Having spent a week in Auckland recently, I have once again been musing on what it is that so captivates me about my city of Wellington, and (not to be too harsh to Auckland) thinking about some of the great urban change that has been happening there in the last five years. Amid all this urban-dreaming two city-specific Aussie blogs have caught my eye in the past week.
- The Melbourne Urbanist,which interestingly enough is written by Dr Alan Davies who is neither Architect or Urban Planner by profession, but a principal of Melbourne-based economic and planning consultancy, Pollard Davies Pty Ltd. While this means that the blog has significantly more numbers, graphs and analytics than a typical urban commentary, it is also refreshing to get a more holistic and -dare I say it - less dreamy perspective on how a city grows and breathes.
- Canberra Lab, then, might fit somewhere at the other end of the scale, collecting pieces under such labels as 'unbuilt work', 'street critique' and 'half a thought', but provides some great light commentary on what has traditionally been a rather sombre urban scene.
