Sustainable Built Environments
Re-imagining the Australian Suburb
Re-imagining the Australian Suburb is a 10-year research program developed by RMIT University in collaboration with industry partners in state and local governments and the housing industry in Victoria.
The program currently consists of separate, but mutually supportive research projects that will further develop the capacity of the Australian residential property development industry to plan and manage new developments for improved ecological, economic and social sustainability outcomes.
The project is a collaborative effort involving the work of research managers, PhD and masters students. We work closely with industry partners to develop information and frameworks that will aid the integration of sustainability into industry processes and policy.
The research currently targets specific urban development issues such as:
Much of the research is being carried out in the Epping North and Mernda growth corridors in the City of Whittlesea where it is expected that between 30,000 and 40,000 homes will be built over the next 10-15 years. This area is perfect for a multidisciplinary, triple helix approach, because of its mix of public and private development, a green wedge and the support of the local council.
Coordination of the program by RMIT research associates facilitate information sharing amongst researchers and industry partners. Collaboration activities include a program website, annual mini-conferences, publications through academic and industry journals and informal activities that intend to stimulate inter-discplinary knowledge.
For more information on Re-imagining the Australian Suburb, please visit the project website:
Re-imagining the Australian Suburb
Methodology
Method - the 'helix' approach
The history of the Re-Imagining the Suburb project, and the inclusion of a substantial research component represent a substantive shift from a simple 'silo' approach to sustainability, to one that recognises the profound implications of sustainability for all levels of industry activity and actively extends itself across disciplinary boundaries to identify critical information needs, and meet those needs through targeted research.
The concept of the triple helix represents the way the three research streams have been developed as autonomous research projects, within a framework of collaboration, cross consultation and support.
In particular it emphases the way in which the ultimate impact of each stream, its potential to effect positive change in the industry, is contingent on the outcomes of the other two. In this way the three disciplines are entwined in a singular operational paradigm regarding the dynamics of the industry and its receptiveness to strategic intervention that crosses traditional disciplinary and faculty boundaries.
This kind of structure reflects perhaps a fundamental demand of sustainability research; to move beyond traditional academic silos; to move in networks that reflect the interaction between the field of study and the system in which it operates; to move against intellectual reductionism. The emerging unifying paradigm, if in fact there is one, may be the emerging and increasingly professional discourse of ecological sustainability itself.
While each research stream has its own methods or carrying out its research this is integrated in the above singular operational paradigm. Put simply each project builds in a small amount of resource towards ensuring it feeds into the research questions and objectives of the greater Re-imagining project.