Future living 6

Edition 6, 2009

GrEEn is the new

blackthe people and projects transforming

australia one street at a time

City whisperer Jan Gehl’s plans to make us happier

BrieChangersthe social trend changing your neighbourhood

house of the futureWhen you talk to the tV,will it answer back?

future Living showcases global thinking on trends, community, identity and innovations that affect the way Australians live, work, play and invest.

Future Living | 01

ContentseDition 6, 2009

03 Editorial

04 Global VillaGE Big ideas and exciting trends from around the world.

06 thE tranSForMEr How the Danish urban planner Jan Gehl is changing your life.

11 houSE oF thE FuturE In the decades to come, will the household appliances call for a chat?

16 oPinion: FiEld oF drEaMS The head of Sydney’s Botanic Gardens on big ideas for some neglected spaces.

18 SnaPShot: ShanGhai Building the “Better city, better life” Expo.

20 hot toPic Communities making the change to a greener way of life are finding unexpected benefits.

26 FolloW thE lEadEr: JaSon EVErt The schoolteacher turnng myths into local legends with the help of his students.

28 briE chanGErS Empty nesters, rebounders and downshifters; are you part of the trend?

32 oPinion: ShoW ME thE MonEY Find out if your superannuation’s working for you.

→ Baby-boomers are on the move, and changing

the real estate market in the process. Read more

about them in Briechangers, page 28.

← According to Michael Mobbs, “the answer’s

always going to be food. even if it’s a jar and

some seeds on the windowsill.” Mobbs is one

of a growing number of Australians making the

change to sustainable living in their buildings,

their energy use and their habits (hot topic,

page 16). the desire to go green has been taken

a step further by Patrick Blanc, whose

installations, such as Pont Juvénal in

Aix-en-Provence, encourage people to think

differently about the utilitarian structures which

we accept in their prosaic form.

02 | eDition 6, 2009 | Future Living

teXt ContributorsCarol Booth

Ken eastwood

Dr tim entwisle

Peter Freeman

Caia hagel

Deb Light

Cyndi tebbel

Dan warne

Brought to you ByFKP Limited

ABn 28 010 729 950

editor Katherine o'Regan

editorial coordinator Michelle Daniel

publisherMahlab Media

Managing editorGail MacCallum

future Living Magazinewebwww.fkp.com.au/futureliving

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artart directoremma simmons

iMagesphotographersBrian Cassey

ian Connellan

illustrators Kate Banazi

Genna Campton

Cover Green tomato ©Photolibrary

editorial Contact

featureD ContriButors

Caia hagelDesigncaia hagel is a magazine and television journalist based in canada, specialising in architecture and design profiles. She has written for many publications, including Rolling Stone, Vogue, Elle and POL Oxygen, for which she won best Feature article at the new York Folio Media awards. She is also the winner of best international Experimental Short Film at the brooklyn Film Festival for script and performance.» Page 6

Ken eastwoodenvironmentken Eastwood is a freelance journalist who lives in Sydney. the former associate editor of Australian Geographic writes and photographs for magazines and newspapers in six countries. in 2006 he won the MPa’s bell award for ‘article of the Year’ (Magazine Publishers association). his latest book – Australia’s Best Eco-Friendly Holidays – was published in november.» Page 20

Dan warnetechnologydan Warne is a technology journalist with Australian Personal Computer Magazine and winner of the best reviewer category of the Sun Microsystem it Journo awards. he has been writing about technology for more than 10 years for publications including The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald. he attends major technology events around the world, reporting what the latest in technology will mean for australians.» Page 11

Kate Banaziillustrationkate banazi was born in london, where she completed a fashion degree at central St Martins. banazi’s art is exhibited in both the uk and australia. clients for her illustration include telstra, unilever, Business Week, circle design, PWc and insane Skateboards. She likes to work with silkscreen, fabric, pencils, and ink. » Page 11

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sustainaBiLity // Future living is printed on Monza recycled (excluding cover), one of the first papers in

australia to gain Forest Stewardship council (FSc) certification. combined with its 55 per cent recycled content,

Monza recycled also carries iSo 14001 Environmental certification.

Future Living | 03

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As debate continues about the Emission trading Scheme, carbon credits and the various forms of

renewable energy, it can sometimes be difficult to work out the right thing to do, or whether it’s possible to make a difference at all. recycling’s easy, but what about rebuilding your house to be sustainable? how about your street? Your suburb?

in this issue of Future Living ken Eastwood has found examples across australia of groups uniting around the desire to be more environmentally sound, with great achievements to boast about (hot topic, p 20). together, not only are they managing to create best-practice sustainable developments, but also suburbs that embody the values of community and connection that many aspire to.

there’s inspiration and innovation throughout the issue, as the director of Sydney’s royal botanic Gardens, tim Entwisle, offers his suggestions for revitalising a neglected patch of green (Field of dreams, p 16), carol booth profiles a teacher transforming dreamtime tales into new millennium teaching tools (old stories, new tricks, p 26) and on page 6 caia hagel talks to Jan Gehl, the unconventional danish planner advising our capital cities on simple ways to radically improve. as Gehl says, “crossing the street is a human right. on [Sydney’s] George Street you have to apply for it!”

if your toaster talks to you, does it have rights too? according to dan Warne (house of the Future, p 11), it’s a gadget coming soon, along with a remote control that will get the coffee-maker busy, palm scanners instead of doorkeys and a toilet that ... well, no doubt they’re good for us, but do we want them? You be the judge. •

Katherine o'ReganGeneral Manager Corporate Communications FKPeditor

we can all contribute to building better community through environmental actions. Be inspired by go-getting Australians who have transformed their neighbourhoods – and found unexpected social and practical benefits, including a renewed sense of community.

↙ sun Valley, shanghai

Snapshot, page 18.

↘ transforming neglect into nurture

Field of dreams, page 16.

↓ House of the future, page 11.


the new Year signals the start of festival season across australia – a great time to kick back and enjoy a surfeit of music, theatre and visual arts from home-grown and international artists. the Sydney Festival starts the ball rolling on 9 January 2010 with a reprise of last year’s successful Festival First night, when streets, laneways and parks in the cbd will be handed over to the public for a free party featuring multiple open-air stages hosting live music, dancing and activities for kids. the fun continues throughout January. across the country, the Perth international arts Festival celebrates fifty seven years as the state’s premier cultural event and the country’s oldest multi-arts event. running from 5 February to 1 March, the line-up includes ‘under the stars’ performances by the West australian opera, West australian ballet and West australian Symphony orchestra, and Wesley Enoch will direct christine anu and casey donovan in The Sapphires. Perth international arts Festival, www.perthfestival.com.au Sydney Festival, www.sydneyfestival.org.au

Wheel deal

Public-bike-hire schemes, a cheap, flexible alternative to cars and mass transit reduce urban traffic congestion, clear the air and keep users fit. they’re already operational in Stockholm, brussels, barcelona, Paris, lyon, Montreal and Vienna. and now Melbourne is planning to become the first australian city to offer commuters the option of cycling around town.

the Public bike hire Scheme is part of the government’s $115 million Victorian cycling Strategy and is expected to launch in 2010. Victoria’s roads and Ports Minister, tim Pallas, announced in august that the royal automobile club of Victoria (racV) and global town planning firm alta Planning & design had been shortlisted with Veolia transport as finalists for the $5 million tender.

the racV/alta bid is based on the bixi system. launched in Montreal last May, bixi uses portable storage bases to distribute and collect bikes and is currently north america’s largest bike share system. Veolia – a global transport company that operates trains, ferries, buses and trams – is proposing Veloway, a system of modular docking stations that integrate with public transport systems.

Whoever wins, the ultimate goal is for a fleet of up to 600 bikes that can be picked up and returned to any one of fifty

stations in and around the city, with Parliament house, Federation Square, Southern cross Station,

university of Melbourne and the royal Women’s hospital in carlton

suggested as major hubs. this encourages the short trips that Pallas says

“relieve pressure” on the city’s transport system and promote “health and wellbeing”.

Share-scheme bikes are built to

withstand the rigours of multi-hire urban

touring and their all-over blast of colour acts as a rolling advertisement and theft deterrent all in one.

details on pricing and helmets (required by law;

there is still some debate about whether they will be

provided, or byo) are expected to be released when

the tender is announced.

