Envisioning the compact city: resident responses to urban design imagery

Abstract

Policies for achieving compact cities have long faced resident resistance on the basis that intensified development would be out of character. Yet resident response depends on the role of image and imagination in planning discourse. This paper seeks to test urban design imagery for transformations of specific one- to two-storey Melbourne streetscapes, via two representational modes: first, abstracted images of bulk and height scenarios for two different places; second, fully developed urban design visions for four different places. The urban experiences these images evoked and their levels of acceptability were explored through interviews with resident activists. One key finding is, as the b..