INTERNATIONAL URBAN DESIGN CONFERENCE PAPER 2013

Transcription

1 INTERNATIONAL URBAN DESIGN CONFERENCE PAPER 2013 PLANNING MELBOURNE WITH 3D VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS Tania Crisafi: Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure, Senior Planner In conjunction with Dr Ben Guy: Urban Circus, CEO

2 INTERNATIONAL URBAN DESIGN CONFERENCE PAPER 2013 PLANNING MELBOURNE WITH 3D VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS TANIA CRISAFI & BEN GUY ABSTRACT Managing change in order to accommodate Melbourne s population growth, without compromising the city s renowned urban qualities, is becoming increasingly complex. The increased quantity, scale, and complexity of planning applications has led the Victorian Government Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure (DTPLI) to employ more sophisticated and reliable processes for ensuring urban design quality is not sidelined in the strategic push for intensification within the central city. With the support of Urban Circus, DTPLI has developed a virtual 3D environment of central Melbourne to accelerate the assessment of development approvals and reduce costs. 3D visualisation allows planners, politicians and the public to quickly visualise and evaluate project impacts. This results in increased applicant and developer involvement. 3D visualisation assists in data sharing across government and establishes common technical parameters. This in turn promotes across-government relationships and importantly project coordination. WHAT S THE PROBLEM? Managing change in order to accommodate Melbourne s population growth, without sacrificing the city s renowned urban qualities, is becoming increasingly complex. With Victoria in Future 2012 identifying population projections for Melbourne in the order of over 5 million people by 2030 and 6 million people by 2050, accommodating additional housing is necessary. This combined with up not out places pressure on how development is delivered in established areas, with an increasing number of high-rise buildings challenging traditional urban characteristics. Good urban design mandates that new development proposals must be reviewed in their context, to properly assess built form impacts such as visual dominance, loss of light and privacy, overshadowing of public spaces and view lines. Normally applicants are required to provide key perspectives, visual mock-ups and shadow diagrams. There was no consistency in terms of quality and accuracy in these individual responses, and no way of verifying their fidelity. There was also no way of easily providing a modified view or building form, which meant that discussions would proceed in a to-and-fro and staggered manner, creating inefficiencies timeframes and possible misunderstanding of the proposal. A refined understanding of the built form context is critical when Page 1

3 effectively assessing the cumulative impact of each and every proposal, rather than considering them in isolation or out of context. Central Melbourne must also manage the potential complexity of shared planning responsibilities between the City of Melbourne and the Minister for Planning. While planners and urban designers from both authorities liaise on a daily basis, there are naturally different data management and approval processes. Added to this is the fact that planning approvals remain live for many years (initially three, but extension and amendment is the norm). The result is that Central Melbourne is peppered with hundreds of both large and small approvals by the City of Melbourne and the Minister for Planning which are extremely difficult to search without prior knowledge of their existence. Previously there has been no system to bring all of this data together in a single and user friendly platform. Refer to Figure 1 for an image of all approvals within Central Melbourne. Figure 1: Approvals within Central Melbourne CITY MODELLING Planners and urban designers have traditionally relied entirely on architectural drawings and physical 3D models to assess development proposals in their context. Physical models of the city, often beautifully crafted in wood or plastic and, are costly to produce, difficult to update, and are not highly portable. Given the rapid growth in central Melbourne the models become outdated very quickly. Real time building mock-ups and manipulations of building heights and setbacks are just not a viable feature of static models. Most importantly, they reinforce a largely unreal and rarely experienced bird s-eye view of the city. Such a view ignores the street-based pedestrian and promotes civic rather than human scale urban design considerations. Page 2

4 Digital modelling in three dimensions is not new in itself, but only recently has become extremely accurate (with tolerances within 10cm), faster to update, and increasingly user-friendly to make it a valuable planning tool. Many cities have digital models, for instance the City of Berlin and the City of Portland, some of startling photographic reality, but very few use them on a day-to-day basis as an integral part of the planning assessment process. After assessing the market in 2010, DTPLI in association with the City of Melbourne undertook a one year pilot study of the Urban Circus city modelling package. The City Council used the model strategically for structure planning purposes, while DTPLI has continued to use the model in its statutory role to assess individual development proposals. DTPLI has continued developing the model together with Urban Circus and uses it to assist the assessment of major development proposals undertaken by DTPLI s Planning Statutory Services team. URBAN CIRCUS MODEL The proprietary Visualisation Platform developed and managed by Urban Circus is based on terrain, aerial cadastral and building information. While architectural detail is purposefully simplistic (as compared to photo-realistic modelling systems), there is an important advantage in terms of operational speed and the ability to add and manipulate new building envelopes. Urban Circus have built the technology, based on real time rendering, for simplicity of use, very little training is needed to manipulate the model. With each manipulation of the building envelopes, the model automatically updates dimensions, floor areas, storeys, and shadows. The software has the ability to quickly and easily provide still images and videos allowing dynamic representation of bird s eye views and pedestrian perspectives. High detailed sections of the virtual platform can be updated as required, such as Flinders Street Station. Importantly there is a building construction tool within the model which enables live creation and manipulation of proposed forms in a matter of minutes (refer to Figure 2). Page 3

