Australian Suburbia A suburb is a residential place existing as either part of the city outside the central business district or a residential community within a distance from the city. Suburbs in Australia have a degree of autonomy in administration. In Australia, suburbs are geographical divisions of a city and become bases for providing postal services. In the rural areas of the country, they are localities. The term inner suburb defines a high-density suburb in near a city while the term outer suburb represents a suburb with a lower density in the outskirts of an urban area. Low-density suburbs examples are Melbourne, Ultimo, Te Aro and Wellington while Sydney represents high-density suburbs. Sydney city is having high density of housing apartments integrated in commercial areas (Bunker, Holloway & Randolph, 2005). There have been negative statements about Suburbia in Australia as being wasteful. Negative aspects of the suburbs have been told trough the mainstream media. Sprawling cities represent the urban Australia. The Urban Australian landscape is very significant for the accomplishment of the Australian dream.

The landscapes represent both the culture and the economy of the country. Intellectuals are responsible for promoting such criticism about suburbs in Australia. These groups of critics date back to the 1950s a time when most people aspired to own homes. In 1901, estimates indicate that about seventy percent of people in Sydney lived in suburbs, and up to this date majority of Australians live in suburbs. Intellectuals like Asbolt satirized Australian suburbs as a symbol of the nation (Davison, 2006). In addition, Boyd referred to suburbia as representing Australia's ugliness. An Architect and a cultural critic Boyd has been a fighter for respectability of suburban spaces. Boyd represents a group of intellectuals who advocate against abuse of suburbs. These intellectuals represent the views of a majority of Australians. Conformity, control and false consciousness represent suburban space. Boyd further defines this ugliness as deep skin.

Landscape Oriented Development

Concerns about sprawling unsustainable urban development in Australia have necessitated development authorities to solve the problem. In Brisbane, for instance architects have been interested in developing compact structures that can sustain subtropical climate and the lifestyle of the Australian people. With the understanding of the Australian culture and the climate, researchers formulated their first keynote the Landscape Oriented Development marking a research evolution. The paper is the beginning of evolution that continues to grow and evolve. Cities in the country are consumers of water energy, foods and other forms of materials. According to the study, consumption of these resources has been on the increase (Forsyth, 2012). There is an increased rate in the consumption of energy and water. There is also a substantial increase in waste generation in these cities. There has been an increase in private car ownership within cities, and this has led to an increase in emission of carbon dioxide. The floor area of dwellings over the last years has been on the increase as compared to population growth in Australia.

Unsustainable use of resources in Australia is a very vital element of discussion. This is because Australia falls globally amongst the worst cities in relation to the consumption of key resources per capita. This means that the consumption pattern in relation to the ability of the earth's resources to satisfy this demands do not match. The lack of understanding of the environment and the ways of exploiting its resources, have led to land degradation, species destruction, increased gas emissions and water shortages. This means that there is clear disregard and disconnect with the natural world in the Australian cities (Dittmar & Ohland, 2003). Today's city life entails long drives in cars; living and working in air-conditioned building and shopping. The eating habits of citizens have also changed. People today consume processed foods, smoke and barely exercise, and it is no wonder people are more obese than before. In response to this, people build cities to insulate themselves from those natural resources that make life possible and worth living (Grose, 2009).

For Brisbane city, plans are that all the density controlled into locations of high density. However, there is no perfect truth; that high-density places will make desirable places to live. The place cannot support employment, facilities or public transport alone. Therefore, there is a need to increase overall densities throughout the city to support local services and transport. Idea of a denser city has several advantages. One of the advantages is that the...

When there is less land available for individuals to own individually, the quality of that shared need to improve. To respond to this, the cities think tank team came up with six zones. These zones linking with the street, the beach was a perfect plan. These places provided a place for people to gather to listen to music, places to sit, a place to cross the street and a place to rest. The strategy is referred to as Retrofitting cities. The idea was activated by trying to change the face of Melbourne. The plan was to try to reduce the effects of weather on the place and on addressing carbon capture (Frost & O'Hanlon, 2009).
Planting was an essential part of the design to ensure bio-filtration. Water stored through this process of landscaping was essential in overcoming effects of drier climate. The importance of locating denser form of housing is that there will be openness that will permit the movement of breeze. This will provide a good orientation for solar. In addition, offer scenery, to overlook the environment. The strategy creates safe streets and green open spaces for viewing. For the project to be a success consideration, need to be done on the impact analysis of the environment and in developing of a conceptual framework to analyze the impacts (Frost & O'Hanlon, 2009). The fundamental importance of this orientation is to find a relationship with the natural environment. It is better to know the environment so that one can enjoy it. The strategy also helps individuals utilize the environment in a sustainable manner. The purpose of the design is to prove that landscaping can help in developing sustainable living environment. The need of retrofit of cities is very urgent to deal with the problem of population pressures however, when making the design holistic approach is essential to avoid poor designs.

Co- housing

Opening up urban areas is important in promoting positive living in cities. Space is a resource that should be present to any community despite the size of the community. Space in urban areas refers to places for recreational purposes; a household garden or field for children to play. These spaces are important for sports, picnics or places for socializing. Spaces are places for fulfilling aspects such as flood mitigation or control of carbon (May, 2009). Spaces should be present in any community since it is important in promoting physical activity. Australians value nuclear family type of housing. Even though this model goes unnoticed, it has many advantages. This type of housing has a positive influence since there is a collaborative form of living. Residents of this type of housing have an opportunity of maintaining good relationships. Cooperative form of housing offers flexibility of house ownership in terms of type and size. This form of housing became popular in Denmark over the past 40 years due to frustrations over options of housing (Davison, 2006).

There had been an increase in the number of single parents, single couples, childless couples and elderly people. This type of housing design is popular with those people who wish to live communally. The design in Australia is in the form of a community sharing common facilities while at the same time maintaining a private dwelling. Co-housing can take an average of 3 to 6 years. Members of the community undertake plans together concerning the neighborhood before a sense of the community. When structural plans take place in the community, relationships and other aspects are given full consideration, as opposed to special considerations. These forms of interaction provide a large range of choices as related to eating, childcare, social life and even cooking. All the members of the community as a common house share these facilities. Other facilities include, open space, vegetable gardens and childcare. The physical layout of cohousing is very vital. In most of the cases, roads separate houses between the suburban areas. Cooperative housing promotes child development by giving them space for play and growth.

Fig 1 retrived from mrexecel.com

Figure 1 above gives a representation of a cooperative housing where facilities enjoyed between members of the community. The important aspect of cooperative housing is that, children get a chance to develop without risks. Linkages between houses give chance for neighbors to supervise children whenever parents are not around. This design also increases security as the open space is constantly in view of the houses (Troy, Newman & Kenworthy, 2012). In housing cooperatives, buildings and the land belong to the cooperative. The cooperative in turn, rents…