Helping governments and communities resolve housing density disputes

An inaugural 2-Day Workshop  16-17 July 2012

What if we could achieve our sustainability and housing density goals without causing community unrest, dissatisfaction – even uproar? Could communities respond positively to density increases under the appropriate conditions? Dr Wendy Sarkissian believes all of that is possible. But we must understand more about the human psychology and the psychology of housing to be effective.

Griffith University is proud to sponsor the inaugural two-day hands-on workshop at with social planner, author and commentator, Dr Wendy Sarkissian, MTP, LFPIA. She will be assisted by Dr Jason Byrne, Senior Lecturer, Griffith School of Environment

This workshop is for community leaders, local and State government planners and other professionals, developers and others who want to help communities come to grips with the complexities of housing density. And to help them address why it is such a contentious feature of the Australian planning landscape today.

It will provide an understanding of why community members are expressing such concerns about increases in density in urban and rural areas and why housing is such a ‘hot-button’ issue for many people.

We need to appreciate why governments must continue to campaign for increased housing density. It’s as though these two initiatives are at opposite ends of a spectrum. Yet they are connected by the very concerns that seem to place proponents of density increases at loggerheads with community members.

Caring

The issue that unites them is caring. Governments who care about the future of communities are alert to the many signs that automobile dependence and urban sprawl are expensive and ecologically unsustainable artifacts of a bygone era. We can no longer afford low-density suburbs. (Actually, we never could but we thought we could.)

Similarly, community members who care about the future of their communities are concerned that clumsy and ill-considered initiatives will make neighbourhoods unliveable cauldrons of noise, traffic congestion, parking problems. They will have no environmental quality. Some even say: ‘the slums of the future’.

So, if everyone cares, where’s the problem and what is the secret?

A key to understanding these conflicts (occurring in our communities today) is to understand more about housing. It’s not merely ‘product’, as some developers say. It’s more than a ‘commodity’ as economists would say. For some, it’s everything: a haven, a nest, protection, security… many qualities that have little or nothing to do with density, tenure or whether one’s name is on the mortgage document…

Meanings of home

Home is a deeply archetypal concept. It’s complicated and that’s partly why people’s responses to a threat to their housing often get so very ‘complicated’. Our Homing Instinct is a deep-seated desire to protect what is personal, precious and ‘home’.

Aims of this course

The course aims to provide an understanding of basic principles and practical tools to enable students to begin to address community engagement to increase housing density.

It will provide a foundation for deeper inquiry into housing density, social planning and design and community engagement. The approach will be illustrated lectures firmly grounded in evidence-based research into housing, social design and community engagement and hands-on exercises. It is designed for external students, especially practitioners but will also be open to those at Griffith University. The format will be both informative (illustrated lectures of case study examples) and hands-on (exercises to strengthen participants’ skills).

Course coordinators

The course will be taught by Dr Wendy Sarkissian, a social planner and author. She holds a doctorate in environmental ethics and is a Life Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia. She is co-author of eight books on community engagement and a classic book on housing design, Housing if People Mattered (1986).

Dr Jason Byrne

Dr Jason Byrne is a Senior Lecturer in the Griffith School of Environment.  His research expertise is in urban nature parks and greenspace planning, equity and fairness in planning, open space and healthy cities, ecological modernisation and sustainability, and climate change adaptation and urban resilience. Current research projects include urban greenspace and climate change adaptation in China and the Gold Coast.

Dates and times

The course will be delivered over two days (16 and 17 July 2012) at the Gold Coast campus (building G31, Room 3.18/19), starting at 9 am and finishing at 5 pm. Lunch and morning and afternoon tea will be provided.

Tuition fee

The tuition fee for the two-day workshop is $1000 (GST inclusive). Enrolment will be limited to 40 participants.

Closing date for registrations is 2 July 2012.

Further details or to register:

Merrill Bowers
Administration Support Officer, Griffith School of Environment
Building G31, Room 3.02A, Gold Coast Campus, QLD 4222
Phone: +61 (07) 555 27722 Email: m.bowers@griffith.edu.au

Flyer

To download a flyer about the workshop, click here:

Homing Instinct workshop flyer

To contact Wendy Sarkissian

or contact Wendy Sarkissian on 0402 966 284

or wendy@sarkissian.com.au

I am delighted to assist IAP2 with this forthcoming event at Abbotsford Convent on the 29th May in Melbourne.

