Skip to content
Curtin University
Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute

Fremantle Green Skins

By Jan Soderlund April 1st, 2012 Community Relations Event News Research Seminars No Comments »

Fremantle Green Skins Project takes Shape
The City of Fremantle is pleased to announce the commencement of the Fremantle Green Skins Project – a project aimed at encouraging the local community to design and construct living walls and rooftop gardens in Fremantle.

The venture forms part of the City’s strategic imperative to lead in the provision of environmentally sustainable solutions for the benefit of current and future generations and in particular the objective to encourage native and community gardens.

The project–which is a collaboration between the City, Fremantle’s Curtin University’s Sustainability Policy Institute (CUSP) and The University of Western Australia’s Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts (ALVA)–begins with a workshop being held at CUSP, whereby a host of experts and local practitioners will come together to share their knowledge. Fremantle Mayor, Dr Brad Pettitt and Professor Peter Newman, from CUSP, and UWA are hosting the workshop, which will take place at CUSP on the 3rd April.

Dr Pettitt said the greening of cities and their buildings is becoming an urgent topic for those interested in creating sustainable cities: “Living walls and rooftop gardens can be designed as public artworks in their own right and provide beautiful additions to any urban environment. They also help control the temperature of buildings to maximise cooling and energy saving benefits, whilst providing for possible food production and increased bio-diversity,” Dr Pettitt said.
The project has selected a number of walls in Fremantle as likely prototypes. Design plans for the greening of these walls will be prepared by landscape architect students from The University of Western Australia and will be coordinated by local resident, Professor Grant Revell.

“We plan to display these plans in the City of Fremantle’s town hall reception area in early May,” said Dr Pettitt. “Hopefully these designs can inspire opportunities for design improvement and the construction of what could eventually become highly functional and iconic living artworks.”

For further information on the Green Skins Project please contact Jana Soderlund (CUSP) on 9266 9030 or Grant Revell (UWA) on 6488 1566.

ScienceNetwork Article featuring CUSP lecturer Annie Matan

By Jan Soderlund March 12th, 2012 News No Comments »

“The malls were essentially conceived as shopping malls, rather than pedestrian networks, and did not really connect important destinations.”—Dr Matan. Image: Raymond Gangstan

ACCORDING to a sustainability expert, the Perth CBD has become a more ‘walkable’ city in the past 15 years, with a shift to living a more sustainable urban lifestyle.

Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute (CUSP) lecturer Dr Anne Matan says these shifts are necessary for Perth to flourish, but come with added pressure on transport and infrastructure.

“Perth, as a metropolitan region, is now facing these issues, particularly in terms of how its transportation infrastructure will be able to cope with a growing population,” she says.

“Part of this is the creation of city centres, neighbourhood centres and local centres that have walking as the primary transport in and around them, all linked to the greater metropolitan region by transit.”

Dr Matan, who recently completed her PhD titled Rediscovering Urban Design through Walkability: An Assessment of the Contribution of Jan Gehl, used the Danish architect and urban design consultant’s theory of city walkability on various cities around the world, including Perth.

According to a report prepared by Gehl in 1994 and featured in Dr Matan’s research, the urban designer determined that the Perth CBD had “the character of an over-sized department store.”
“The malls were essentially conceived as shopping malls, rather than pedestrian networks, and did not really connect important destinations,” says Dr Matan.

The follow up survey, 15 years later, revealed many changes within the city, including improved conditions to walk and spend time in the city.

“There is more activity within the city, more cafes, a greater provision of infrastructure for people with mobility impairments and more people traveling by public transport,” says Dr Matan.
This outlook is also shared by Perth Lord Mayor, Lisa Scaffidi, who says as Perth develops, there is a need to be seeing more places created in what were previously unused spaces.

“This is bringing our city more ‘urban intricacy’. We are activating upper floors, laneways, and many new businesses are seeking a presence here more than ever before,” say Ms Scaffidi.

According to Ms Scaffidi, as new precincts are added, such as the Waterfront and the Link, the city will see a new cross-axis spine of development running north to south, which up until now, had a distinct east-west arrangement.

