In this edition:- Save the Date! Festival of Urbanism 2025
- Publications Alert
- City Road Podcast New Episodes
- Watch on Demand: Questioning the great Australian Dream and more
- Media mentions and commentary
| |
Save the Date! Festival of Urbanism 2025
This year’s Festival of Urbanism will take place between September - October this year. It will once again feature events around Australia, and most of the Sydney-based events will be held between the 14th to 19th of September.
This year’s theme, regenerative urbanism, is about transforming spaces for people and the planet through holistic action for systemic change. Beyond sustainability or minimising harm, regenerative models demand that we rethink systems for food, energy, water, waste, transport, and recast policies for housing, land, health, and community wellbeing. In line with this theme, this year’s Festival program will canvas topics from public art and the city through to regenerative approaches to Country, ecology, design, transport and housing. Festival events will include our popular walks, debates, and panel discussions, and our venues will extend from the Chau Chak Wing museum on campus to other parts of the city. Our national program will include events in regional cities such as Albury, and we’ll be returning to Canberra and Melbourne.
Stay tuned for program announcements and booking details which will to be released in August. Meanwhile, check out last year’s Festival events now available to watch on demand.
| |
|  |
Hero image credit to Barangaroo Harbour Park design by AKIN.
| |
| | |
Publication Alert
Locating the built environment within existing empirical models of climate change and mental health: Protocol for a global systematic scoping review
‘Where a person lives, the characteristics of their housing and neighbourhood environment influence their exposure to climate-related hazards and vulnerability to associated mental health impacts. This suggests that the built environment may be a promising focus for integrated policy responses to climate change and public mental health challenges. However, few empirical studies have focused on the role of the built environment as an important mediator of climate-attributable mental health burden. The proposed scoping review seeks to identify and synthesise existing conceptual models and frameworks linking climate change to mental health via built environment pathways. We aim to provide a preliminary overview of the housing and neighbourhood pathways through which climate change may impact mental health, which will inform future empirical work in this emerging area of research.'
The Climate Change, Place and Mental Health Incubator is a cross-disciplinary program focused on understanding the relationship between the built environment and mental health within the context of climate change in Australia.
| |
Investor-Occupiers and the Cultural Capital of Architectural Design: The Importance of Architectural Quality and Apartment Design in a Falling Market
This study, by a research team including our Postdoctoral Research Associate, Greta Werner, examines property developers' strategic responses to housing price downturns, focusing on how architectural design decisions shift in response to market conditions. As prices declined, non-occupant investors retreated, and investor-occupiers — buyers who live in the properties they purchase — became the dominant group. The research explores how developers adjusted their design quality strategies to appeal to this emerging market during a period of housing value depreciation.
| |
Housing in Disaster-Affected Areas: From Crisis to Long-term Resilience
New research reveals substantial gaps in Australia's disaster housing response, years after the devastating Northern Rivers floods. This report outlines critical reforms needed to protect communities in an era of escalating climate risks.
| |
From the AHURI Inquiry: Inquiry into projecting Australia’s urban and regional futures: population dynamics, regional mobility and planning responses
This Inquiry examined leading practice in projecting population growth and change, contemporary drivers of regional mobility and housing market spillovers, and implications for infrastructure and settlement planning.
| |
City Road Podcast New Episodes
| |
Episode 113, The Golden Thread in Public and Democratic Life: Parks and Libraries as the Cornerstones of our Cities
This episode brings to you the special Denis Winston Memorial Lecture featured as part of our 2024 Festival of ‘Public’ Urbanism.
The public life of great cities takes place in our cultural buildings and civic spaces – from libraries to museums, town halls, streets, parks and playgrounds. This special lecture, delivered by Dr Caroline Butler-Bowdon, State Librarian and award-winning author and curator, celebrates our crucial public infrastructure as the cornerstone of public and democratic life.
| |
Episode 114, Debate: ‘Can the Private Market Solve Australia’s Housing Crisis?’
The debate features an expert panel including: The Hon Doug Cameron, Former Parliamentary Secretary for Housing and Homelessness and Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness; Sharath Mahendran, Urban Planner and star creator of YouTube channel Building Beautifully; Emily Sims, planner and public economist now with Uralla Shire Council; Stephanie Barker, recent planner of the year with 25 years experience planning for housing supply across public and private sectors; Luke Cass, editor, Honi Soit Newspaper 2023 and Emeritus Professor Peter Phibbs, with commentary from Michael Koziol, former Sydney editor, The Sydney Morning Herald.
| |
 |
DALISON photographic artwork by Ian Strange
|
| Questioning the great Australian Dream
The panel discussion, hosted in collaboration with the S.H. Ervin Gallery, was a conversation about the housing problem and how to fix it, sparked by the exhibition: ‘In Suburbia: Recent Detours’, which engages with a diverse spectrum of housing types and experiences across urban and regional Australia, curated by Gavin Wilson.
| |
Countering spatial injustice in the U.S.: The promise of “Zoning for equity”
This lecture was delivered by Professor Rolf Pendall, Urban and Regional Planning, Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois, highlighting recent efforts to make spatial planning and zoning more equitable in the U.S.
| |
Digital decarbonisation plans in Taiwan, Japan and Australia
In this talk, Professor Sung-Yueh Perng from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, explores how Japan, Taiwan and Australia envision and implement digital decarbonisation and just transition, highlighting the complex interplay between technology, climate and society.
| |
Media Commentary:
The Henry Halloran Urban & Regional Research Initiative promotes evidence-informed contributions to public debate, through our publications, events, and media commentary.
Recent highlights include:
ABC interviews Professor Nicole Gurran on the impact of short-stay rentals. She discusses how platforms like Airbnb are contributing to housing shortages across NSW.
ABC covers a new federal housing advisory council report warning Australia is unlikely to meet its housing targets. Professor Nicole Gurran discusses the long-standing issues contributing to the national housing crisis.
AFNdaily explores emerging opportunities in Australia’s short-term rental market. Professor Nicole Gurran notes that while investor interest is growing, accurate data on real returns -especially from luxury listings - remains difficult to access.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports on the most profitable areas for short-term rental investments. Professor Nicole Gurran cautions that reliable data on actual revenue from these properties remains hard to obtain.
Realestate highlights the growing demand for larger apartments as families priced out of houses turn to units. Professor Emeritus Peter Phibbs notes that Sydney developers have long focused on the investor-preferred two-bedroom format.
See our full list of recent media items and commentary here.
| |
|
The Henry Halloran Urban and Regional Research Initiative is a cross-disciplinary research centre focused on the profound challenges facing cities and regions in the 21st Century. Through our grants, projects and public events we foster research, education and dialogue across the many disciplines, professions and communities vital to creating better urban and regional futures.
We acknowledge the tradition of custodianship and law of the Country on which the University of Sydney campuses stand. We pay our respects to those who have cared and continue to care for Country.
| |
|
|
|
|
