Blog

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 […]

Book

The city and the super-organism: A history of naturalism in urban planning

Offers a timely contribution building on recent works that demonstrate the power of ‘biological thinking’

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Current Projects

People and Place at Minta Farm

2020 (ongoing)

People and Place at Minta is a longitudinal study exploring the long-term impacts of place-making and innovation initiatives at Stockland’s Minta Farm estate on residents’ sense of wellbeing and active connections to place.

Blog

Is temporary the new permanent? COVID street experiments open our eyes to creating better cities

20 March 2021

If the past year has made us more comfortable and confident with experimenting, all the better to help our cities meet the challenges ahead.

Policy Brief

Creatively Engaging the Community in Urban Planning

Clare McCracken, Associate Professor Karien Dekker, Dr Kristen Sharp, Kate Ferguson, Dr Grace McQuilten, Dr Angela Clarke

RMIT Centre for Urban Research

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News

How can urban and environmental planning shape a post-pandemic future?

04 October 2020

The adversities of COVID-19 have no doubt changed the way we think about our environments. Here, our teachers discuss the role urban, regional and environmental planning has in shaping a post-pandemic future.

News

How can we better prepare suburban Melbourne for climate change?

24 September 2020

Climate change presents critical challenges for future development, sustainability and resilience across Melbourne. Here, our experts offer insights on how we can better prepare our outer suburbs.

Blog

A time to embrace the edge spaces that make our neighbourhoods tick

01 June 2020

As we emerge from COVID-19 lockdowns, it is timely to reflect on how the design of our neighbourhoods and the ways we interact with them affect our lived experience.

Blog

4 ways our streets can rescue restaurants, bars and cafes after coronavirus

28 May 2020

As Australia re-opens, the bars, cafes and restaurants that give life to our streets face a tough ask: stay open and stay afloat with just a fraction of the customers.

Blog

No need to give up on crowded cities – we can make density so much better

18 February 2020

The more immediate need is to focus on improving conditions in our major cities. Our smaller towns matter, but we can’t neglect the urgent need to get better at doing the bigger ones right.

News

Meet Claire Boulange: Expert in urban analytics for healthy cities

20 June 2019

Can video games like SimCity help smart city design? Dr Claire Boulange explains how planning can be playful to build healthy liveable cities for all.

Blog

Of all the problems our cities need to fix, lack of car parking isn’t one of them

17 May 2019

Parking is a fiery issue in Australian cities. That’s because cars dominate our cities, supported by decades of unbalanced planning decisions favouring space for cars over other land uses or forms of transport

Blog

Crowded trains? Planning focus on cars misses new apartment impacts

12 May 2019

Wondering why you can’t get a seat on the train? Perhaps it’s because we don’t actually know how many extra people will use public transport when new building developments are planned.

News

Meet the women helping plan the cities of tomorrow

05 March 2019

As Melbourne grows, we need to better plan how we build healthy, equitable and liveable cities. Here four RMIT researchers talk about how their work is helping deliver better cities.

News

Livin’ on the edge: How to plan a new suburb on Melbourne’s fringe

18 February 2019

With the Victorian Government releasing 50,000 housing lots for 12 new suburbs on Melbourne’s urban fringe, how can we ensure new areas like these are liveable and thrive?

News

Six ways to keep Melbourne moving at 8 million

11 February 2019

More people living in Melbourne means more trips across our transport network. RMIT experts share their views on how to plan for this pressure and keep our city moving.