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The Urbanist
What can cities learn from nature? Discover The Bioplanning Institute and the Bundanon Art Museum
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I put Real Estate is Dublin's leading property investment company for almost 60 years a custodian of the city, embracing excellence in design, sustainability and occupier experience. More than that I Put understands that real change means transforming how valuable, vibrant and loved a neighborhood is. Discover how they build and invest. Head to I put.com now and and learn about their passion for their projects and their unique presence in Dublin. I Put creator of exceptional places Custodian of the city. Hello and welcome to the Urbanist Monocle's program all about the built environment. I'm your host, Andrew Tuck.
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Come.
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Coming up, it's essentially what you would consider the geometry of life. You find it in your skin tissue, you find it in constellations of stars. You can find it anywhere in between. So we basically naively said, well, what if you actually organize cities within that logic?
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What can our cities learn from nature? In this week's episode, we speak with a designer turned urbanist who is encouraging city planners to take notes from ecological systems. But when designing the built environment. Then we head to the Australian bush to see how a renovated art gallery in a flood and fire prone area two hours from Sydney can teach cities the best way to interact with the natural world around them. That's all ahead in the next 30 minutes right here on the Urbanist. With me, Andrew Tuck. Our first guest today is New York based Israeli designer Drawer Ben Shetterit. Draw established his design practice studio drawer in 2002, but has long had an eye on the urbanism realm too. In 2018, Drawer founded Supernature Labs, hoping to reframe Urbanism through an ecological design lens. And he is one of the founding members of the bioplanning Institute, a culmination of six years of research through Supernature Labs, which introduces an ecological, community oriented approach to urban planning. Draw, thank you for joining us today. Let's start with your shift of focus from pure design to urbanism. What made you want to switch your attention in that direction?
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So I think it all started about eight years ago when I was about to turn 40. And I think it was a moment in which I was, you know, very, very excited about everything that we've been doing, everything that we've been accomplishing over the last several years. And I asked myself, I think for the very first time a question I don't think I've asked myself before, which was instead of rather thinking, what should we be doing next as a practice and what project should we adapt next and what does the world really need the most? You know, it Was clear to me that it was great to practice innovation across different disciplines and different companies and different domains over the years. But what the world is really desperately needing is thinking about the future of urbanism and the future of cities. Basically acknowledging that cities is the largest thing humanity have built and is continuing to build and is continuing to expand. I realized that it's simply the largest design problem of our time. So I wanted to give it some thoughts. I wanted to give it some understanding very quickly when I dove deeper into what's been going on over the last couple of decades and centuries and realizing the massive expansion into new territories, into new land coverage, I just realized that this is so important and this is so much more important than all of the projects that we've done, to the point where I was completely immersed in that and realizing that I just need to focus on 100% on this effort. So slowly kind of transition from studio drawer activities into supernature labs activities.
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Tell me, with supernature labs, the focus of it or the ideology that you're. The methodology, perhaps that's a better word that you're working with, is this notion of bio planning. How did you begin to come to realize that this may be the basis of building. Building better cities?
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There's actually a couple of things that I've started to realize over the years that is actually kind of shocking to me in terms of understanding within the industry. And I would mention that maybe first one is the separation between helping existing cities and existing infrastructure. And actually thinking about the future expansion of cities is two separate things, right? Like why would we take and adopt some of the mistakes that we've done previously, obviously into new area, new infrastructure? So I often find that people are not making that distinction and not creating a separation. And then the second thing is the understanding that we have been quite limited in terms of the urban typologies in which we've been creating. And in fact, the relationship between the existing typologies and the infrastructure is actually what causing some of the major challenges that cities are having. So how do you change that? How do you adapt that? I realized that the root cause of those challenges is actually geometry. And if we are able to change the base geometry, we can actually create not just different typologies, but completely different relationships between people, between people in nature, and potentially create a whole different relationship. So one of the core things, and it's actually kind of funny because the starting point of bio planning as an approach was quite naive, was basically us sitting in the studio and basically saying, Wait a second. Everything in nature is organized based on node based logic. And when I say node based logic in different disciplines, you call it different things, right? You can call it circular packing, you can call it fractile logic, cell aggregations. But it's essential what you would consider the geometry of life. You find it in your skin tissue, you find it in any kind of, you know, constellations of stars, you can find it anywhere in between. So we basically naively said, well, what if you actually organize cities within that logic? And then very quickly, the logic of appropriating some of our existing natural conditions and GIS mapping, which essentially are all based on, you know, nature's geometry, of course, you start to realize that the amount of benefits that organizing urban environment according to nature's geometry have tremendous amount of benefits.
