Type: Remedial
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Quality shade is an important civic resource and is critical to human thermal comfort (Bloch, 2019). Shade is often, however, unevenly distributed across the city, with tree canopy roughly proportional to household wealth (Greater Sydney Commission, 2018). Shade structures are needed to provide immediate cool / protection from the sun in environments (such as linkages, nodes or even building interiors), where trees are absent or immature.
While shade needs to be considered as an integral part of the planning phase, it is identified here as a remedial pattern as there are many existing hot environments, particularly away from coastal settlements, where the addition of shade could vastly improve comfort, accessibility and use.
Shade can be fixed or dynamic, natural or artificial, hot or cool, permanent, temporary or worn. There are also many different qualities of shade: type, density, distance from ground and colour matter. Jacobs et al. (2018) at University of Technology Sydney for instance monitored climate adapted bus shelters and found a significant decrease in radiated heat from the ceiling of these structures, largely thanks to the insulated roof panels. Bick (2018), found blue shade sails provided the most effective shade in a study looking at the reduction of light intensity under different coloured shade sails. Shade from sails, however, was not found to be as effective as shade provided by awnings or natural tree canopy.
Trees provide the coolest and most amenable shade, so preserving mature trees wherever possible is a critical first step. Trees provide critical cooling infrastructure in cities and removing them, even if they are replaced, represents a loss potentially of decades of shade, amenity and habitat. In Stuttgart, tree preservation orders protect city trees that have reached a certain circumference from removal.
In areas of urban growth, however, shade needs to be factored back into environments from which trees have already been removed and ‘meanwhile shade’ will be required.
Enablers:
Constraints:
An important commoning concern is the ways in which shade can obscure visibility. For example, a covered park might inhibit the view of the night sky. Temporary shade to shield the sun during the day and open up to the sky at night could be explored.
Type: Ideal, Remedial
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Selecting shade trees need to be considered in accordance with the broadscale context and associated site dynamics related to the detailed qualities of individual trees.
Broadscale context: trees grown in groves, rows and shelterbelts (see the pattern ESTABLISHING SITE FORESTS) have important microflora that connect all trees through fungal hyphae in the soil. Care must therefore be taken of root systems under canopy.
Details of individual tree species include canopy types and tree shapes. Canopy shape determines the most effective shading.
Suitable Round-topped trees
Suitable Horizontal Canopy Trees
Suitable Pyramidal Tree
Suitable Open Canopy Tree
The quality of Shade depends on trees’ attributes including leaf area; high branching density; multiple canopy layers; canopy transmissivity; canopy size and projection; canopy ventilation.
Size Matters: One strategically placed large tree has more impact on an urban heat island than same quantity of smaller trees. The bigger the tree the greater the benefits (see the pattern STREET TREES & PLAZA TREES).
Siting
Shade trees in public open space can be situated beside paths, around gathering spaces and can shade play equipment, as long as they have deep soil and have minimal intrusion into crown projection.
How much soil does a tree need?
Small trees ( under 7 metres in height) need 36m3 ; medium trees (between 7 –15 metres) need 38m3 ; large trees (above 15 metres) need 39m3. Studies in the US and Canada indicated that most critical soil volumes fit into the 2 cubic feet/ per ft2 of crown projection, although the observation is general and not a hard and fast rule (see Grabosky, Bassuk & Trowbridge, 2002).
Dripline and Structural Root Zone For stability, tree roots must be protected within the dripline of the canopy (the Tree Protection Zone or TPZ) as well in the Structural Root Zone (SRZ) around the base of the tree.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Type: Ideal
Stage: Post-occupancy
Related Patterns:
A key to producing place-based coolth will be a community of commoners who are prepared to initiate action and maintain the social and physical infrastructure that supports this action. Such a group will need a mode of organization and governance that is suited to this task. This could take the form of a registered non-profit organisation/ governing body, set up by elected representatives from within the residential community. In general, this body is voluntary, it enjoys autonomy and it does not have statutory powers over ownership, tenancy and so on.
This form of community governance will enable the concerns of the residential neighbourhood or community/ housing complex to be addressed. These concerns can include:
More broadly, community governance can be integrated with strategic activities like a social enterprise lab where ideas are pitched for new ways to sustainably enhance commoning and to put new ideas into the public domain, or activities to promote the membership of other community-led groups – The Seniors Hub in Waverton NSW for instance provides a good hybrid model for interests groups, it assists with aging in place run and is by volunteers but supported by the local council (see references and resources).
Enablers
Constraints
Community governance as a mechanism for commoning practice
Community governance organisations needs to involve constant efforts to strengthen practices and inclusiveness. This is because governance is a lived (and not static) phenomena. If governance is not strengthening, it is likely that it will be weakening.
Type: Ideal, Remedial
Stage: Planning, Post-occupancy, Delivery
Related Patterns:
For the first five years after a project delivery, the development organisation and residents are responsible for existing public trees and new ones, after which local government authorities take over caring for them. Those first five years are vitally important if the trees, planted and existing, are to be healthy and long-lived. During this time, the community and development organisation can establish policies and strategies for site trees, so that local government can continue with the foundational tree management afterwards, including the on-going appointment of a respected arboriculturalist.
Often people are afraid of big trees in public spaces or private gardens because they may drop branches or fall on cars or houses in severe storms. This can be addressed by consistent arboriculture care (for instance visit the Arboriculture Australia website in resources section). Trees can be encouraged to grow in particular shapes to remain amenable to social commoning. There are various stages to caring for trees so that branches do not fall, and trees remain healthy.
First, trees need deep friable soil, air and water. For trees in open space, start with the Keyline method of preparing planting areas (see the KEYLINE pattern). This will ensure healthy soil and water for good growth. Tree planting in streets and public space need adequate areas and depth of soil (see the pattern SELECTING SHADE TREES FOR PUBLIC OPEN SPACE)
Second, check and manage trees for insect pests Providing the proper cultural care in accordance with climate and needs of a tree species is the best way to prevent insect infestations. Eucalyptus trees, for instance, appreciate supplemental irrigation during prolonged dry spells and experts at the University of California Integrated Pest Management Program suggest watering eucalyptus plants once a month with a drip hose until the top 12 inches of soil become moistened and performing maintenance pruning when pests are waiting out the winter season, in order to avoid attracting insects into freshly cut wood tissue (see Kelsey [n.d.] in the references below).
Third, prune and maintain branch and trunk health to keep structural soundness to withstand storms and strong winds. This can include reducing the weight of the canopy by selectively pruning the ends of the branches.