Summer fun

Australia is famed for its car culture, but Melbourne’s 2010 bike commuting scheme plans to get its residents out of the box – and pedalling.

while politicians discuss climate change, acclaimed architect sir norman foster is putting a grand plan into action: Masdar, the world’s first carbon-neutral city. foster + partners unveiled the Masdar initiative masterplan last year at the first world future energy summit in abu Dhabi. the zero carbon/zero waste community is due for completion in 2018. Covering six square kilometres on the outskirts of abu Dhabi, Masdar (‘the source’ in arabic) will be mixed-use, high-density and car-free. the city is expected to house 47,500 residents and 1,500 businesses, including a new university, the headquarters for abu Dhabi’s future energy Company and an innovation Center.

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Future Living | 05

Second life, the virtual reality community which mirrors the real world, is now being used by

organisations to test construction and engineering innovations. launched by linden labs in 2003, Second life is an interactive 3d internet community that provides virtual environments for residents who want to escape from or enhance everyday life.

users create a virtual persona or avatar which they use to socialise, explore and conduct business. With 6 million users, and an average of 38,000 logged in at any one time, the commercial potential of Second life has seen hundreds of real world businesses set up operations within its virtual borders.

Some engineering companies are using

Social networking site Second Life is more than just a chat zone, as universities and engineering companies turn to the alternate universe to test new ideas.

Pixel perfectthe space to roadtest modifications and constructions before starting to build. the public works director of la Salle, in illinois in the uS has used the system to test and model new plumbing systems, and emboldened by their success has created the Second life Public Works resource centre, a salon for engineers and public works officials from around the world.

Second life is also becoming a valuable learning tool for education, with many universities establishing virtual campuses.

Melbourne’s rMit university created an island in Second life in 2007 that’s used by students in its School of architecture and design for displaying digital sculptures and prototypes of buildings that will withstand extreme environments. the School of Electrical and computer Engineering also has

a presence, with a replica of the school’s Melbourne campus studio catering for students in australia and Vietnam enrolled in its multimedia engineering subject.

Students in the Marine Production Management course at canada’s Memorial university of newfoundland (Mun) built a shipyard in Second life that won the Excellence and innovation in use of technology for learning and teaching award from canadian network for innovation in Education this year.

the experience, said Mun’s adjunct professor in the faculty of engineering and applied science, dr david Murrin, allowed students to “gain a deeper understanding about the importance of material flow and the positioning of materials when building something of such enormity”. •

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The Danish provocateur Jan Gehl has been changing the way that people think about city space and community for nearly fifty years. Now he’s turned his attention to Australia, inspiring, surprising and questioning the most basic assumptions about how we should live.words by Caia hagel

THE TRANSFORMER

Future Living | 07


Being sweet to people is the secret to making a great city,” says danish architect Jan Gehl, with the provocative air of an experienced innovator. “being nice to the citizens is key.” and though Gehl is known

for his wit, he sincerely means it. For it is with this simple premise that he has approached his nearly fifty years of achievements from copenhagen and new York city to london, Sao Paolo and Milan – in systematically transforming cities from their traffic-jammed, illnesses, into vibrant people-friendly metropolises.

he’s been working behind the scenes in australia’s capitals too, making incremental changes to the way we live and play. “australians are used to living with the idea of limited resources, so they are not caught in the twentieth century idea of limitless petrol or water. this is already a very good starting point. but australians are also genuinely people-oriented.”

it’s clear that Jan Gehl considers ideas much broader than architecture’s traditional arm. rather than speaking of buildings, bridges and streets, Gehl speaks of people. like an old-world doctor he emphasises the importance of the senses and sensual experience for the health of not just the individual, but of the society and the city itself. When

he speaks of cars, he uses the old-fashioned term ‘automobile’ and talks enthusiastically about the communal pleasures of village life before the automobile’s noise, pollution and segregation took over.

he becomes lyrical when weaving these details into the greater themes of sustainability, safety and the epidemics of obesity and depression – all while discussing cities as living entities, and demonstrating the ways in which spaces built by people shape the people that inhabit them.

“if you create space that invites people out of their buildings, where they can use their senses to really interact, they can’t resist enjoying the activities that start to happen there. Just like a good party, people have a good time together if the ambience is right. this is exactly what makes an exciting urban environment too.”

The planner’s unconventional ideas formed early in his career. “When i graduated from the royal academy of arts School of architecture [raaSa,

in copenhagen] in 1960, i was already interested in how cities work,” he explains. “but it was meeting my wife that solidified the direction. She is a psychologist and she would say to me ‘Jan, why are architects so obsessed with form, and not people?’ which led to many discussions in our household, not just between she and i, but also with her psychology friends and my architecture friends – and this made me very curious about the interplay of form and life. Good architecture is always about this interaction.

“So i decided i needed to know more about life – how life works, by which i mean people, how they move and behave, what makes them happy and unhappy – and apply this to understanding urban design.”

Six years later Gehl received a research grant from raaSa for ‘studies of the form and use of public spaces’ and began to consolidate the ideas that have since been applied to cities internationally, with exciting results.

the city of copenhagen, his primary laboratory for research, has for decades set a world-class example of what can be accomplished. the Strøget, copenhagen’s traditional main shopping street and Europe’s longest, was controversially made a car-free zone in 1962 – not by a city or council zoning change, but as an experiment by the raaSa, with the city’s tentative support. Many businesses on the street were opposed to the change and feared going bankrupt. Public protests ensued, but the plan went ahead.

only two years down the track, the Strøget had become a vibrant hub. Shops along the promenade were flourishing, and the area had become a popular place for people to live. the number of people walking along the street had more than doubled, because of their enjoyment of the public space and community life that was offered. Gehl had discovered his thesis in action, and his study of that change provided the material to

“

Australia is a nation where climate and attitude come together to foster communities.

↓ During Adelaide’s Festival of Arts, elder Park is made over into an outdoor salon.

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animate two of his groundbreaking books, life between buildings and later, Public Spaces – Public life, the follow-up synthesis of the next twenty five years of experimentation and enquiry in copenhagen (see Words and visionaries, below right).

Gehl’s research uncovered quite philosophical results. he found that only strictly necessary activities occur in poor quality outdoor space; that lower, densely spaced buildings keep the wind factor down, which invites outdoor activities in all seasons; that lit windows and densely populated streets make street life safer and more inviting; and that cycling and walking actually bring communities together, which makes them happier, and which makes the city itself ecologically sustainable and more lively.

Practically, this knowledge converts into very promising measurable growth-potential in the character of a city. Since bycyklen, copenhagen’s communal biking system, was launched in 1995, the percentage of cyclist commuters has risen steadily. Four years ago, it was 34 per cent, today it’s 37 per cent and by 2015, the city’s goal is to have 50 per cent of residents commuting to work on bikes. this will be a fivefold increase from twenty years ago. Gehl’s research has also manifested in 5000 new outdoor cafe seats, which have increased tourism and extended outdoor eating and drinking to nine months of the year.

copenhagen is consistently voted one of the best cities in the world to visit and live in, largely because of its dynamically animated outdoor spaces, which are pleasant and fun to be in. Gehl uses these facts, along with the proof of their effectiveness, to lobby local and federal bodies around the world to work together for further change in all the cities under his microscope.

Gehl has been studying and advising cities in australia for fifteen years, and admires this country’s “national willingness to come out of

buildings, an open-mindedness with genuine interest in

Future Living | 09

betterment, and a great concern for the climate challenge, as well as human health issues”.

rob adams, director of design and urban development for the city of Melbourne, invited Gehl to help rework Melbourne’s city centre. in 1994, a fifteen-year partnership and that produced the first Places for People research document, as well as what Gehl proudly calls “a city way out ahead for the twenty-first century”.

adams is a fan of Gehl’s approach. “he is a jovial, good-humoured man, which comes through in his work. he has provided a framework to measure the improvements in Melbourne over the past twenty five years, data that clearly illustrates how the incremental strategy of improvements in a city can be enormously powerful in getting politicians and government agencies to continue on this path to progress.” »

words and visionarieslife between buildings (1971) advocates the systematic approach to understanding and improving cities by studying them, adjusting them, then studying them again, which is the scientific principle on which all Gehl’s work is based. Public Spaces – Public life (with lars Gemzøe, 1996) is a recording of the life of a city. it examines the living organism that is copenhagen, its urban space and the human behaviours within it, what its problems and potentials are and could be, and how these have evolved since his ‘winning back public space’ schemes began. it changed the way citizens viewed the purpose and function of the city they lived in and went on to be translated into eleven languages, and to inspire a worldwide movement of urban revitalisation.

new city Spaces (with lars Gemzøe, 2001) and new city life (with Gemzøe, kirknaes, Søndergaard, 2006), Gehl’s later books, build on his first two by exploring urban space themes from the angles of other cities and from the perspective of today’s needs and choices.

