A new look for Belco?

HenryBG said :

rubaiyat said :

The only thing that could really improve Belconnen would be massive amounts of ivy, wisteria and the giant fig trees that subsumed Ankor Wat.

The architecture out at Belconnen might not be absolutely brilliant, but if I had any say in it, I would be inviting the giant fig trees that ate Angkor Wat to take up residence on the Acton Peninsula in order to take care of the absolutely abysmal National Museum building, a building that makes even Belconnen look appealingly visionary.

“National Museum”

Er!!! Worse than Belconnen Mall!!! There’s nothing greatly wrong with the look of the National Museum. It has great colours and has interesting shapes, which makes it very photogenic (in a good way, for the cynics!). I’m not commenting on its functionality here. That can be considered another thing, apart from how it looks. And an above ground parking area is ugly. I’ve often thought that the large entrance hall is wasted space, but that’s inside, not how the building looks, and I presume that is what you don’t like. But please explain what don’t you like about its look. Is it the colours, shape…what? Or do you think museums should be big and stone and grey/beige, with columns, like many of the others? Is it too different, is that its crime? When I see the Belconnen Mall, all I see is ugly, colourless car park entrances. Mind you, I choose not to visit the Belconnen Mall very often, because I don’t live in Belconnen and I have two shopping malls closer to home, which I don’t need to drive to. I can catch a bus to either of them when I go shopping. Belconnen Mall is two buses away, so it’s not ‘my’ shopping mall. I also tend to find the Belconnen Mall hard to navigate, and any mall or shop I find hard to navigate I tend to avoid. That is also a comment about large department stores that purposely make finding the exit difficult in their warped idea of keeping the customer inside longer. That only works if the customer wants to go inside in the first place, and any shop I have found hard to leave quickly in the past, I have to then have a stronger reason to enter in the future. I won’t enter a shop to browse, if I have in the past not been able to spot the exit quickly and get around efficiently to buy what I came in for, so they lose me. But then, I am not a fan of big malls, or a shop-to-you-drop kind of person. Shopping is done only when something is needed. It can be many weeks between my visits to a mall; sometimes months.

HenryBG said :

rubaiyat said :

The only thing that could really improve Belconnen would be massive amounts of ivy, wisteria and the giant fig trees that subsumed Ankor Wat.

The architecture out at Belconnen might not be absolutely brilliant, but if I had any say in it, I would be inviting the giant fig trees that ate Angkor Wat to take up residence on the Acton Peninsula in order to take care of the absolutely abysmal National Museum building, a building that makes even Belconnen look appealingly visionary.

They couldn’t afford anything else but Tilt-up and cheaply coloured concrete slabs, yet they blew money on that ridiculous mal-proportioned abandoned roller coaster.

The budget didn’t even extend to making the CAD lines smooth curves.

rubaiyat said :

The only thing that could really improve Belconnen would be massive amounts of ivy, wisteria and the giant fig trees that subsumed Ankor Wat.

The architecture out at Belconnen might not be absolutely brilliant, but if I had any say in it, I would be inviting the giant fig trees that ate Angkor Wat to take up residence on the Acton Peninsula in order to take care of the absolutely abysmal National Museum building, a building that makes even Belconnen look appealingly visionary.

JC said :

rubaiyat said :

Belconnen reminds me of the story of the Soviet era Moscow architect who was forced to live in the top floor of the liftless high rise apartment block he designed.

I hope that the Town Planners who “designed” Belconnen were forced to live there, but unfortunately justice doesn’t work that way.

The only thing that could really improve Belconnen would be massive amounts of ivy, wisteria and the giant fig trees that subsumed Ankor Wat.

And at the time it, and the whole design (including the interchange and busway) were cutting edge with some of the buildings you refer to winning architecture awards.

The same is true for much of Canberra, a lot of it, at the time was very much cutting edge and the way of the future, but sitting here in 2015 it is clear the crystal ball of the 60’s and 70’s was a little bit foggy.

Belconnen was not cutting edge. It was Me Too awful British New Town design mashed up with US suburban mall, complete with the wrong northern hemisphere orientation.

I have been railing against this bad design and thinking for as long as they have existed, it is not a recent thought except to those who had none to start with. It was always bleedin’ obvious. How can you avoid noticing it staring you in the face?

That it has been such a futile fight against people for whom the Status Quo is just unthinkingly fine, was why I got out of architecture. That so many STILL struggle with the basics, even in environmental design is beyond exasperating.

rubaiyat said :

Belconnen reminds me of the story of the Soviet era Moscow architect who was forced to live in the top floor of the liftless high rise apartment block he designed.

I hope that the Town Planners who “designed” Belconnen were forced to live there, but unfortunately justice doesn’t work that way.

The only thing that could really improve Belconnen would be massive amounts of ivy, wisteria and the giant fig trees that subsumed Ankor Wat.