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Draw a tommy when somebody corners you, a party, and says, what is bioplanning? So you explain to them it has, it's mimicking many of the cellular structures we know work so effectively in nature. But then how would you explain to them some of the practical things that can then happen? If you take this as a guiding principle for urban development, Give us a couple of things that you would say, okay, if you start following this idea, here's how your cities might look.
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I would say one of the most important things that I care about is creating an environment that foster empathy. I would say that this has been one of the key motivations. Now, it's not the only benefits. There are a stack of benefits that comes with bio planning logic. But when we talk about empathy and connection to other people, one of the key things that we're talking about today in existing cities is a pandemic of loneliness as one of the biggest challenges, right? And we basically blame technology because we basically say, hey, you can stay in your apartment and get everything through your phone and so forth. But if urban planning does not prioritize those aspects of creating emotional connection and empathy between people and a sense of belonging, why do you get more of that in bio planning is essentially because you're organizing geometries based on nodes and you actually have meeting points and centers that can basically aggregate in a much easier way than a grid logic, than a linear logic. So that for me always is the starting point of a conversation if I see somebody at an event or something like that.
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How does it differ from say the 15 Minute City, which is another organizing principle that suggests that you have this idea that everything that you need for your daily life should be within a walk, whether that's food or Education or play. How different is bioplanning to the 15 minute city?
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It basically carries a similar logic in the sense that access to proximity relates to geometry. Right. When Carlos Moreno basically drew the logic of the 15 minute cities, essentially it's a radial aspect that says from wherever you are to wherever you need to go in your immediate needs, you can get there in 15 minutes. Actually, the first time that I had presented to Carlos Moreno, you know, the guy that initiated this thought, he said drawer. You know what's really great about bio planning is that it actually respects every distance within its own logic of priorities. 2 Minute City, 3 Minute City, 5 Minute City, 7 Minute City. Because it's all based on aggregations of cellular forms. So yes, of course, I mean, we want to encourage people to. You walk from place to place and proximity makes a huge difference. So there's a reason why nature aggregates in such a way because of the same motivation.
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Beyond the philosophical, the cultural elements of this, who's coming forward as people who are interested in looking at these systems for their cities, for their neighborhoods, for their urban planning?
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When I started working on this approach, everybody said where is going to be the first one? Where are you prototyping this? Who's commissioning you to do you know the first place? I kept insisting that we do not have time for a prototype. If you start to understand the urgency globally, you realize that we need to shift our approach from trying to create to trying to inspire others to create with us at a lighting speed. If we would focus just on clients that we can have within five, six, seven years, the world is going to pretty much be done with land subdivision of the majority of our urban expansion. So by the time we will prove one place, we would lose tens of thousands of municipalities around the world that are going through massive expansion. So how do we do that at scale? How do we influence at scale? What we realize is that there are four essential areas that we need to focus on. One is to inspire by creating an understanding that there is an alternative to building skyscraper, high rise, mid rise and low rise, which is basically most of our cities are currently building. Number two is we need to change zoning and we need to explain how zoning can be adapted and changed. According to the bio planning logic, we need to incentivize financially through financial mechanism, which I'll explain what we're doing with that right now. And four is basically get the construction and the producers of those environments to understand and believe that this is actually better, faster to build and more cost effective. So we spend years basically working on those four buckets. And one of the things that we realize is that actually financially there are a of number enormous amounts of benefits which some of them are flowing at various time in various ways. So in a very naive conversation that I had with the guy who's actually responsible for some of the biggest sustainable product at Goldman Sachs, he said, drawer, you know, the reason why our bank or no other banks today have financial products to support ecological urban development is because there is no standard. If there's no standard, we cannot create compliances for financial products. And then he said, look, if the Bio Planning Institute can work on a standard in which we can extract from specific compliances and benefits, financially, we can create all kinds of products, from bonds to other financial products, which currently doesn't exist. Now when we're talking at the scale of urban expansion, again we're talking about somewhere between 250 to 350 trillion dollars that are going to be deployed into future urban expansion over the next 25 years. There's essentially no bigger asset class than that globally. So you're talking about an enormous amount of capital, an enormous amount of people that are going to live in cities, that are currently not living in cities, in something that impacts climate and our environment more, more than any other contributor. So starting at understanding that there is a way to create financial incentive is one. One is through the standard. Creating zoning packages that can be adapted into multiple parts of the world with their specification is something that is really at the core. And focusing on multiple projects is a key because coming from the architecture and the design world world, you realize that there's so many factors that projects can stop, the project can be delayed, project can change direction. So you can't really put everything into one prototype in the same way that you're thinking about it. So we need to do all of this simultaneously.