We need meeting places in cities with their promises of real connection – now more than ever

↑ southern Cross station, in Melbourne’s city centre, is a meeting place that also encourages pedestrian traffic.

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the urban planner is currently working with mayor clover Moore on Sydney’s 2030 Green, Global and connected program. here, his study focuses on transforming the areas between circular Quay, central Station, hyde Park and darling harbour into “an invitation to enjoy the city more by cutting down automobile access and opening life to walkers and cyclists”.

he would like to eradicate the long waiting time pedestrians put up with along George Street, which he feels is mired by british-style pedestrian lights. “crossing the street is a human right. on George Street you have to apply for it!” he says.

he has recommended that the city dedicate George Street to public transport, pedestrians and cyclists, and that the cbd in general, which he currently describes as suffering “doughnut syndrome – sweet on the outside and empty in the middle” be brought to life. he suggests restricting east-west vehicle movement, reducing parking availability, dropping the speed limit to forty km/h, and opening Sydney harbour by connecting it with

the cbd – not as a walking thoroughfare but as public space that you can linger in because of its ambience, greenery, seating and more good coffee – another Gehl recommendation.

if Sydney’s car commuters are daunted by such a proposal, they need only look to Perth. Since Gehl’s first intervention and recommendations there in 1993, research conducted by Gehl architects has shown that twice as many people are now using the city centre and that there has been a great increase in public life, as evidenced by its festivals and outdoor events.

the company’s analysis also shows an increase in satisfaction and town pride from Perth’s residents. Gehl returned last June and was pleased with the evolution – but there’s work yet to be done. “Perth can still improve by further developing its greatest asset, the Swan river, by connecting it to the city,” he says, “and enhancing the diversity of public spaces so that the cbd is safer and more inviting.”

in adelaide, Gehl discovered that there were 330 unnecessary pedestrian interruptions on the walk from one side of the city to the other. he has advocated decreasing parking spaces (there are 35,000 as opposed to copenhagen’s 3000), rejuvenating the Mall by creating an attractive pedestrian access full of cafes with outdoor seating, and changing the shopfronts to make them more appealing, especially at night, which would increase safety and use in the space around them.

Beyond the ‘holistic lifestyle’ that Gehl and his team encourage in cities, a general overview of today’s society can be confronting. Gehl

argues that no one considered the human consequences of movements like Modernism, which championed large singular buildings cut off from other large singular buildings, separating work, recreation and transport – and effectively separated and isolated residents from each other.

technological and industrial advancements have further isolated people, who now, he observes, “live in their private home with their private car, working on their private computer and communicating on their private telephone, and seeing indirect pictures of what other people are supposedly experiencing through the television”.

according to him, cities should be places, indeed used to be places, where a person could take part in the “real stuff – what we experience through the senses – rather than what we are being fed in abstract images through technology. When you go out for a walk through your city where other people are walking, you meet people directly, you see and smell and feel directly what life is doing and you participate in life.

“We need meeting places in cities with their promises of real connection, now more than ever – because of all the scattering and privatisation that has overtaken the human experience in the past fifty years.”

of australia’s place in this, he says: “What people love most is other people. australia is a nation where climate and attitude come together in the right way to foster communities with potentially happy inhabitants.

“i say to the north american cities ‘if Melbourne can do it, why can’t you?’. australia is definitely moving in the right direction.” •

People talk about walking as if it was a mode of transport. To me walking is more; it’s a little corner of public life. Life happens when you’re on your feet … A high quality city is made by people using their feet and their bodies. Jan Gehl | urban planner

↑ Jan Gehl

Imagine a future where you carry a computer screen in your pocket, look up all the recipes published in the world at a second’s notice, or call your friend on a technicolour tV screen. What about a miracle techno oven that can heat food in

seconds without a hotplate?Sound familiar? think smartphone, web browser,

Skype and a microwave of course – but in the fifties, sixties, and seventies, these were visionary ideas of the best and brightest. honeywell’s kitchen computer cost $10,600 in 1969 (equivalent to $61,580 today) and offered blinking lights and switches to ‘read’ recipes.

Video-phones made their debut in 1927, in Fritz lang’s famous silent film Metropolis; and from 1957 in disneyworld, Monsanto demonstrated a microwave oven to the public in its 100 per cent plastic “1986 home of the Future”.

on the Microsoft corporate campus at redmond, Washington, the world’s most famous home of the Future is refreshed with new technologies every two years. there’s a teenager’s room with organic light emitting diode (olEd) wallpaper which allows hdtV-quality images to be displayed on the entire wall surface.

a kitchen computer encased in a sheet of glass can be run through the dishwasher, while the pantry works out what food’s left, automatically generates a shopping list, then suggests recipes to suit the ingredients available.

Microsoft is just one of many corporate giants and individual researchers in the race to define the gadgets that will make your life easier in the future – and

Thinking of going to the doctor? No need – in the not-too-distant future your toilet will have given you a full check-up twice today already. It’s just one of the high-tech gadgets coming to your neighbourhood soon. words by Dan warne | illustration by Kate Banazi

»

House of tHe future

Future Living | 11


convince you to part with your hard-earned cash for the privilege.

“You may think a toilet is just a toilet, but we would like to make a toilet a home health measuring centre,” Mr Matsui, a Panasonic engineer, told The New York Times. “We are going to install in a toilet devices to measure weight, fat, blood pressure, heart beat, urine sugar, albumin and blood in urine.” all this information could be sent to your doctor over the internet for regular health monitoring.

three university of nSW students made world headlines in 2005 winning a worldwide Electrolux design laboratory ‘appliance of the future’ competition for a prototype rockpool dishwasher.

their washer uses supercritical, pressurised carbon dioxide (not rocks, as the name suggests) to clean dishes. it recaptures and repressurises the carbon dioxide afterwards, and discards the grease and gunk,

“it was just light running over people’s eyes, but we very quickly learned that people worried that it would damage their eyes or steal information about them,” he said.

the ‘home’ as Microsoftians call it, now uses a lower security palm scanner to get through the front door.

likewise, getting new tech working requires considerable cooperation between companies with disparate interests. the all-knowing kitchen pantry, for example, relies on foods being tagged with id chips that allow the cupboard to scan what’s in it and receive answers back from each packet of food via radio frequency. While it sounds outlandish, many food companies are already tagging their food with these tiny hidden chips for use in stock inventory systems. “uS retailer Walmart has a plan to have all food in its store tagged with rFid by 2010,” says cluts. “of course, if that date pushes back, then so does the idea of a pantry that knows what’s in it.”

When starry eyed ViPs tour through Microsoft’s home of the Future, their mind is usually on the experience, not the power

bill. however, global warming and soaring energy costs are causing a rethink on the importance of energy efficiency in the home. Even today’s home appliances in standby mode use up to 8 per cent of your household power consumption, according to a 2006 study by the british Government.

Some of the world’s biggest tech companies are turning their attention away from simply cramming more technology in the home, in favour of studying efficiency.

Justin baird, innovationist from Google australia, says that Google is working on a new online service called ‘PowerMeter’ which will provide householders with online access to live electricity consumption records, showing how much power they’re burning. this plan links to the new digital ‘Smart Meters’ being rolled out to homes in Victoria and new South Wales, which record detailed consumption data – right down to half-hour increments – and transmit it regularly back to the power company computers using inbuilt wireless modems.

Google claims that households which have trialled the service cut their consumption by up to 15 per cent, saving $180 each year and reducing their carbon footprint.

cluts thinks more technology is the best solution – “one of the things we are trying to do with the home of the Future is use technologies that are more power efficient than the ones that we use today. take olEd display panels: they use a fraction of the energy of plasma tVs, so you can use many more of them in a home and still not use as much power as one regular tV today. that’s how we can predict that olEd wallpaper could be viable in a teen’s room.”

also, “starting up the compressor on an air conditioner creates a big spike in power use,” says cluts. “if devices all talked to each other, a power


giving the system an extremely low environmental impact, and non-existent water usage.

of course, not all high-tech home ideas prove practical or popular. Microsoft’s home of the Future director Jonathan cluts admits some ideas work better than others. When a past version of the house was built in 2000, iris scanning was the entry method for the front door – providing the best biometric security for a home possible.