Cable and brace where branches need more support or have been damaged. Cabling keeps tree branches from splitting at their junction. This involves attaching various types of cables to stronger branches, the trunk, the ground or other anchors. Cabling can also be used to support unusually long limbs or reinforce weak-wooded species.
Dynamic Cabling (or ‘Cobra’) allows the limbs to sway, putting less stress on trunk and branches. Thus, tree continues to produce reaction wood (special cells) in response to wind or other stresses. Dynamic systems generally use synthetic ropes instead of cables, and they usually wrap rubber around the branches being supported, rather than relying on metal hardware that has been screwed into the tree. Cobra**system is a dynamic tree support system specially designed to be flexible and shock-absorbing with different benefits:
Cobra system components include cobra rope, anti-friction hose, expansion insert, shock absorbers (Arbor Culture Pty Ltd, n.d.)
Crown thinning and lifting allows more sunlight to pass and air to flow through the canopy. This is done by removing some secondary branches. Crown lifting raises the height of the crown and allows more space underneath for lawns and gardens.
Good Arboriculturalists can undertake these procedures and maintain your trees with annual inspections.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Canopy Trees are one of the most effective ways to cool commons. ‘Cool commons’ are spaces and places offering cooler temperatures than surrounding areas. Such commons are used by, and are accessible to, a community of commoners who, to some degree, care for, take responsibility for, and benefit from this coolness.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) is a form of water management for on-site storm water and runoff. It involves capturing and storing stormwater, reducing water consumption and impact on local water systems, and improving water quality. This is achieved using grassed or landscaped swales, infiltration trenches and bio-retention systems, gross pollutant traps, wetlands, sediment ponds, rainwater tanks for storm water harvesting and as cooling devices, rain gardens, rooftop greening and urban forests, porous pavements, aquifer recharge and reuse.
Rain gardens and bioswales are vegetated depressions located on gradients. Their main function is the retention and infiltration of stormwater. Acting as a filter for runoff from permeable surfaces, they reduce pollutants which enter storm systems. They are a way to manage bioretention areas by capturing and holding roof and road runoff but will not maintain optimal drainage rates if soils become compacted, it is therefore important to minimize foot traffic in this area, except walking for maintenance. Regular applications of mulch maximize the swale’s ability to capture and break down contaminants. Rain garden plantings should not be fertilized to prevent excess nutrients run-off.
Structural soils are an engineered soil mix designed to allow three functions: reduce pavement heaving and breakage; improve stormwater infiltration; and improve tree growth. Structural soils can also improve stormwater infiltration if covered with a porous paving material (see Seattle Green Factor (2008 p.4) for more information). Stormwater planters are containers designed to capture and either retain or filtrate stormwater, based on their design. The amount and frequency of water captured depends on storm events, so they should be populated with a variety of plants adapted to both wet and dry conditions. Visually, they can be striking landscape features providing a high functional value.
Properly designed soil conditions are required to achieve stormwater infiltration and increased plant growth. Deep soil is considered to be that which is penetrating to base rock and water table. In planters, soil depth should be a minimum of 600mm for shrubs and ground covers and minimum of one metre for small trees.
For improving water efficiency: rain sensors fitted to irrigation systems can reduce water use; amalgamated planter beds will improve efficiency of irrigation systems and mulch in garden beds reduces water evaporation from soils.
Permeable Paving
Permeable paving allows sites to infiltrate stormwater in a way similar to natural systems. Permeable pavements also restrict non-point source pollution from entering surface water bodies, which helps keep creeks and streams clean. Permeable pavements also contribute towards healthier plantings because root systems are aerated. Permeable asphalt can be used in some cases to replace traditional asphalt and allow for infiltration of stormwater.
Permeable concrete can be used in place of impervious concrete in many non-driving situations. Its use in parking lots can help reduce the amount of stormwater runoff and non-point source pollution.
Instead of pavers, the top layer can be either 150mm of Permeable Asphalt or 150mm of Permeable Concrete, layered over 150mm of Open Graded Aggregate, layered over Geotextile on the existing subgrade.
Irrigation
An integrated irrigation system must suit site the condition and the requirements of the landscape. Efficient irrigation systems include: rainwater storage tanks; appropriate species selection; soil depth and soil quality to help minimise watering requirements and use of recycled water. TANKLESS Underground Rainwater Storage is one means to collect quality surface rainwater.
Using Storm Water for Wetlands and Water Features
On-site storm water management can ideally finish in wetlands and water features.
Sustainable Sydney 2030 targets include 10% of the City’s water to come from recycled sources and a 50% reduction in the pollution being discharged into waterways. Within landscaped areas, Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) provides the means to achieve these targets.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
It is possible to manipulate the shape of a site to create sheltered cool pockets and areas for respite or pathways.
Cool slopes are commons that provide coolth for people walking or running through a community or seeking respite around the community. They would typically have the greatest benefit either side of midday. Open space that slopes to creeks or lakes is ideal for the insertion of cool features such as cool banks, shade trees, grass mounds and paths.
To create these cool commons, site planning should map the pre-development landform and slopes to take advantage of existing contours; sun (e.g. southern sides), wind and rainfall patterns; soil types and drainage.
This requires a fine grain analysis of site contours, so that the existing site gets regraded to create these pockets of coolth where practical. The resultant mounding can be used to contain services such as underground rainwater storage tanks.
Successful application of this pattern will yield complete shade for when the pocket is most commonly used.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Staging of construction activities at strategic locations may be required to sustain access to cool commons through the development process and beyond.
Type: Remedial
Stage: Delivery
Related Patterns:
Signage of all kinds, physical and digital provides an important orienting and way finding role in public life, thus supporting ways of commoning. Signage can be a temporary measure to provide an induction into the careful and appropriate use of a place, or to tell stories in order to enrich the experience of a place. Signs can also work in the other way as forms of punitive resistance to commoning, such as declaring private zones in an otherwise open /continuous environment, amplifying risks and dangers, or rendering place-based social practices illegal, such as congregating, fishing, walking, picnicking, climbing, camping and bird feeding.
Enablers
Constraints
A commoning concern is digital accessibility to support online signage through digital maps, apps and wayfinding tools.
The language and tone of voice with which a sign speaks can have an impact on accessibility. Signage is a limited measure that needs to be supported by social evidence – for example people using a space quietly will be more influential than a sign saying ‘quiet zone’; equally a ‘no swimming’ sign will be overridden by people swimming in a water fountain. This raises a question regarding signs: not what agency does the sign have, but rather when does a sign have agency?