And at the time it, and the whole design (including the interchange and busway) were cutting edge with some of the buildings you refer to winning architecture awards.

The same is true for much of Canberra, a lot of it, at the time was very much cutting edge and the way of the future, but sitting here in 2015 it is clear the crystal ball of the 60’s and 70’s was a little bit foggy.

Belconnen reminds me of the story of the Soviet era Moscow architect who was forced to live in the top floor of the liftless high rise apartment block he designed.

I hope that the Town Planners who “designed” Belconnen were forced to live there, but unfortunately justice doesn’t work that way.

The only thing that could really improve Belconnen would be massive amounts of ivy, wisteria and the giant fig trees that subsumed Ankor Wat.

We need the infill in places. We need a few more high density areas, high density brings more opportunities for local businesses to open up, with guaranteed foot traffic walking past each day.

Also high density helps ease pressure elsewhere on housing, where young professionals can get a unit in a central location rather than take up a family house somewhere.

rosscoact said :

…have you noticed that it is the nature of the ultra conservative animal to see temporaneous changes as permanent and permanent changes as temporaneous?

Spot on.

Also their resistance to change only applies to change for the better.

Destructive or corrosive change seems to be OK in their mind, so long as the burden of all their bad choices, falls on everyone else’s shoulders.

Ultimately their obsessive ideas on conservation are reserved for the only two things that matter, money and their personal possessions.

Mark of Sydney said :

gooterz said :

Given declining Canberra population and the need to actually have someone to use the tram. It seems a bit redundant to infill Belconnen.

Don’t know where the idea that Canberra’s population is falling came from, though have seen a couple of claims to this effect lately, here and elsewhere.

According to the most recent ABS statistics, the ACT’s population grew by 4,800 or 1.3% in the year to March 2015, just under the 1.4% growth rate for Australia as a whole.

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3101.0

It comes from having to be right about the “knowledge” that the Light Rail will be a “disaster” as all these people do every time the subject is raised anywhere every time Light Rail is proposed around the world, except where Light Rail is such a common experience that of course the “problem” is ridiculous.

It is not knowledge, it is a belief which comes from no facts at all, and like all beliefs based on “never tried it, never will” you work backwards from that and every unresearched, half heard, or imagined “fact” that reinforces the belief is “true” and everything no matter how researched or evidence/experience based is “false” and rejected.

I know in at least one case here, because he said so, it is tied up with the poster’s strong anti-Climate Change beliefs and suspect given the innumerable responses which never get the distinction about the differences between transport modes and for whom they are all equivalent, that it is the underlying reason for opposing the Light Rail. Just as it is in America where there are even more Creationists and anti-Science “Believers”.

Most of the opposition seems to be older extremely conservative men from Tuggeranong. Who probably do not get out much anymore and whose day to day experience is Tuggeranong’s uninviting suburbia, lack of urban life and falling population.

Their personal experience becomes universal in their minds, untainted by alternative experiences. Not that they are open to those.

For them increased urban density, the pursuit of a clean environment and inner city life is irrelevant. None of those are for them. Since that is the extent of their interest, end of story.

Getting back on subject. Canberra has a large percentage of people who have ties elsewhere and when the cyclical anti-Public Service dogma bites on their jobs they pack up and leave, but the overall trend persists.

Canberra grows very much as predicted, and every time a large number of people seem to be surprised when the population pressures produce outcomes they hadn’t anticipated because THEIR predictions of Canberra’s imminent demise or financial collapse, turned out to be totally wrong. Again.

Mark of Sydney said :

gooterz said :

Given declining Canberra population and the need to actually have someone to use the tram. It seems a bit redundant to infill Belconnen.

Don’t know where the idea that Canberra’s population is falling came from, though have seen a couple of claims to this effect lately, here and elsewhere.

According to the most recent ABS statistics, the ACT’s population grew by 4,800 or 1.3% in the year to March 2015, just under the 1.4% growth rate for Australia as a whole.

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3101.0

I believe he is referring to the construction workers who were temporarily in the Territory albeit for an extended period.

On the other hand, have you noticed that it is the nature of the ultra conservative animal to see temporaneous changes as permanent and permanent changes as temporaneous?

gooterz said :

Given declining Canberra population and the need to actually have someone to use the tram. It seems a bit redundant to infill Belconnen.

Don’t know where the idea that Canberra’s population is falling came from, though have seen a couple of claims to this effect lately, here and elsewhere.

According to the most recent ABS statistics, the ACT’s population grew by 4,800 or 1.3% in the year to March 2015, just under the 1.4% growth rate for Australia as a whole.

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3101.0

Given declining Canberra population and the need to actually have someone to use the tram. It seems a bit redundant to infill Belconnen.

At least the crime seems to have gone/ or just gone quiet.