Shifting to plug-in cars wouldn't be enough to max out global oil consumption by 2040. But it could help make that happen if cities pitch in and ride-sharing doesn't crowd out public transportation.
The creative economy is failing to live up to the fast-growing, young entrepreneurial image it promotes.
Ars Electronica/flickr
The notion of the creative sector driving fulfilling work as cities shed old industries has worn thin. But those creatives might be delivering value of a different kind, offering a more human future.
Residents of high-density housing might value features such as balconies, but when roads get busy this increases exposure to pollution.
Adam J.W.C./Wikipedia
Many new housing developments are being built along busy roads and rail lines, but lack design features that would reduce occupants' exposure to harmful traffic pollution.
Edinburgh is one of the European cities that make the most of their creative and cultural assets.
Hamish Irvine/flickr
A comparison of 36 Australian cities finds that, unlike Europe, the data on their creativity and culture are not closely linked to their capacity to generate economic value and social well-being.
The dystopian urban future imagined in the Judge Dredd comics warns against letting technology rule our transport systems.
Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle explains the revised Queen Victoria Market redevelopment, flanked by Planning Minister Richard Wynne and Premier Daniel Andrews.
Joe Castro/AAP
Mixing public and private housing in urban renewal projects can be a contentious business. But public good and optimal use of public resources, not developer interests, should guide such decisions.
Some local councils are more tolerant than others in allowing residents to grow food where they want.
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A new report from the Climate Council details the climate policy ambitions of Australian cities and local governments, and launches a new project to link their efforts together.
Men and women have starkly different experiences of public transport as they travel around the city.
Raul Lieberwirth/flickr
Most women feel unsafe when using public transport. Instead of gender segregation, researchers suggest gender-sensitive design could be a better way to ensure safety for all.
Vacant and unlit ‘ghost’ apartments are a source of public outrage in major cities around the world.
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A tax on empty homes will make a modest difference to housing affordability. The sheer wastefulness of our housing system calls for something much more ambitious.
Part of Mumbai’s character is in its chawls, which could soon become history with the state government’s push to replace them with high-rise towers.
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What is an economy for? And how do we build a community where everyone belongs? We need to answer questions like these to create good, sustainable cities.
Many people in culturally diverse populations in Western Sydney have lived in Australia for many years, if not several generations.
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Reasoned debates on sustainable migration intake levels are important. But transport and health infrastructure shortfalls in Western Sydney won't be solved by reactive anti-immigration attitudes.
It is not well appreciated that the requirements of affordable housing are related to – but not the same as – those for housing affordability.
AAP/Sam Mooy
Cities have always been more than a dense collection of people. They are labs of innovation, hotbeds of crime and inequality, architectural stunners, decaying ruins and everything in between.
Building the hotbox dream: another housing development in Western Sydney.
Katherine Gibson
Extreme heat divides people from the environment and from each other. So with the rapid densification of our cities, what kind of legacies are we building for future generations?
Property is under threat, physically and conceptually, from climate change.
.Martin./flickr
To create property systems that are as dynamic as the landscapes we occupy, we might need to start thinking about ourselves as belonging to and answerable to the land, not the other way around.
Increasing access to health data and more readily available analytical tools offer some opportunities to tackle the ever-growing rates of obesity.
AAP/Dave Hunt
Enshrining the need for planning healthy built environments in legislation will help ensure the fundamental role planners have to play in facilitating healthy lifestyles.
