Blog

Conflicting imaginaries of home and care in urban renewal

23 November 2023

This panel and exhibition event brought together leading researchers from different international contexts to examine the experiences and struggles of home, care and belonging under conditions of displacement and racial banishment.

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Capacity building in the Solomon Islands

26 October 2023

A research team, led by CUR member Prof. Darryn McEvoy, has just returned from a week-long field trip to Honiara, Solomon Islands.

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How could the proposed 50 billion EU facility for Ukraine address the need for safe, inclusive and energy efficient housing?

20 October 2023

On October 5, Prof. Julie Lawson and Oleksandr Anisimov presented at the University of Warsaw EUROREG seminar series on their work on rebuilding Ukraine.

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Shaping Pacific Urban Futures

12 September 2023

CUR researchers have contributed to sessions on the climate action day at the 6th Pacific Urban Forum, held at the Pacific Island Forum Secretariat Conference Centre in Suva, Fiji (5–7 September). The event was attended by 300 delegates from across the region. The Pacific Urban Forum (PUF) is the premier event for urban practitioners, thinkers, […]

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Five models to de-risking the building industry in Australia – here’s what we can learn from around the world

09 August 2023

The multitude of challenges facing the construction industry in Australia seems to keep accumulating. Supply chain shortages, labour shortages, price increases, insurance and financial difficulties, mental health issues, and gaps in skills and training have variously exacerbated during, or as a result of, the COVID-19 pandemic. These challenges not only impact workers within the industry and the ability […]

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Rebuilding a place to call home

04 May 2023

Sharing knowledge for the recovery of Ukraine Executive Summary This executive summary is from full report authored by Oleksandr Anisimov and Pavlo Fedoriv (New Housing Policy, UA), Oleksandra Tkachenko (UNUN), Julie Lawson (RMIT Centre for Urban Research) and Edwin Buitelaar (Utrecht University) and published by PBL, the Dutch government’s National Agency for Environmental Assessment. This […]

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Two new projects to help promote active transport and understand healthy ageing

08 March 2023

Two new projects led by Dr Lucy Gunn aim to improve our health by understanding the health impacts of our neighbourhoods.

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Sustainability and Urban Planning students gather to kick off new year

02 March 2023

Semester 1 began this week at RMIT and to celebrate, Sustainability and Urban Planning hosted a great event to welcome new and returning students and to celebrate the achievements of the 2022 graduating classes.

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Peer-led dwelling justice projects in the colony

28 February 2023

The Forum for Dwelling Justice, held in Naarm (Melbourne) in August 2022, aimed to examine the colonial relations of housing precarity and forge solidarity between sites of resistance. The Forum brought together leaders, activists, community-based practitioners, scholars and film-makers to stage a conversation about precarity, racial violence, incarceration and dispossession and how these dynamics shape […]

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Heat pumps can cut your energy costs by up to 90%. It’s not magic, just a smart use of the laws of physics

14 December 2022

Heat pumps are becoming all the rage around a world that has to slash carbon emissions rapidly while cutting energy costs. In buildings, they replace space heating and water heating – and provide cooling as a bonus.

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Urban Research in Transforming Times – 10 Years of the Centre for Urban Research

09 December 2022

On December 1, CUR members and partners gathered to reflect on the impact of the Centre over the past decade and consider the future of urban research.

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Urban policy and infrastructure planning

07 October 2022

The election of a Labor Government at the 2022 federal election has brought new attention to policies for climate change mitigation and energy transition, with an accelerated minimum target of 43 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 now legislated. Cities and suburbs will be central to achieving the climate target as concentrated sites of […]

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Forum for Dwelling Justice

06 September 2022

On Friday August 26, the Centre for Urban Research hosted the Forum for Dwelling Justice, at the Capitol Theatre, organised by David Kelly and Libby Porter. The Forum brought together more than 600 scholars, grassroots campaigners, activists, people with lived experience, and practitioners to identify the radical potential for resistance to dispossession, displacement and precarity […]

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Rebuilding homes in Ukraine

01 September 2022

The consequences of Russian military aggression on Ukraine has led to considerable loss of life and the devastation of many homes, livelihoods, services and infrastructure.  Millions of civilians have been displaced. Most people want to return but they cannot, as this requires having safe, secure and adequate home and neighbourhood to return to. Realizing these […]

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Homelessness all but disappeared in 2020, but it should disappear for good

31 July 2022

It’s Homelessness Week and this year the theme is “To end homelessness we need a plan.” The right plan is in reach.

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Green interventions, and blue bees: rethinking what we know about gardens

19 May 2022

There is a growing understanding that bees are crucial to food security, biodiversity and a healthy environment, but bees are much more than stripey, hive-dwelling, honey-makers. This World Bee Day, open your eyes to the rich world of bees!

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A passion project to make the heart sing: Urban planning for healthier lives

22 April 2022

Professor Billie Giles-Corti was a “lone wolf”, she says, when she started her research career. In 2022, the time has come for public discourse about the direct links between city planning and health. She is part of a global network making the connections between liveability and health outcomes.

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Informal settlements and the threat of climate change

17 March 2022

To ensure that shelters in informal settlements across the Pacific Island region are disaster resilient, policymakers and relief agencies must work closely with local communities to implement sustainable solutions, Darryn McEvoy, Mittul Vahanvati, Deb Kuh, and Usha Iyer-Raniga write.

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Climate Resilient Honiara helping bring safety and dignity to Honiaran women

08 March 2022

This International Women’s Day calls for gender equity today, for a sustainable tomorrow. Researchers on the Climate Resilient Honiara project are seeking to contribute to just these issues, in a city struggling against the realities of rapid urbanisation and climate change.

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Sustainability and Urban Planning students recognised as semester begins

03 March 2022

With the beginning of a new semester and a new year, students of the Sustainability and Urban Planning program could finally gather on campus to celebrate their achievements and look ahead to the new year. The welcome and awards event held yesterday presented an opportunity for current students and recent graduates to meet and mingle […]

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Hearts, cells and mud: how biology helps humans re-imagine our cities in vexed times

27 January 2022

Marco Amati Biological metaphors for the city abound in daily use. You may live close to an “arterial” road or in the “heart” of a metropolis. You may work in one of the city’s “nerve centres” or exercise in a park described as the city’s “lungs”. The ready use of such metaphors indicates an underlying […]

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Urban Futures Photo Competition winners announced

07 December 2021

This year, our Urban Futures Photography Competition, sponsored by Villawood Properties, asked entrants to reflect on spaces where nature and cities collide, and how nature benefits the urban environment.

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New Zealand rushes in on upzoning where Australia fears to tread

12 November 2021

Australian planners and economists are currently debating the role of planning policies and regulations in dwelling production as part of the federal parliamentary inquiry into housing supply. Meanwhile the New Zealand government has announced it intends to dramatically roll back residential zoning across the country’s major cities in response to high house prices. This simplistic policy poses risks for strategic metropolitan planning and Australia should pay attention.

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We have to talk about energy poverty

29 October 2021

Right now there is very little discussion about this equity issue in our clean energy climate transition.