Speaking with: Hazel Easthope on high density living and design
Higher density housing provides unique challenges that make the mix of design, build and social considerations all the more important in creating sustainable and enjoyable living environments.
Prefabricated buildings don’t have to be dull. The challenge will be to get Australians to embrace them.
Wendy Miller
Wendy Miller, Queensland University of Technology; Dale Steinhardt, Queensland University of Technology, and Karen Manley, Queensland University of Technology
Memories of school demountables might cause some people to sneer at prefabricated buildings. But they can be stylish too, not to mention offering a possible way to ease the housing affordability problem.
Now that we have your attention…
Image sourced from Shutterstock.com
Everyone know it’s good to escape to the great outdoors, but new research shows just 40 seconds with some greenery can boost our ability to concentrate.
An increasing number of apartments being built in Australia’s cities are failing to meet basic requirements.
Image sourced from Shutterstock.com
Standards for apartments are desperately needed in Melbourne where planning laws allow things banned in cities including New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Vancouver.
Skaters bring culture and creativity to places others avoid.
Nic Redhead
Urban sprawl has spread to the sea, as more and more man-made structures are being built along the world’s coastlines. Just as we do on land, we need to think about how to build sustainably at sea.
Santana Row, located in San Jose, California, is one of many Lifestyle Centers cropping up around the country. Parading themselves as a Main Street from a bygone era, these new retail centers hope to recreate what was lost in the rush to cover America with large malls from the 1950s through the 1990s.
Santana Row
Many of today’s public health issues – diabetes, cancer, obesity, cardiovascular disease – are strongly associated with social inequalities. Literature from across the world shows that gaps in income…
The inner suburbs of Melbourne are surprisingly more leafy than the outer suburbs.
Andrew
When you look out of your window in the morning, how many trees do you see? Your answer might depend on what suburb you live in. As you go further from the city centre, the amount of tree cover in a suburb…
Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, offers an idea of how pleasant and practical the Velotopian dream of a bike-friendly city might be.
AAP/Visit Denmark
The Australian television satire Utopia invited the public along for a laugh that architects and planners have been sharing for decades. We laugh at the idea of utopia to disassociate ourselves from the…
How one half lives: Villa Bajo Flores in Buenos Aires.
Roy Maconachie
In recent years, many films have portrayed the landscape of urban marginality and inequality in Latin America. Brazil Central Station and City of God were both popular, but few can rival the Mexican thriller…
Landscape architects need to mediate between the soft and hard elements of the city.
Forecast, photo by John Gollings
I predict we’re going to hear a lot more from landscape architects in the coming years. There has long been a misunderstanding about what they actually do – “something about gardens” being a common response…
Immigrant faces from the early 1900s watch Ellis Island visitors pick their way through a crumbling hospital.
Aimee VonBokel
This fall, French street artist JR and American cinematographer Bradford Young each installed a series of portraits in crumbling New York buildings. The two projects were not coordinated, but together…
When it gets hot in the city, where’s the best place to go?
Alpha/Flickr
Heatwaves — Australia’s biggest natural killers — are getting more frequent and hotter thanks to climate change. One day cities such as Melbourne may see unprecedented heat, perhaps 48C or higher. But…
Six-star green projects like Melbourne’s Pixel Building are largely confined to Australia’s city centres.
Supplied
Australia is allegedly in the midst of a “green building revolution”, powered by the awarding of ratings to developers who build sustainable buildings. But this brave new world is only a reality in the…
Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. Not everyone’s cup of tea.
準建築人手札網站 Forgemind ArchiMedia
Future cities, where infrastructure adapts to our needs, offer are an enticing prospect. But who is in the driving seat as these urban developments crop up around the world? We need to make sure that the…
Australia’s major cities routinely rank among the world’s most liveable. But for all our clean streets, good healthcare and educational opportunities, one of the things we have to contend with is our sweltering…
Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson, London’s two elected mayors, may have their differences but both have pursued a strongly market-driven, growth-centric agenda in the capital. Boris’ second term in particular…
The Field Day music festival, held annually in The Domain in Sydney, is among a growing number of private or ticketed events held in public parks.
jo3hug
Privatisation of the public realm is increasingly seen by governments as a relatively painless user-pays way of addressing their budget problems and parks have not escaped the trend. Public spaces such…