Cities aren't just a male creation, but women's contributions have been sidelined. There are ways we can rediscover and restore these women to their rightful place in the stories of our cities.
Big Issue sellers get social contact and dignity out of their work, but it's not a secure pathway out of poverty and homelessness. Social enterprises enable small steps; governments can do much more.
There are some cities which score highly in both measures of the innovation index, like Hobart.
Dave Hunt/AAP
Innovation is focused on regional centres that have research and development institutions, but more than 150 regional areas have potential to match this innovation, research finds.
An outstanding example of sustainable residential building, Breathe Architecture’s The Commons apartments in Melbourne won a 2014 National Architecture Award.
Image courtesy of Australian Institute of Architects
New South Wales is the only state that has made meaningful progress on legislation and enforcement of standards capable of creating a sustainable built environment.
A tiny house in the backyard appeals to some as a solution that offers both affordability and sustainability.
Think Out Loud/flick
New research has found a marked increase in people, particularly among women over 50, who are building or want to build a tiny house. However, inflexible planning rules often stand in their way.
Metropoles like Shanghai have survived and thrived in large part because of their massive populations. But what happens when people start to become a liability rather than an asset?
Reuters/Aly Song
Research shows that technology disrupts economies of scale, turning megacities' huge populations from strength to liability. To survive, megacities, like companies, must adapt.
The impact of Airbnb varies from city to city and suburb to suburb.
AlesiaKan/shutterstock
About 10% of empty dwellings on census night – 1.2% of all housing – were available for rental and vacancy rates have changed little in 35 years. Could governments be overreacting?
Cyclists on Melbourne’s Obikes next to Federation square
AAP
There is more to bike-share schemes than first meets the eye. As they grow in global popularity, the economic models behind them become increasingly diversified.
A drain carries water but does little else, but imagine how different the neighbourhood would be if the drain could be transformed into a living stream.
Zoe Myers
Drains take up precious but inaccessible open space in our cities. Converting these to living streams running through the suburbs could make for healthier places in multiple ways.
Cities and their residents’ needs in public space have changed, but the type and function of the furniture are stuck in the past.
Carlos Neto/shutterstock.com
With cities becoming more dense and housing more crowded, people rely more than ever on well-designed public spaces, so why hasn't the furniture changed with the times?
The strategy's focus on rotten apples seems destined to fail.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach stands between Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garrett to announce winning bids for the upcoming games.
AP Photo/Martin Mejia
By putting the users of buildings – people – at the centre of the process of designing buildings and infrastructure, we can create healthier, more human-centred spaces.
A house and land on the River Derwent, Tasmania, 1822.
National Library of Australia
The egalitarian myth behind the great Australian dream of home ownership is at odds with the first rules of land granting in the colonies. Even then, property ownership depended on wealth and status.
Solar panels are integrated into a block of flats in the Viikki area of Helsinki, Finland.
Pöllö/Wikimedia
Not everyone can afford to pay for solar panels up front, but local planners can help disadvantaged households overcome energy poverty in several ways.
The Grocon-built 77-apartment Greenwich Fairfield development in Melbourne includes ten apartments for people with disability.
Artist's impression, Grocon
The NDIS has the resources and mandate to develop a mature market that delivers suitable housing for people with high disability needs, including the more than 6,200 young people now in aged care.
Wall Street landlords are living the American Dream – but what about their tenants?
The Netherlands’ cycleways are popular for commuting, because the infrastructure is safe, accessible and convenient.
The Alternative Department for Transport
The evidence suggests a small investment in cycling infrastructure, combined with less punitive policing, would enable more Australians to escape daily traffic congestion.
#WeLiveHere2017 aims to turn inanimate buildings into metaphorical sentient structures, with ‘mood lights’ expressing the feelings of Matavai and Turanga Tower residents about their neighbourhood’s redevelopment.
Nic Walker courtesy of #WeLiveHere2017
Residents of two high-rise public housing blocks are being given 'mood lights' to express how they feel based on their experience of the process of redeveloping their neighbourhood.
