Driverless cars are the future, right? Wait. While things would be simple if our roads were 100% driverless, getting there is anything but. And planning for roads shared by robots and humans is hard.
A spontaneous memorial shrine to an overdose victim in Celestial Lane, Melbourne.
Peta Malins
Public memorials to overdose victims might not only shift who we consider worth grieving, but also encourage us to reflect on the nature of memory and mourning, inclusion and exclusion.
Antarctica hangs in the balance. Five cities have the chance of securing the future of this fragile continent.
The Tent Embassy in Canberra has for decades been symbolic of the tensions in Australian cities about recognition, reconciliation and land justice.
Dylan Wood/AAP
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.
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
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.
Property inequality keeps on growing, stopping it will take strong principles and brave politicians.
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 and 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.
Australian Research Council (DECRA) Fellow and Vice Chancellor's Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University
