It's easy to scorn the gentrifying hipster stereotype, but many inner-city neighbourhoods benefit from the distinctive mix of businesses and activities they pursue. So why should the suburbs miss out?
Areas with higher-density apartment living, such as Rhodes in Sydney, are home to many overseas-born residents.
Marcus Jaaske/Shutterstock
The combination of higher-density living and increasing cultural diversity means we need to think about how to build social cohesion and make the most of the opportunities of apartment living.
A public barbecue in Lyndhurst, New South Wales, does the job but could be so much better.
Mattinbgn/Wikimedia
The need for public cooking facilities has long been recognised, but why has the basic public barbecue failed to evolve along with Australians, their lifestyles and the foods they eat?
Casual sport can help communities thrive. But for many of Australia's most marginal communities, it's becoming harder to find a place to play.
The Coomera Indoor Sports Centre, one of only two new Gold Coast venues built for the Commonwealth Games, has been open for community use since its completion in 2016.
Ed Jackson/AAP
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.
Third places are most effective when, like Waverley Community Garden in Sydney, they appeal to people of all ages and backgrounds.
d-olwen-dee/flickr
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.
Ruth and Maurie Crow with a plan of their linear city.
Image courtesy of SEARCH Foundation
Ruth and Maurie Crow were early advocates of the compact city. They also warned 50 years ago that a clear justice intent was needed to shape cities for their citizens rather than vested interests.
Low-density suburbs can cause social isolation that's harmful for individual and community well-being. But research confirms we can plan neighbourhood centres so they become vibrant social hubs.
Connections between people and between people and places help create vibrant neighbourhoods with a sense of human identity and belonging.
Picture by Tommy Wong
The secret of creating attractive, liveable places sounds deceptively simple: connect people to places, people to transport and people to people.
Including community members as participants and co-creators of the Dragon of Shandon is central to the festival’s success.
OpenLens.ie/Dragon of Shandon
Urban festivals built on community involvement can reinvigorate places and create a shared sense of place and purpose that lasts long after the event is over.
Maya Demetriou, 90, pictured after the court ruling that the minister did not properly consider a heritage listing recommendation, will be the last tenant left in the Sirius building.
Perry Duffin/AAP
All but a handful of the former public housing tenants are gone. But despite the government again rejecting the recommended heritage listing of the Sirius building, the fight to save it isn't over.
Play activates cities and engages people, and by appropriating urban spaces it changes what these mean to people.
As adults we often trivialise the value of play. But playing games lets us play with possibilities, see how they play out – and exploring alternative realities helps us see the familiar in new ways.
Higher-density developments change neighbourhoods, often in ways that further disadvantage low-income households.
Laura Crommelin
For the first time in Australia, more higher-density housing than detached housing was being built last year. Compact cities have pros and cons, but the downsides fall more heavily on the poor.
When dog owners meet, it helps build a safe and connected community.
Wrote/flickr
At society's margins, people without access to the mainstream job economy are able to carve out lives rich in other resources and community.
The village bell was once a powerful symbol of sonic identity. Living in the noise of today’s global cities, what sounds exist that express our communal identity?
Eric Fidler/flickr
Sound, as a still relatively unexplored medium of urban design, provides an obvious starting point in the search for new relationships and identities in the contemporary city.
Noise transformation and community-led design projects are reclaiming unwanted spaces that lay adjacent to motorways.
rogiro/flickr
Communities have an increasing desire to be informed and included in local art, design and infrastructure projects. This has inspired new ways of dealing with noise-afflicted areas.