One of the things we are trying to do with the home of the future is use technologies that are more power efficient than the ones that we use today. Jonathan cluts | Director, Microsoft home of the Future.

Future Living | 13

company could intelligently stagger the start-up of air conditioner compressors, smoothing consumption across the grid.”

James dyson, inventor of the dyson bagless vacuum cleaner and the airblade hand dryer has a stubbornly british, pragmatic solution: good

quality fans. “Fans work by using the halo of warm humid air around your body and evaporating it. air conditioners work by attempting to cool the fabric of a house at enormous energy cost, when in fact you don’t need to cool everything – you just need to cool you. our fan uses forty watts of power, while an air conditioner might use 2400 watts or more.”

in Sydney to launch his latest innovation – a bladeless table-top fan that uses similar technology to his hand dryer to push air out of a thin circular slit and drags up fifteen times more air, saving power by utilising air induction currents – dyson said he doesn’t believe in invention for the sake of it, nor cramming technology into things that don’t really need it. he says his company has been working on robotic vacuum cleaners for thirteen years, but has no plans to release one until it cleans the floor properly.

and what about purchase and insurance costs for all this future tech? again, cluts pre-empts concerns: although Microsoft’s home of the Future is designed to be futuristic, cluts says its designers try not to use anything that wouldn’t be affordable within six years. an electronic touch message board in the kitchen could have been plasma display, but instead, Microsoft used a lower-resolution, black-and-white display, which could be just $50 – $100 in a few years’ time.

but practicality has never been the main purpose of these plans. We may now have the iPhone and microwave, but what about the hovercraft and the robomaid? the only limit to the house of the future is imagination – with a bit of wackiness thrown in. •

Future Living | 13

Every room in your house will be affected as technology continues to change our lives. remote-controlled coffee? Waterless washing? turn the page for a preview of the gadgets and innovations making their way from drawing board to your front door.


wireless, 3D, laser tvForget lcd, Plasma and olEd tVs – the future is laser tVs, which will use only 25 per cent of the power of a plasma tV. couple that with technology that can already display a 3d image without special glasses (albeit as yet only in a grainy, headache-inducing quality) and wireless, high-definition video transmission over the air between lounge-room components, and you’ll find the tV of the future bears little resemblance to today’s sets.

rainwater showerswhy is it that water

catchment areas always seem to be where rain isn’t falling? But if you added up the collective ‘catchment area’ of every residential roof,

our water shortages would be dramatically reduced. houses of the future will have compulsory tanks and water filtration systems which will allow showers – as well as toilets – to use captured water.

self-cleaning toilethow much is it worth to you never to have to clean the toilet again? panasonic has a ¥388,500 ($a4,634) model that might float your boat, with space-shuttle grade acrylics, sixty micrometer soap bubbles to repel ‘particulate matter’ and inbuilt ipod speakers to waft soothing music to

help purge the day’s stresses. it even has its own energy-efficient lighting for those late night visits.

people-sensors in everythingair conditioners, tVs, digital photo frames, light bulbs, Pcs and monitors – they all have two things in common: a never-ending thirst for power, and the fact that we all too often leave them running when we walk away. appliance makers are working on extremely low-power “people sensors” that will rapidly switch devices to ultra-low power mode when left on their own. office buildings have done it for years, but energy costs are creating a compelling case for bringing it home as well.

net-connected washing machinethe internet toaster may not have captured

the world’s imagination, but that’s because the net doesn’t add a lot to browning toast. a washing machine on the other hand can make the most out of being able to get in touch with you. unbalanced load? it won’t thud around for ten minutes or sit there

beeping anxously – one instant message, email or SMS will do the trick. load finished? You’ll be the first to know. clogged lint filter? You’ve got mail. another concept cleans clothes with a barrage of ultrasonic waves instead of water.

fingerprint scanner door locksSome security systems already provide a carkey-style key fob that unlocks your door and disarms your alarm with the press of a button. but while you can still get stuck outside in your pyjamas without your key fob, it’s difficult to lose your thumb (unless you’re wanted by particularly ruthless vigilantes). one swipe of your thumbprint and you’ll be in like Flynn – though Flynn himself may find his print is unrecognised.

Future Living | 15

Batteries galorethink you’ve already got enough batteries to deal with? you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. google wants individual houses to get big battery arrays that store power generated from solar panels as well as grid power pulled in overnight, so that the peak-period

spikes in consumption will be reduced, resulting in less power stations. your electric car will need charging too –

and for that, look for the powerpoint on the nature strip. the plug is open to

everyone – the bill goes to the owner of each car – and

it’ll be renewable power, that’s cheaper than petrol.

frugal fridgeonly got broccoli, anchovies and vegemite? your fridge will tell you what you could make, along with a step-by-step recipe. think of it as internet fridge meets Masterchef. the big challenge is getting the fridge to identify what it contains. researchers are working on various methods, from cameras with image recognition software able to read labels and recognise fresh food, to radio-frequency iD chips, which are already added to a number of packaged

foods to allow manufacturers and retailers to track stock.

the wireless home remote controlstill in bed; need coffee? starting the percolator will be just a touchscreen away on your home control panel – an iphone-style device with control panels to adjust just about everything in your house. it uses wifi on your home network, taps into the fibre-optic nBn for high definition

entertainment, and uses existing powerlines to talk to your coffee maker, fridge, toaster, oven, lights, power meter, computer, etc.

a farm in your kitchenno-one’s suggesting that we breed micro-cows on the kitchen bench (yet) but electronics giant philips has a concept for a ‘micro biosphere’ which grows fish, vegetables, grasses, herbs and even algae under one self-maintaining glass roof. the fish are kept alive with oxygen produced by the plants; shrimps will keep the fish tank clean – and make a tasty cocktail. the system also produces hydrogen and methane for energy.

thermo-reflective wallpaperPaint your house ‘green’ with naSa-designed ceramic insulating paint, while internal walls could be covered with thermo-reflective wallpaper. another idea is next-generation plasterboard, which includes a blanket of naSa’s aerogel: a rigid material that feels like polystyrene but is transparent and has the lowest density of any known porous solid in the universe. it’s also an extraordinary insulator. at present it’s prohibitively costly, but the march of progress should change that.


oPinion

One of my predecessors as director of the royal botanic Gardens Sydney (rbG) encouraged bindii in the lawns

to stop visitors sitting and enjoying the scenery. clearly he saw the rbG as a place for serious botany, not frivolous picnicking.

a lot of people might think this a fine solution for their local park, especially if it’s not big enough for a footy game and not small enough for a laneway cafe. Plant some thorny bushes, trees with poisonous hairs, and lots of prickly weeds: pretty soon the park will effortlessly repel all outsiders. the pity is it won’t afford insiders a safe patch to sit. the better alternative is to encourage people to use the park. Make it a place to share, a place for the whole community.

Whatever the motivation for transforming a park, prickly or pleasurable, the first step is to find out who runs it. it’s probably the local council, and if it isn’t they’ll help track down the owner. council will have to pass approvals eventually, and is a good starting point to generate community interest and support. it’s also a great source of local plant information and, in many cases, local plants.

nearby nurseries are also worth a visit, as is the closest botanic garden: they’ll have ideas for landscaping and feature plants. Most botanic gardens will also have a plant information service with a wealth of understanding about weedy and poisonous plants – important knowledge for would-be park renovators.

the rest is up to the park improvement team, which has a lot to consider. Scale is paramount: how do you make a park attractive when you can barely swing a cat, or more importantly a swing? narrow paths that loop behind shrubs and bridge across tiny ponds can seem like a journey through the wilderness to a child barely tall enough to peer over the top of the tricycle. For grown-ups, a couple of majestic trees can lift the spirits.

i’ve always disliked the instant garden, or instant park. i get tired of seeing rows of tree trunks in a ‘mature’ garden, which bear little resemblance to the hectic arrangements of the wild. a park ought to grow and alter like its community – with pleasing disarray, so it’s better to plant new trees every year. that way there’s always a youthful sapling, a gangly teenager, a few spreading middle-aged specimens and a stubborn old stump.

if there’s space, local plants will encourage the local wildlife and birdlife to visit or stay. but don’t be hidebound about imitating nature – very few houses resemble the caves and tents of our ancestors. if the park is in

the middle of a city, stick to a few simple principles. Plant anything that won’t escape into the natural bush, doesn’t require more water than is available, and won’t need the protection of toxic chemicals to survive.

