- Exciting times, as new medium density design guidelines are on the way
- Perth has been recently ranked as 6th most liveable city in the world
- "One of the things that has held us back in the past is our ranking on culture."
In the final article (click here for parts one and two), we talk with Sandy Anghie, architect, board director and Deputy Lord Mayor of the City of Perth…
“I love Perth. I was born here and have lived here all of my life. While I liked to travel (pre-Covid) I always looked forward to coming home. I loved growing up here and now I look forward to bringing my daughter up here,” Sandy Anghie told The Property Tribune.
An advocate and champion for Perth, Ms Anghie never shies away from promoting the city. One of her key commitments as Deputy Lord Mayor is to “enhance the character of our city neighbourhoods.”
“Increasing the City’s residential population is not a supply issue, but rather a demand issue.,” she said.
“We need people to want to live in our city and to achieve this we need to make the street-level experience much better and our existing communities need more support.”
Perth’s ranking in the top ten most liveable cities in the world was a boon for what’s commonly referred to as the most isolated city in the world.
“I know one of the things that has held us back in the past is our ranking on culture, and that’s now improved with our new WA Museum Boola Bardip. My understanding is, if we improve the cultural ranking even further, we could be in the one or two spot in global liveability rankings,” said Ms Anghie.
A product of its pristine surrounds
Talking about the uniqueness of Perth architecture, Ms Anghie pointed out that “Perth architecture is different, but ‘different good’.”
“Architecture across Australia has evolved according to climactic difference as well as aesthetics.”
With new medium density design guidelines on the way, it’s an exciting time.
“It’s design for climate, for outdoor spaces. Often in multi-residential developments or high density, it’s the function of making the most of the site and making the most return, and the building might not be orientated correctly,” she said.
In her view, with Covid and the importance of home, not just a house, but home, much more consideration has to be placed on new buildings – particularly in medium and high density where gardens and backyards in a traditional sense aren’t possible.
Ms Anghie said new guidelines would see buildings “use passive design principles, more suitable for our climate,” and “create outdoor spaces which are actually usable. Outdoor spaces are important for people’s health.”
Tempora mutantur1
“I don’t like temporaryism, this is one of the things that drove me to run for City of Perth Council,” Ms Anghie said.
She previously noticed that although millions has been spent by the City of Perth on events, activations and marketing, they did little for the City in terms of driving visitation or establishing the city’s identity long term.
“I was in Cathedral Square, I think 2017 or 18, and City of Perth had installed this tunnel and it was some $200,000 for about two weeks and I didn’t see anyone walk through it, I thought well, we can do so much better than that.”
“$200,000 would be life-changing for many arts organisations, or even just $20,000 for some”, she said, recalling how a small arts organisation had described a $13,000 grant as ‘life-changing’.
“Supporting the creative sector helps to build the creative community, and that helps to build our city because most of the arts and cultural organisations are city-based. The great cities of the world are defined by their great neighbourhoods, architecture, arts and culture.”
She captured it succinctly: “Invest in things that are enduring, not temporary”.
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- Tempora mutantur refers to “changes brought about by the passage of time.”
