ICS Seminar Series – Ece Kaya
Date: Thursday 9 June 2016
Time: 11.30am–1pm
Venue: EB.2.02, Western Sydney University, Parramatta South campus
Ece Kaya
(Institute for Culture and Society)
From Old Industrial Sites to Prestigious Working, Living and Leisure Spaces: Darling Harbour
Abstract
In the 1980s, as a result of the dynamics brought about by globalisation, the practice of urban transformation ceased to be an approach that focused on the complete demolition and reconstruction of dilapidated city textures. It was replaced with a new approach that intended to re-functionalise the dysfunctional old plants, port areas, warehouses and storage areas located in city centres or precious areas in the vicinity of those centres and to reintroduce them to the economy. Alongside the ever-transforming residential neighbourhoods and city centres, waterfronts were considered to have an incredible value. This approach was defined by many scholars as reconstructing the constructions entirely or partially within an area, in which there is no possibility of improving living and health conditions regarding both settlement order and conditions of the current constructions. Within this definition, tourism serves important political purposes to market and sell sites as iconic markers.
Sydney has witnessed further inner-city transformations, which have been characterised by waterfront revitalisations and continuing territorial disputes between the state and local government that compromise the long-term planning efforts in the city. The redevelopments gained speed with the Darling Harbour project. It can be observed that the authorities refer to their transformation practices in the manner of a political and discourse and they claim that these practices are the only solution for the historical centres, derelict areas and particularly those shanty-town areas that have not been redeveloped according to reformation plans. It is not possible to call such practices urban transformation, since they just provide a spatial change and ignore the historical factors of the process.
Darling Harbour, Sydney's inner-city waterfront and former industrial district, has become a tourism precinct as a result of an ambitious redevelopment program that occurred between 1984 and 1988. This paper argues that this type of waterfront redevelopment project involves the creation of a new waterfront concept, with complete transformation that reflects the significant tourism and leisure activities, but that ignores the original maritime and commercial activities, and the industrial past.
This paper presents the findings of the case study which examines the redevelopment of Darling Harbour that has resulted with the prioritisation of tourism and leisure activity, rather than the preservation and adaptation of industrial heritage structures within the overall improvement of urban conditions and the local economy.
Biography
Ece Kaya is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Culture and Society and a tutor at the School of Social Sciences and Psychology. Her previous experiences in tourism management and urban planning led her to investigate urbanisation projects which have been considered success stories of transformation with mixed touristic, recreational, residential and commercial activities. However her approach sees these projects as tools to consume places by demolishing old industrial landscapes. Her research focus is on former industrial sites located in urban centres which have witnessed deindustrialisation as a prominent change, and which have been threatened by the rise of neoliberal urban and economic transformation interventions, such as gentrification and waterfront redevelopment.
