Much of our public housing stock is ageing and substandard. But we can learn from outstanding examples of retrofit projects that have transformed existing blocks into high-quality housing.
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The spread of the virus through households creates costs higher than for isolation in hotels when families are large and living at close quarters as in Melbourne’s public housing towers.
In a study of people receiving community care, home modifications liberated them to live at home safely and independently. Hours of care were cut by 42% and quality of life improved by 40%.
Women juggle many responsibilities in their lives. Research reveals the importance for migrant women of taking even brief breaks from their daily routine of home, work or care-giving activities.
It’s people, in addition to architecture or history, that make some meeting places worthy of heritage protection. Social values are now among the listing criteria, but many such places remain at risk.
Public housing renewal often aims for a 70:30 private-public mix of dwellings. Modelling shows applying this mix to Waterloo housing estate would cut the suburb’s social housing share from 30% to 17%.
The public housing hard lockdown is the product of a punitive public housing system whose residents have been neglected for decades.
A new airport, aerotropolis and development of two of the ‘three cities’ in the metropolitan strategy all aim to create jobs in Western Sydney. But right now the only certainty is a huge jobs deficit.
Western Sydney’s growth-driven boom had ended before COVID-19 hit. Some neighbourhood unemployment rates were 2-3 times the metropolitan average, with female workforce participation as low as 43%.
The hotspots in Melbourne align with areas of significant housing and financial stress.
Education fuelled extraordinary growth in Western Sydney’s professional services workforce, but their jobs aren’t local. More than 300,000 commute to work outside the region.
Creating a digital twin of infrastructure or services makes them easier to monitor and operate safely.
Most local councils, developers and nonprofit providers want mandatory affordable housing requirements applied to all development. The current system of voluntary negotiations just isn’t working well.
As COVID-19 restrictions are eased, cities face crippling congestion if people shun crowded public transport. More frequent and faster services, using innovations like pop-up bus lanes, can avoid this.
It’s the simple, everyday encounters and experiences – a friendly wave, a helping hand – that refugees say makes them feel part of the Australian community.
It’s not easy to choose between the costly hassle of renovating and the expensive upheaval of selling up, and buying a new property.
Research shows communities become more resilient to future crises when people have access to basic services such as supermarkets, hospitals and schools.
Digital communications could be a force for greater local democracy in urban planning and development, but many councils use the technologies in ways that mirror traditional consultation.
As well as an infrastructure spending boost, governments are fast-tracking approvals. But these processes exist for a reason. If we get projects wrong, we live with the consequences for decades.
The need for connection to our local community and the health challenges of the retirement village model have been brought sharply into focus by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Orders to fix serious defects, even up to ten years after completion, and to delay the occupation certificate developers need to sell apartments until they’re fixed, gives regulators real teeth.
Drivers and cyclists develop distinct identities of themselves and others in ways that mirror the formation of ethnic identities. And on-road segregation runs the risk of reinforcing this process.
Besides battling the coronavirus pandemic, San Roque residents have long been locked in a bigger struggle for their very survival as a community in the face of home demolitions and relocations.
You’d think falling housing prices might help people on low incomes, but history shows downturns often increase inequality. And many buyers who took out big loans during the housing boom are at risk.
The change in our behaviour in response to COVID-19 has created an opportunity to build on this moment and transform our local neighbourhoods into vibrant mixed-use centres of activity.