The Economist’s Intelligence Unit recently selected Melbourne as the ‘Most Livable City’ for a fifth year running. While such accolades are flattering the question of what makes a livable city has become increasingly important. Since Melbourne was first ‘crowned’ the livability index across all 140 cities surveyed has dropped. This decrease has been attributed to a lack of secure access to the resources that support the basics of life: food, water and safety.
Tim will speak on Day 1 of the Future Landscape and Public Realm Conference at 8:40 am. He will share key elements of Melbourne’s livability and focus on those that allow the city to stand out; they are possibly not what you’d think. Perhaps most importantly the session will discuss the challenges Melbourne is currently facing and how similar these are to most other cities looking to expand into the next 50 years. Melbourne’s experience, in particular the way such a cosmopolitan city responds to community needs by making sensitive changes to public realm and involving private land owners in the cooperative approach to the comfort and attraction of the public realm. This approach has relevance to Qatar when so much is changing and new infrastructure will have considerable impact on the way communities continue to use the city.
While the top ten cities in the EIU’s rankings enjoy a stable political environment and moderate societies, they are still susceptible to massive disruption to life and commerce.
Like most ‘new world’ post-colonial cities Melbourne was first laid out by surveyors, engineers and planners who had basic knowledge of the needs of an industrialized city. This is one many legacies that allows Melbourne to develop newer and more highly responsive urban precincts while retaining the essential parts of her previous character.
Future Landscape & Public Realm Qatar provides the ideal meeting place for landscape and design professionals, urban planners, urban designers and high-level decision makers from across the value chain to gather together and discuss the key elements for cities’ livability, new innovations and technologies, key challenges, the latest projects and future opportunities in Qatar’s landscape industry.
ifpinfo
8 September
