From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 1 November

If the artist’s impression is true, the proposed six-story hotel planned for Doveton Street South Street lacks architectural merit!

INCREDULOUSLY, the developer countered accusations of design bulkiness by reasoning, as if two wrongs make for a right, that the GovHub project is bulky, too. Farcical!

Ballarat is, probably more by good luck than good management, one of Australia’s more beautiful regional cities. There are many stunning pockets which generate a constant source of pleasure. One corner of Lydiard and Sturt streets is truly glorious, by any architectural standard. The building changes colour with the light. Sadly, on the opposite corner is one of Ballarat’s ugliest buildings, which, curiously, is vaguely reminiscent of the proposed hotel, reminding one of the worst aspects of the 1960s building boom, and from which we are still recuperating.

At a critical stage in its regional development, Ballarat sits on the cusp of becoming a city of major significance. Urban planning, preservation, and the issuing of planning permits needs the most careful, informed deliberation.

In the same manner: It would be both fair and reasonable to postulate the COVID-19 pandemic disaster, which has crippled Victoria, might have been less catastrophic had there been more specialised clinicians and far fewer meddling career bureaucrats controlling the vital stratagems. It demands answers.

Time and again, the City of Ballarat has approved poorly designed projects. Astonishingly, of the nine councillors making the vital decisions over the last four years, none is a qualified architect, landscape architect, or urban designer; nor do they engage officially with a design review panel of experts; nor, it would seem, is there a staff architect to steer the committee in their intricate and weighty deliberations. The issuing of planning permits requires informed and mature debate, supported by a team of academically trained experts.

Success, however great, in buying, renovating, and selling houses, is not a recognised qualification to authoritatively review the merit of a design proposal. Enthusiastic amateurs are the bane in every area of endeavour. There is a simple analogy: Because you own a remote television control it does not follow, by definition, that you are in showbusiness!

Let us not forget, given free rein, it was council’s intention to demolish the handsome Civic Hall. Thankfully, they were forced to capitulate, albeit churlishly, when it became starkly apparent that demolition was not the first choice of the Ballarat populace. Now, the edifice stands as a most splendid monument to good architecture, and the determined will of the community. We will ignore the Sturt Street boulevard bike track folly!

There exists a peculiar notion that election to any office, does, by osmosis, endow the incumbent with the wisdom of Solomon, breeding a predisposition for self-importance, illusory superiority, and galling indifference to any opinion other than their own. As the Dunning-Kruger effect demonstrates, it is fraught with danger.

Confidence is so highly prized, many people would rather feign being smart or skilled than risk appearing inadequate, and thus losing face. Intelligence is not the same as academic learning, or a trained specific proficiency. Even ‘smart’ people may be affected by the Dunning-Kruger effect. Misguidedly, many individuals believe their experience and expertise in one particular discipline is transferable to another. That, as the Dunning-Kruger graph reveals, is when people sit atop Mount Stupid.

The community should have the right to reject proposals from those developers who refuse to invest in quality design. The time is ripe for the council to listen, and to show leadership in town planning; to turn its mind to other effective methodologies. Ballarat is too big a city for an unqualified, laissez-faire policy. It would be well served to follow the example of the Surf Coast Council and establish an honorary design review support-team, comprising local architects, landscape architects, urban designers, and other relevantly qualified professionals.

I will bet, London to a brick, the architects of Ballarat would happily volunteer their expertise to save this beautiful city from its current, and seemingly unstoppable, trajectory towards ugliness.

Roland can be heard on RADIO 3BA, every Monday morning, 10.45 and contacted via [email protected].