YIMBYs and NIMBYs agree on one thing – they both want to live in desirable heritage neighbourhoods. And despite heritage being blamed for lack of new housing in these areas, it’s not the real issue.
Pressure for more housing often runs up against a desire to preserve urban heritage areas. International best practice offers ways to navigate the impasse.
Our urban heritage should be allowed to evolve and adapt to the values and needs of today. It’s the best way to avoid neglect and decay, while enabling this heritage to help make cities sustainable.
James Lesh, The University of Melbourne and Kali Myers, The University of Melbourne
If communities don’t understand and support local heritage protections, perhaps that’s a reflection on how the system works and not just evidence of a need for public education.
Brisbane City wants to preserve backyards, but they account for much of the open space lost to development under policies that also aim to increase housing density in existing urban areas.
It’s people, in addition to architecture or history, that make some meeting places worthy of heritage protection. Social values are now among the listing criteria, but many such places remain at risk.
Jack Mundey fought to preserve heritage sites all his life, including the Sirius Building in 2016.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Jack Mundey fought to save Australia’s urban and environmental heritage. An architect of green bans, his lifelong efforts empowered citizens to assert their right to keep the heritage of their city.
Visitors to Dubai are drawn to its carefully created and recreated urban precincts, but placemaking in this city helps sugercoat the reality of autocratic rule.
Public opposition to plans for an Apple store was the trigger for the nomination of Federation Square for heritage listing, but it still had to meet the criteria.
Andi Yu/AAP
A youthful Fed Square satisfied five criteria to be added to the Victorian Heritage Register. The listing protects the square as a public place, but doesn’t prevent its continuing evolution.
The government intends to destroy Djab Wurrung sacred trees and sites to upgrade the Western Highway at the same time as it seeks heritage status for the Eastern Freeway.
Allies Decolonising/gofundme
The Victorian government plans to destroy trees and sites sacred to Djab Warrung people to make way for the Western Highway at the same time as it seeks heritage listing for the Eastern Freeway.
Reduced to a pile of rubble in 2016, the Corkman pub had been a favourite local meeting place since the mid-1880s.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
The illegal demolition of a historic pub in Melbourne is the subject of a legal bid to order its rebuilding. Although the heritage value of such a move is debatable, there are other justifications.
Dongguan Street in Dalian reflects both Chinese and colonial history, prompting increasing debate about how to manage this contested heritage.
The West, Russia and Japan all left their marks on China today. Urbanisation too is usurping the old China. This long, mixed heritage and what should be done with it remains contested.
Good Shepherd Chapel (c.1969, architect: A. Ian Ferrier) in Mitchelton, Brisbane, was demolished in 2004.
Ferrier Slide Collection, used with permission
Of the thousands of churches erected to serve the fast-growing communities of post-war Australia, very few are protected. Are we happy to lose buildings that are so much part of our modern heritage?
Shandon, an inner-city neighbourhood in Cork, Ireland, dates back to the 1600s.
Image: Kieran Hoare, used with permission
A suburb in the Irish city of Cork sets the standard for involving the community in heritage building conservation. Public engagement is the key to managing the inevitable conflicts.
The old Pratt Street power plant in Baltimore in the US is now home to commercial uses. But the heritage preservation is compromised by advertising that is not sympathetic to the building style and design.
Wikimedia Commons
When talking about heritage, we need to be clear about our definitions and our objectives for each building. Then we can work on achieving the optimum balance of heritage and sustainability.
Maya Demetriou, 90, pictured after the court ruling that the minister did not properly consider a heritage listing recommendation, will be the last tenant left in the Sirius building.
Perry Duffin/AAP
All but a handful of the former public housing tenants are gone. But despite the government again rejecting the recommended heritage listing of the Sirius building, the fight to save it isn’t over.
The Sirius building and the Heritage Act are both products of a significant part of Sydney’s history: the Green Bans movement.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Social housing can certainly have heritage significance. Over more than 100 years, it has been shaped by contemporary architectural and political ideas, sometimes in an exemplary way.
Senior Lecturer in Architectural HIstory and Theory, UNSW & Honorary Research Fellow, Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage (ACAHUCH), UNSW Sydney