Discourses of community in urban waterfront regeneration: the case study of the Port Adelaide waterfront redevelopment

Abstract

Increasingly property led urban waterfront regeneration projects offer highly choreographed and packaged lifestyles that construct new forms of community under the guise of social sustainability. While the term ‘community’ is subject to multiple meanings waterfront redevelopments arguably market a concept of community expressed through the physical layout and landscaping of the waterfront site, the diversity of design and density of residential complexes and the way public space is supplemented with service and consumption activities. While the real estate market indicates a desire for diverse forms of cosmopolitan living it may not necessarily extend to a diversity of social classes. Through a discursive analysis of interview and document material, this paper explores the extent to which ‘community’ is both imagined and re-imagined as an outcome of these distinct new urban forms. This is considered using the Port Adelaide waterfront as a case study.