Urban Sprawl and Consolidation

Urban Sprawl: An example of urban sprawl is The Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area (G.M.R). Above is a picture of Western Sydney's housing centre. It is urban sprawl because of the increased dependency on motor vehicles, inefficient road systems and there is no space efficiency, it is all low density housing.

Urban Consolidation: an example of urban consolidation is in the Upper North Shore where companies like Meriton Apartments Grocon and construct apartment buildings and use the space they have more efficiently. It is urban consolidation because they are developing in an already urbanized area and so are using the available space much more efficiently. There is no need for construction for new buildings.

In the example of urban sprawl the following groups were involved: The NSW government, Housing NSW and housing companies like City West Housing.

They are all involved in some way. The NSW government in a way will authorise those groups. Housing NSW are the providers of housing in NSW and so are responsible for the construction of areas that lead to urban sprawl. Companies like City West Housing are groups that build low density houses that also cause urban sprawl.

Organisations like Meriton have responded to the urban sprawl in Sydney by trying to counter it with urban consolidation developments. One example of their response are the Ironbark apartments in Pymble. Another example is Gocon's completed apartment buildings like the Aquarelle Apartments or the Emporio Apartments.

I think that the Ironbark apartment project in Pymble has been very effective. The building is environmentally responsible but still maintains a good standard of design. This means that it is not causing urban sprawl and because of its looks people will want to move into one of those apartment blocks thus encouraging more construction of apartment blocks.