Type: Remedial
Stage: Delivery
Related Patterns:
Temporary or ‘meanwhile’ use of outdoor public unused space or private space earmarked for future development, can provide opportunities for site activation which reduces urban heat island effect, through greening activities or through providing public access to private cool spaces. Examples include pop-up uses such as shops or markets that use cool materials or urban gardens. Existing car parks or vacant lots can provide a platform for improved local cooling, with interventions reducing the amount of impermeable low albedo hardscape.
Citizens as urban co-producers
Precedents for occupying urban spaces with temporary projects include the Paris-based Atelier d’Architecture Autogeree. Their “ECOboxes” (pictured) are installed in different neighbourhoods as temporary platforms for participatory gardening and a mix of other social and cultural activities. Activities include workshops, talks, screenings, preparing and sharing meals. Another example is R-Urban, which is a network of closed local ecologies where participants only consume what is produced. Temporary urban gardening can encourage local capacity building and encourage new forms of collaborative governance. For example, in Brisbane, a community negotiated the right to develop a yam plantation (pictured) on unused land for a three-year period, agreeing to cover all costs including relevant insurances. The whole community was involved in the preparation, cultivation and harvesting of the crop which was then distributed among the community and to charity groups. When the land was needed by the governing institution, a new plantation was created temporarily elsewhere (Armstrong, 2016, p. 72).
The measure of success for this pattern includes reducing the ambient and surface temperature of unused land by increasing the quantum of permeable or shaded surfaces; the longevity of the access negotiated to maximise the temporary use, and the social and community return on investment generated during the term.
This pattern does not include temporary use of buildings as Cooling Refuges (see separate pattern).
Enablers:
Constraints:
For some members of a community, for example shift workers, noise might be a commoning concern. A protocol of inclusiveness around planning events that may impact on others could address this concern.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Cool Winds
Sun/Shade
Enablers:
Constraints:
Type: Ideal, Remedial
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Outdoor play areas provide resources and space for children and adults to play, rest and socialise. Playgrounds should provide less structured, natural materials and resources to stimulate the imagination and encourage creative play. Objects that can be moved and creatively adapted generate more engagement and creativity amongst users. Accessible playgrounds and those that include sensory features, such as plants that smell or feel interesting, ensure access for users of different ages and abilities. Playgrounds should provide several different areas for children and adults to group as well as to run and move.
Outdoor play areas should be well shaded for access on warm days and allow for sunlight in winter. Unshaded artificial surfaces can get excessively hot during summer and should be avoided. In addition, adequate infrastructures of care should be made available – for instance water drinking fountains, seating to rest and accessible toilets. Outdoor play areas should be centrally located and there should be enough of them in a given area for locals to access easily on foot.
Enablers
Constraints
One commoning concern is providing shaded seating for carers, who may often be grandparents; another is encouraging a sense of ownership among locals and other users.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
‘Cool commons’ are spaces and places that offer cooler temperatures than surrounding areas. This pattern is concerned with how patchworks of places/spaces can provide more accessibility.
Patchwork for accessible coolth is a pattern of scattered spaces, forms or services accessible to pedestrians; it is low-rise and integrated within neighbourhoods, enabling a spectrum of fine differentiation. This pattern suggests an alternative to continuous blocks of development, or enclosed shopping centres.
Examples of built form and space types that could be patchworked include:
The accessibility of these places/spaces relates to the way people move through them comfortably and how they know where they are going. Patchwork analyses look at the fine grain, working closely with the diverse ways people use urban space. Three ways of considering patchworks (permeability & legibility; movement and responsive environments) are offered here.
Accessibility equals permeability & legibility
Permeability is both physical and visual in the way it allows people to pass through; it entails both private and public interfaces and provides variety in the choice of movement. Legibility exists where the places/spaces have understandable forms such as edges, nodes, paths, districts and landmarks (see Lynch 1960).
Movement through patchwork involves a kind of serial vision, whereby elements of an environment – buildings, trees, nature, water – can be interwoven in such a way that causes anticipation to occur (see Cullen 1961). We experience places in sequence, as the existing view and the emerging view simultaneously. Examples of these spaces are:
Responsive Environments provide users with a democratic setting, enriched by the degree of choice available (see Bentley et al 1985). Criteria for evaluating responsive places include:
Enablers
Constraints
Various elements in these patchworks code the commons that are used by, and are accessible to, a community of commoners who, to some degree, care for, take responsibility for, and benefit from this coolness.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Pedestrian areas should be designed and created to maximise the use of outdoor space and encourage active transport (walking, running, cycling) around the local area. A network of active transport links to local amenities including parks, shops and public transport should be designed for safe shared use (i.e. concurrent walking and cycling). The fastest and most accessible walking and cycling routes should be signposted so that they are easy to find and navigate. There also needs to be a method for people to report observed problems. Trees that provide dense shade should be planted along pedestrian links so that it is comfortable for people of diverse abilities to travel locally on foot or by other means. Temporary shade structures should be used to provide shade while trees grow. Accessible “infrastructures of care” including shelter, seating, access to municipal drinking water and universal toilets are essential to support pedestrians.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Public street as commons
Commoning concerns include the ways that users interact and negotiate use of shared transport zones (for instance in shared cycling and walking zones, pedestrian crossings and other places where active transport and car users intersect). Traffic calming devices and clearly signposted crossings make local streets safer and ensure that cars give way to pedestrians.
The provision of shade can inhibit visibility, leading to perceptions that a place may be unsafe. Encouraging collective walking will address personal safety concerns, particularly at night.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Delivery
Related Patterns:
Bicycles are a low impact means of transportation, particularly for trips under 5km distance. They are an important, cost-effective means of reducing traffic density and promoting healthy exercise. Community-based cycling groups should be formed to promote cycling as a means of transport. For instance, Bike Marrickville is a volunteer-run group of residents promoting cycling and improving the local environment. Local groups can be affiliated with Bicycle New South Wales, the peak body organisation for the promotion of cycling and cycling safety.
Enablers
Constraints
Cycle Club as social commons/transit
Promoting access to cycling means challenging existing patterns of development, transportation and infrastructure as well as cultural norms around transportation and comfort at work. Cycling culture can be gender and class exclusionary—its accessibility to women, low-income or disabled populations would also require sustained advocacy and facilitation from cycling advocates/organisations.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Post-occupancy, Delivery
Related Patterns:
The walking school bus concept originated in Japan, but was popularised initially in Australia. Programs now exist throughout the world that organise groups of students travelling together on foot to school or other destinations, under the supervision of staff and volunteers. The walking school bus is seen by policy makers and local authorities as a way to promote safe exercise and conviviality, and to reduce traffic choke points associated with the school commute.