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You're eight years in and I know that you have hope that this cellular layout for making cities, for making neighborhoods, will deliver all sorts of things from making our environment better, to taking care of cultural context, to thinking about wind flow, climate, terrain. But tell me, at this point, eight years in, you've come up with this new way of approaching city making. Are you positive? Are you confident that you have a path ahead that people will follow?
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You know, that's great that you're asking me this now and not a few months ago, a lot more optimistic today than I was. You know, it's been a huge undertaking for us, understanding the complexity that there are so many different sub discipline within what we're talking about and so many different stakeholders that all needs to come together to make this change a reality. The reason why I'm so optimistic right now is that I see the speed of adaptation of the various climate change companies and organization that we're talking to and their interest and their understanding. It takes time to really kind of make people aware and educate people about the need and the shift. You know, obviously a lot of places are still stuck with what we call sustainable practices which are simply not enough. So really understanding that, you know, we've been talking about human centric design as a new thing 20 years ago and we're still thinking that we need to prioritize for human experiences. What we're trying to basically make people understand is that we have to prioritize life as one practical objective. We need to prioritize to design for all of life because it's interconnected with our well being and our health and so forth. And I think that it's an educational challenge and the places that needs it the most are so ready and so open to this kind of radical transformation, you know, through partnership with major players such as aecom, which now is coming on board and basically taking over all of our scientific validation needs and conversions of infrastructure needs into hopefully 300 plus offices that they have around the world.
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Draw. Ben Shetteritt, thank you for joining us on the Urbanist. Seemingly every year when summer hits the Southern hemisphere, Australian cities are forcibly reminded of the existential danger that bushfires can pose. This is just one of nature's threats that are increasingly prevalent as cities grow towards and amongst nature's environments that are all around them. So how can our built environment learn from and embrace nature in order to ensure a safe collective future in the Australian bushland, A few hours drive south of Sydney is the Bundanong Art Museum. It began life as a gift from the artist Arthur Boyd to the government, so it could be turned into a permanent gallery. But its situation in an ecologically vulnerable area means it's always been under threat of fire or flood. So a few years ago it underwent a substantial renovation aimed mainly at making it as climate proof as possible to preserve its building and the art and conserve the natural environment too. Monocle's Canberra correspondent Artie Betigeri visited Bundanon to find out what was involved.
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I'm inside the Arch Museum building at Bundanon, one of Australia's most special cultural spaces. Bundanong was gifted to the Australian people by the famous landscape painter Arthur Boyd, and the museum houses a large collection of his Work. Situated between the bend of a river and a tavern, towering hill, Bundanon is a collection of old and new buildings set in a wildlife sanctuary. And what makes them particularly noteworthy is their climate resilience. Today, the deep connection to the land is reinforced with an indigenous smoking ceremony and everyone's lined up to run their hands through the smoke. Bundanong's CEO, Rachel Kent says the natural setting is a big part of its appeal.
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The Boyds had this really ambitious vision for Bundanon, and I should say it's really one of the greatest acts of private philanthropy in the cultural space in Australia at that time. And since they had this great vision that, in their words, it should be a working arts centre, it should support all the art forms, so visual and performing arts, literature, dance, music. Music. But within a natural setting. It is 1,000 hectares. A lot of this site is actually wilderness. It is a wildlife refuge. About 20% of the site is cleared and in use as artists studios and a residency complex. Beautiful historic home where the Boyds lived, Arthur Boyd's studio. And of course, our new build, which encompasses education, an art museum and public infrastructure. Look, it really is one of those places where you need to slow down and spend time. It is really about immersion into this extraordinary, really beautiful natural setting situated on the riverbank. It's really quite extraordinary, this array of species. Yeah, it's a little bit like a symphony at night and when you awake in the morning, I think some of the most beautiful creatures at Bundanon would definitely include the glossy black cockatoo as well. And we have lyrebirds.
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In 2017, before Rachel joined, Bundenone's administration decided it was time for a refresh. So hired Sydney architecture firm Kirsten Thompson Architects. Kirsten Thompson said the initial brief involved adding new buildings and infrastructure.
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A key driver for this project was for a proper collection store for this significant series of paintings and 3D works, but also a public art museum as well. So finally providing a place for everyone to be able to enjoy that work, bring it into the public realm, and then associated with that, some additional visitor facilities, including a creative learning center, which is really a series of indoor and outdoor learning and multipurpose spaces, as well as the cafe in support of that, which, of course, anyone can visit, and further accommodation for about 64 people. So there's 32 rooms and they are on what I'll keep referring to as the bridge.
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Separately, the site needed car parking and access roads to bring cohesion to the existing three cottages already on the site. The environment, though, presented A major challenge as it's extremely bushfire and flood prone.
