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  • © 2019

Designing the Global City

Design Excellence, Competitions and the Remaking of Central Sydney

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Considers the link between urban design policy and aesthetics and economic productivity

  • Examines key urban policy and design issues in Asia Pacific

  • Explores how architectural and urban design values are co-opted by global cities to enhance their economic competitiveness

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxii
  2. Introduction

    • Robert Freestone, Gethin Davison, Richard Hu
    Pages 1-19
  3. Property Development, Governance and Design Excellence

    • Robert Freestone, Gethin Davison, Richard Hu
    Pages 21-45
  4. Global Sydney: Economy, Planning and Environment

    • Robert Freestone, Gethin Davison, Richard Hu
    Pages 47-80
  5. A Pre-history of Design Excellence in Sydney

    • Robert Freestone, Gethin Davison, Richard Hu
    Pages 81-116
  6. The City of Sydney’s Competitive Design Policy: Context, Genesis and Operation

    • Robert Freestone, Gethin Davison, Richard Hu
    Pages 117-157
  7. Competitive Projects and Their Design Outcomes

    • Robert Freestone, Gethin Davison, Richard Hu
    Pages 159-190
  8. Competitions and Excellence: Three Case Studies

    • Robert Freestone, Gethin Davison, Richard Hu
    Pages 191-237
  9. The Benefits and Drawbacks of Mandatory Design Competitions

    • Robert Freestone, Gethin Davison, Richard Hu
    Pages 239-267
  10. Design Competitions as Public Policy

    • Robert Freestone, Gethin Davison, Richard Hu
    Pages 269-296
  11. Conclusion

    • Robert Freestone, Gethin Davison, Richard Hu
    Pages 297-311
  12. Back Matter

    Pages 313-353

About this book

This text explores how architectural and urban design values have been co-opted by global cities to enhance their economic competitiveness by creating a superior built environment that is not just aesthetically memorable but more productive and sustainable. It focuses on the experience of central Sydney through its policy commitment to ‘design excellence’ and more particularly to mandatory competitive design processes for major private development. Framed within broader contexts that link it to comparable urban policy and design issues in the Asia-Pacific region and globally, it provides a scholarly but accessible volume that provides a balanced and critical overview of a policy that has changed the design culture, development expectations, public realm and skyline of central Sydney, raising issues surrounding the uneven distribution of benefits and costs, professional practice, representative democracy, and implications of globalization.


Reviews

“The book is informative and well written. … Well illustrated and amply stocked with diagrams and tables supplementing the narratives, this book is an essential contribution to the comparative literature on urban design. It is certainly an authoritative source for urban designers and public officials interested in improving their cities’ appearance and design. It is also an important argument for the role of public policy and design governance in obtaining excellence in the quality of the built environment … .” (Tridib Banerjee, Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol. 87 (4), 2021)

Authors and Affiliations

  • UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Robert Freestone, Gethin Davison

  • University of Canberra, Canberra, Australia

    Richard Hu

About the authors

Robert Freestone is Professor of Planning in the Faculty of Built Environment at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia. He has held appointments in the NSW Department of Planning, the Department of Geography at the University of Melbourne, and the Urban Research Program at the Australian National University. His books include Place and Placelessness Revisited (2016) and The Planning Imagination (2014).

Gethin Davison is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Built Environment at UNSW, Australia. He has a background in human geography, planning and urban design, and has previously worked as a planner in local government and private practice. Both his teaching and research are situated at the intersection of planning and urban design, with a focus on issues of governance and social equity.

Richard Hu is Professor of Planning and Urban Design at the University of Canberra, Australia. Heading the Globalization and Cities Research Program, his research cuts across urban design, urban science, and urban policy to investigate issues concerning global cities, urban competitiveness, and sustainable development. 


Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Designing the Global City

  • Book Subtitle: Design Excellence, Competitions and the Remaking of Central Sydney

  • Authors: Robert Freestone, Gethin Davison, Richard Hu

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2056-9

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-13-2055-2Published: 22 January 2019

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-13-2056-9Published: 12 December 2018

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXII, 353

  • Number of Illustrations: 72 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Urban Studies/Sociology, Urbanism, Cities, Countries, Regions

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access