The rise of urban greening is an opportunity to recast the relationship between people and environment. Humans and non-human species are ecologically intertwined as inhabitants of cities.
How we imagine ‘the city’ plays a very large role in how we shape it.
Hadi Zaher/GATAG
Like a 5D movie on speed, the city today defies conventional boundaries. This raises new questions about what we imagine to be ‘the city’ – and how we as a democratic community can shape it.
Place-making: a seasonal beach in Campus Martius Park, Detroit 2014.
Laura Crommelin
Big ideas and big dollars have been invested in making ‘memorable’ places. Paradoxically, as similar solutions are adapted in diverse settings worldwide, this can lead to an uneasy new placelessness.
More than any other Australian city, Melbourne has led a 30-year turnaround in inner-city density (red indicates increases and blue decreases in density as persons per square kilometre).
Many factors have influenced population density change in Australian cities over the past 30 years. Melbourne has led the way in inner-city rebirth as a way to help manage future growth.
The super rich are a symbol of growing wealth inequality.
Shutterstock
Understanding animal management and making it work better for our interspecies society will benefit humans and dogs alike.
With 700,000 vulnerable Australians depending on public housing, any proposal to change its status is likely to set off alarm bells.
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
The report’s stated goal is to make the social housing system work better. It does not present as a manifesto for an entirely marketised and deregulated framework driven by the profit motive.
Most road-safety initiatives prioritise a rapid clearing of the road so cars can pass.
Thales/flickr
In contrast to increases in vehicle safety over the decades, we have seen little new technology to ensure the safety of pedestrians – and current innovations are still based on a car-centric approach.
Premier Mike Baird (right) has been out promoting the Sydney Metro project, but has yet to explain how the benefits of massive public investment will be shared.
Stefanie Menezes/AAP
Who’ll profit from the value uplift arising from the huge investment of taxpayers’ funds in creating better-serviced, higher-density suburbs? And what will the changes mean for existing residents?
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
When municipal or state governments join forces with smaller creative communities to shape urban regeneration the results can be far-reaching.
The closure of the Myer store would once have been a crippling blow for Fremantle, but now it is a site of new activity and possibilities.
City of Fremantle
The rise in temporary use of urban space requires a looser planning vision that can draw on this new type of city-making to inform longer-term developments.
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
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.
The Yawuru Wellbeing Survey highlights the integral role of connectedness in Yawuru having mabu liyan as the key to a good life.
John Puertollano, used with permission
Mandy Yap, Australian National University e Eunice Yu, Kimberley Institute
How we think about wellbeing depends on where we come from, who we are and our experiences and aspirations. One study took account of this by involving Yawuru people in every aspect of the research.
Melbourne is being transformed by high-rise apartments, with some even being purpose-built for the Airbnb market.
Jorge Láscar/flickr
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.
Suburban expansion on Perth’s fringe pushes into the SouthWest Ecoregion.
Richard Weller/Donna Broun
If Perth can preserve the rich biodiversity of its setting, it will become a model for sustainable city development that fully connects with the value of natural ecosystem services.
This Friday is the 11th PARKing Day, when people pay a parking meter, then turn the space into a pop-up parklet. It’s a day that invites citizens to rethink the city and their place in it.
Whose land are domestic and foreign real estate investors trading?
AAP/Lukas Coch
The history of foreign investment in land and real estate shows the global movement of people and capital is closely linked to the prevailing geopolitics.
Only Tasmania and South Australia have introduced legislation that provides for minimum standards in rental properties.
Huguette Roe from www.shutterstock.com
With tenancy laws under review, a ruling that landlords must maintain residential premises in good repair even if dilapidated is hailed as a ‘landmark’ decision. That tells us reform is needed.
The historical, social and moral reasons for retaining the Sirius Building for public housing are compelling, but the state government is focused on the money from its sale.
Jenny Noyes/Newzulu/AAP
The state is ignoring historical, social and moral reasons to keep public housing in Heritage areas of Sydney. Its sell-off will further divide the city between rich and poor and end a rich history.