KIM DOVEY
STEPHEN WOOD
IAN WOODCOCK
Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning
University of Melbourne

This paper explores the tensions between desires for density and for the preservation of urban character in the inner city of Melbourne, Australia. A housing project was proposed with 150 apartments at a net density of over 200 units/hectare. The design, by architect Ivan Rijavec, was innovative in urban and architectural terms but was fiercely opposed by local residents who dubbed it the 'cheesegrater'. The location is a gentrifying industrial/residential district with a mix of functions, building types and heights. It was primarily the height that 'grated' and was seen to violate the local 'character'. The proposal ranged from 4-8 storeys (peaking at 26 metres) in a context of 1-6 storey buildings (peaking at 19 metres), depending on how one defines the 'context'. This study is based on a series of interviews, morphological mapping and analysis of the discourse that framed the issue. The local 'character' was defined by residents as a rich mix of social and formal characteristics with a bohemian edge; a place identified by its differences and openness rather than consistency or closure. The architect, also a local resident, argued that the project was consistent with the prevailing 'character' which he labelled 'urban jazz'—inventive, transgressive, multicultural and free-form; unconstrained by neo-colonial ideology or blanket height limits. New and taller buildings were portrayed as consistent with this transgressive character by contributing to the mix of forms and heights. For residents this was an 'urban joke' which transformed the place identity and reduced the horizontal mix of social differences. This is a case that opens up larger issues about place identity, urban character, architectural innovation and resident resistance to urban densification. To what degree does the discourse of 'character' have a capacity to open up the city to new forms of identity formation? And to what degree can it paralyze processes of urban densification? How do ideas about social mix map onto a mix of forms and heights? Can the celebration of 'character' operate as a cover for the creative destruction of the market?