In Time with Water: Design Studies of 3 Australian Cities

In Time with Water: Design Studies of 3 Australian Cities, edited by Nigel Bertram and Catherine Murphy from   the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities (CRCWSC), will be launched in Melbourne and Brisbane next month.

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A call for new thinking

In Time with Water: Design Studies of 3 Australian Cities asks how can design processes help us understand the underlying and hybrid nature of water systems in our urban environments so that we can better prepare for the densification of cities and the impact of climate change. It responds to this important question through design studies undertaken in three Australian cities: Melbourne's low-lying swampy areas, Brisbane's flooding river valley and Perth's deep groundwater network.

Past schemes (dams, drains, canals, sewers, reservoirs, lakes, aqueducts) that radically altered the way water moves in cities must give way to new schemes where urban environments can adapt to the unpredictability of water through its extremes of dry and wet conditions.

The design responses in this book contribute to this ambition by understanding the past, present and possible future conditions of local sites, and using this knowledge to create multi-purposed, alternative design scenarios towards a water sensitive city.

In Time with Water: Design Studies of 3 Australian Cities arises from work completed in the CRCWSC’s Tranche 1 (Project D5.1 Urban intensification and green infrastructure: towards a water sensitive city). It is a collaborative work, with contributions from Nigel Bertram, Paola Leardini, Geoffrey London, Daniel Jan Martin, Antony Moulis, Catherine Murphy, Shane Murray, Kaan Ozgun and Diego Ramirez-Lovering.

The book was launched in Perth on 13 August, with an introduction by our CEO Professor Tony Wong and official launch by David Caddy, Chairman, Western Australian Planning Commission.