3: How to Measure Sustainability Reflection

Murray Lane's lecture on How to Measure Sustainability is a lecture I feel we should have been given a lot earlier in our education; his approach to design reasoning is something designers should learn much earlier in order to make them aware of what it truly important in architecture. To start with an architectural principle, whether it be our desire for food, shelter, love, or security, should always be paramount in our minds when designing, and yet we become blinded by context (which I was not aware of until now!).

In the tutorial we were asked to think of 'what if...' scenarios for our chosen theme (Urban, yay!), which is a hard task to not get over excited about. I still hadn't abandoned hope that I could still design a zombie-proof fortress, and unfortunately my group and I spend a lot of time mulling over how we could credibly investigate a zombie-infested future. We played around with population-controlling drug conspiracies,  bio-terrorist attacks during the G20 summit, and unemployment rioting due to the mining bust, but were really just grasping at straws in trying to justify why these things would ever happen.

Then inspiration hit - what is one thing we know will happen in the future (said almost tongue-in-cheek): the mining boom will eventually end, leaving Australia with very little to export (apart from agriculture) to boost our economy. Our economy will therefore crash, our cost of living will increase and the government will have to resort to new and desperate options as to how to generate economic support. One such money-making scheme could justifiably be the new CBD congestion charge, although I doubt it would be enough. Thinking back on our government's search for cash in the past, we realised that we could continue selling our assets (just like we sold QR, QANTAS, etc), or even deregulate certain corporations in return for financial support. This could lead us down the slippery slope of Privatisation, with the result of Brisbane become sponsored.

Although an initially frightening idea (being owned by international corporations), such privatisation could have its benefits - we'd be financially secure and have access to the latest technologies (we'd almost be the market's guinea pigs). But is it worth it to sacrifice our individualism and identity? Does Brisbane even have  an identity to lose?

During Murray Lane's lecture, he showed us his PhD project on calculating the carrying capacity of different regions. And in considering that this tutorial's focus was on sustainability, I thought I would see what effect privatising Brisbane would have on our carrying capacity.

 This is Brisbane (or South East Queensland) as it is today, where we are 1977.8% over our carrying capacity! But below is the same area, but under corporate control:

In considering the possible implications of corporate sponsorship (such as becoming more materialistic and consuming more textiles, eating more red meat on a diet of McDonalds, using less fuel due to our congestion charge, and becoming more condensed and needing less living space), we have decreased our carrying capacity, and dramatically increased the population that we could support. So maybe privatisation is the answer!