This was published 10 months ago
How Brisbane can grow while bringing people together
Brisbane’s neighbourhoods are changing. By 2046, an extra 2.2 million people will call south-east Queensland home, and by 2050, more than one in five Queenslanders will be 65 or older.
As suburbs expand and densify to accommodate the city’s growth, the social infrastructure that keeps communities connected will become increasingly important. Without it, Brisbane risks becoming a lonelier place to live.
The places where people work, live and play can promote meaningful social interactions. Credit: Adam Ferguson
For some, it might already be. Research shows loneliness is on the rise in Australia.
Data from the longitudinal Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey shows that from 2001 to 2021, about one in five Australians agreed with the statement, “I often feel very lonely”.
While it might feel like a deeply personal experience, experts are increasingly acknowledging the role cities play in preventing loneliness and promoting social connection – starting with where people live.
For rapidly growing cities like Brisbane, meeting immediate housing needs while building connected communities is not a straightforward task. But the vision of bringing neighbours together is nothing new.
Torbreck in Highgate Hill was Queensland’s first high-rise, mixed-use residential apartment block. Designed by architects Aubrey Horswill Job and Robert Percival Froud in the late 1950s, it promised residents more than just a place to live.
Initial plans included shopping facilities, professional suites, a restaurant, a terrace cafe, and a rooftop observation lounge.
Though most of these features were dumped due to spiralling construction costs, Torbreck resident Laura Elvery says the building’s community-centred vision has prevailed.
“We’ve met so many lovely people on our floor – I know them all by name,” she says. “And especially with closer friends and neighbours, it’s really like you can knock on their door if you need to borrow food.”
Completed in 1960, Torbreck in Highgate Hill was Queensland’s first high-rise, mixed-use residential apartment block.Credit: Sandy Weir
Elvery has lived in Torbreck with her husband and two children – aged 10 and six – for eight years. They moved to Highgate Hill from New Farm because they couldn’t afford to buy there. It was an adjustment at first, but they now feel deeply connected to the community here.
“I love West End and Highgate Hill. The kids go to school here, I walk to work from home, and so does my husband,” Elvery says.
“We have the capacity to operate most of our life in these suburbs really nicely, often without using the car, too.”
Of course, with two young children, the family has made concessions, especially around space. But being part of Torbreck’s community cushions the downfalls.
“We didn’t have this [sense of community] at the apartment building we used to live in, which was a different set-up. I knew the name of maybe one person,” Elvery says.
“I think for people who leave Torbreck, there are some things they don’t miss about living here. But I think they often do miss being around people and having people there if you need them.”
Mixed-use developments – think West End’s West Village, South City Square in Woolloongabba, and Newstead’s Gasworks Residences – bring physical and social infrastructure closer to where people live. But Stephanie Wyeth, planner-in-residence at the University of Queensland, says their cost can be out of reach for many people.
“Housing density doesn’t always equal affordability. West Village is not affordable,” Wyeth says.
“If we want affordable housing in our suburbs, we need to look at new ways to fund and subsidise it. This is where governments need to come in, and other financial models.”
Nightingale Parklife, part of The Village precinct in Melbourne’s Brunswick, features a rooftop with a community amphitheatre with city views and productive gardens.Credit: Tom Ross
For an affordable housing model that also considers social connection, Wyeth points to Melbourne’s Nightingale Housing.
Nightingale projects are built around social, environmental and financial sustainability principles. The buildings are designed for inclusivity – up to 20 per cent of homes are pre-allocated for social housing, and another 20 per cent are allocated to key community contributors and marginalised individuals – and feature communal spaces to encourage interaction between neighbours.
“It’s what they call an ‘intentional community’,” Wyeth says. “You express a shared set of values to go into the building, and they try to have a mix of people in each project.”
While it’s not viable for everyone to live in an apartment building, there are wider social benefits for suburbs that embrace mixed density. More people living in an area increases the chance of new public infrastructure and transportation, local businesses, public services, and health amenities.
It also creates opportunities for rightsizing, allowing individuals to move into a unit, townhouse, duplex or granny flat as their household needs change. This is especially relevant in the context of Queensland’s ageing population – a group at risk of loneliness and isolation – and the state’s decreasing household composition.
At the last census, about 24 per cent of residences in south-east Queensland were single-person households, while about a third housed two people.
Those smaller households are not necessarily occupying smaller homes, which is adding to south-east Queensland’s housing supply headache. Throw in the shortage of social and affordable housing, and people are being pushed further away from their community needs.
Wyeth says meeting a city’s social needs is not as simple as just building more facilities. Decisions need to be intentional and place-appropriate for communities to truly benefit.
“In all our thinking about how cities and communities perform, it’s really important to take what they call a ‘place-based approach’,” she says.
In 2023, Wyeth co-authored A Love & Kindness Project, an exploration of the impact of the built environment on our health and wellbeing, and the responsibility planners, designers and architects have for ensuring the planning and design of cities support our everyday needs.
Mixed-use developments like West End’s West Village bring physical and social infrastructure closer to where people live. But it’s not affordable for many people.
“If I reflect on the way our cities are planned, often the policy-makers and planners who are making decisions … live within the inner five kilometres of Brisbane, and they’re shaped by those experiences,” Wyeth says.
“They don’t often think about what it means to live out in the suburbs in, say, Strathpine or Stafford, where you don’t have as frequent public transport, neighbourhood centres aren’t as well designed, and streets aren’t as walkable.
“The quality of life there is quite different.”
Of course, infrastructure is only part of the conversation. Preventing isolation and loneliness also requires cities to be inclusive and meet the needs of diverse demographics, create opportunities for community participation, and promote a sense of purpose and belonging.
“We’ve always talked about ourselves as a friendly city,” Wyeth says. “If we don’t invest in good housing for people, good-quality open spaces and parks, and places where people can connect, we lose some of those qualities … and we could become a meaner city.”
This article was produced in collaboration with the Australian Science Media Centre, with support from the Walkley Foundation-administered Meta Public Interest Journalism Fund.
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