirely planned city.

Not too many tall buildings in Canberra, even in the Civic area. I didn't see any large centralised shopping areas (except Westfield) in Canberra Civic like Pitt Street in Sydney. Quiet and nice city, away from busy traffics and crowed people. Vehicles here are allowed to have higher speed limit.

I found many pedestrian areas as the above picture shows. Places like town centres surrounded by some commercials and has a large public open space in the middle.

The natural habitat condition in Canberra is good. 

The trees in Canberra can always create some colourful pictures. Unlike Sydney, most of the street trees are green. Canberra has some street trees with really nice colours.

Maple as street trees here. Really nice in autumn! Bicycle parking facilities everywhere. Fewer people, and more cyclists than in Sydney. The pedestrian paths are relatively wide comparing with the vehicle lanes. 

There are many beautiful small lanes in Canberra. Most of the lanes are both for pedestrians and cyclists. Signs along the lane to remind the pedestrians pay attention to the coming bicycles and remind the cyclists to ring the bells to pass pedestrians. 

Eveleigh Farmers Market / Carriageworks, Redfern

Carriageworks located along the railway near Redfern Station.

Eveleigh Farmers Market opens every Saturday morning at the Carriageworks, the place then becomes a very lively foodie heaven! I can smell the fresh vegetables, fruits and bakeries...The site is very special and I like the shopping environment. Eveleigh Farmers Market is held in an open space with good ventilation and the shed protects the customers from bad weathers. The traditional trading mode work in concert with the opposite heritage building facade and the disused railway tracks on the ground.

The contemporary arts centre at Carriageworks was a major redevelopment by the NSW Government through Arts NSW and completed in 2007. It produces and presents a diverse, multi-disciplinary program that explores contemporary ideas and issues by working with local and international artists from a range of cultures and communities. I got a cup of coffee and seating in the arts centre for a while, I can not tell my feeling exactly, it is very special. Tall benches, high celling, pips and structures around, look through large and traditional windows. Look tired with more and more modern designs, we are always searching for some different and special places that can recall something from our heart.

Green Belts and Parks, Sydney 1910

PROBLEMS
• Residential, commercial and industrial growth on former open space
• No plan for open space or parkland

SOLUTIONS
Three different parks were renovated around 1910 with different purposes.
Hyde park was to be the beautifying monumental park with axial paths while Centennial park was to be the larger metropolitan urban reserve in which people could escape from the city. The smaller Belmore park was particularly symbolic because it immediately greeted visitors to the city as the exited the grand new Central Station. 

Exploring the Sydney Laneway - Angel Place

Forgotten Song at Angel Place is a creation by artist Michael Thomas Hill. The place has 186 birdcages and 10 speakers which play the songs of about 50 bird species. The birdcages were originally installed as a temporary exhibition, but now the birdcages are empty and the speakers are no longer play the songs, but still can remind us about the habitat loss. I came to the place not with a purpose, I was shocked when I discovered this place! The narrow street, tall building on the sides and the lonely birdcages there made me feel depressed. The bird cages are hung very high, if you pass the lane in a rush without look up, I think you are going to miss the birdcages. So when we observe a place or a city, we should always slow down our pace, we might get surprised by the detailed design of a place or a city.

Why reconnect nature and the city?

 "If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is Nature's way." - Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics

Maynard Avenue, in Seattle's old Japanese neighbourhood, is a green street with cisterns, art, and landscape that draw on the area's culture and history.

Even the youngest community members can be involved in turning the medians into usable habitat.

There are several ways to reconnect nature and the city:

-Improve water quality 

(green stormwater infrastructure slows and filters rainwater, reduces erosion, and removes pollutants in the water that enters lakes, rivers and streams.

- Improve air quality 

(trees and plants )

- Reduce urban heat island effect 

(heat builds up in urban areas, where natural vegetation is replaced by buildings, roads, and other paved areas that absorb heat during the day, such as parking lots. Reintroducing green materials helps make a more comfortable urban environment for people and lowers energy consumption.)

- Improve habitat 

(Greening the city provides shelter and food for wildlife. Selecting the species of trees and plantings to be used in the right-of-way for their habitat value helps to support healthier urban ecosystems.)

- Improve well-being of people who live in the city 

(people connect with nature in the city: gardening, bird-watching, enjoying the local park bench.)

- Create economic benefits 

(people value living in green neighbourhoods with tree-lined streets. Studies show that people are willing to pay more for homes with trees.)

- Engage children, citizens, and decision makers 

(The more connected people are to the natural environment, the more they commit to keeping it healthy. As children are increasingly spending time with digital toys instead of outdoor play, environment education has taken on great importance.)