Enablers
Constraints
Walking school bus as social commons
Type: Ideal, Remedial
Stage: Planning, Post-occupancy
Related Patterns:
Trees that people love, create special places. Private trees have personal meanings to the people who planted them. They are often planted for their colour, flowers, & shape (see the pattern SELECTING SHADE TREES). Trees need care such as watering, pruning and checking for insect attacks (see the pattern CARING FOR TREES).
Often people are afraid of big trees in private gardens because they may drop branches or fall on houses in severe storms. But trees are living beings so selecting the tree(s) for a garden will depend on how much space and deep soil is available. Site planning for private garden trees also requires mapping the prevailing winds so that garden trees and shrubs can channel cool breezes and screen winter winds. Also, where garden tree(s) are placed will depend on their purpose; that is, whether it is to shade the house and garden, provide privacy or to be a personal garden feature. It is a good idea to therefore map garden areas that are shaded in summer & are sunny in winter (see the pattern SITE PLANNING FOR COOLTH).
Using trees to make special places
Garden trees can create special spaces for children; the spreading fig for instance can make an outdoor room and is easy to climb. Pairs of columnar trees like small poplars can make a gateway to separate one garden space from another. A weeping garden tree, such as white cedar or Golden Robinia can also create a shady nook for reading on a comfortable garden seat.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Type: Ideal
Stage: Post-occupancy, Delivery
Related Patterns:
Ways of welcoming are important for the convivial orientation of newcomers to the culture of a place. Cultural orientation might include community-led governance structures and protocols, commoning practices within the neighbourhood, and specific coolth promoting practices that are already in place.
This could take the form of a pack with a range of material elements like maps, contact lists, invitations, keys, gifts. It could also take the form of a protocol for a trial ‘live-in’ period, short visits, or stays for visitors and prospective buyers. Learning from ‘screening’ protocols such as those enacted in Poundbury to ascertain value alignment (but without the elitism [Beamish, 2017]), this process enables prospective residents to experience and contribute to the community of commoners who meet regularly to discuss ways of organising events, processes and systems.
Enablers
Constraints
Type: Ideal, Remedial
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Accessible Water is a pattern that promotes the integration of water for play, drinking and cooling into the public domain, to enhance space cooling effects through evapotranspiration and personal cooling through contact with water. In low humidity, peak ambient temperatures can be reduced by three to eight degrees Celsius (Guide to Urban Cooling Strategies).
It might be in the form of splash pools or small rills and misting. It is an important infrastructure of care, enabling people to move comfortably out and about on hot days or nights and a way to enhance the quality of outdoor play spaces, particularly during summer. It requires thought about how people move through the city and where and when they seek to gather, as well as the nature of the space where the water is made available, so as not to create any harm to people. For example, water play spaces should meet the NSW Everyone Can Play guideline.
Accessible Water is an addition to swimming pools and Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) features that are important for retaining water in the environment. Measure of success for these public spaces include maintaining full accessibility and operational up-time, and also maximising attendance.
In addition to WSUD features, making the most of access to existing natural assets is another important means by which neighbourhoods can benefit from coolth. In particular, still water bodies such as lakes, ponds and pools provide opportunities for people to relax and cool down by padding or swimming. Ideally public water bodies will be most easily accessible from the shallow end.
Still water provides opportunities for the community to relax around the water edge, for instance, stairs can provide seating for water places that have a slope. Seating also allows for natural surveillance, which aids safety.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Accessible water is a key infrastructure of care to support commoning.
A commoning concern will be tolerance for shared use, human and animal.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning, Delivery
Related Patterns:
Communities are complex and they experience the physical world in diverse ways. There are differences between the elderly, youth, children and different cultural groups in terms of the ways they use and enjoy public open spaces. Some parks in Japan have included sensory devices for both visually and physically impaired visitors that enables them to enjoy the coolth provided by still water (see the pattern ACCESSIBLE WATER).
The Garden of Senses in Copenhagen is the largest public sensory garden in Denmark. It was designed by Landscape Architect Helle Nebelong who specialises in gardens and playgrounds for children with a disability. Here: “Plants are chosen for their distinct shapes and there are herbs for their smell or even their taste” while “the dense but low planting also shields the garden from the more noisy and boisterous park beyond to make the space feel somehow calm and protective” (Nebelong, n.d.). Her desire is for the people who use her garden to touch, smell and listen if they cannot see, to touch, smell and see, if they cannot hear and/or to touch, smell, listen and look at anything within their reach if they cannot walk.
Meanwhile, budding gardener programs give children the opportunity to explore the plant world and discover the miracles of gardens.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Type: Ideal, Remedial
Stage: Planning, Post-occupancy
Related Patterns:
Cooking facilities built into parks allow for wide access and use. Outdoor cooking reduces heat and moisture inside buildings during periods of heat. Cooking spaces benefit from the inclusion of overhead shelter to protect cookers from direct sunlight but need to be well ventilated.
Outdoor cooking facilities attract gatherings of families and friends, encouraging shared cooling outdoors. They can be an important part of both day and night-time use of parks that are central to local festivities, sports events and social events such as children’s birthday parties (Özgüner 2011).
Enablers
Constraints
Generally outdoor cooking facilities are provided on a first come, first served basis. During peak park use, scheduling access to cooking facilities may be required to ensure a clear and fair process. Users can be enabled and encouraged to keep cooking facilities well-maintained and cleaned after each use through appropriate signage and the provision of cleaning equipment. Gathering to cook outdoors on hot nights can become a social ritual. Cooking smells can elicit complaint.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Protecting, maintaining and growing street trees requires a long-term commitment. With care, trees should be long-lived, healthy and provide increasing shade to enable cool streets. The attention to good growing conditions and on-going tree management that maintains shade-giving canopies suggests that installing and caring for street trees should be done in unison with urban water management. (See the patterns MANAGING ON-SITE WATER & CARING FOR TREES).
Growing conditions – soils
The designated area for street trees is restricted requiring site and technical planning for adequate soil volume. Soil depth is important, but more essential is the soil area for roots to spread and access oxygen. Because of competing users in streets – pedestrians, services, vehicles – the maximum area for lateral root growth can be achieved through porous paving and grass from property boundaries to kerbs.
