City Plan – Adelaide 2036: A Place-Based Blueprint for Growth

The Adelaide CBD is evolving as a place where people choose to live. Growth comes at a critical time in history when our climate is warming and walkable access to amenities is at a tipping point. There is a need to disrupt policy design, test different growth scenarios and choose urban design solutions that give people the choice to walk, live well and participate in community life. The City Plan uses a sophisticated set of isochrones and indices that enable policy makers to experiment with future city designs and optimise decisions about policy intervention and investment.

The origins of City Plan are its spatial data, evidence base and visualisations which embed conversations about design solutions in technology, innovation and fact. The City of Adelaide Digital Explorer (CoADE) enables people to interact with future possible outcomes for the city and make conscious decisions about the futures in which they wish to live. Informed by a design led studio exhibition with inputs from local residents and global experts, people were given the tools to spatially explore the city and engage in conversation about growth opportunities that recognises the things people love and want to protect.

City Plan is prefaced on climate change scenarios and planning for climate resilience in the face of rising temperatures. It takes a people first and place based approach to neighbourhoods through co-design of strong local urban identities with the people that live, invest and enjoy the city. As a publicly accessible tool CoADE is available to guide commercial decisions unlocking private access to open government data. City Plan is a city-wide urban design strategy that shapes local investment in the city and fulfils the city’s role as the capital of South Australia in the Greater Adelaide Regional Plan.

The Urban Design Elements that drive the City Plan are embedding in the four priorities of the plan, city wide spatial strategies and a local area framework. Designed to promote a vibrant, liveable and functional city, the design elements seek: 1.A greener and cooler city 2.Transit diversity 3.A city of neighbourhoods 4.Housing diversity for a growing population. The design is underpinned by principes that respect the past, build resilience for future growth and create a city that welcome all people. There is strong commitment to embedding First Nations perspectives and knowledge onto the shaping of our city and meaningful integration of Kaurna voices and perspectives to urban policy and design. Design elements range from civic plazas to create communal spaces that foster social interaction, cultural exchange, and civic engagement within the city; to new housing models that address affordability challenges and build dynamic communities. With new design thinking, the City Plan sets a policy framework across multiple spatial scales and temporal rhythms of the city. The City Plan document and CoADE will be going to Council shortly and will be available in the coming months.