“All in all, this means more to see and do and this enhances a pedestrian’s city walk in any direction, meaning they are more engaged than ever before.”

http://www.sciencewa.net.au/topics/technology-a-innovation/item/1289-perth-cbd-evolving-to-be-more-pedestrian-friendly

Scott Ludlam Seminar

By Jan Soderlund February 17th, 2012 Seminars No Comments »

CUSP SEMINAR

Presenter: Scott Ludlam
Date: 23rd February
Time: 11:30am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St

Cities, Democracy and the coming storm

We have an abundance of expertise and talented practitioners in greening our cities, but progress seems painfully slow against the inertia of vested interests and political paralysis.
Are we getting the breakthroughs we need in time to restore genuine resilience to our economy, and what will it take to win community support for the post-fossil transition?
Join us for a provocative and entertaining roller coaster ride into the future we’re creating, a conversation designed to raise as many questions as answers.

Senator Scott Ludlam is the Australian Greens spokesperson for sustainable cities. He was elected in November 2007 as an Australian Greens Senator for Western Australia and is the Australian Greens’ spokesperson for Broadband, Communications & the Digital Economy; Housing; Nuclear Issues; Transport; Sustainable Cities; Waste Management, Mining in WA and Burma.

A prolific and effective participant in the Committee process, Scott initiated the first national inquiry into public transport. Senator Ludlam has been a leading proponent of urban light rail and the benefits of rapid, highly networked anywhere-to-anywhere transit. His campaign for a light rail network in Perth is coming to fruition after four years of work, and he looks forward to advancing the campaign to put an Australian high speed rail system on the map.

Curtin PhD students plan a better future for our cities

By Jan Soderlund February 10th, 2012 News 2 Comments »

This Saturday three Curtin University students from around the globe will receive a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) for research projects that highlight the need for smart, sustainable urban planning.

The students, Joe Kott from San Francisco, Annie Matan from Fremantle and Roman Trubka from Vancouver, have completed studies that focus on public transport, pedestrian access in cities and the importance of city centres.
Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute Director, Professor Peter Newman, said that all three projects demonstrate CUSP’s commitment to becoming a leader in sustainable change through collaboration with government, industry and community.

“Joe has been working on how to civilise traffic using methods that favour all users – not just cars – with a focus on how to make streets more pedestrian friendly,” Professor Newman said.
“Annie’s PhD examines urban design from a walkability perspective, looking at the impact prominent Danish urban designer, Jan Gehl, has had on making cities around the world more walkable, including here in Perth.
“Roman’s thesis has shown how important public transport is to the productivity of city centres.
“The data Roman has collected has recently been used to assess the infrastructure requirements of Australian cities by agencies such as Infrastructure Australia.”
Professor Newman said that all three students will continue to work in the field of sustainable planning following their graduations.
“Joe is now teaching at San Jose State University and Stanford University while Annie and Roman are now employed at CUSP, doing new research on the sustainability of cities.”
More information about these and other CUSP research projects is available online here: http://sustainability.curtin.edu.au/current_students/

CUSP Film Nights

By Jan Soderlund February 2nd, 2012 events No Comments »

Here is an idea to rejuvinate a tradion of movie screening at CUSP, and I would like to invite you to a short Asian film fest consisting of three movies: Chinese, Korean and Japanese in the next three weeks at 6:30.pm. These are by no means a representative selection, but are some of my favoutites and they are SO GOOD, I just have to share them with you

Friday, 3rd Feb:
The Postman in the Mountain, 1999, China
Director: Jianqi Huo
Awards: Best Actor, Best Film (Golden Rooster Awards1999 ), Best Foreign Film (Japanese Academy, 2002), People’s Choice Award ( Montreal World Film Fest, 2002)

Storyline:
An old postman has spent his whole life delivering mail to the mountain of Hunan and is about to retire. His only son is due to take over his duties. As father and son journey through the mountains, the son begins to appreciate the toil and burden his father has to bear as postman for the villagers, and the old postman is also deeply moved as his son relates his mother’s anxiety as she waits for him to return home from every trip.