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Really what was required was to be able to design for that situation rather than resisting it. So interestingly, even though it seems like a very large site and it's a significant estate and landholding, it's had a very small area that we could actually build on because we were, if you like, wedged between a projected maximum flood line above the creek, which leads to the river. And that was to our east and then to our west we had what's called an APZ zone or an asset protection zone, which is effectively beautiful bushland, but of course highly flammable and a real fire risk. So somewhere in this little slither of space between the threat of flood and the threat of fire was where we were able to locate these new facilities for Bundanon. So in that regard it was quite limited. And interestingly, one of the ways that we managed to, if you like, grab more space on this little slither was to straddle over the wet gully that was there already and in fact, if you like, use the airspace above that. And hence one of the reasons for introducing a bridge element, because it could have its two main feet either side of the hill and use that airspace. So it was a smart way around that as well. So they were probably the biggest issues to overcome was just the dynamic climate that we were within on a site like that.
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The design was purposefully climate resilient. The new art museum was designed to be strategically embedded into the side of a hill, so it would have have fire protection from three sides and from above. And the bridge housing accommodation. And the learning centre straddles a flood gully and is based in classic Australian trestle bridge design. While the building work was underway, the climate challenge came to bear. In 2020, the region was subjected to particularly devastating bushfires. Here's Rachel Kent again.
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Bundanong is in a really unique position geography. Geographically. It is in the middle of a high risk fire and flood zone. And I'll often say this is the bellwether. A climate change, you know, can be very biblical. At Bundanon, it's either burning or it's flooding. You will all remember the really catastrophic bushfires on the east coast of Australia in late 2019 and 2020. Part of the property did burn very bad. Sadly, the fires came within about one kilometre of the Bundanon homestead. The art collection did have to be removed urgently by a very small team and sent to Sydney for safe storage for several years.
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There was also a flash flood that the Architect Kirsten Thompson experienced while staying there.
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When people are staying on the bridge, you're well elevated above where, where the flood would happen or the water collects. So I do remember being in my room looking out and just being able to enjoy watching that dramatic transformation from a big, grassy, open area adjacent to the creek and then that turning into a pond of sorts, almost a little lake, and watching how when it's just a grassy, open, open space, that's normally where you'd see kangaroos and wombats feeding, especially at dusk. Whereas through this inundation event, suddenly all this bird life appeared. And so the sounds just changed dramatically as well. It was really, really beautiful. And I think that's what's really special about staying on site. If people get the chance, I urge them to do so, because just being there, whether it's for a few, a few hours, or ideally at least for 24 hours, just to see that change from day to night.
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Adding to the way fire and flood mitigation was built into the design. The museum also works closely with local indigenous communities. Indigenous fire management is an ancient system that has, since the 2020 fires started to be taken more seriously by Australian firefighting authorities and is something that Bundanon includes as part of its core for philosophy.
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One of the parts of the caring and maintenance of this site. We have a very extensive caring for country philosophy that enfolds Bundanon, that it does encompass cool temperature cultural burns, working with local community. And those cultural burns, I'm told, were one of the key reasons, in fact, when the bushfires came through the south coast, that Bundanong did not burn to the ground. So that cultural practice, that environmental and regenerative and protective practice is critical in an area like this where fire risk is extremely high. And it's something we continue to this day. It's dictated by weather patterns. You know, if it's very, very rainy, cultural burns will happen after. But we have an incredible team of custodians in this area who work with Bundanon around these cool temperature cultural burns to really keep the property safe and in very good shape for the future. It's very quiet, it's very gentle. The fire is very, very low to the ground. It's not a raging high fire. And you have actually have people walking around with bare feet. It's very, very different in how it's undertaken and what the processes and the outcomes are. And it's a really regenerative process. It's a really clever land management process and it has been practiced successfully for millennial.
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That was Rachel Kent, CEO of the Australian art museum Bundanon, and she was speaking with Monocle's Canberra correspondent Artie Betty Gary. And that's all for this week's episode of the Urbanist. You can follow us for new editions of the show every week. And you can subscribe to Monocle magazine for reports on all things design, architecture and urbanism too. Just visit monocle.com the Urbanist is produced by Carlotta Rubello and by David Stevens, who also edits the show. I'm Aannah Tuck Goodbye and thank you for listening. City Lovers I put Real Estate is Dublin's leading property investment company. For almost six decades they've owned and developed the best workplaces in Ireland, setting standards and attracting global capital to the Irish market. As a gateway to Europe, Dublin is a global centre for investment. I put leads the market by delivering innovative design led workplaces and public spaces that enhance the occupier experience and neighbourhood life. Their ambition to set new benchmarks in workplace quality, attract leading businesses to Dublin, all while delivering strong, sustainable returns for their investors. Find out how they're building this Future. Head to IPUT.com now. I put creator of Exceptional Places, Custodian of the City.