News

Australia’s skilled migration policy changed how and where migrants settle

12 January 2024

Understanding where cultural diversity occurs and how quickly people are being assimilated can help policymakers to ensure resources are fairly distributed and communities’ resilience enhanced.

News

Introducing new Centre for Urban Research Director Professor Libby Porter

11 January 2024

With the start of the new year, we are welcoming a new Director to the Centre for Urban Research, Professor Libby Porter.

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.

News

New tool shows active transport benefits to health and finances

23 November 2023

Today a team from the RMIT Centre for Urban Research are launching THAT-Brisbane, a transport and health assessment tool for planning healthier cities.

Blog

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.

News

Cold storage research could put a freeze on red meat waste

25 October 2023

A new report shows inconsistent fridge temperatures and confusing cold storage advice could be contributing to meat waste in Aussie households.

Blog

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.

News

Understanding Victoria’s Housing Statement

21 September 2023

On September 20, the Victorian Government released its Housing Statement, outlining a number of large and small changes across the housing sector. From changes to planning laws, to the demolition of public housing towers across Melbourne some of the plans will have significant real-world impacts, but they may not all be beneficial. To better understand […]

Blog

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, […]

Blog

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 […]

News

Cooking (and heating) without gas: what are the impacts of shifting to all-electric homes?

01 August 2023

Gas connections for all new housing and sub-divisions will be banned in Victoria from January 1 next year, leading to greener, healthier homes.

News

Building houses in factories for the Commonwealth Games was meant to help the housing crisis. What now?

26 July 2023

After Melbourne hosted the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the athlete village in Parkville was largely sold off, with 320 houses going to social housing. Victoria’s now cancelled 2026 Commonwealth Games were meant to have the same effect in the state’s smaller cities.

News

Turning the housing crisis around: how a circular economy can give us affordable, sustainable homes

12 July 2023

Australia needs a bold national project to tackle the climate crisis and support households by shifting to a more sustainable housing industry.

News

Six actions we can take towards closing materials loops in Australian residential construction

29 June 2023

On May 10, 2023 the World Green Building Council (WGBC) and its global network launched the Circular Built Environment Playbook — a guide for the building and construction sector to accelerate the adoption of circular economy and resource efficiency principles. This builds upon a series of reports by the Sustainable Buildings and Construction programme (part of UN’s One Planet […]

News

Comics to communicate climate risks, vulnerability, and adaptation

27 June 2023

The findings from academic research are often not easily accessible to research participants and public audiences. This is problematic in areas like climate change research, where research translation and more widespread dissemination of how best to adapt to climate impacts is vitally important given the scale of challenges being faced, and that those most adversely […]

News

Northsiders are more connected to nature than southsiders: study

01 June 2023

New research into Melburnians’ connection to nature is helping the City of Melbourne understand how to engage its community members in conservation efforts. The study, led by RMIT University in collaboration with the City of Melbourne and Queensland University of Technology, surveyed over 1,500 City of Melbourne residents and visitors on their connection to nature and found […]

News

New ARC project to help plan for urban nature

26 May 2023

Dr Holly Kirk has been awarded an ARC Early Career Industry Fellowships for her project “Spatial planning to implement biodiversity sensitive urban design (BSUD) across scales and contexts”.  With growing recognition of the benefits urban nature has for human wellbeing, developers, planners and designers are urgently seeking ways to enhance biodiversity within urban areas.   With […]

News

If the budget ditched the Stage 3 tax cuts, Australia could save every threatened species – and lots more

12 May 2023

Sarah Bekessy, RMIT University; Brendan Wintle, The University of Melbourne, and Rachel Morgain, The University of Melbourne The Albanese government has made bold environmental promises over the last year. Given the parlous state of nature in Australia, these commitments are important. The promises include ending new extinctions, fixing national nature laws and protecting 30% of […]

News

1 in 4 households struggle to pay power bills. Here are 5 ways to tackle hidden energy poverty

10 May 2023

One in four Australian households are finding it hard to pay their gas and electricity bills. As winter looms, energy price rises will make it even harder. Cold homes and disconnections resulting from energy poverty threaten people’s health and wellbeing.

Blog

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 […]

News

Nature is in crisis. Here are 10 easy ways you can make a difference

21 April 2023

Matthew Selinske, RMIT University; Georgia Garrard, The University of Melbourne; Jaana Dielenberg, Charles Darwin University, and Sarah Bekessy, RMIT University Last month, Sir David Attenborough called on United Kingdom residents to “go wild once per week”. By this, he meant taking actions which help rather than harm the natural world, such as planting wildflowers for […]

News

Australians paying $6 billion for unused apartment parking

31 March 2023

Experts are calling for planning policy to ‘unbundle’ parking spaces from apartments to reduce housing costs and alleviate street parking woes.

News

We can’t keep putting apartment residents’ waste in the too hard basket

20 March 2023

The harsh realities of managing the waste we produce are in the news: councils shunning new glass bins, more plastic being produced per person in the world and Sydney bins overflowing. And the growth in apartment living in Australia threatens to add to these problems. Apartments worldwide have lower recycling rates than standalone houses. Our […]

Blog

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.