Friday, 10th Feb
Empty House/3-Iron (Bin Jip 빈집,) , 2004, Korea (South).
Director: Kim-Ki Dok
Awards: Best Director Award, 2004 Venice International Film Festival;  Best Film Valladolid Fim Festival 2004

Storyline:
A transient young man breaks into empty homes to partake of the vacationing residents’ lives for a few days.

Love and Honour

Friday, 17th Feb.
Love and Honour, 2006, Japan

Final film of the accaliamed Yamada’s “Samurai Trilogy” :”Twilight Samurai” ( 2002) and “The Hidden Blade” (2004)
Director: Yoji Yamada
Awards: Triple Winner of the Japanese Academy Awards, Official Selection Moscow International Film Festival, Opening Film Panorama Special Berlin International Film Festival, Official Selection Hawaii International Film Festival

Storytline:
A look at the relationship between a young blind samurai (Kimura) and his wife, who will make a sacrifice in order to defend her husband’s honor.

 

 

Hope to see you there!

 

Silvia Lozeva

PhD candidate
Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute
Faculty of Humanities,
Fremantle, Western Australia

CUSP partnership continues to deliver results for people of Geraldton

By Jan Soderlund February 1st, 2012 Community Relations News No Comments »

CUSP partnership continues to deliver results for people of Geraldton
I would like to congratulate the Curtin University Sustainable Policy (CUSP) Institute on the ongoing success of their partnership with the City of Greater Geraldton (CGG) for achieving international recognition in the delivery of 2029 and Beyond.

The project involves CUSP and CGG working collaboratively with the community, industry and government to achieve a carbon neutral future and has generated significant national and international attention.

Last year Geraldton was awarded a special UN award for world’s best Community Participation and Empowerment. The project also achieved fifth placing – out of 123 projects from 36 countries – in the Reinhard Mohn 2011 Prize for Vitalising Democracy through Participation.

In addition, Geraldton received a Silver Award for overall liveability for a city of 20,000 to 75,000 people at the International Awards for Liveable Communities (LivCom) in November last year.

Led by Professor Janette Hartz-Karp, the project demonstrates CUSP’s commitment to becoming leaders in sustainable policy, in this instance, by developing new ways of collaborative problem solving and decision-making to co-create a sustainable future.

Migrants and Nature: Migrant’s view on environmental activism in Western Australia

By Salome Husselmann January 13th, 2012 Seminars No Comments »

Presenter: Silvia Lozeva
Date: 19th January, 2012
Time: 11:30am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St

Questions about what is considered a migrant are still problematic. The issue of defining migrant needs to consider international versus national migration, short-term versus long-term migration and so on, but also social and environmental impact on their new home country. What becomes evident from my research is that mobility of people has become an increasingly influential process, both in terms of number of people as well as a multi-dimensional process in which migrants are relating to the ever increasing globalized environmental problems.

In their journeys, migrants are broadening the notion of citizenship by acting as agents for social and environmental justice  for the current and future generations. The aims of my thesis are to depict a mosaic-like picture of the environmental activism of contemporary migrants in Western Australia and to reveal the role of new comers as agents for creating new types of citizenships, which is referred to as ‘global environmental citizenship’.

Silvia Lozeva is a PhD student in Sustainability.  She has previously pursued studies in Economics (B.A. in Economics, University of National and World Economy) and Gender Studies (M. Phil., Sofia University). Silvia has participated in a nation-wide project of Desert Knowledge investigating the social effects of mining development in Australia, and more specifically looking at the gender impacts of resource-extracting industries.

Silvia’s interests span across the governmental and non-governmental sectors. She has a copious international experience (Australia, Bulgaria, Russia, Czech Republic, New Zealand and the UK) in both the governmental sector (Ministry of Fisheries, Wellington) and the environmental spheres (Earthwatch Institute, Oxford). Academic research also includes a three year comparative study on biomimcry in Western Australia and in Eastern Europe.

Silvia’s additional interests include radio-producing (Silver Medal Mark Time Award for best science fiction audio novel).

