Shedding New Light on Adelaide? Intersections between Urban Design Projects and City Marketing: Fid-Bau Portal

Shedding New Light on Adelaide? Intersections between Urban Design Projects and City Marketing

Rofe, Matthew W. / Stein, Luke

Cities are increasingly locked in transnational networks, thus prompting the need for competitive urban identities. Governments and policy makers are increasingly looking towards city marketing to gain a competitive advantage. Urban design projects have emerged as a key strategy in this pursuit. Policy makers often assume that physical interventions in place will assist in the creation of a more globally competitive urban identity. However, such an assumption may be overly simplistic, denying the complexities inherent in place. This paper critiques the relationship between urban design and urban identity through a South Australian case study. Investigating the Rundle Lantern, an urban design project aimed at activating a prominent Adelaide intersection and assisting to re-orient the city's image, the paper evaluates the capacity of urban design to create emblematic places that seek to communicate a more progressive and vibrant urban identity. Drawing upon a multi-method approach, the paper demonstrates the opportunities for and limitations of major urban design projects to achieve the place-making outcomes which they are purported to deliver.