Is Urban Design just big Architecture?

Today there exist a divide among professionals who call themselves urban designers. I believe this has been brought about by both a technological and cultural change that has happened in the professional development of the architectural professions, both building and landscape.

Five Best Urban Design Books

In the past 50 years since both Kevin Lynch and Jane Jacobs seminal pieces provided new dissemination regarding urban design theory. Since these two great books, the Image of the City and Death and Life of Great American Cities, there has been a plethora of books that have impacted on the Urban Design profession.

I have put together a list of the five most influential books which I believe are a must for any upcoming and practicing urban designer. I have not included the two mentioned above because I believe these are a foundation and should already be included in your collection.

Election result justifies end of unsustainable sprawl

While political parties squirm over the way voters in Australia determined their future there is no denying that lack of planning, resource allocation and services for suburban communities has lead to the current situation.


If there was any moment in Australia’s history that clearly demonstrates the need for a progressive approach for housing, community and infrastructure than last weekend’s election was it!

Sustaining Viewpoints

Societies collapse because of a number of environmental, social and economic conditions, so says environmental historian Jared Diamond. His recent enquiry into how societies determine their existence was the spark that finally woke me from a disillusioned hiatus.

The inequity of the car culture

Equity is a belief that I hold firmly as a desired value of human civilisation. The economic rationalism of the early 1990’s has seen an incredible explosion of ‘User Pay’ systems in the theory that a free market society finds a balance towards equity. At first I saw virtue in this new ideology, especially as a user. But, when that same philosophy was introduced within the outcomes of my daily sweat and toil, it has made me think otherwise.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: Urban Design in the United States

A Case Study worth visiting

Sustainability as a philosophy, that is to sustain growth within our limited existing knowledge and resources, is expressed as that – a theory worthy of pursuit but impossible to actually deliver.

‘Place’ in the shrinking cultural space

(first published in 2004 - but still a timely debate)

The rediscovery and popular debate of our local communities being ‘places’ of diverse and powerful sources of economic, social and environmental solutions is a welcome change. However, in the production of designing ‘places’, are we failing to recognise these embedded resources and commonly deliver a built environment devoid of cultural presence?

How the built form creates culture

(this was published in urban design forum 2005 - would be interested in further comments)

When endeavouring to pursue urban design, most proponents today deal with the human scale and the experience to be obtained. Urban researcher Amos Rappoport was one of the first to provide evidence that the mnemonic connection to the built environment helped to define its use or the culture created by this interaction.

Affordable Housing

The State and Future of Housing Affordability

By Kevin Abbott - 18, April 2010

There is something really wrong regarding affordability of housing in Australia. Why is it now impossible for your average Australian to live in the very city they grew up in? When did it become unaffordable and what can be done about it?