By David Wilson 7 July 2011 – What’s the view from your window? Do you like what you see? Do you want to change it? As the percentage of the world’s population living in cities continues to grow, the view for many can be bleak: cars, congestion,... 
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30 June 2011 – The New York Times says European cities are turning hostile to cars. And the US based Treehugger has run a story  the research by Peter Newman and Peter Kenworthy on “Peak Car Use”, that remains on our No 1 Top Hits for... 
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22 June 2011 – Cox Rayner A fully integrated mixed use development near the Brisbane CBD has taken the top award for urban design in Australia. The $300 million SW1 South Bank Urban Village developed by South Bank Corporation and Cox Rayner Architects... 
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Philip Pollard’s Phd thesis, Campus as Place, details the the transformation of Newcastle University into one of the world’s leading sustainability exemplars. See Chapter One here. Chapter 2: A collaborative approach to delivering the... 
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By Jane Jose  15 June 2011 Five simple engagement lessons In seeking to bottle the mystery ingredients in the fourth dimension of place-making here are a few lessons. Lesson 1: keep it authentic The authenticity of a place keeps it alive because... 
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By Jane Jose 9 June 2011 – We are living in a time of back to the high street. It is more than 20 years since the mainstreet movement began and on 3 May the National Mainstreet conference in Adelaide had the fervour of a prayer meeting. Lord Mayor... 
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By David Burns 8 June 2011 – The Manly Council’s 2015 master plan is a great initiative but the plan could be improved if the council considered Green Building Council of Australia Green Star ratings and sustainable intensity metric benchmarks. Proposed... 
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2 June 2011 – Victoria’s Planning Minister Matthew Guy has announced the establishment of a new Urban Renewal Authority, which will absorb the current VicUrban with no loss of jobs, but with the board disbanded. Read More > >  
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31 May 2011 – Arup has launched a competition to describe the concept of soft infrastructure in urban planning – elements such as branding, community engagement and cohesion, to complement the “hard” elements of roads, rail, tunnels and buildings. The... 
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In search of the jumping joyous urban jumble 20 May 2011 –[Updated 21 May 2011] When Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Anthony Albanese launched the official national urban policy – which was rather hard to separate from the “other”... 
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20 May 2011 – The federal government this week released three major urban policies and reports on planning. They are: The Productivity Commission’s Performance Benchmarking of Australian Business Regulation: Planning, Zoning and Development Assessments ... 
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By Leon Gettler 12 May 2011 – Queensland, the state of floods and cyclones that devastated property, has become Australia’s laboratory for sustainable building, for creating resilient homes, offices and structures in the face of climatic volatility. In... 
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By Tina Perinotto 11 November 2010 - Favourites: Siobhan Toohill is the highly regarded sustainability leader for Stockland. We first interviewed Toohill in May last year for the first in a series of profiles of high achieving women in the sustainability... 
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By Eli Gescheit 15 April 2011 – In the wake of the recent floods in Queensland, I undertook some research on how the planning system addresses flood management situations. Viewing the horrific images showing the damage caused by the severe floods can... 
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By Amy Kelly 31 March 2011 – Brisbane City Council on Tuesday night passed a motion allowing residents affected by the January 2011 floods to rebuild their homes beyond the height restrictions of current planning controls. The proposed temporary local... 
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30 March 2011 – One of Australia’s most thought provoking projects designed to stimulate ideas on this country’s urban futures is now on show at the Gold Coast City Gallery in Queensland. NOW and WHEN: Australian Urbanism exhibition was... 
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17 March 2011 – A new planning vision is needed for Newcastle as it evolves as an important regional capital according to the Hunter branch and NSW division of the Planning Institute of Australia . The Institute has identified six key priorities: Deliver... 
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By Leon Gettler 9 March 2011 – The Liberals  in Victoria – and potentially soon in NSW – have both threatened a new wave of urban sprawl, but planners say there is an opportunity for a new planning body to push through urban consolidation. Either... 
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2 March 2011 – The Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council this week called  for a federal minister and department for cities and urban development to meet the nation’s urban challenges. Speaking at the Green Cities 2011 conference in... 
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By Michael Mobbs 17 February 2011 – Australia’s councils are perhaps the most ignorant and contemptuous of indigenous culture of any part of our society. Councils manifest their damaged psyche unintentionally in their development approvals every... 
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By Leon Gettler 3 February 2011 – Adapting to floods, bushfires, and cyclones will not be cheap. Engineers say infrastructure cannot be made totally invulnerable, only resilient. But that will add to the cost. In the wake of extreme weather... 
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27 January 2011 –The Government will spend $5.6 billion to rebuild flood-affected regions across Australia, PM Julia Gillard announced today. The funds will be delivered through a one year levy on people earning more than $50 000, abolishing certain... 
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By Leon Gettler Special report:  21 January 2011 – With more extreme weather events expected, the Queensland flood crisis could represent the “new normal” that will challenge the property market. Experts have told The Fifth Estate that planning... 
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By Tina Perinotto 23 January 2011 – Adelaide might have ranked best city in Australia to live and Sydney worst in a wide-ranging survey from the Property Council of Australia but among some controversial findings was encouraging strong support... 
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By Tina Perinotto 10 September 2009 – Favourites: Picture this: an apartment tower constructed entirely in a factory — right down to the base fit-out and even the defects’’ rectification. The walls built of new lightweight materials, pre-insulated.... 
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21 January 2011 – The Gold Coast City Council said on Friday that its Hinze Dam was “good planning” and would help protect the city from floods, as it released what it said were among Australia’s most sophisticated flood maps. The... 
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By Tina Perinotto 14 January 2011 – The Planning Institute of Australia said on Friday that the Queensland flood crisis had focused the need for climate change to be considered in planning for the future and proved that modern planning protocols... 
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By Michael Mobbs 23 December 2010 - “The underlying problem is confoundingly simple: agricultural methods that lose soil faster than it is replaced destroy societies” – David Montgomery, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations I saw white... 
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By Tina Perinotto 2 December 2010 – The federal government yesterday released the most important document in national urban planning since the Whitlam years – a discussion paper on options for how to manage growth and sustainability for Australia’s... 
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