TSN NATIONAL NOTIFY - PLANNING FOR THE REDEVELOPMENT OF REDFERN &

from the TSN NATIONAL NOTIFY

SOME OF THE   QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

A Discussion Paper by REDWatch


HNSW’s “Hava Cuppa with a Designa” on 11th August 2010 raised some key questions about HNSW’s Preliminary* Master Planning options for the redevelopment of Redfern and Waterloo public housing.

Below we provide some background on the session with the ‘designas’, raise some key questions about the future of Redfern & Waterloo public housing and ask: is “Social Mix” a mantra or a resourced solution?

The Session with the “Designas”

“Hava Cuppa with a Designa” was chaired by ex-NSW Government Architect and ex-Central Sydney Planning Committee member Chris Johnson. Chris Johnson has also held senior positions in the Department of Planning from 2005-9 during Frank Sartor’s time as Minister for Planning & Redfern Waterloo. He worked on planning for CUB site and sat during that period on the RWA’s Built Environment Ministerial Advisory Committee. Chris Johnson is now doing work for HNSW on the Preliminary Master Plan for the redevelopment of public housing in Redfern and Waterloo.

The hour long “Cuppa” session at 9am was promoted around Jan Gehl who has worked on the City of Sydney 2030 strategy, however Gehl’s well-known focus on pedestrian movement was not discussed in this brief session. Gehl had arrived in the country the night before, had a 10am appointment and did not appear to be across the Redfern Waterloo public housing situation. His brief input was quite general, and when asked about the results of social mix projects in Sweden, Gehl promised to look at the issues when he got home and send across some papers.