In the 1970s, both Kyoto and Melbourne made fateful decisions about their transport networks. Melbourne today enjoys the benefits of trams, while Kyoto lives with the consequences of losing them.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Analysis and Comment
Good public access for Melbourne Airport and others like it depends on not fixating on one solution, like a single rail line, but instead developing multiple options integrated with the city's needs.
Character, resilience, convenience and sustainability are what make cities great places to live and learn.
You'd perhaps expect property investors not to mind foreign investors who might push up prices. More surprisingly, house hunters are also more supportive than those who are not looking to buy.
To be a smart city is to know what your people want and need. And smart city leaders make sure residents can tell them by using technology to maintain a constant two-way flow of information.
Analysis of the business cases for three of the biggest projects deemed "high priority" by Infrastructure Australia raises questions about the process.
Women encounter many difficulties in cities that are products of male design and planning. We need to move past the practice of one group shaping our world on behalf of everyone else.
The connections between city planning and health are many and varied, but getting health objectives integrated into all aspects of planning in New South Wales has been a long struggle.
If you live in a diverse neighbourhood, you're more likely to identify with a whole range of different people – and to lend a helping hand.
Of the thousands of churches erected to serve the fast-growing communities of post-war Australia, very few are protected. Are we happy to lose buildings that are so much part of our modern heritage?
Behind the built-up glitz of Surfers Paradise lies a deep history that has been written and overwritten in successive layers that have become thinner and thinner as time goes on.
The problem with most public housing 'renewal' programs is that the residents have the least say in what happens to the places they call home. The evidence of housing research is also being ignored.
A rail link is a big step towards transforming transport access and land use in ways that will enable a much bigger city to remain liveable. And Melbourne can learn from Sydney about this.
Commonly used surfaces in play areas, such as "soft fall" materials and Astroturf, can heat up to 80-100°C in the sun. This makes them a hazardous design choice, especially as the climate gets hotter.
Researchers are installing sensors to collect data about the use of public spaces. This can improve the management and public amenity of these places, but will users see the technology as intrusive?
The relationship between weather and our travel choices is complicated. We can't change the weather, but, with many other factors in play, good policy and design can reduce its impacts.
The Gold Coast is mostly relying on existing assets, and most refurbishments and extensions were completed long before the Games, meaning the community has been able to use these facilities.
The drought in Cape Town has taught the city some valuable lessons.
Speaking with: Cameron McAuliffe on NIMBYs, urban planning and making community consultation work.
Dallas Rogers speaks with Western Sydney University's Cameron McAuliffe about leveraging conflict and informal processes in the urban planning process.
Australian cities are experiencing the third big wave of growth in their history. The response in the past was planning and investment in green infrastructure, and it's time to do the same again.
The evidence is clear on the sort of support that is needed to reduce the harms of drug use. A punitive approach that denies people a second chance makes it more likely they will reoffend.
New Zealand's coalition government plans to transition to a low-emissions economy while also addressing major urban issues such as unaffordable housing, inequality and poverty.
Urban transport
Analysis of the business cases for three of the biggest projects deemed "high priority" by Infrastructure Australia raises questions about the process.
A rail link is a big step towards transforming transport access and land use in ways that will enable a much bigger city to remain liveable. And Melbourne can learn from Sydney about this.
Liveable cities
Character, resilience, convenience and sustainability are what make cities great places to live and learn.
Commonly used surfaces in play areas, such as "soft fall" materials and Astroturf, can heat up to 80-100°C in the sun. This makes them a hazardous design choice, especially as the climate gets hotter.
Public space
Researchers are installing sensors to collect data about the use of public spaces. This can improve the management and public amenity of these places, but will users see the technology as intrusive?
Third places are shared spaces where people can informally socialise. As a potential antidote to the modern scourge of loneliness, it's worth asking what makes the best of these places tick.
Affordable housing
The problem with most public housing 'renewal' programs is that the residents have the least say in what happens to the places they call home. The evidence of housing research is also being ignored.
If local government is to deliver affordable housing, state and federal governments must assist. Even councils as powerful and well resourced as the City of Sydney cannot do it by themselves.
Research and Expert Database
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Community
Third places are shared spaces where people can informally socialise. As a potential antidote to the modern scourge of loneliness, it's worth asking what makes the best of these places tick.
Transport funding
New analysis reveals just how little is spent on cycling and walking projects around Australia. No state's spending on cycling is more than 1.5% of its road funding.
New cities
Business-as-usual projections assume our four biggest cities must absorb three-quarters of Australia's population growth over the next 30 years. Might new cities be a better way to deal with it?
Urban renewal
France is transforming old industrial wastelands in cities like Paris, Lyon and Nantes, so what are the secrets of its success?
Recycled water
Perth is looking at recycling all its sewage in the city's future water supply. But many Australians' drinking water already contains indirectly recycled treated sewage.
Ageing in place
Millions of older Australians live in houses that don't safely meet their needs, but they're not ready for a nursing home. Lack of suitable housing and the moving costs leave them with nowhere to go.
Toilets
Public toilets are an essential amenity, but most of them aren't places we'd want to go to unless we have to. What does the failure to provide more restful and inviting places say about us?
Self-driving cars
Self-driving, shared, electric vehicles and increasing urban density represent four disruptions that will transform city life. But a transport utopia isn't a guaranteed outcome of their interactions.
Water
The situation in Perth in particular has some parallels to that of Cape Town, but Australian cities responded to the last big drought by investing in much bigger water supply and storage capacity.
Parking
Looking back through all Melbourne's strategic plans from 1929 onwards, it becomes clear that the 20th-century legacy of car-centric planning and its focus on parking is still deeply entrenched.
Population
Across Japan, towns and villages are vanishing as the population ages and young people move to the cities. How the country manages this holds lessons for other developed nations facing a similar fate.
Apartments
In Sydney, families with children now account for one in four households living in apartments. The expectations and design of apartments have not kept up with this rapid demographic change.
Homelessness
An innovative collaboration between government, a non-profit group and philanthropists has found a way to provide urgently needed housing on land that would otherwise be left vacant for years.
Urban greening
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.
Downsizing
Retirees are often urged to downsize to free up suburban properties for the next generation and for higher-density development. What's being ignored is the costs of moving into a unit or apartment.
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