5 Figure 2: Building envelope with manipulated form including height and setback information HOW IS THE MODEL BEING USED? The crucial game-changer is not the model itself, but how it is used as an integrated part of the planning process. Partly this integration is due to the flexibility and ease-of-use of the Urban Circus Model, but it is also due to the acknowledgement within government of the benefits of the model and executive level support to make it work and seek continued improvement. DTPLI produced an Advisory Note that requires permit applicants to provide a 3D model with a level of detail in one of a range of compatible formats. This is not onerous for applicants as their architects invariably work in 3D. The response in the development sector has generally been enthusiastic, with architects also sharing other digital data they may have of the area where the proposal is under consideration. The use of the model in pre-application meetings saves a great deal of time and discussion, speeds up the planning process and requires fewer resources. When an approval is granted, its digital model is officially placed in the City Model as a virtual archive. Approved buildings and those under construction are accommodated in distinct layers with distinct colours, for activation and deactivation as desired. Moreover, applications for revisions to approved buildings are common. In this instance, the challenge is to understand how the new proposal compares with the approved scheme. The model allows for the user to switch between the approved and proposed schemes quickly and easily to compare and evaluation scale, built form and potential shadowing. (Refer to Figure 3). Page 4

6 Figure 3: Approved envelope in blue with revisions also shown for comparative purposes Maintained in a normal high-end laptop, the model is easily transported to meetings on and off-site, projected onto a wall where proponents can have a go at creating real time building mock-ups and perform fine grain manipulations of heights and setbacks. This has resulted in increased applicant and developer support of the model, as they can easily see its worth in evaluating and responding to design advice on the spot. This allows for more robust evidence-based discussions which minimises potential misunderstanding and time inefficiencies. By sitting with a development applicant in a meeting it is possible to test different versions of a proposed building, instantly changing heights and setbacks to review the results. Traditionally this would have meant adjourning for a week whilst the applicant worked up the suggested changes. Accurate referenced heights and floor areas are simultaneously exhibited on-screen to keep an eye on technical and economic parameters. Shadows can be perfectly simulated for any time of day and year. Most importantly, simply moving the mouse allows views from any point in the city or from any building, walk-throughs can be undertaken or saved as a video. The Minister for Planning has reviewed proposals in the model, with screen shots and video links commonly added to planning reports and briefings. Utilising a video with walk-throughs and fly throughs, generated by the model, can explain and justify recommendations in a limited period of time. A picture is worth a thousand words and is more engaging than reading long reports. While the model is primarily used by DTPLI for the purposes of assessing planning permit applications for major developments, it has also recently been used to support the Flinders Street Page 5

7 Station Design Competition, managed by Major Projects Victoria. DTPLI has directed and produced a virtual site visit, a video which showcases the station in context, and outlines key view lines. DTPLI has also provided a version of the Urban Circus model to competition entrants. This ensured that all entrants have the same access to accurate base information. HOW IS THE MODEL MANAGED AND SHARED? The base model is centrally managed by DTPLI s Urban Design Unit but shared with a growing number of Victorian State Government users (both departments and agencies). State Government users and project partners now include Major Projects Victoria, Port of Melbourne Corporation, Veterans Affairs, Melbourne Metro, Linking Melbourne Authority, VicRoads, Regional Rail Link Authority and Melbourne Water. A high level, across-government Urban Circus user group is advancing data sharing. Veterans Affairs have used the model with help from DTPLI to inform development around the sensitive Shrine of Remembrance reserve. Major Projects Victoria is looking to use the model for upcoming strategic planning projects including master planning for the Sports and Entertainment Precinct, home to the Australian Open. The Regional Rail Link Authority has used simulated videos of the new train line to engage with the community. This, along with the Government Collaboration Group, ensures that the model itself is continually evolving and improving. Central management of the 3D model ensures continued accuracy of the base data. It also leads to economies of scale with only one model needed for central Melbourne for numerous government projects with the costs shared between users via licensing charges. This has also brought together the individual users from different government agencies, promoting across-government relationships, coordination and decision making. In sharing the resource DTPLI now have access to 3D geo-referenced information on important infrastructure projects, including high detailed visualisations, and other users have access to the most up to date information on the city form. The expanding number of government users of the 3D model demonstrates the flexibility and usability of the model and its applicability to initiatives beyond solely development applications. A program of catch-up modelling is currently underway to update the model with all buildings approved by the DTPLI and the City Council in the past. Page 6

8 CONCLUSION A refined understanding of the built form is critical when effectively assessing the cumulative impact of each and every proposal, rather than considering them in isolation. DTPLI has continued developing the model together with Urban Circus and uses it to assist the assessment of major development proposals undertaken. Critically, the use of the 3D visual environment serves to focus development discussions on urban design issues: on the wider picture of the cumulative effects of incremental and site-by-site development decisions within a rapidly changing city. 3D modelling sharpens our ability to acknowledge the local experience of moving along a particular street and seeing development as a real pedestrian would, rather than as illegible elevations and plans or artistic impressions. Melbourne s modelling project is in its infancy, but is managing to bring together government and non-government stakeholders to share data and enjoy the modelling experience. The model enables improved understanding of urban design issues across a wider technical and non-technical audience, and provides a vehicle for consensus building and evidence-based integrated decision-making. Page 7