Tactics and Strategies

Expanding social capital, conserving natural capital.

In areas of social and economic disadvantage and resources scarcity, improvements to the built environment, funded through government, may reap social rewards. Wider cultural trends reveal a need to build up social capital in fragmented urban environments. Current understandings of ‘sustainable communities’ include the need for resilient and robust social networks, capable of responding positively to change and growth. There is a need for the benefits of ‘personal action’ in society; for decentralised systems of production and consumption; and for an emphasis on the (networked) ‘local’.  Sustainable growth requires expertise to be embedded within communities, and to include the community’s own requirements and priorities.

Tactics & Strategies proposes an alternative urban design framework for Hastings, a small township on Westernport Bay in Victoria. The research activity has been focussed on the scale of 1:1 (social engagement and actions in the real world) and 1:5000 (the strategic overview of the urban system). Proposed strategic frameworks introduce the habits and rituals of everyday life: mobility and movement; food production and consumption; dealing with waste and recycling; learning and work networks; and recreational leisure time. This studio attempts to create a vision for how Hastings might be in 2032 by asking ‘What if…?’