In Sydney, families with children now account for one in four households living in apartments. The expectations and design of apartments have not kept up with this rapid demographic change.
Sydney’s west is growing at a staggering pace.
Reuters
The future of Sydney is under constant scrutiny. But before we consider creating a ‘third city’ in Sydney’s west, we should ensure we get the current infrastructure up to international standards.
We are told driverless cars will be much safer, because human error causes more than 90% of crashes.
shutterstock
Human-operated cars affect health in three main ways, all negatively. How might driverless cars be healthier?
Thousands of co-housing projects in cities around the world have shown how people can get together to create diverse homes that suit them and their community – this one is in Portland, Oregon.
Kevin Turner/flickr
City residents all around the world are getting together to create housing tailored to their needs and budgets, instead of being developed for maximum profit.
A vehicle, understood to be a white Suzuki SUV, ploughed into pedestrians in central Melbourne.
AAP/Joe Castro
Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation e Jordan Fermanis, The Conversation
The Flinders Street incident, in which a car was driven into pedestrians on a busy Melbourne street, underscores the need for new ways to design cities to protect pedestrians from vehicle attacks.
An artist’s depiction of the new Apple store proposed for Federation Square.
Daniel Andrews
Many short-term bike-hiring programs have been launched amid much fanfare, only for their popularity to decline soon after. Several key factors need to be in place for a program to work.
Yes, it’s a beautiful part of the world, but what sets Ballyhoura apart is the deliberate focus on a warm, local welcome.
stephendotcarter/flickr
The big cities are still magnets for tourists, but often they find the smaller towns offer a more satisfying taste of local life. It’s why rural tourism can be ‘the perfect small town business idea’.
The A$6.7bn West Gate Tunnel project has similar problems to the cancelled East West Link.
Andi Yu/AAP
The benefits of walking are widely promoted, but most Australian communities still aren’t walker-friendly. Young people, who rely heavily on walking to get around, are clear about what has to change.
The potential clean energy sources are all around Sydney, just waiting to be harnessed.
Collage by Rocco Furfaro
Sun, wind, waste biomass, geothermal, tides and waves: all these energy sources in Sydney’s backyard add up to a zero-carbon energy solution for the city.
Telstra and the City of Joondalup have joined forces in a trial of ‘smart park’ applications at Tom Simpson Park.
Public spaces have become more, not less, important to our experience of cities in the digital era. These technologies can be used to confound and enlarge our experiences of and connections to place.
Having a pet dog turns out to be a highly car-dependent affair.
Australian cities generally don’t allow pet dogs on public transport. Instead, owners need their own vehicle to travel with their dogs, and it’s a surprisingly important factor in our car dependency.
RMIT University transformed the look and function of its city campus as part of its New Academic Street project.
Tess Kelly
European ideas of the campus as a place apart shaped Australia’s “sandstone” universities. Now universities are adopting urban regeneration strategies, bringing the city to the campus and vice versa.
Information about who rides where and when is useful for city planners and policymakers, but also a valuable commodity in its own right.
AAP
Australians can see the impact of dockless bike sharing on the streets of their cities. The huge store of data collected about user journeys is less visible, but just as important.
The Wray Avenue Solar Parklet by Seedesign Studio is in Fremantle.
Jean-Paul Horré
A suburb in the Irish city of Cork sets the standard for involving the community in heritage building conservation. Public engagement is the key to managing the inevitable conflicts.
The old Pratt Street power plant in Baltimore in the US is now home to commercial uses. But the heritage preservation is compromised by advertising that is not sympathetic to the building style and design.
Wikimedia Commons
When talking about heritage, we need to be clear about our definitions and our objectives for each building. Then we can work on achieving the optimum balance of heritage and sustainability.