Under the strategic radar and outside planning's ‘spaces of interest’: knockdown rebuild and the changing suburban form of Australia's cities

Abstract

Redeveloping suburban centres is considered critical to achieving ‘compact city’ goals. However, beyond the boundaries of these contested localities, a different kind of reinvestment is occurring in the suburban landscapes of Australia's cities, which is challenging conceptions of urban renewal and the actors involved in it. The knockdown rebuild (KDR) phenomenon is changing the social and environmental character of many neighbourhoods, yet KDR is given little regard in long-term strategic planning documents and statutory frameworks. Drawing on a recent study of KDR activity in Sydney, this paper argues that by conceiving of renewal principally as a government- or developer-led exercise, it fails to engage with a key driver of change that is reshaping our cities. Our research contends that the unique role of the owner-occupier in Australia's suburban renewal represents an uncoordinated, yet historically not unprecedented, change agent – one which the planning system continues to find difficult to reconcile within the spaces of strategic planning.

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