[LINK] From the Acropolis to the E-City

Tom Worthington tom.worthington at tomw.net.au
Sat Jul 10 10:39:56 AEST 2010


Webb, KerryA wrote:
> Marghanita da Cruz wrote:
>> ... master-planned city, Greater Springfield ...
> 
> ...  flaws in the grand plan.  The most obvious one is that they
> intend satisfying all educational needs within the city of Springfield  ...

The ABC by design program compared the Greater Springfield master-plan
with the plans for Canberra. The Griffins' 1911 plan for Canberra is
still held by the National Archives in Canberra, along with some of the
alternative proposals:
<http://www.naa.gov.au/about-us/publications/fact-sheets/fs95.aspx>.

The original plan of Canberra is now available online and is a world 
famous example of city planning. This consists of detailed maps, 
schematic diagrams of city functions, artist's renderings of the city 
skyline and a written description of the rationale behind it. The claim 
that Greater Springfield is Australia's second second master planned 
city after Canberra, seemed nonsense on the face of it. An example of a 
modern city masterplan  is the Toowoomba City Centre Master Plan. This 
consists of nine documents and a sustainability report: 
<http://www.toowoombarc.qld.gov.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=275&Itemid=232>.

So I thought it would be useful to check if such a "master plan" 
actually exists, or if this was just a spoof based on the TV show "The 
Simpson's".

I was able to find that "Greater Springfield, Queensland, Australia",
did win the Master Plan Category for Springfield Land Corporation at the
FIABCI Prix d'Excellence Awards 2010:
<http://www.fiabciprix.com/winners-2010/master-plan-category/greater-springfield.html>.

I did find was mention of PDT Architects completing a master plan
for "Education City", within "Greater Springfield", in a newsletter from
the Corporation:
<http://www.greaterspringfield.com.au/educationCity/Issue1.pdf>.

On the PDT Architects web site I found a description of the "Education
City" master plan developed in 2004 and revised in 2006:
<http://www.pdt.com.au/projects/architecture/item/111-education-city>.

However, I was unable to find a copy of the the "Education City" master
plan. Given that this is a six year old plan for a city, it should be a 
public document.

The nearest thing to a detailed description of the masterplan I could
find was a 327 page PHD dissertation "Public Pedagogies, Place and
Identity: An ethnographic study of an emerging postmodern community", by
Andrew Hickey, USQ, 2008: <http://eprints.usq.edu.au/4958/2/>.

On page 20 of Objection Number 529 to the The Federal Redistribution 
2009 by Bernie Ripoll MP (21 August 2009) I found Attachment C, labelled 
"The Greater Springfield Plan": 
<www.aec.gov.au/pdf/Redistributions/2009/qld/public_objections/qld0529_Bernie_Ripoll_MP.pdf#page=20>.
This has a one page map, which appears to have been reproduced from the 
Corporation's web site: "A Guide to Australia's Greatest New City": 
<http://www.springfield.net.au/FileLibrary/greaterspringfieldcityguide.pdf>

However, this document is dated Thu 11 Jun 2009 10:32:00 EST and so 
cannot be the original master plan. An examination of the folder this 
document was contained in shows a document captioned "SPRINGFIELD TOWN 
CENTRE PARKLANDS, ILLUSTRATIVE MASTERPLAN, APRIL 2009" (Mon 27 Apr 2009 
11:05:06 EST): 
<http://www.springfield.net.au/FileLibrary/090427_masterplan_stg_bdy_a1_high_res2.pdf> 
and "SPRINGFIELD TOWN CENTRE PARKLANDS, ILLUSTRATIVE MASTERPLAN, 
NOVEMBER 2008" (Wed 26 Nov 2008 14:20:06 EST) 
<http://www.springfield.net.au/FileLibrary/greaterspringfieldcityguide.pdf>. 
These (along with JPG versions of the same) were the only documents 
labelled "plan" in the folder and none were older than 2008. There may 
well be a detailed "Greater Springfield master plan" somewhere, but so 
far I can't find it.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au




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