Planning controls in Melbourne were eased 20 years ago, with mixed results, and new limits are now in place. Will other cities that have eased height limits, like Adelaide, avoid the same mistakes?
New housing estates on the city fringes might be soulless, cookie-cutter developments, but communities can invest them with layers of meaning that create a sense of place.
Lukas Coch/AAP
A sense of place matters for people and communities. When a suburb is created from scratch, close attention needs to be paid to the cues from the landscape and meanings people attach to the area.
When most inner-city apartment residents don’t use cars to get around, you can expect public transport to feel the impacts of new developments.
Eric FIscher/Wikimedia
Traffic impact assessments required of major building developments mainly focus on the movement of cars, but these account for only 30-40% of trips by inner-city apartment dwellers.
In an urban setting like central Footscray, where only 1% of the area is public space, the value of the humble footpath needs to be recognised.
Yvonne Meng
Footpaths are a valuable space for everyday social activity, but their role is often overlooked. In increasingly dense urban areas such as Footscray, footpaths are essential public spaces.
Mandatory competitive design processes have transformed the Sydney CBD skyline.
Robert Freestone
For two decades, a competitive design process pioneered by Sydney City Council has been transforming the city skyline and, new research shows, raising standards as it goes.
Old mine sites suffer many fates, which range from simply being abandoned to being incorporated into towns or turned into an open-air museum in the case of Gwalia, Western Australia.
The industrial patterns of mining shaped many Australian towns, which found varied uses for disused mine sites. The mining boom ensures the challenges these sites present will be with us a long time.
Australia’s sprawling cities present many challenges to sustainability, but planning innovations can help achieve at least half of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Nils Versemann/Shutterstock
Planning innovations around the world offer inspiration, but ultimately the innovations needed to make Australia’s sprawling cities more sustainable must be shaped by local conditions.
You can’t build housing without land, and developers typically control the rate of which it’s released to stop prices falling.
Lukas Coch/AAP
The thing about new housing is you need land to build it on. Developers are able to control its release at a rate that doesn’t put downward pressure on prices.
A storm caused flooding in the CBD as it swept through Hobart.
Patrick Gee/The Mercury. Used with permission
Managing flood risk is not just ‘good planning’; it requires commitment to resilient cities by land developers, politicians and communities. Effective response means learning from mistakes.
You can see koalas at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast, but the city council has won a planning battle to preserve their wild population too.
Dave Hunt/AAP
Local planning rules have prevailed in a long-running dispute over a proposed Gold Coast quarry that threatened the amenity of nearby residents and koalas.
Bilingual and trilingual shop signs are a feature of Strathfield.
Alice Chik
Australia has no policy designating English as the official language, but an explicit ‘English first’ policy for shop signs would treat speakers of every other language as second-class citizens.
We’re used to hearing cries of “NIMBYism” and “money-hungry developers” on both sides of planning debates, but there’s actually more subtlety to interactions around urban planning that are worth exploring and understanding.
Joel Carrett/AAP
Speaking with: Cameron McAuliffe on NIMBYs, urban planning and making community consultation work
Dallas Rogers speaks with Western Sydney University's Cameron McAuliffe about leveraging conflict and informal processes in the urban planning process.
The Urban Planning Exhibition Centre in Shanghai – good planning is immensely valuable.
Jordiferrer/Wikimedia Commons
Given the challenges Australian cities face, the need for urban planning based on solid research is greater than ever. Sadly, when it comes to research funding, planning is at the back of the queue.
It’s impossible to put a price on the value of Federation Square as a gathering place for the citizens of Melbourne.
fabcom/flickr
It took Melbourne a very long time to create a civic square that served the citizens rather than commerce. Now an Apple store is to be built there, unless parliament supports a disallowance motion.
Campo Santa Maria Nova, in Venice, is a fine example of a compact, human-scale European plaza.
Dina Bacvic
Done right, a plaza can bring life and a sense of identity to an area. So why has urban design in Australia neglected the town square in favour of green space, and what makes for a successful one?
Shandon, an inner-city neighbourhood in Cork, Ireland, dates back to the 1600s.
Image: Kieran Hoare, used with permission
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.
Solar panels are integrated into a block of flats in the Viikki area of Helsinki, Finland.
Pöllö/Wikimedia
Not everyone can afford to pay for solar panels up front, but local planners can help disadvantaged households overcome energy poverty in several ways.
The BedZED eco-housing development in the UK challenged planning regulations.
Tom Chance/Flickr
Traditional urban planning is being stretched by the pace at which renewable energy systems are being installed. New codes and guidelines are needed to manage emerging conflicts over land use.