In paved plazas, the use of Structural Soil Systems (SSS) composed of a two-part system of cellular modules for strength and structural support (load bearing) and filler soil can enable tree growth. In this way, structural stability is provided, plus interconnected voids for root penetration, air and water movement.
Growing conditions – water
Water-sensitive urban design can ensure that water reaches the roots of the trees; this includes redirecting kerb water through spaced inlets into the tree pits.
Tree Selection
Tree selection (contd.)
Size Matters
One strategically located large-stature tree more impact on conserving energy and mitigating the urban heat island effect than a corresponding quantity of smaller trees. Larger trees do more to:
The bigger the tree, the larger the benefits and, ultimately, the better the community’s quality of life.
Siting
Shade trees in public open space can be situated beside paths, around gathering spaces and can provide shading for play equipment. The canopy shape determines most effective shading (see the pattern SELECTING SHADE TREES).
Street Tree Considerations
Enablers:
Constraints:
Type: Remedial
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Heat stress can have a devastating impact on the animals cohabiting with us in our cities. This pattern identifies (and provides a basis for protocols for) infrastructures of care for cooling animals. These may be deliberately designed permanent structures, such as Fiona Foley’s Lotus Line water sculpture at Redfern Park that invites multiple species; architectural features of built environments that incidentally gather water and/or provide shade; or more temporary solutions, such as bowls of water put out for animals to drink. The provision of habitat is another aspect of caring for animals in hot cities.
The need for infrastructures of care for cohabiting animals in the urban common spaces is driven in part by human practices, such as water diversion for irrigation.
Birds such as Ibises, which have migrated to cities because their wetland habitats are disappearing, are perceived as urban interlopers – alien and homeless. Cockatoos and Corellas have followed in their tracks. Providing cooling infrastructures of care thus challenges negative perceptions of animal-human urban cohabitation.
Enablers
Constraints
Commoning concerns include knowing how to safely help and manage heat stressed animals; the impacts of large congregations of animals; cleaning infrastructures of care; collecting animal poo; smells; bee stings, bites and other injuries. Private residents may remove water to limit animal access or thriving mosquito populations.
Type: Ideal, Remedial
Stage: Delivery
Related Patterns:
Mobile play vans are free services offered by local councils. They are targeted at children ages six and under (the preschool population). They offer a regular schedule of safe and creative play and socialisation space, and a chance for families with pre-school aged children to meet and socialise, most often in local parks. These services will be important when parks or other amenities are not yet completed or have not yet matured. They are of great value in communities where residents with young children have limited capacity to travel to community centres or other facilities.
Enablers
Constraints
Play vans as public commons
Programs like this should also make accommodations for the comfort of care-providers during play activities. If the goal is community belonging and cohesion, a chance for meaningful interaction among care providers of young children is of equal importance. Programs could be improved through incorporation of volunteer help, and with that comes the need to ensure child-safety through background checks.
Type: Ideal, Remedial
Stage: Planning, Post-occupancy
Related Patterns:
Every neighbourhood should include outdoor gathering spaces that residents can use for relaxing and socialising with others. These spaces can be co-located with outdoor play areas. Gathering spaces should be delineated from the broader environment through the use of structures such as seating, tables or shade structures that provide a sense of enclosure.
Gathering areas should provide opportunities for large and small gatherings. Ideally, they will include a combination of both permanent seating and temporary seating that can be moved around to suit different needs. Food preparation areas including barbecues for outside cooking encourage use across the day and into the evening and they can be especially valuable on hot days. Outdoor gathering areas should be well-shaded for access on warm days and allow for sunlight in winter. In addition, adequate infrastructures of care should be made available such as water drinking fountains, appropriate seating for different demographics and people with disabilities, and accessible toilets.
Enablers
Constraints
A commoning concern related to gathering outdoors will be the management of temporary fittings. This could be addressed by coming to arrangements with civic-minded local shops or cafes to store resources for temporary use.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
The vast spread of urbanisation results in alienated people and communities instead of a mosaic of recognisable suburbs that include many subcultures.
Mosaics of subcultures need to be identified by boundaries, which are like ecotones that allow for social mingling with other subcultures as well as intensifying the subculture within the boundary. Such ecotonal areas can be shared playing fields, football and cricket ovals, public buildings such as libraries, large parks and water bodies. Where the boundaries are open space, they contribute to cooling of surrounding residential areas.
A pattern for a great variety of subcultures in a city is not a pattern to form ghettos; rather it is a pattern of opportunity, allowing a city to contain a multitude of different ways of life with comfortable intensity. A rich mix of subcultures will not be possible if each subculture is being inhibited by pressure from its neighbours.
The subcultures are ideally defined by shared land, which is not residential land, and which should be afforded as generous an area as possible.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Keyline Planning manages the existing landscape through enhancing soil quality, carbon capture and water holding capacity. Water naturally flows downhill running off ridges and concentrating in valleys. The basic site analysis for a keyline design includes identifying the ʻmain ridgeʼ (the watershed divide), ʻprimary ridgesʼ (convex slopes radiating off of the main ridge) and ʻprimary valleysʼ (concave basins receiving runoff between primary ridges). The ʻkeypointʼ is where the slope changes from convex to concave in shape and exists in valleys. It marks the highest point in the landscape to hold water.
The contour passing through the keypoint is known as the ʻKeylineʼ. Subsoil ploughing along the keyline decompacts degraded soils, improving water infiltration, and distributing water more evenly. Subsoil plough regime helps restore a soil’s structure and water holding capacity. The keyline subsoil rips create mini drainage channels diverting water gently downhill and back out onto the ridges.
This system uses the natural patterns of the landscape to catch and store water for use in cooling strategies.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Type: Ideal
Stage: Post-occupancy
Related Patterns:
Bushcare groups have nearly forty years of history in Sydney and greater New South Wales. They use volunteer effort to engage in in a variety of activities that benefit the local environment including tree planting, bush regeneration, water quality monitoring, monitoring of wildlife populations and community education. They provide a means to guard against invasive species that can threaten biodiversity in the Bushland habitat. Bush care in this way resembles other volunteer-based organisations elsewhere in the world such as those in the US that preserve riparian environments (river keepers). In the US, the efforts of volunteer-based organisations have played a key role in conservation monitoring and their oversight has made national legislation like the Clean Water act so effective.
Enablers
Constraints
Bush Care as social and biophysical commons
Bushcare has evolved as an inclusive practice of caring for country. As a consequence, it extends the terms of commoning and common-community to human and non-human species. The patterns of colonial settler society having wittingly and unwittingly introduced many species. While some have had devastating consequences for the local environment, others have become parts of varied human and non-human livelihoods; for example, the role of wild-invasive goats in rural livelihoods and in the management of other invasive plant species through their grazing habits. The management of plant and animals nowadays as part of country is an ongoing process of negotiation.
