Blog
23 January 2017
While intergenerational inequalities have become more pronounced in recent years, they also appear to have reinforced intergenerational cooperation and the revival of the family as a provider of welfare and economic security.
Blog
22 January 2017
Homelessness continues to be a feature of wealthy nations, and most recently, has dominated Victorian front page news, as the figures of people sleeping rough on the streets of Melbourne rise.
Blog
19 January 2017
The Australian government is reshaping federal-state relations that govern many areas of social infrastructure funding and delivery, including public housing. But what type of transformation do we want and how can this best be achieved?
Blog
16 January 2017
Sitting at home in the summer heat, your mind may start to wander to that fancy new air conditioner. But when it comes to making your house comfortable and sustainable, prevention is better than cure.
Blog
16 January 2017
As the weather heats up, Australian households won’t just be cranking up the air conditioning for themselves. Some households will be turning it on for their dogs or cats.
Blog
21 December 2016
A network of street lighting links these “islands of illumination”. The effects of this can, in some large cities, result in “sky glow” that interferes with star visibility at distances of more than 300 kilometres.
Blog
22 November 2016
With apologies to Jean-Paul Sartre, I am able to announce that I have formally registered my address in Munich with the German government therefore I am, I exist.
Blog
14 November 2016
I believe in the strong correlation between physical space and social behaviours and I believe that buildings and artefacts are not only environmental modifiers but social modifiers. As Winston Churchill said: “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us."
Blog
03 November 2016
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump recently claimed “phony polling” is suppressing his vote and predicted the outcome of the US election will be “Brexit times five”.
Blog
26 October 2016
Treasurer Scott Morrison has outlined his vision for increasing home ownership at a speech to the Urban Development Institute of Australia.
Blog
19 October 2016
Despite a relatively healthy supply-side picture for the general housing market, the expected trickle down of housing opportunities to low-income households in Australia has failed to materialise.
Blog
10 October 2016
Memorials serve important social, political and spatial functions that go well beyond personal or collective mourning. In doing so, the design and location of a memorial can be just as important as its subject.
Blog
05 October 2016
The return of land to Indigenous custodians in Australia over the past 20 years is a dramatic shift in Australian land tenure and management. Yet this revolution has, as yet, barely touched urban Australia.
Blog
04 October 2016
There has been no shortage of ideas about how to spend the A$9.7 billion the Victorian government will receive from selling a 50-year lease for the Port of Melbourne.
Blog
03 October 2016
Enthusiasm for urban greening is at a high point, and rightly so. Green space is increasingly recognised as useful for moderating the heat island effect. Hence, this helps cities adapt to, and reduce the consequences of, climate change.
Blog
02 October 2016
We shape the city and it shapes us. The idea of “the city” looms large. There are, it seems, no limits to the prospects and possibilities of technology and human entrepreneurship.
Blog
12 September 2016
Having run the diplomatic equivalent of a cross-country marathon, there was concern that negotiations on the New Urban Agenda might trip at the final hurdle.
Blog
25 August 2016
Sustainable housing can also have important benefits for some of the most vulnerable members of our community, as the report released this week shows.
Blog
22 August 2016
Does a walk in the park during your lunch break make you feel relaxed? Does lush greenery or a glint of sunlight on running water catch your eye and allow you to stare and rest your brain?
Blog
15 August 2016
Melbourne may have a lot of work to do to regain the top position in the 2016 Economist Global Livability Ranking.
Blog
12 August 2016
Pushing up through the Earth, out through the dirt of the lower strata towards the bright stratosphere, cities are emerging out of the Earth’s surface like a voracious vine.
Blog
05 August 2016
Concern about higher and more volatile gas prices in southern and eastern Australia is spreading.
Blog
01 August 2016
Long-distance commuting may help promote the development of regional cities by boosting local populations, skills and income.
Blog
25 July 2016
As the population ages and the government’s fiscal problems grow, there’s increasing policy interest in tapping into older people’s accumulated housing wealth to support retirement.
