Community building is a long-established and well recognised focus for our practice. Deicke Richards’ interest in working with communities and building the social infrastructure that sustains and enriches them is a focus across a range of sectors.
Community building specialists
We bring this commitment to community outcomes to our work at all scales as urban designers, master planners, architects and interior designers. Contexts for community building exist across a broad transection from natural settings through to urban contexts. Across this spectrum there are multiple opportunities to foster connection between people and place. An understanding of this broader obligation of design enables Deicke Richards to identify opportunities beyond the function requirements of projects and foster strong integration between communities and their natural and urban environments.
‘The United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals recognise that access to high-quality public space (which includes social infrastructure) is critical to social, economic and environmental sustainability.
‘Promoting safe, inclusive, accessible, green and quality public spaces, including streets, sidewalks and cycling lanes, squares, waterfront areas, gardens and parks, that are multifunctional areas for social interaction and inclusion, human health and wellbeing, economic exchange, cultural expression and dialogue among a wide diversity of people and cultures, and that are designed and managed to ensure human development and build peaceful, inclusive and participatory societies as well as to promote living together, connectivity and social inclusion.’
We understand the shared responsibility for social infrastructure across the Local, State, Federal, Not-For Profit and Private sectors.
Community facilities
Community facilities are at the heart of many new and emerging neighbourhoods. They give people a place to seek support, exchange ideas, gather, and learn. Our long-established interest in working with communities and building the social infrastructure that sustains and enriches them, is a well-recognised focus of our practice across a range of sectors: local government, education, affordable housing, and new models of retirement and aged care. This commitment to community informs our work as master planners, architects, and urban designers; it is evident in our most recent master plans for new community hub precincts that provide shared facilities for local groups and education users. We have designed one of the first of this type of community centre, located on the Sunshine Coast, which reflects our earlier work with the Queensland Government’s Community Hubs and Partnerships (CHaPs) team.
Master planning
We have completed master planning projects of state and national significance. Key urban development areas in Brisbane include Woollongabba, Yeerongpilly and Bowen Hills; we have also contributed planning and architectural services to vital, transit-oriented developments in Southeast Queensland. Our team brings master planning expertise to its work with education sector clients, as well as aged care and housing providers who are investigating new development and service models.
Public realm and placemaking
We recognise that the key to great places is not just a matter of hardware (the physical aspects), but also one of software – the things that make a place unique, well used, and ultimately loved. ‘Placemaking’ is the kind of urban planning that is deeply rooted in local culture, and that strengthens connections between people.
Since no two places are the same, the process of working collaboratively on placemaking in the public realm – whether that includes parks, streets, awnings, civic spaces or other community spaces – is highly specific, and leads to outcomes that are authentic, unique, creative, and innovative. Such outcomes often depend on the strength of the consultation process. At Deicke Richards, we are highly experienced in stakeholder engagement, ensuring that local knowledge and experience are encouraged and enabled.
Placemaking can have enormous benefits in leveraging the character and popularity of a precinct to attract and generate more positive economic and development initiatives.
Learning environments
Education has been a core part of the practice for more than a decade. We have produced more than 10 master plans for schools in Queensland and Victoria and designed general learning areas and specialist facilities for a wide range of clients, including schools in metropolitan and regional Queensland. Our team understand the changes that major shifts in pedagogy are bringing to campuses throughout the country. Where appropriate, we work with a specialist education planner to bring a sociological and psychological perspective to our consultation and design.
Sport and play
Sports are integral to Australia’s national identity, and sporting facilities are a key form of community infrastructure for all Australians, regardless of their physical abilities. When designing such resources, we consider not only the courts or fields or changerooms or equipment required, but also the opportunity to build community connection, whether through viewing areas like grandstands, public amenities, or venues for less formal engagement. A first-rate master-planned sporting precinct is one that maximises both the physical and social benefits of exercise.
Design advice
We regularly provide specialist technical advice and review services to local and state governments, as well as to a range of private and not-for-profit developers and providers. We led the technical advice services (urban design and heritage) to the Queensland Government on the Queen’s Wharf Brisbane project, and we were part of the consultant team providing technical advice on Herston Quarter. We also provide forensic advisory services and advice on remediation.
Disaster recovery and climate adaptation
As the climate changes, disaster recovery and climate adaption will become increasingly important to urban design and the built environment in our communities. We wish to acknowledge that the effects of climate change are made worse in settlements that are at odds with natural processes and care systems. Much can be learned from the principles of caring for Country that First Nations peoples employed for thousands of years before colonisation.
Our experience with flood recovery began in 2011, after an inland tsunami hit the township of Grantham and caused widespread flooding across Southeast Queensland. We helped to relocate Grantham and, more than a decade later, we are working with the New South Wales Resilient Lands program to assist with the rebuild efforts in Lismore, following the devastating floods experienced in the region. Work like this requires more than just a mastery of planning controls and legislation, or a careful assessment of the delivery and operational capacity of councils and other partners involved. It also demands a genuine understanding of the built environment, community, natural features, values, and cultural history, and an expertise in handling trauma and crisis with innovation and creativity. Our aim is to deliver sustainable and viable land use and development outcomes, all in the context of a changing climate.
Sustainability and designing with Country
Our work as architects and urban designers demonstrates a commitment to the principles of sustainability and climate-responsive design. We support these principles with passive solar design, control of solar access and ventilation, choices of building materials, effective use of urban landscapes and green infrastructure, and advocacy for public transport, walkways and cycle routes. We firmly believe that to provide enduring design solutions, we need to be culturally informed – and that this means respectful engagement from the very start, so that knowledge and perspectives help to shape the vision and principles of the project.
Designing with Country means more than just sustainability. It recognises the interconnectedness of land, sky, water, and culture, and how this has to be the bedrock of any project.