Type: Remedial
Stage: Post-occupancy
Related Patterns:
Post-occupancy studies are protocols for evaluating the technical performance of (called post-occupancy analysis) and/or social satisfaction with (called post-occupancy evaluation) single or multi-residential buildings after residents have moved in. This pattern seeks to extend current post-occupancy studies to emphasise the importance of learning from the experiences and practices of a community of residents. Such ongoing learning is critically important if the aim is to create liveable and sustainable places, as it could validate goals, help identify and address emerging issues and opportunities, and feed back into planning processes as a form of ‘continuous improvement’ and lifecycle planning.
Post-occupancy learning requires community engagement and outputs that can form a durable record of a living place to inform learning over time. This approach foregrounds and validates community expertise in the lived context, which is under-represented in the literature about liveability. Community stakeholders may initiate engagement around a particular common concern, on a one-off or regular basis. Concerns might be explored via regular resident walking meetings, workshops or social ‘living labs’. Mechanisms to ‘carry over’ learning to improve the planning and development process needs to be created, with precedents existing in the form of collaborative governance arrangements (see Report).
Post-occupancy learning could facilitate enhanced openness and trust and enable community-led innovation in planning and development processes. It could also prime communities to explore the transition to new practices, for example energy sharing, or new forms of water or waste management. Citizen science projects recording local weather and aspects of environmental change are a form of post-occupancy learning. Retaining collected data in a local library (in addition to handing it over to the investigating body [e.g. Australian Museum or Bureau of Meteorology]) would enable future generations of residents to access this data and facilitate intergenerational place-based learning. Adopt a tree programs, where residents ‘adopt’ a young local tree planted by council and take responsibility for monitoring its health as it grows, is another example. In this case, succession planning is important, including mechanisms for intergenerational communication.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Context information and site history – who has access and where is this housed?
Examples:
What and how experiences and practices are captured, and where and how outputs are stored, are key commoning concerns.
Some members of the community may find the process ‘nosy’. This would need to be sensitively addressed.
A key commoning concern will be accessibility to tools to measure and capture information, experiences and practices.
Type: Ideal, Remedial
Stage: Post-occupancy
Related Patterns:
Shuttle buses offer free or low-cost transportation between main destinations (for instance between transit hubs and university or corporate campuses or to specific venues such as museums, shopping centres or swimming pools). They complement and address shortfalls in other forms of mass transit such as trains or buses that cover greater distances along specific routes.
Shuttle bus services of this sort can be provided directly by the municipality. The Santa Barbara electric shuttle bus, for instance, runs from the edge of the city district to the downtown areas and to numerous destinations along the waterfront. The electric bus service is an important component of the Innovative Clean Transit Standards being adopted by the California Air Resources Board (Sustainable Bus n.d.). In Parramatta, The Shuttle is a free transport solution run by Transport for NSW through the Transdev mobility company, running seven days a week, that connects tourists, residents and commuters to commercial, retail and recreational landmarks. Alternatively, shuttle buses can be wholly or partially subsidized by the benefiting institution (for instance shuttles that cater to university students and staff).
Enablers
Constraints
Destination shuttle as social commons/transit.
Destination shuttles work effectively in connection with other forms of mass transportation. They solve the last kilometre problem in getting to and from major destination such as universities, shopping centres and conference centres, and benefit a larger public by reducing congestion. A major concern is that they tend to be site specific forms of transit that do not directly benefit the public at large. This can lead to ongoing negotiations over who maintains/pay for these services and how much the public can be expected to support a transit form that only benefits a subset of the population.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Innovative cropping and consolidating measures to mitigate the impacts of loss of agricultural land and its associated natural systems on account of sprawling urbanisation, that results in the heating of urban space. This is exacerbated by the growing impact of motor transportation and related infrastructure on global warming. The appropriate pattern relates to topography, soils and hydrology where urban development is located on higher land and where agricultural land is located on the lower slopes and floodplains beside creeks and rivers.
To achieve urban & rural fingers, there are several issues to address.
Equity Issues necessitate innovative planning that allows owners to realise their land’s development value without changing the rural use. This can be achieved through transfer of development rights (TDR).
New Farming Practice: Maintaining rural and peri-urban fingers requires making productive land attractive to new farmers. The market growth of water products, ecosystem services, and niche marketing of gourmet products are emerging opportunities for rural economics inspired by new poly-cropping techniques.
New Forms of Rural Living: European planners offer alternative models for ‘Rural Living’ that allow for continued productive farming to be associated with new clustered residential areas. This involves innovative land tenure and inventive forms of governance that are drawn from organizational strategies associated with cooperatives.
New Urban Agriculture: New urban agriculture associated with hybrid urban formulas that conflate architecture, landscape, infrastructure and high-tech farming, can instigate innovative forms of agriculture at the urban rural nexus.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Type: Ideal, Remedial
Stage: Delivery
Related Patterns:
Misting devices can be highly effective in cooling outdoor spaces. Dry misting has been used extensively in public open space in Keyaki, Japan and now in Toronto, Canada. Misting installations can also provide attractive, interesting features into public spaces including renovations of public parks, helping to increase their use. In some instances, municipal authorities can commission misting devices and misting fans as permanent or temporary art installations, which help to generate higher footfall for local restaurants and retail businesses (Roe, n.d.)
Although seemingly a misnomer, ‘dry mist’ is formed when water is pushed through a fine aperture at high pressure; the mist is so fine it evaporates, feeling dry, and lowers the temperature by up to 30°F. Misting fans are energy and water efficient, readily available and easily installed. Depending on the types and placement of plants, misting systems can double as watering systems, keeping plants lush and green.
Misting Pumps
The most expensive part of the system is the high-pressure pump because fine water droplets required for quick evaporation cannot be achieved by low water pressure. Solar panels can supply the energy needed.
When installed and used properly, mist cooling systems can reduce temperatures by as much as 30°F depending on the efficiency of the misting system, relative humidity, and outdoor temperature. Evaporative cooling is remarkably energy and water efficient.
Misting devices cannot use stored on-site water. The misting nozzle requires mains water in order to ensure there is no particulate matter to block it. There are also public health considerations if stored tank or run-off water is used for misting.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Misting devices facilitate the coolth for ‘cool commons’; those spaces that offer cooler temperatures than surrounding areas and that are used by, and are accessible to, a community of commoners who, to some degree, care for, take responsibility for, and benefit from this coolness.
