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Old mine sites suffer many fates, which range from simply being abandoned to being incorporated into towns or turned into an open-air museum in the case of Gwalia, Western Australia.

Afterlife of the mine: lessons in how towns remake challenging sites

The industrial patterns of mining shaped many Australian towns, which found varied uses for disused mine sites. The mining boom ensures the challenges these sites present will be with us a long time.
Grey nomads are champions of a radical type of portable urbanism as they travel to far-flung places like Lake Ballard in Western Australia. Image courtesy of Tourism Western Australia

Grey nomad lifestyle provides a model for living remotely

Grey nomads travel Australia because they have the desire and the means to do so. Could future generations end up following in their footsteps because they can no longer work and stay in one place?
Bicycles are the main form of transport around the Burning Man Festival and are recycled or gifted afterwards. stuartlchambers/flickr

There’s a city in my mind …

The annual Burning Man Festival creates a temporary city in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert. In many ways, it’s an innovation lab for rethinking cities.
Regulating for live/work spaces in San Francisco has enabled many new housing types to develop. Andréanne Doyon

Reinventing density: bridging the live-work divide

Changes in how we live and work call into question current planning regulations relating to mixed-use development.
A quirk in the planning rules enabled the Primaries Warehouse in Fremantle to be redeveloped as a model of progressive higher-density design. Stuart Smith/Panoramio

Reinventing density: bending the rules can help stop urban sprawl

Exceptional projects can emerge when regulations are sensibly relaxed due to context. A Fremantle project is a model of progressive higher-density possibilities resulting from flexible planning rules.
The Collective Old Oak co-living block in London has more than 500 apartments with bedrooms and bathrooms. All other spaces are shared. David Hawgood/Geograph

Reinventing density: co-living, the second domestic revolution

While some forms of co-living seek to match modern lifestyles and a desire to downsize, other profit-driven models simply exploit a lack of affordable housing alternatives.
Apartment layouts at Ritter Strasse 50, initiated by ifau and Jesko Fezer with Heide and Von Beckerath, are highly individualised. Andrea Kroth

Reinventing density: how baugruppen are pioneering the self-made city

Citizens can switch from being consumers to pioneers who drive new designs for living. The German baugruppe model is a leading example.
Officer Woods’ competition entry shows how the wasted spaces of suburban road verges and front yards could be put to much better uses. Officer Woods

Reinventing density: overcoming the suburban setback

The front yards, footpaths and verges of Australian suburbs are spaces overdue for reinvention.
At Tolhuistuin, the government provides the land, old building stock and a maintenance budget for a fixed period while the creatives develop the precinct themselves. Maurice Mikkers/flickr

Create to regenerate: cities tap into talent for urban renewal

When municipal or state governments join forces with smaller creative communities to shape urban regeneration the results can be far-reaching.
The continued preference for detached housing in new suburbs is driving Perth’s urban sprawl and means two-thirds of dwellings built over the next 15 years need to be on infill sites to meet the state’s target. perthhdproductions/flickr

To cut urban sprawl, we need quality infill housing displays to win over the public

Government and industry need to demonstrate the benefits of well-designed higher-density housing. Rich residential display projects may be the ideal catalyst for creating smarter cities.
Melbourne is being transformed by high-rise apartments, with some even being purpose-built for the Airbnb market. Jorge Láscar/flickr

How Airbnb is reshaping our cities

If the sharing economy is here to stay, planners and designers must respond with imagination to spread the positive effects of the tourism economy for the benefit of residents as well as tourists.

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