Sometimes these will be local plants; other times spectacular shrubs from another part of australia or anywhere else in the world. if the park is in a natural drainage area, or has a water tank, planting choices can expand to include a few moisture-loving species.

While it’s appealing to see urban and suburban parks as a network of conservation zones designed to hold and protect rare plants, and even animals, i think this is better done in larger parks and reserves. Few of our rarer species will benefit from persisting as a kind of ‘living dead’ in the corner park. but it might help to make a point about our

Field of dreamsAway with patchy lawns and broken benches – parks are places to share, with options for their appearance and use as diverse as their community.words by tim entwisle | Photography by ian Connellan

A park ought to grow and alter like its community – with pleasing disarray.

↑ this previously neglected space, owned by state rail, in Lavender Bay was commandeered by wendy whiteley and nurtured into a wonderland of paths, plants and statues, freely enjoyed by all.

Future Living | 17

disappearing environment, simply because it’s beautiful and park visitors discover that they like it. Gardening is about fun, fantasy and a little learning.

colour is definitely in the fun category. Grey is the new black in gardens, but cheerier hues are better for parks – perhaps colours that signal seasons? Spring might be ushered in with red foliage, red flowers, or red shoots. the park’s centrepiece could be a giant flowering tree with pink flowers – something like the hong kong orchid tree. in fact, plants from abroad have resonance that can help bind the park and community, by recreating the flora of local residents’ home or favourite countries. remember what it’s like to smell and touch eucalypts when you return to australia after any length of time overseas? a few culinary plants and other bits and pieces from a particular region of the world can create a powerful garden in a small place.

and a park needn’t be strictly ornamental. People in suburbs or streets with few private gardens might decide to turn their parkland into a community plot. the only restriction on what’s planted is that it won’t harm the environment. and if the plant yields a feed, that’s a bonus!

there’s no end to the possibilities if the ultimate aim is a space to share and enjoy. a park could be created around a local sculpture competition: display the entries and start planting around them. or borrow an idea from a park in Willoughby, Sydney, and create a wisteria arbour so that there’s at least one month every year when lush colour and scent makes the space utterly unforgettable.

deciduous trees allow in sunlight for warm winter picnics, while a collection of palms – dotted with some faux (or real) beach umbrellas – could be employed to spread extra shade in summer. Succulents are very architectural and are hardy survivors, but a little prickly at times.

Perhaps mention of succulents shows i’m reverting to type. Forget all the other ideas and plant a couple of giant cacti near the gate: who needs community when you can read your newspaper in peace? a local park can be anything you want it to be. What are you waiting for? •

Dr tim entwisle is a highly respected scientific communicator. he has worked as a scientist and senior manager in botanic gardens for nearly twenty years, and is the author of more than seventy scientific publications, including three books. since 2004 Dr entwisle has been the executive Director of the Botanic Gardens trust and in 2007 he was appointed the 12th new south wales Government Botanist, an honorary position dating back to 1817.


this Sun Valley is one of six built for the shanghai’s “Better City Better Life” world expo, which opens on 1 May 2010. forty metres high and constructed from steel, glass, film and plastic, they are dotted along the expo‘s main boulevard. they are designed to gather and disperse the ‘essences’ of nature – sunlight, air and water – into a kilometre of underground walkways and gardens. the water is fed into the gardens, while the sunlight is reflected by the funnel’s panels to the base, where a gigantic cube refracts and disperses the light along the subterranean path. the world expo started in London in 1851 to showcase international invention, progress and production. Mass communication and travel has diminished the triennial event’s importance but shanghai is determined to revitalise its status. the city has been preparing for more than eight years and is geared up for seventy to 100 million visitors. the 5.28 square kilometre site contains a main building covering fourteen hectares, national pavilions grouped by continent and an urban Best practices area with fifty five exhibits from around the world.Ph

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snAPshot


Think it’s too hard to go green? Across Australia optimistic communities are committed to changing the world one street at a time, leading the way in sustainability, innovation and inspiration. words by Ken eastwood

Hot topic

His answer comes as a surprise. When i ask Michael Mobbs, the maestro who created a sustainable house in Sydney a decade before it was fashionable, what’s the most important thing

we can do to increase the long-term viability of our communities, he says: “the answer’s always going to be food. Even if it’s just getting a jar and some seeds and growing alfalfa seeds on the windowsill.”

a lawyer turned sustainability lecturer and coach, Mobbs has been instrumental in a huge variety of projects, big and small. apart from the Sustainability house, he’s helped design commercial blocks that require no air-conditioning and are completely water self-sufficient. he’s had key roles in creating sustainable villages and challenged governments to make paler roads in order to lower urban temperatures. and he’s turned the nature strip on Myrtle Street in inner Sydney

Future Living | 21

into a community orchard, where native raspberries, herbs, lemongrass, citrus trees and passionfruit grow among the detritus and bumper-to-bumper cars.

“i don’t think we have more than five to ten years until we have food shortages in australia,” Mobbs says. “Food cost is rising because people are paying more for water and energy and transport. Productivity of the Murray–darling basin is in freefall.”

Most of Mobbs’ time is now spent teaching people to grow food where they live – the so-called urban farm. it could be on a balcony, in the local park or in a school. he says growing local food is important not just because of food miles – how far food travels to get to our plate – but “it’s healthier, energy efficient and water efficient.

“Food has a greater impact than a house – the water needed to grow food for one person exceeds 5 million litres a year. one small meal needs 900 litres of water.”

across the country many communities are building

roads into the future, trying to design from scratch truly sustainable communities or retro-fit their existing structures. local councils are increasingly employing sustainability managers and neighbourhood groups are banding together for everything from community compost bins to bulk-buying produce or solar panels.

locally grown food is one beam in the design of sustainable communities, but there are many others too: compulsory energy-efficient buildings that are oriented correctly for passive solar heating and cooling, renewable power schemes, water recycling and treating sewage locally, integrating parklands and bike paths into the urban space, and working out how to redesign the very nature of a community so that it encourages social interaction.

don’t assume these green dreams are idealistic 1970s-style communes of free love. Many are deeply commercial developments and prices can be well over the million-dollar mark. From brisbane’s massive boggo road urban Village – a visionary blend of residential, retail and commercial space that will also include the EcoSciences precinct for environmental research – to Grace town in south-west Wa, serious efforts are being made by developers, residents and some governments to redefine the way we live.

Community spiritthe winner of more than twenty five awards, including the coveted international gong, the Fiabci Prix d’Excellence, the Ecovillage at currumbin is one of the outstanding developments at the high end of the market. located on a magnificent 109 hectare site on the Gold coast, it has 80 per cent open space and independent water supply and sewage, with all toilets flushed with recycled water. Many of the 144 sustainable houses are still to be built, but each must generate at least some of its own power, use recycled materials in construction and have extensive passive solar features (including internal thermal mass walls of rammed earth, stone or suspended concrete). “You’re not allowed air-conditioning,” says co-developer and marketing manager kerry Shepherd. “if you design correctly, you shouldn’t need it.”

after fourteen years developing the idea, Shepherd is excited to finally see people living in the village. “When we found the property we didn’t want to just carve it into two-acre parcels,” she says. “We wanted somewhere that was exemplary. We wanted to inspire sustainable practices within this industry.”

as well as the community orchards, edible streetscapes, bike paths, gym, pool and other facilities, Shepherd says one of the best things about the Ecovillage is its layout, which promotes social connectivity. instead of the front of each house facing a road, they are clustered into hamlets of six to ten houses, and every house faces a common greenway,

↑ the Currumbin ecovillage includes a community orchard, bike paths and “edible streetscapes”.

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You’ve got to inform and encourage people really –

we’re talking about changing the world view

Laurel freelane | president, share

Future Living | 23

the robinsons built the fifth house in the 150-block development at aldinga. like all the homes there, it’s a sustainable, energy-efficient home, and it generates more solar power than they use, but just as importantly, the couple found the community atmosphere they’d been looking for. residents in the village are encouraged to share their intellectual and creative talents, and there are many community activities, some based around the communal outdoor pizza oven and courtyard.

“Each Friday night villagers are encouraged to come to the sharing shed,” hugh says. “the rule is that you bring a plate to share and a bottle of wine to share. it’s just lovely. it stimulates communication, you meet new villagers and welcome them.”