Type: Remedial
Stage: Delivery
Related Patterns:
Parks and other public spaces can be important cool commons in the evenings, when the heat of the day starts to dissipate from the public domain and when it becomes cooler outside than in the home. Well-known examples of night-time commons include night markets, festivals and outdoor film screenings, all of which tend to be concentrated in urban centres. As our summers get longer and hotter, the principle of the night-time commons needs to be adopted more widely in an overall strategy of rethinking how we use our local environments.
This pattern explores night-time commoning as a cooling strategy. An important infrastructure that can be activated as night-time commons are public parks and swimming pools. These environments are already cool commons, but they tend to close in the evenings, precisely at the time when they could best serve the community by providing a venue for socialising, swimming, dining or other community gatherings on a hot night.
Place-appropriate and engaging lighting is an important element in an overall cultural shift toward night-time commoning. It is an attractor for alternative park uses, to create ambience and promote safe wayfinding and play. An example is the Gates of Light art installation at Macarthur Heights, a park designed for stargazing. In addition to lighting, the activation of night-time commons are most successful when they provide signage, other communications and activation events to legitimise use and raise awareness amongst the local community of the opportunities to use these spaces at night. This is important as unlike in Australia’s regional neighbours, night-time commoning is unusual in Australia. This is where examples such as night markets, dance and exercise, or community cookouts, can provide inspiration for activating parks at night.
Kevin Lynch’s urban design principles cited in Dufner et al.’s (nd) night lighting study, focus on how people move through and experience the city.
Measures of success for night-time commons are minimised incidents relating to safety, minimised disruption to neighbours and maximised attendance.
Enablers
Constraints
A commoning concern related to the socially-activated night time space could be managing noise for surrounding residents not using the park (for example shift workers). If use involves cooking, this could also mean issues with smells. This might be ameliorated by designing dedicated events for quieter usage or determining times for noisier events like dancing, markets or films by a community scheduling tool or poll. Night-time commons need to be designed co-operatively with the communities who will use them in order to address these commoning concerns.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
A designated walkway between two activity spaces that is marked by shady trees planted close enough to provide a cool corridor around a paved or unpaved footpath. The trees and walkway are meant to communicate across generations the importance of memory, and care for an event or people or something.
Along the walkway there are benches for rest and reflection. There could be commemorative plaques in the paving. Shrubs or flowers that are of particular significance to who or whatever is being commemorated can be planted between the trees.
Memorial walkways that commemorate those killed in war are common around Australia. But shaded walkways could be built as part of a community building exercise to commemorate other events, people or species.
Planning note: As trees will take some years to grow to a size that provides shade, community involvement needs to be backed up with care by a continuous authority such as a council.
Enablers
Constraints
Planning and establishing a Memorial Walk is a commoning intervention that has the potential to call forth a community of commoners (people who initiate and care for a commons). Generating interest in ‘leaving a mark’ and communicating across generations will take time and commitment by a community development agent working with new residents.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Establishing site forests is a critical practice to engage communities in planting and caring for trees, and to enable coolth for future generations.
Locating Contour Strip Forest
Broadscale site forests are best located after a Keyline analysis has located the Keyline. In primary valleys, cultivation of strips/bands for tree planting takes place below the Keyline contour. On primary ridges, cultivated strips/bands lie parallel and above the Keyline. Trees can also border roads above irrigation channels. Trees should be planted in Riparian corridors and planted surrounding water bodies.
Preparation and planting
A specialised Keyline plough should cultivate strips/bands 4 centimetres below root depth, to aerate soil along contours. Trees should be planted as tube stock to ensure successful and rapid growth. Biodegradable tree guards and stakes are needed to facilitate moisture condensation and protection against grazing.
Establishing Forests through Ecological Succession
Successional ecologies can be applied to forest management regimes in urban environments: rather than humans being the primary maintenance mechanism, we can start to use passive maintenance through environmental manipulation and an understanding of succession; for example, short-lived, fast-growing Acacia spp. species have been interplanted with various eucalyptus species, to encourage a faster growth rate and more upright form.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Type: Ideal
Stage: Delivery
Related Patterns:
A heat preparedness plan is part of a commons-infrastructure that enables community response to heat emergencies and helps to keep vulnerable people safe at these times.
The Heat Preparedness Welcome Pack should include a heat emergency preparedness guide that explains the available infrastructure showing how to respond to heat events in this community. The pack should identify cooling infrastructures and resources, and the chain of command for activating a heat emergency and protocols for checking in with neighbours. The ultimate aim of such a pack would be the creation of a community-based governing body of stake holders that maintain this commons-infrastructure.
Enablers
Constraints
Welcome pack as knowledge commons.
Type: Ideal, Remedial
Stage: Delivery
Related Patterns:
Car shares are ways of sharing access to automobiles for a variety of uses. They can be organised informally or among community members, but the contemporary car shares make use of web-based platform technology to grant access to vehicles that are either privately owned or owned by a ride-share service such as Go-get. The City of Sydney, like cities elsewhere, has allocated a portion of available street parking to car share programs in order to ensure equitable access. Car share programs can work to reduce car congestion, carbon emissions, and demand for parking spaces by offering an alternative to private automobile ownership.
Enablers
Constraints
Carshare as social commons/transit
Car sharing provides a way of replacing private ownership of automobiles with shared use. While city dwellers benefit from an improved atmospheric commons, and reduced demand upon public infrastructure, questions remain around both the taxation and regulation of platform-based enterprises.
Type: Ideal, Remedial
Stage: Delivery
Related Patterns:
Annual fêtes or fairs can be fund-raising activities for any community that help to foster stronger community identity and pride in achievements.
Street parties and fêtes are ways to get to know neighbours and build strong communities. They can be important ways to celebrate together. Most Councils support neighbourhood gatherings as they foster community spirit and good neighbour relations. A successful street party could be as small and intimate as a few chairs in a front yard, up to a BBQ in the local park, or a party in a local street.
Temporary Structures
If a tent, marquee or stall is erected, it requires local government approval either as a public building under the Health Act or as a temporary building under Building Regulations. Local government may waive this requirement for low risk structures. As a general rule if the public are within or on the facility it should have local government approval.
Temporary structures such as merchandise stalls, seating, food stalls and so on must be erected and secured in accordance with the manufacturers specifications to ensure they are structurally sound and can withstand likely wind in the locality.