Places are filling fast to attend this spectacular line up of contributors and workshops.

Download the PDF of the program here: Engagement Without Borders _outline program

Personal, organisational, cultural, demographic or geographic; engaging with the full spectrum of our communities can be a significant challenge.

“Engagement without Borders” is an inclusive engagement feast being held at Melbourne’s renowned Abbotsford Convent.

I will be hosting the day and will guide you on a whole day SpeakOut! session to help extend your reach and attract diverse people from all corners of the community to the conversation.

Forage and sample the best in innovative and successful community engagement projects and activities drawn from some of the leading lights in inclusive engagement from across Victoria.

The event will involve an interactive panel session, concurrent workshop sessions and a marketplace with conversation circles allowing you to gain insights and tips about engaging our diverse communities from over 20 different practitioners.

Contributors to the event include representatives from local government, state government and community and not-for-profit organisations.

For further information, please contact Keith Greaves: vic@iap2.org.au.

If you are interested in this event but unable to attend, please register your interest in future events by providing your contact details to info@iap2.org.au.

Dear friends and colleagues,

Honouring the vision and legacy of Kevin Taylor

We welcome you to come and share in the Spirit of Place at Victoria Square / Tarndanyangga, as we gather to honour the vision and legacy of Kevin Taylor.

“The cultural significance of this full moon ceremony is to welcome the incoming season and prepare the space for new beginnings.

This ceremony will be the first gathering held in Victoria Square / Tarndanyangga, to reawaken the Spirit of Place as we honour the heart and the light of this city; the elements, and the earth in the spirit of humanity.”

- Karl Telfer, Senior Kaurna Cultural Bearer

Ceremony details

This ceremony will be led by Karl Telfer at 5:30pm this coming Monday, 12^th July 2011, on the southern lawn between the Australian and Aboriginal flags.

Sincerely,

Kate Cullity

and everyone at TCL

Taylor Cullity Lethlean

Landscape Architecture

Urban Design

Community Consultation

109 Grote Street Adelaide SA 5000 Australia

For more information

P: +61 8 8223 7533 F +61 8 8223 3533

grace.l @ tcl.net.au

www.tcl.net.au

For details of the plan, see:

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/victoria-squares-100m-makeover/story-e6frea83-1225864255992

For details of Kevin’s death, see: http://sarkissian.com.au/death-kevin-taylor/

The grand Victorian architecture and soaring ceilings of the most majestic space in Adelaide Town Hall contrasted with displays of white spring blossoms from the Botanic Gardens, a forest of seedlings from State Flora at Belair and a beautifully simple ‘house’ for Kevin fashioned from Tasmanian oak by Adelaide-based master craftsman and furniture designer, Khai Liew.

Ashleigh Tobin OAM played the magnificent organ, with the congregation’s heartfelt singing of “Amazing Grace”, led by soloist Lauren Henderson, reverberating throughout the historic building.

Celebrants Geoff Boyce and Rev. Sandy Boyce, neighbours and dear friends of Kate and Kevin, officiated, lending support to those who paid tribute to Kevin.

Called back from Germany by Kevin’s spirit, Kaurna Aboriginal cultural bearer, Karl Winda Telfer conducted a Ceremony of Spirit for his beloved friend.

Tributes

Tributes were paid by Kevin’s brother, Ron Taylor, Wendy Sarkissian, Phil Harris, Judith Hughes, Perry Lethlean and members of Taylor Cullity Lethlean, Greg Burgess, Kevin’s daughters, Danaë and Emily Taylor, and Dom Chris of the New Norcia Benedictine monastery in Western Australia.

Ron Taylor

Ron Taylor chronicled Kevin’s early life, explaining that he had been, because of the early death of their father, like both a brother and a son to him. He offered an understanding of the man who was, in Ron’s words, “born into a conservative Christian family of very limited means.” He helped us understand that humble origins, in this case, were no impediment to greatness. His brother is, in his words, “a self-made man”: a beautiful person, no ego, no alpha male, no need for them – peace-loving, quietly but highly focussed.” I spoke directly to Kevin, acknowledging that he lives on in our lives, our work and our love for him. I chronicled some of his early days as my architecture student and expressed my gratitude for “a great, humble and exceptionally beautiful man.”

Perry Lethlean made no secret of the fact that “Kevin was our secret”: a unique, calm and quiet leader, with a moral compass with which his colleagues could connect. Perry said, “His values became our shared values without us ever realising it.”