Social movementa big part of the trend towards environmentally sound developments is an increased sense of social responsibility. at bega, on the nSW South coast, the bega Eco-neighbours development (bend) has ensured that 30 per cent of the thirty houses on their development’s street are reserved for low-income, non-profit rental. “bend has wanted to be socially sustainable as well as environmentally sustainable,” says Peggy Storch, secretary of the neighbourhood association. “it’s very, very difficult to do – it’s been the hardest part of the project.”

the bend project is a street of sustainable housing in which each house will have composting toilets, its own water supply, solar power and recycled greywater, and there is a large area set aside for community farming. but Storch says dealing with councils and government regulations on these issues has been minor compared with obtaining funding for the low-income housing. “in a way it’s the most radical part of what we’re doing,” she says. the group has formed a partnership with not-for-profit developers community housing limited, who have secured a grant from the State Government.

Storch says the vision came from bega residents who wanted “a community with a greater

sense of community than just your average street. basically it was

just a small group of people who wanted to live in bega in a different way.” the street had been planned and the

group established a non-profit

with no fences between them and the common space. “it allows children to play together and community to form,” Shepherd says.

“and as their own subsidiary body corporate, each hamlet can decide what they want to do with their greenway. they may decide to make it one great big food garden. it’s completely up to them. another hamlet may decide they just want a children’s playground.”

Shepherd says that as a result of this planning for social interaction, the environmental credentials of the Ecovillage aren’t the only drawcard for people thinking about buying. “about 75 per cent of the people who live in this place are here because of the community aspect – the social part,” she says. “and then probably 20 per cent are here because of the green. Probably the other 5 per cent are here because it’s an absolutely beautiful area and they think it’s a good investment.”

a longing for community also attracted residents to another successful ecovillage, the thirty four hectare aldinga arts EcoVillage on the southern outskirts of adelaide. “Susan and i had found increasingly the suburbs had become abhorrent in regards to social interaction, community life, sharing and caring – that sort of thing,” says hugh robinson, one of the first residents of the village when it was started in 2001. he and his partner got sick of hearing stories of people dying and neighbours not realising until weeks later. “We said, well bugger this, there must be a better way.”

↑ the Bend project is a street of sustainable housing near Bega.

← Food for the Future Fair in Chippendale hopes to convert residents to the joys of local food.

You’ve got to inform and encourage people really –

we’re talking about changing the world view

Laurel freelane | president, share

Lean, green driving machineWhen Phil coop looks into the crystal ball shaped by destiny and his own calculations, he’s confident. “the role of the vehicle will be redefined,” he says. “We’re convinced what we’re doing is the way to go.”

coop is cEo of Energetique, a bold, innovative small company in armidale, northern nSW, that’s at the cutting edge of solving the world’s impending post peak-oil transport and energy crises. coop’s company has made prototypes of electric cars with a range of 200 kilometres and maximum speeds of 150km/h, but he’s most excited about the potential of the cars to act as moveable batteries for large amounts of electricity. the cars can be powered up at night, and then plugged into the grid during times of peak electricity demand, so that electricity can be sucked out of them again. “it makes a lot of sense – you can save a lot of coal-fired stations if you cut that peak out,” coop says. “You can almost run a grid with very little capacity.”

You could even make money from your car by selling back electricity at peak times and recharging when rates are lower. a control device – about the size of a mobile phone – would allow you to determine how much power stored in the car you were willing to give up. “You’ll set the minimum – you might be willing to give off 10 per cent or 100 per cent of your stored battery power. the electric company’s computers will know how much energy there is in all the cars,” coop says.

Energetique is forming development partnerships with companies in asia and Europe, but coop says he has been surprised at the lack of support from australian governments.

“We’ve managed to get nothing out of Federal or State governments. the green car fund – we would have thought we were a bit of a no-brainer for that one. climate change funding? nothing. but we’ll keep beetling on – we’ve got new technologies we’re developing and we’re pretty optimistic really.” www.evme.com.au

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sustainable developers. “if you want to collect water for more than one person, then you have to become a licensed water network provider and retailer,” cook says. “there are licensing fees and an enormous compliance regime associated with that. For us it’s just untenable. it’s extremely discouraging and costly.”

his family has owned and cared for the property for fifty five years, including revegetating a section of endangered cumberland Plains woodland, and Jonathan still desperately wants to develop it sustainably rather than put it into the hands of another developer. “they’ll probably bulldoze the whole site and build more houses,” he says. “the way forward for illabunda is not clear at this moment, but we haven’t given up yet. We feel it’s the right thing to do with the land.”

it’s not the only sustainable community project that’s stalled at the moment – the Somerville EcoVillage in Perth is another that’s struggled recently with lack of funding and support.

Attainable sustainable Even when something is built sustainably, it isn’t instantly a commercial success. one of Michael Mobbs’ consultancy projects, the eighty-three-unit commercial building Garigal in Sydney’s north-east, has only 20 per cent occupancy after two years. Sure, there’s a glut of commercial real estate in Sydney, but david dawes, Managing director of the Glenside group which developed the building, says being green just doesn’t seem to be a commercial imperative.

“buyers will take the sustainability if it gives a reduced costing, but they don’t value it at all,” he says. “all they look at is the capital cost right now. in some respects it’s really dispiriting – it’s just not part of people’s consideration.”

according to Mobbs though, the overall trend of architectural design is towards sustainability, and slowly but surely the laws are changing to reflect that, even if individual councils are still catching up. When he converted a 100-year-old terrace house in inner-city Sydney into a sustainable house in the 1990s, many of the features he put in – including the ability to harvest its own rainwater and process all its sewage on-site – were actively discouraged.

“in the years since then, the building rules have been changed to make a lot of things mandatory that we put in the house,” he says.

Mobbs says that for government regulations to keep up, we need three key things. “Firstly road design ought to be changed to pale, instead of black, and we need to change the colour of roofs. a house with a dark roof will be ten degrees hotter inside. When we do that, we won’t need as much electricity to cool ourselves,” he says.

“Secondly, we need to make the building rules the same for the public and private sector. Schools, supermarkets: they all need to be energy efficient. there will be arguments that it will be too costly, but that argument is wrong. the third thing is to require food to be grown in our parks and streets, and i think that’s the most urgent of the three.”

Power to the peopleSome communities are so passionate about sustainability that even if they can’t create a new neighbourhood from the ground up, they are finding ways to make their existing structures more environmentally friendly. Few in

world trendsEcovillages are sprouting up like organic carrots across the developed world. Generally medium sized, with five to 200 dwellings, they encompass a range of values, but generally involve principles of trying to grow some food at the place of residence, using and often generating renewable power, implementing sustainable building codes and careful use of water. at the more extreme end, the dancing rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri, uSa, bans all vehicles and fossil fuels, and even has its own currency to encourage locals to employ other villagers.

in Waitakere city, new Zealand, the Earthsong Eco-neighbourhood was a finalist in the 2008 World habitat awards, for its thirty two homes built among an organic orchard and native bushland.

but, as in australia, existing communities are also making extraordinary efforts in waste management and other areas in order to become more sustainable. in their commitment to become a zero-waste community, the 2000-strong Japanese town of kamikatsu has implemented a recycling program in which all waste is separated by householders into thirty four different types. San Francisco in the uSa and new Zealand as a whole have also set targets that there will be zero waste going to landfill or incinerator by 2020, but we are yet to see if this will be achieved.

↓ sonae Fujii of the Zero waste Academy in Kamikatsu stands with some of the

thirty four categories of recycling.

development company to take it over. one house has been built and more are currently underway.

it’s a success story that Jonathan cook, hopeful developer of illabunda Village in western Sydney, is jealous of. For the past eight years he’s been trying to start a similar small-scale urban project on a two hectare property in Winston hills – energy-efficient, sustainable buildings, preservation of bushland, on-site water treatment. but he’s come to the harsh realisation that it would be much easier if he just bulldozed the site and developed it unsustainably. “What i’ve discovered the last couple of years is that everything’s structured against you when you’re trying to do something sustainable at local, State and Federal levels.”

changing rules and deadlines for State and Federal grants have meant that illabunda has also missed out on funding for innovations such as its greywater treatment system. in addition, the nSW Water industry competition act has made things harder for small

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Future Living | 25

sustainable changes in their own households are now wanting to do this at a community level.”

one of the inspiring things about hepburn’s story, though, is that the initiators of the scheme weren’t satisfied once hepburn Wind was established. the hepburn renewable Energy association changed its name to Sustainable hepburn association renewing the Earth (SharE) and has set about making many other aspects of community life more sustainable.