Sustainability Considerations
Some Councils have sustainability strategies and rules whereby events need to reduce the use of plastic packaging and plastic cutlery and crockery for the service of food, and to encourage recycling by stall operators and patrons. The City of Sydney has a no balloons policy in all of its parks and open spaces. Balloons are not be permitted for any events.
General Considerations
Event Clear Up; provide suitable waste receptacles and make arrangements for litter picking and waste removal after the event.
Enablers:
Constraints:
Common spaces can be used for temporary events, particularly if they offer cooler temperatures than surrounding areas and if they are used by, and are accessible to, a community of commoners who, to some degree, care for, take responsibility for, and benefit from this coolness.
A commoning concern will be negotiating road use: ensuring adequate notice of road closure and legible signage to alert drivers. Another is ensuring dogs are leashed to ensure safety.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Community libraries can integrate multiple uses and forms of knowledge at various scales and provide readily accessible interior and exterior cool spaces. Community libraries provide free access to books, audiovisual, and other materials to local residents who must be members; some extend into lending household and other items as well such as tools, toys, and cooking implements.
Libraries usually provide free internet access, although this may be time-limited, and many provide charging ports for electronic devices. Libraries can combine or balance indoor and outdoor spaces and include bookable meeting and discussion rooms. Most libraries are used for learning and other events such as classes or reading groups, whether organised and run by library staff or other non-profit organisations. Many libraries include cafes.
Libraries can provide free community cooling refuges during times of extreme heat, provide early childhood and local health services, and house a knowledge commons of and for the community.
Enablers
Constraints
Community libraries are a public commons.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Many development sites have remnant indigenous vegetation. It is important to understand whether this vegetation is part of an Endangered Ecological Community. In the Sydney region there are twelve designated endangered ecological forests listed under the Commonwealth Government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), of which six are critically endangered. NSW Government also has a new Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 (BC Act). In the BC Act, threatened ecological communities are defined by the NSW Threatened Species Scientific Committee. The BC Act lists over 100 threatened ecological communities. All except four are primarily made up of plant species.
A threatened ecological community is listed as either a “Vulnerable Ecological Community”, “Endangered Ecological Community (EEC)” or “Critically Endangered Ecological Community (CEEC)”. Maps of the Communities are available at http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publiclookupcommunities.pl
Site Planning Stages
Existing forests and woodlands on a site need to be mapped and tree species identified. If it is a remnant stand of one of the EEC/CEEC, then protective ribbons need to encircle it. The extent of the particular EEC/CEEC can be verified through the NSW Dept of Environment. An arboriculture assessment of tree health is then required.
Excavation, Hydrology, Drainage
The hydrology of the area adjoining the trees, particularly upslope, will need to be mapped. It is important that no earth works or changes to site drainage occur within the vicinity of the trees. Mature Eucalypts & Angophoras are particularly susceptible to altered drainage.
Endangered Ecological Forests in the Sydney Region
Endangered Ecological Forests in the Sydney Region
Enablers:
Constraints:
Type: Remedial
Stage: Delivery
Related Patterns:
To control heat and humidity in a large park we need to map the paths of cooling breezes as well as the areas where there are no breezes, and then map the topography and porosity of the soil to determine where water is most likely to collect (usually in the lowest lying areas).
This process will locate the most and least pleasant microclimates. We can then discern where to locate devices to provide shade and clean air, dehumidifiers to reduce moisture, fountains to lower ambient temperatures and even ultrasonic speaker systems to drive away mosquitos. These will make up a pattern of devices for the benefit and comfort of the users of the park. They will reinforce areas that are already made comfortable by reducing the heat and humidity through means such as specific plants and trees chosen for their ability to shade according to their canopy, or water fountains and atomisers to cool the air.
According to the number of devices in a given area, the spaces are more or less enjoyable, more or less comfortable. Such climatic devices can be versions of park furniture such as benches, fountains, or sculptures. Their role will be either as dehumidifiers, or as devices that cool surfaces from underground pipes or that decrease the intensity of light or create shade. In planning for the park, buildings can be located in the most uncomfortable areas whereas recreational and leisure activities can be situated in the most comfortable microclimates; that is, where heat and the relative humidity level will be at a minimum. The lowest lying parts of the park are likely to collect rainwater, and so generate higher air humidity. This is where the dehumidifying devices should be placed. Keeping in mind the relationship of the park to its topography and the water that is collected, keyline sub-ploughing can be used to slow down rainwater and enable it to infiltrate as closely as possible the places where it falls into the superficial layers of soil.
Enablers
Constraints
Type: Ideal
Stage: Planning
Related Patterns:
Multi-use community centres are spaces that are open to residents for a variety of uses that can range from informal through to formal and structured. These activities are usually free or provided on a non-profit basis. The centre should be intimate but flexible enough to suggest and enable a range of uses such as celebrations, meetings, and classes.
Multi-use community centres should include a kitchen and toilets, be accessible to people with diverse abilities, and be safe and inclusive spaces. Flatt access routes and shaded areas for seating outside provide inclusivity and coolth.
They can also include a range of indoor and outdoor spaces; teenagers and young adults are often overlooked in planning, so they may need more consideration as specific target users. Repurposed sales offices could be used as multi-use community centres.
Enablers
Constraints
Multi-use community centres are a hybrid commons that mix ownership and management of assets between institutions in different sectors and which can combine non-profit principles with the principles of enterprise.
Type: Ideal
Stage: Post-occupancy
Related Patterns:
As trees grow to maturity, they change the microclimate around them. Deciduous trees for instance will form a shady canopy during summer and also provide shelter from hot winds, and then let the sun through in winter (ABC 2009). Trees take time to mature into a size that can afford shade and coolth, however, and they need to be protected to mature. Furthermore, mature trees can die back or die altogether, thus other trees need to be on their way towards maturity to take their place. It is therefore imperative that senescent trees, that is, trees of advanced old age or trees in decline, that are more susceptible to disease, insect infestation and decay, are responsibly managed in urban streets and parks and that succession tree planting is planned for (City of Ryde 2016, pp. 24-26). This particularly requires the development of expertise relating to:
Enablers
Constraints
Tree planting as an activity among commoners who create, sustain and are sustained by the commons
Usually experts design and maintain landscapes. Users of the cooling services of park landscapes can be invited into the process of planning and assisting the realisation of landscape designs over time. Planting for succession can create intergenerational sense of ownership over a commons.
Note: We can also improve passive maintenance of vegetation through environmental manipulation and an understanding of ecological succession. In this way, non-human users are also enrolled into a commoning ecosystem.