The proportion of housing that’s unoccupied has actually fallen since the last census, but the key issue is most of these dwellings are not in the areas where the need for housing is greatest.
Electric vehicles were around long before their fossil fuel rivals. They are also set to outlast them because of advantages their advocates noted as early as a century ago.
Australian politicians have a history of opting for high-cost, high-emissions desalination projects. The Queensland government is still wary of using the largely untapped resource of recycled water.
The first upgrade to minimum energy-efficiency standards in a decade will cut emissions and energy costs for the 5.5 million houses to be built by 2050. Retrofitting homes is an equally urgent task.
Can we now work from anywhere with an internet connection? We interviewed workers who left the city but held onto their jobs to see how they fared. One year on, some had no regrets. Others moved back.
A survey of more than 2,000 people as Melbourne reopened after COVID lockdowns shows the pandemic and digital technology have made the city less a place of work, more a place to visit now and then.
The long delays in housing displaced flood victims point to the need to develop a permanent reserve of temporary housing to be available wherever and whenever disaster strikes.
Our urban heritage should be allowed to evolve and adapt to the values and needs of today. It’s the best way to avoid neglect and decay, while enabling this heritage to help make cities sustainable.
Tenants are rarely allowed to make permanent changes to a house. And many landlords know little about the conditions tenants endure, but most who do retrofit homes do it to improve renters’ comfort.
Beautiful shopping streets attract people — and that’s good for business. Images of ten reimagined local shopping streets show how they can become the beautiful hearts of their local communities.
Housing standards in Australia have slipped behind the rest of the world. But momentum is growing to revive past ambitions to build the best homes we can.
For many female runners, the feeling of liberation that running can bring is marred by the ever-present threat of street harassment and violence. It’s a major obstacle to running participation.
When the pandemic hit, green space was there for us at a time when others weren’t or couldn’t be. Urban greening might be the solution to the ‘lonelygenic environment’ that our cities have created.
Planning has begun for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and already it’s clear the city has learned from the mistakes of other hosts, but its plans to be truly sustainable have one glaring weak point.
The race to build the tallest timber building makes the news, but mid-rise construction is where using timber can make the biggest sustainability impact.
A bid to amend plans for the final stage of the Barangaroo project would once again favour developers’ interests over the public interest. It shows how badly the planning process has been undermined.
The housing crisis facing Australians has been brewing for a long time. A national housing strategy guided by expert, independent and transparent advice is long overdue.