President of the association, laurel Freelane, says as well as educating the community about how to be more sustainable on an individual level, the range of projects they’re involved in includes sustainable schools, donating books on sustainability to the local library, making the community childcare centre more energy efficient, getting the local farmers’ market to use renewable cups and takeaway containers, and workshop series on permaculture and other sustainable practices.

by obtaining bulk discounts and helping secure grants for solar panels, they have enabled 115 houses in the area to install solar panels with a one kilowatt system for $1900 a house, which would normally cost five times that amount.

“You’ve got to inform and encourage people really – we’re talking about changing the world view: different agricultural models, different health models, changing infrastructure, use of major resources, then you’re looking at any action to slow down the damage that we’ve done,” Freelane says. “the community is really where the power is, because people are on the ground and that’s where they’re seeing the effects.”

She says it’s also important that people realise that people who want to live in sustainable communities are normal aussie families. “often sustainability groups are seen as raving extreme-wing groups, and that’s not necessarily the case,” Freelane says.

“We’re talking about an intelligent population here. We can live sustainably and we don’t have to be in hair suits to do this. You can live a good life, and you don’t have to go without – well, you may have to go without your second flat-screen tV – but we can generate power differently, we can recycle things in a better way, we can pace our use of resources.” •

australia have been as good at it as hepburn Springs, a small town in central Victoria.

Mid-2010, two new wind turbines will stand atop leonards hill, the first community-owned wind farm in australia. their four megawatts of power will provide enough electricity for all hepburn Springs and daylesford residents, and it all came about through a small group of locals who decided they wanted to make a difference. the cooperative community ownership of the wind farm means that all 1000 or so shareholders, from the smallest $100 owner to the biggest, at $1.5 million, have the same voting power, and 50 per cent of the voters are local residents.

chairman of hepburn Wind, Simon holmes a court, says that although cooperative ownership of a power resource is new for australia, it’s a common economic model in countries that have much more focus on renewable energy. “the model’s been in place for thirty-odd years in Germany and denmark,” he says. “in denmark, 5500 turbines are community owned – that’s three-quarters of all the onshore turbines, and in Germany 200,000 households own part of a turbine.”

according to holmes a court the project has now become an example for others to show that making a community sustainable is achievable, and can cost as little as $5000 a household.

“We’re working hard to make sure what we do is not just a one off,” he says. “We get a couple of emails a week from communities that want to do the same, and not just wind – bioenergy plants, solar plants and small community-owned wind farms. People who have made

People who have made sustainable changes in their own households are now wanting to do this at a community level. Simon holmes a court | Chairman, hepburn wind

↑ Leonards hill in hepburn springs, Victoria is the first community-owned wind farm in Australia.


In 1998 Jason Evert ran away from school. “i’d had enough; i was looking for a less stressful career.”

a decade later Evert is recognised internationally as one of the best in his profession – being declared best change agent at the 2009 Microsoft asia Pacific innovative teachers Forum. he is head of curriculum at the primary school in Yarrabah, a 3,500-strong aboriginal community in north Queensland.

“Funny the way things turn out,” he says. this reluctant teacher found passion for

teaching by finding new ways to engage his students. the project he initiated, digital

dreaming, combines ultra-modern technologies with ancient story-telling traditions. Growing up in Winton in central Queensland, Evert hadn’t felt a burning desire to teach. “My sister seemed to enjoy it, and i got accepted, so that’s what i did.”

but after eight years at a Gold coast school, he was keen to do something else. he set off around australia, trying his hand at selling, mining, fencing, waiting tables and labouring. he also took on some teaching in remote communities in arnhem land and the kimberly. “i quite enjoyed that. i could see there was real value for the community in the work.”

he decided to give it another go, and in 2001 he was assigned to Yarrabah, fifty seven kilometres by road from cairns. Yarrabah is part of the traditional lands of the Gungandji and the Yidinji people, and the site of an anglican mission established in the late 1800s. Many of its inhabitants are part of the ‘stolen generation’, removed as children from families in many different parts of Queensland.

as with many indigenous schools, the Yarrabah school lags in literacy and numeracy. English is taught as a second language, and many of the students have a tough home life. “it can be difficult to

FoLLow the LeADeR

old stories, new tricksQueensland schoolteacher Jason Evert’s idea to engage reluctant learners has turned some of the world’s most ancient stories into cutting-edge animations – and inspired his students and the community in the process.

Future Living | 27

engage students at school,” Evert says. there are high levels of truancy.

in charge of information technology, Evert pondered how to make it more relevant to his students’ lives. he won a grant in 2002 to upgrade the school’s computing network system for a ‘virtual field trip’ project, in which students compiled a website about Yarrabah for tourists. through that, he heard some of the traditional stories about local landmarks, which led to a ‘virtual trails’ project – with students recording and transcribing the stories of their elders. Why not make the stories visual as well?

Evert talked about the project with dave White, an artist then living in Yarrabah, who enthusiastically offered his services. never mind that neither had any experience with animation – it was to be a learning adventure for teachers and students alike. the next step was to source some funding, after which a cairns multimedia company customised software for the project. dave put in hundreds of mostly volunteer hours as artist. With the support and permission of Gungandji and Yidinji elders, and with many other teachers and locals contributing, the good idea became a community endeavour, which has instilled a sense of pride in the students about their heritage and in the

soundtrack and turned it into software. “and in doing all that they were learning maths, reading, writing, linguistics, music, art and craft,” Evert says.

the animated stories and associated learning exercises on the computer have been popular with students – “because they’re local and because they’re using modern technology” – and are used in various

subjects. bobby Patterson, a Gungandji elder involved with the project as story-teller and facilitator, told abc’s Stateline Queensland that “it instils in the children a sense of identity, pride and ownership.”

Evert is most satisfied when he sees students who are normally reluctant learners – “the kids who come and go” – jump on to a computer to use the software: “i noticed these kids in particular seemed to engage with this approach. it captures them.”

Evert, too, has been captured, no longer dreaming of an easier career. Engaging reluctant students keeps this once-reluctant teacher at school. •

community about their history and knowledge of the area. the ancient stories of place and history are finding a new life and a new enthusiastic audience.

there are now five animations, vividly bringing to digital life stories about ancestors and local landmarks and ceremony. the most recent tells a Gungandji story about Wunyami, a young turtle whose misadventure with a crab was the origin of the Gungandji’s nose-piercing ceremony. over twelve months, every Friday and during lots of lunchtimes, a class of ten to twelve year olds recorded the story, storyboarded it, crafted sets and plasticine figurines, photographed the scenes, made a

↑ Jason evert helping children animate their history.

←↓ Jason evert’s students are involved in all aspects of the process, making the music, models and digital animations.

↓ scenes from the production of the Dreamtime story about the turtle wunyami.

It instils in the children a sense of identity, pride and ownership. bobby Patterson | Gungandji elder

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Future Living | 29

Millie and Peter o’loughlin enjoyed a life many might envy. classic empty nesters – their three kids having moved on – they planned the ultimate tree change in their fifties,

buying a small vineyard and home deep in nSW’s hunter Valley. they moved there full time after Peter’s retirement at sixty and thrived.

“We really loved it,” says Millie, a former nursing sister. “We had great times and made lots of friends.” but some fifteen years on the pair has returned to the city, as have some of those new friends.

“it was a small vineyard, which meant we had to do

some of the work ourselves and it got a bit hard. i wanted to come back because our children were in the city, also for the convenience – if you wanted anything from the shops there you had to drive for twenty kilometres and it was the same for medical services.

“We were getting older which meant, if you can’t drive a car, you’re depending on your friends. So we came back to retire gracefully and not have to worry about bothering other people.”

it may seem the classic idyll, but the sea or tree change might not be a permanent relocation. noted demographer, bernard Salt, has a term for these people: the rebounders. “there is a movement – people in their

Some people fantasise about a sea change, others a tree change, but now a new group is starting to emerge. After decades of full-time work and raising families, the baby boomers are on the move – and creating new-millennium trends as they go. words by Deb Light | illustration by Genna Campton

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fifties and sixties who’ve had a sea or tree change then, within ten years, move back,” he says.