Phil Harris, survivor of the accident that ended Kevin’s life on Earth, spoke of the many insights and small delights of sharing time with him, especially in the days before the accident.

Danaë Taylor reminded us that while he was many things to many people, Kevin always was and always will be, to her and Emily, “Our Dad”, consistently communicating his love for them in many, many touching ways.

Greg Burgess

For Kevin’s close friend, architect Greg Burgess, Kevin was “like a crucible ─ an intense inner alchemical fermentation always going on; of suffering, aspiration, love, transformation and healing.” He celebrated Kevin’s ability to be “intensely present” and his profound inner gratitude to be alive. Greg echoed the words of other speakers when he described “the wonderful complementarity” between Kevin and his wife, Kate Cullity, how they adored and supported each other in an atmosphere of redemptive love.

Kevin Taylor and Kate Cullity

A long personal and professional friendship nourished by many annual holidays had enriched Greg’s picture of his friend: “When working with Kevin, mystery was respected, enchantment encouraged, silence, love and grace had a place and a time.”

Kevin’s Dream

In the beautifully illustrated commemorative booklet was a dream recorded by Kevin a fortnight before he died:

Flying

Arms outstretched, lifting off the ground

Others flying too

Flying smoothly, gliding,

Looking down at the earth below.

It’s so easy.

That was the last entry in Kevin’s journal.

Kevin Taylor

Kevin Taylor came to work for Merchant Builders (a housing company that Johnny Ridge and I had started) when he was a young man. It was his first job. He came with a strong personal recommendation from Wendy Sarkissian (then lecturing in Adelaide) who had taught him. She has reminded me that so good was the thesis she sent me before we employed him that I asked her three times if she had helped to write it.

He more than lived up to her judgement of him.

He was a person of great flair and imagination and from the beginning had a rare ecological awareness. He was always interested in different ways of reaching out and working with those for whom projects and designs were being prepared.

His own personal qualities, his commitments, his warmth and friendliness and personal values illuminated his work.

I continued to have irregular contact with him over the years and am greatly saddened by his death.

To Kate and his family and to all those at Taylor Cullity Lethlean, I send my deepest condolences.

David Yencken, Melbourne

Email: dyencken@ozemail.com.au

On Sunday morning, 7th August, Kevin Taylor, Principal of Taylor Cullity Lethlean, Landscape Architects, Designers and community consultation specialists, Adelaide and Melbourne, was killed instantly in a vehicle crash in Darwin.

He was 57.

His passing is mourned by many, many friends all over the world who valued his quiet brilliance, his talent and design skills, his compassion and his love for his friends, colleagues and family.

Kevin was one of the brightest students I ever had the blessing to teach.

As an undergraduate in architecture at what was then the S.A. Institute of Technology, in 1977 he produced a stunningly radical and perceptive final-year thesis on “Ecological Awareness and the Practice of Architecture”, co-supervised by me and Doug Swanson, with remote advice from environmental activist Strider of Humpty Doo.

As the submission deadline approached, Doug and I were terrified that he was too bright — and the thesis too radical — for the dusty academics at SAIT. They’d either fail him or give him the medal.

They gave him the medal and he went on to work in architecture with David Yencken at Merchant Builders in Melbourne, to teach at RMIT, to become a landscape architect, to found an award-winning firm, father two great children (now adults) — Emily and Danae — and to find in his second wife, artist Kate Cullity, a soulmate and partner in both his personal and professional life.

Those of us who knew him and love him are devastated by this tragic news.

We share our grief with Kate and her family, Emily and Danae, their mother, his brother, his sister, his step-brother, his extended family, his business partner, Perry Lethlean, many professional colleagues and numerous clients and all the staff of Taylor Cullity Lethlean in Adelaide and Melbourne who respected and loved him so dearly.

Tribute from the Planning Institute of Australia

For a beautiful tribute from the Planning Institute of Australia, go to:

http://www.planning.org.au/newsletters/id/717/idString/4ae1c49b35874

Funeral  arrangements

Kevin’s funeral will be held on Thursday 18 August at 9:30 am for 10 am in Adelaide Town Hall,  128 King William Street.

For details, see: http://www.heavenaddress.com/funeral-notice/Kevin-Ross-Taylor/395087/obituary.aspx

Vale Kevin Taylor.

Kevin Taylor