Federal Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull are eyeing value capture as a way to fund projects, but how will they sell a new tax to voters?
Paul Miller/AAP
Consider these home truths: value capture is a tax, it would need to apply to the family home and deciding which areas it covers would be politically contentious. A broad-based land tax is simpler.
By following these three lessons, Homs can re-emerge from the Syrian conflict an even greater city than before.
The original conflict between development and preservation of natural assets is broadening as the risks of climate change become ever more obvious.
Crystal Ja/AAP
Conflicts over coastal areas have largely been between development and preserving what makes these attractive places to live. Rising sea levels are now complicating our relationship with the coast.
A Syrian architect reveals what makes her home town so special – and how locals can rebuild it.
Flash mobs are still appearing in Melbourne, more than a decade after the city’s first in 2003, the year in which the creator of the phenomenon said it was dead.
Julian Smith/AAP
Political street protests and even the more playful flash mobs have the power to not only disrupt flows of traffic but also assumptions about norms of behaviour in public spaces.
Early in the morning and late in the evening is when shorebirds escape disturbance on the beaches on which their survival depends.
Arnuchulo
We aren’t just jostling with each other for beach space. Scuttling, waddling, hopping or flying away from beachgoers all around Australia, wildlife struggles to survive the daily disturbances.
To meet the needs of lower-income households, housing should be both affordable and located near public transport and other services.
Graeme Bartlett/Wikimedia
Victoria has been lagging behind other states in developing an affordable housing strategy. Now that one has been released, how well does it meet the needs of households on lower incomes?
Gumtree Brutalism: the Eddie Koiki Mabo Library (1968), designed by Queensland architect James Birrell, on the James Cook University campus.
Academics are often in the vanguard of the fight to preserve heritage buildings but they are losing the battle on home turf as universities shed their 1960s and 1970s concrete skins.
How is apartment living changing the way we get to know our increasingly diverse neighbourhoods?
from www.shutterstock.com
Because Australian roads were built and designed with motorists in mind, it is easy for Australian motorists to feel cyclists are using ‘their’ roads and disrespecting the natural order.
Redesigning spaces of conflict starts with creating life on the edges. Geelong offers contrasting examples of city centre spaces: one with problems inherent in its design and a nearby one that works.
Simple features, like a thoughtfully sited bench, can make a big difference to older people’s ability to enjoy public spaces in the city.
alexkich from www.shutterstock.com
Desley Vine, Queensland University of Technology e Laurie Buys, Queensland University of Technology
Several key aspects of public open space can encourage older people to get out and about. And badly designed and maintained facilities have the opposite effect and can harm their wellbeing.
What can we do to avoid clashes between users of shared paths?
from www.shutterstock.com
Unlike vision or touch, sound is much more difficult to control or avoid; music in particular spills across thresholds and intrudes into situations where it is unwelcome.
Scott Morrison has recently broadened the range of affordable housing policy options he’s considering, and moving beyond simplistic supply-side solutions would be a positive development.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
The housing supply solution our leaders are advocating will only work if affordability is simply a problem of supply. In fact, Australia is almost a world leader in rates of new housing production.
It turns out cul-de-sacs may be better than we realised for creating a safe and inclusive community within a community.
Wikipedia
Understanding what makes a neighbourhood street a good place to live for adults with intellectual disability can help create places that are good for everyone.
People go to the beach in large numbers and for many different reasons, and sometimes that’s a recipe for conflict.
tazzymoto from www.shutterstock.com
In many ways, the conflict we see on our beaches may be a small price to pay for the free and open access to our beaches, which Australians have long fought to preserve.
Apartments near the greenbelt in Vienna are more expensive than otherwise similar apartments in that city.
Max Pixel
The health impacts of urban and regional planning are undisputed. So why did the NSW government adopt and then discard health objectives as part of state planning legislation?