“it’s human nature. People have this almost idealised view of what their sea change or tree change lifestyle is going to be and then it doesn’t live up to the reality and they retreat to the safety of the big city. but it’s maybe one in four or five; there is always a net outflow.”

it’s a significant, if small, movement currently, he notes, adding those rebounders may grow in number as those baby boomers currently moving to the trees or the coast return as they age for better services, proximity to the kids, or perhaps just for the buzz.

coming back or moving in for the first time, baby boomers – above all – are on the move. here the rebounders are joining a larger trend of people who Salt terms the downshifters: those coming into the city from the outer suburbs. as the cresting wave of boomers (some 6.2 million of them, currently aged between forty four and sixty six) tips into retirement, our major cities will bear the impact of their changed needs, new expectations and aspirations.

“You’ve lived in the ‘burbs and you feel you’ve missed out on the groovy, funky, inner-city lifestyle and you want to be part of that,” Salt observes. “these people i would put at fifty five to sixty five and they will have changed their work arrangements. in the mid fifties you’ve made your mark, you’ve got nothing left to prove.

“a couple of friends might have dropped dead from a heart attack – you think it’s time to wind it back to two or three days a week. You say: ‘i’m going to sell the suburban home, move downtown and live the lifestyle we always thought we’d live’.”

the trend is too new to quantify, says Salt, “but it’s certainly something i expect to accelerate. it’ll be another five years or so before we really see the numbers for this particular movement.”

according to Salt there are many reasons why people are making the move. “Some need to unlock the property wealth. they use the difference to top up the super, go on a world trip and buy a new car. that’s the middle market.

“they’ll buy in the city, close to facilities, including medical, but also their groovy Gen X or Gen Y kids probably live closer to the city, so they can shuttle between cultural activities, the job they have two or three days a week – it’d be a very pleasant lifestyle. and it’s funded because they’ve unlocked some of that suburban property value.”

this is not to ignore those who will simply “age in place” he says. “never underestimate the appeal of inertia. one of the greatest markets in the future will be the conversion of the existing three-bedroom brick veneer homes into lifestyle villas – putting on an al fresco deck or converting the third bedroom. it’s cheaper; it will appeal to that demographic of battler to mid-market.”

The driving force is the pursuit of lifestyle and the ability to unlock suburban property wealth bernard Salt | trend watcher

A deterrent for many considering a sea or tree change can be the cost of moving back in, having been out of the market for several

years and facing imposts such as stamp duties and moving costs. “but the driving force is the pursuit of lifestyle and the ability to unlock suburban property wealth,” says Salt, “to fund lifestyle and to offset the negative impact of the GFc.”

among those headed for the big smoke, there’s a small but lucrative number who will sink it all into the city pad and they are the buyers many want to corner. “they have the wherewithal and i think Melbourne and Sydney have been gearing to this market for some time,” says Salt, citing luxury apartment projects in Sydney and in Melbourne, as exemplified by the Melburnian development in trendy Southbank.

“When it was unveiled the developers pitched it directly at the South Yarra and toorak set with the logic of selling for millions, not necessarily to unlock wealth but for lifestyle (lifts not stairs, for example) and security. also, these people travel a lot, so they don’t want to have to worry about upkeep. You’re within walking distance of cafes, restaurants and theatres and so on that increasingly you are likely to engage in as you scale back from the workplace.”

Future Living | 31

John McGrath knows this market well. the cEo of McGrath Estate agents, responsible for sales of over $3 billion in the financial year just ended, observes: “it’s an interesting trend because a few years back, if you’ve sold the $5-million house at Pymble on the acre of land and moved to the city, you’d be expecting to buy an apartment for half the price. now a lot of them are buying an apartment for the same price.

“they’re looking for something that’s low maintenance, easy to lock up, very secure. it may have facilities such as gyms and concierges – so it’s a different lifestyle than they’re used to in the suburbs. then you’ve got the infrastructure; lifestyle like the delicatessens, culture, restaurants, cinemas, beaches, walks. all of those things are often located closer to the city. there’s a huge demand for this.”

the sea and tree change still has appeal, he says: “there’s a move to locations like north Wollongong in nSW and the central coast. they’re saying ‘We don’t have to be in the city’. but generally eight or nine out of ten of the empty nesters we deal with are selling their nice homes in the suburbs and moving back into the city.”

over recent times McGrath has seen “empty nester precincts” springing up in our major cities – particularly along the eastern seaboard – and he believes more are to come, thanks to demand from the ageing boomers.

and not just at the high end of the price scale. “Some are looking for a bit of a cash adjustment, but not all of them. they want to sell the $2-million house and get a $1.2-million apartment and maybe invest the difference.”

nor is the demographic necessarily sharply defined, according to McGrath. he says there comes a time when we all reassess priorities. “i think when people reach a certain age they’re making decisions about their life and their capital investments for the next ten years.

“they may have kids who’ve moved out, so they don’t need the space. or they may be thinking they want to take three months of the year off and travel. therefore they want a low-maintenance base. or they say ‘We’re going to go to the cinema a lot more and catch up with the friends we haven’t seen, now we’re not working as hard any more’.”

the o’loughlins would know what he means. “You could come down for the theatre from where we were but it was a two-hour drive, and you’d have to stay overnight with your friends so you’d think about it,” says Millie.

“now i’ve got a subscription. Within ten minutes you can have a game of golf and i go to the movies about once a week. also we’re central now, so we see more of our friends and that means i’m out for lunch … at any opportunity.” •


ust about everyone wants to accumulate wealth. at the very least we want to have enough when we retire to be able to enjoy life. among

the ways to achieve this goal, one – superannuation – has attracted the spotlight much more than its rivals; not surprising, given the generous tax breaks it gets from the Federal Government.

but what is less discussed is the possibility of boosting your eventual payout by opting for another investment alternative. as the Global Financial crisis has highlighted, money in your super account can fall in value, sometimes heavily, because much of it is invested in the sharemarket, which can be volatile. What’s more, super is locked up until you reach your so-called preservation age and retire. at present the preservation age for everyone is at least fifty five and for many it is now sixty – and there is ongoing speculation that it might go even higher.

So what do the other options offer? First is to use extra money to pay off the family home, which produces a sizeable risk-free, after-tax saving. there is a risk of not being able to cover mortgage repayments, and if you’ve paid too much for a poorly located property, it may not produce the desired return. but if you stick with it you at least end up owning your own home.

Gearing into shares and property is another possibility. the amount of risk involved depends on how much you borrow and what you invest in. borrowing 70 per cent to buy speculative shares is a lot more risky than borrowing the same amount to buy a well-located rental property. a good way to minimise risk is to keep your borrowings modest and leave yourself with plenty of extra cashflow to cover any significant rise in interest rates.

in an effort to provide a guide, the Macquarie Group has crunched the numbers to compare the three approaches. in each

case it makes a range of assumptions about the rate of return and the cost of borrowing. Macquarie’s calculations show that the most important factor in making these decisions is your tax rate. For example, their calculations suggest that someone with a marginal tax rate of 31.5 per cent (including Medicare levy) can often get a better result from paying off their home loan or gearing into investments than salary sacrificing into super.

in contrast, those on the top marginal tax rate of 46.5 per cent (again including the Medicare levy) are more likely to get the best result by salary sacrificing into super, because pre-tax contributions to super are taxed at just 15 per cent, delivering a huge 31.5 percentage point cut in the individual’s tax rate. in general, the only time it’s better for a high income earner to use after-tax money to repay their home loan is when mortgage interest rates are high (above 9 per cent) and annual investment returns are below 3 per cent. Geared investments only

beat super as a wealth accumulation option for top marginal tax payers when borrowing rates are low and investment returns high.

For middle income earners, whose marginal tax rate is currently 39.5 per cent, Macquarie’s figures suggest that super, while not delivering the same powerful gains that high income earners get, is usually the best option.

Fortunately most of us don’t simply ignore wealth creation altogether. instead we use our after-tax earnings to pay off the family home and, in an increasing number of cases, to gear into shares and investment property. different circumstances and stages in life mean everyone’s requirements are unique. in the end, deciding what’s right for you is what matters most. •

peter freeman is a former managing editor of the Australian Financial Review who has been writing on investing for over 20 years. he helped launch the personal finance section of The Sydney Morning Herald and the AFR’s smart Money section, and has been editor of both sections.

Show me the moneyThe benefits of superannuation have been widely discussed, but is super really the fairest of them all? The Global Financial Crisis has shown that it’s not without risk. So is there a better investment option for you?words by Peter Freeman

Macquarie’s calculations show that the most important factor in making these decisions is your tax rate.

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