Wednesday, March 16, 2011

“What is a 21st Century city?” was the question posed by Alan Saunders to open the GoMA talks lecture ‘What makes up a 21st Century City and are there any boundaries’ earlier this month. The only panellist – including the By Design host – worthy of his place, architectural professor Michael Keniger, quite obviously pointed out that it must be a city existing in the 21st Century. There came a chuckle from the audience. But more importantly, he added, it must be a city with prudence of the 22nd Century.

When attending these kinds of pompous evening talks, I always hope the pre-lecture wine and blue cheese isn’t going to be the highlight of the night, though it was definitely the case for this one. And from the way Mr Saunders belched his way through his officiating duties it seemed as though he’d enjoyed a lubricating afternoon soiree at a fancy bistro too.

It’s an absurdly broad topic to discuss in an hour especially with a panel of four, each of whom were introduced in long form, complete with accurate titling and comprehensive timelines of their professional experience. (The intern writing Mr Saunders’ notes needs a lesson in editing.)

There was also an attempt by the creative team at GoMA to engage the digital audience by webcasting the lecture in real time to allow twitterers to comment on the dialogue unfolding in the gallery theatre. The live audience had a chance to read incoming tweets up on the big screen and while most were inane, a few comments downloaded from the ether onto Mr Saunders’ iPad did resonate and add something to the discussion.

Much of the hour was spent listening to the panellists disappointingly tangential streams of consciousness, and most skirted around the central question. References to BrisVegas appeared mostly in self-congratulatory, puff offerings about how special and beautiful our city is, how we have such a wonderful climate, how we are so lucky to enjoy green open space. Sure, when compared to megapolises like Calcutta or Hong Kong, BrizVegas is a dream. But let’s not forget South East Queensland needs to change so rapidly – in terms of infrastructure, housing, resource management – in order to meet future population demands that what little breathing space between the skyscrapers that currently exists, can quickly be swallowed up despite best laid contingencies.

Nowhere is it written that city, especially a 21st Century city, must be synonymous with gridlock, pollution, grey concrete and heat islands. We are allowed to demand more of the place where we spend all our lives and raise our children. That way, even if the utopia of our dreams doesn’t materialise, at least it will keep us occupied until we’re struck by a wall of water.

2 comments:

  1. Hey actually, Calcutta (or, if I were a member of the gAyBC radio national crowd, Kolkata) is not that bad ! Brisbane could learn a bit from the successful colonial architecture designed for a hot monsoonal climate pre-airconditioning. There is also a lot of green and open spaces, parks and huge fig trees, amongst the urban landscape and dense population. I think I would name it my favourite Indian city. Carl

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  2. Thanks that's good to know. A nice reminder to do proper research before disparaging whole civilisations ... "Thank-You for backing up your opinions with hard data" :)

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