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The Cooling the Commons Team has been working together for a decade on engaged research projects for government, industry and community partners. We have deep expertise in social research, community engagement, collaborative design, workshop design and facilitation, service design, expert writing and more. We are also experienced media presenters.

Allied projects and partners

Landcom

Community Economies Collective 

Key concepts

Cool Commons:

Commons are often understood as synonymous with public spaces. In this project, we follow the expanded view provided by J.K. Gibson­ Graham, Jenny Cameron and Stephen Healy (2013) in defining commons as ‘places, resources, practices and knowledges shared by a community’ (Gibson­ Graham et al., 2013). Cool Commons are places, resources, practices and knowledges that enable coolth in a warming city.  

Learn more:

The Commons: What, Why And How? | Green Agenda

Cooling the Commons in Western Sydney

Infrastructures of Care

Governing the commons

Coolth:

Coolth is the flipside of warmth; the feeling of a walk by the river on a hot day, the relief of moving under shady canopy, or even throwing open a window to catch a late afternoon breeze – these are examples of coolth.

Learn more:

Cultivating the Habits of Coolth

Commoning:

lf commons are understood as resources shared amongst a community, commoning refers to the social practices and protocols that bring commons to life. A common does not exist without a community of commoners who access, use, benefit from and take responsibility for it. 

Learn more:

Take Back the Economy

The Handbook of Diverse Economies

Free, Fair and Alive: the insurgent power of the commons

The Magna Carta manifesto: Liberties and commons for all

Design Patterns:

Patterns have a long history in architecture and urban design, and more recently in information systems. Our approach to patterns follows architect Christopher Alexander’s influential A Pattern Language (1977).  This book describes patterns that make a coherent and socially connected city. Our patterns make a connection between built and natural forms and social practices based on living examples. Patterns are, to quote (Helfrich & Bollier, 2019) “identified, not invented. Identifying them is meant to make something latent visible.” The ability of humans to observe and learn from patterns contributes to our capacity to adapt and respond to a dynamic world. In our work we use the pattern language in three ways.  

First, to identify existing patterns that directly or indirectly diminish cool commons.  

Second, to identify existing patterns that are consistent with the ideal of cool commons and can be transposed to new contexts.  

Our patterns are divided into ‘problem’ patterns that diminish cool commons; ‘remedial’ patterns, which might support the creation of commons through remediation or retrofit and ‘ideal’ patterns, for the creation of new cool commons.  

See the Pattern Deck.

Learn More

Cooling the Commons Report

A pattern language: Towns, buildings, construction

The Pattern Deck:

The Cooling the Commons Pattern Deck has been designed as a prototype decision-making resource for planners, developers, educators, community liaison officers, council workers and the communities they serve. Each pattern, based on living examples, identifies key arrangements between built form and social practices that support commons ­based cooling. These are not technical drawings nor are they merely examples. Each illustrated pattern follows a template that lays out a description and rationale; enablers and constraints; commoning concerns; links to other patterns in the Deck and references. 

Every situation in which a pattern might apply is different – one size does not fit all. Therefore, the deck of patterns is ideally to be used in a workshop setting, where the specifics of context and implementation can be explored with different stakeholders. In the pattern workshop we explain the commons-based cooling approach, the pattern language, and run an exercise that helps participants to identify how the patterns might translate into specific design and decision-making processes. It is envisaged that feedback from these workshops will be incorporated into the patterns on an ongoing basis. This form of social resonance testing will help to refine the set of patterns over time, with some patterns being retired and the need for new ones emerging. The Cooling the Commons Pattern Deck represents strategies and resources we identify as necessary to ensure liveability in city neighbourhoods is possible into the future.

History

Cooling the Commons commenced in 2014 when researchers at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) and in the Visual Communications program at Western Sydney University started to explore how urban heat, exacerbated by rapid urban development, was impacting on commons and the wellbeing of communities in Western Sydney. The pilot Cooling the Commons project emerged from discussions with Penrith City Council, who at the time were putting together their Urban Heat Strategy. The team observed that the diverse experiences of communities living in Western Sydney, and what they were saying and doing about urban heat was being overlooked in the reporting of urban heat and in the largely technical focus of solutions. To start to redress the imbalance, we won seed funding for our Pilot Report that captured rich qualitative data about how people are coping with the heat in Penrith City – their pain-points, strategies, and aspirations for a cooler future city, and the role of the commons in supporting this. This research demonstrated that ‘solutions’ for how people could continue to live well in a heating city could come from those very communities. This Report was part of WSROC’s Turn Down the Heat Strategy (2018).

Our second project was a collaboration with Landcom, the NSW Government developer to explore how our insights about cool commons might support their neighbourhood renewal and new projects. We did a comprehensive international review of how cities around the world are adapting to urban heat and creating liveable city spaces and then conducted site analyses at three Landcom sites – Airds-Bradbury, Macarthur Heights and Green Square – to determine how this knowledge could be implemented locally. The result was a deck of Cooling the Commons Patterns, which you can explore here. You can find the project report here. 

In the current phase of our research, we are bringing the Cooling the Commons approach to working with Community Housing Providers and residents across the Western Sydney heat basin. In the project titled, Living with Urban Heat: Becoming Climate Ready in Social Housing (add correct link when project page is activated), we are working with Community Housing Providers Link-Wentworth, Bridge and St George Community Housing, as well as with housing advocacy organisations Bidwill Uniting and Faith Housing Australia to generate innovative new knowledge about climate-adaptive solutions with culturally diverse social housing residents in western Sydney, one of the hottest urban environments in the world. We claim that this knowledge will be relevant to the broader undertaking of learning to live with a changing climate that all urban dwellers living in hot cities face.