Taking a Global View on Social Entrepreneurship

By Salome Husselmann November 22nd, 2011 Seminars No Comments »

Presenter: Tamsin Jones
Location:  CUSP Institute, 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle
Date & Time:    Thursday 24 November
11.30am-12.30pm.  Please join us for morning tea at 11am

Tamsin Jones

Tamsin Jones has delivered social innovation initiatives in Australia, United Kingdom, South Africa and Zambia.  Her extensive experience and networks in sustainability practice and in advancing social entrepreneurship has spanned leading and designing social impact programmes and strategies for corporates in the area of social responsibility, government agencies and mothers2mothers – a HIV-prevention NGO that now reaches 20% of HIV positive women who are pregnant globally. Most recently Tamsin conducted research for Shell Foundation that examined the growth potential for a potential asset class of funds that provides “missing middle” growth financing to small to medium businesses in sub-Saharan Africa.

Tamsin holds an MBA from the University of Oxford with a concentration on Social Finance and Social Entrepreneurship.  She was awarded a scholarship from Oxford’s Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (http://bit.ly/a8elWp).  Tamsin is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Tamsin’s presentation will provide many examples of social entrepreneurship from her experiences in the UK and Africa in order to examine the key trends in social entrepreneurship practice globally.  Topics will include scale and systems change and the emerging “impact investing” asset class.

View presentation

The REAL Challenge Regional Environmental Affordable Living in Western Australia’s North West.

By Salome Husselmann November 4th, 2011 Seminars No Comments »

“Can you design an affordable home around the elements?” That was the brief to architects and builders through the innovative REAL Challenge – Regional, Environmental, Affordable Living; a competition that would see some of the most innovative housing designs (within the volume building industry) for extreme climates emerge in regional Western Australia. The REAL Challenge was the result of LandCorp’s (Western Australia Land Authority) role to find solutions towards complex issues and a commitment to invest considerable effort and cost to seek affordable, practical and viable solutions that can be replicated.

The winning designs were of the highest standard based on housing for the volume building industry and showcased how high performing climate responsive design can be achieved without the price often associated with architectural innovation. This program also demonstrated the feasibility of public/private sector partnership in regional WA and paved the way for enhanced housing affordability and sustainability outcomes.

Going forward can the market answer the challenge demonstrated by the REAL Challenge and set about creating a built environment that responds to the specifics of each climate zone, is aesthetically pleasing, comfortable and energy efficient. In addition what “learnings” have been established when government attempts to influence the market thru a Public/ Private partnership.

Barton Williams Director Artemis Consulting Pty Ltd

Barton has a background in Environmental Science and Architecture. He has been a key advocate of sustainability for over 20 years actively working in a broad range of fields from implementing Ecotourism and development projects in Thailand, Burma and Africa to residential architecture and for the past decade seeking innovative urban development outcomes within government across Australia.

For instance, influential in the introduction of the 5 and 6 star standard in Victoria and creator of one of the first triple bottom line urban development assessment tools worldwide, now used as a key reference for the Green Building Councils new Communities Tool.

Sustainable urban landscapes – Integrating environment, community and place.

By Salome Husselmann October 27th, 2011 Seminars No Comments »

Presenter: Josh Byrne
Date: Thursday 3rd November
Time: 11:30am
Venue: 3 Pakenham St, Fremantle

Over the past 5 years, Josh Byrne has been involved in some of the most exciting landscape projects in Western Australia such as creating the wetland and urban orchard at Perth Cultural Centre. His presentation will case study several recent flagship projects that demonstrate what is possible when clients are committed to innovation and the local community get behind them.  

 Josh Byrne is an environmental scientist with a passion for appropriate technology and innovative environmental design. Best known for his role as the WA presenter on ABC TV’s Gardening Australia program, he is also the Director of Josh Byrne & Associates (JBA), a multi-award winning landscape design, environmental consultancy and communications company based in Fremantle, WA. Josh also holds an adjunct lecturer position with the School of Environmental Science at Murdoch University where he lectures on topics related to sustainable urban landscapes and urban water management.