Hyperdensities, Chinatown, NSW

How will we plan and design for nature in growing hyperdense cities?

With a lens to the future, this landscape architecture studio imagined nature’s place in growing high density urban areas. Specifically, this studio examined Sydney’s rapidly developing Chinatown district and explored the intersection between novel public spaces and ecologies. To understand and conceptualise urban landscapes in high density living, the studio involved a 2-week field trip to Hong Kong, (with additional funding secured from the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan), serving as an existing case study of high-density living and where surprisingly nature finds ways to survive and thrive in unexpected tiny pockets of the city. For students, this was an opportunity to creatively speculate and critically pragmatise strategies to enhance ecological systems and nature’s place in Sydney’s densifying urban landscape.

This studio challenged students to consider the future of landscape architecture in growing high density cities. Lessons from Hong Kong sought to challenge preconceived notions of nature in cities where surprisingly ecosystems continue to exist behind the scenes. This was an important case study for the subject and learning opportunity to understand the challenges of hyperdense living in Hong Kong that Sydney planning will face in the future. As increasingly complex high density cities emerge and evolve, understanding where and how novel ecosystems can thrive in these places will be vital to the future of liveable and healthy cities.