Bored Panda got in touch with Professor Alan March from the Melbourne School of Design, who specializes in Urban Planning and Disaster Risk Reduction. He was kind enough to share some of his thoughts on bad urban design and “urban hell.” Firstly, we wanted to hear what common misconceptions about this field he has encountered.

“That planners have control over all aspects of cities and towns! We don’t – we are but one actor in a complex system of developers, bureaucrats, other government departments, politicians and other interest groups. We don’t really have that much power,” he shared. After all, some of the “worst” offenders emerge without any planning or authority, like the favelas of Latin America. 

“That we sit in front of drawing boards designing towns and cities. Well, we sometimes do, but mostly not. We actually have diverse tasks: regulations and policy (writing and administering), running meetings, project management, legal processes, advising politicians, economic analysis, heritage and so forth,” he added. 

He had some more misconceptions to share. “That we are officious and want to make peoples’ lives difficult. In fact, most of us really want to help people as well as having the public good in mind. We chose the profession for that reason. Often, saying “no” to someone or something is in favor of collective outcomes.”

“For example: “No, you can’t demolish a heritage structure, even though you own the land, because the cultural significance of that is of significance to the wider community”. Alternatively, “Yes, that is an old building, but it doesn’t really have any cultural or heritage significance, so the developer is allowed to demolish it to provide more housing in keeping with our elected government’s policy”.”

We were also curious to hear about some examples of poor urban planning from his perspective. “Non-integrated services. Examples include train timetables and physical connections that don’t connect with buses. Unsafe places, particularly for the vulnerable,” he shared. 

“Increasing inequity of services, manifest in spatial distribution and exacerbated by concentrations of wealth or lower income across cities. This is increasingly leading to intergenerational inequity.” For many readers, the classic “slum” comes to mind, while wealthier people live in fully separated neighborhoods. 

Other examples included “Car dependency along with poor public transport, obesity and food deserts in poorer areas where there is a lot of high calorie-low nutrient-low cost food available, contributing to climate change emissions. A lack of community due to insufficient or poorly designed public realm spaces for a diverse range of people.”