Australia is about to reshape the daily journeys of millions of people. Nationally, metro rezonings, transport oriented development (TOD) programs and new activity centre frameworks are all in progress, and the design work has begun.
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In NSW alone, 37 station precincts fall under the TOD program, expected to deliver up to 170,000 new homes over the next 15 years. The scale is unprecedented, and so are the consequences.
Get TODs wrong and we do more than create flat, forgettable places. We risk wiping away identities that took decades to form, replacing them with precincts that feel generic from day one. Retail struggles, land values soften and the substantial public investment in transport infrastructure fails to translate into real city-building outcomes.
Get them right and these precincts become distinctive centres of gravity. People spend time in them, money circulates through them and value grows for landowners, government and community. Good TODs reward public investment many times over.
The walk is the real masterplan
The short journey between the train platform and home, work or dinner is where a precinct either wins people over or loses them entirely. If you have ever stepped off a train and quietly thought “I don’t belong here,” you know exactly what I mean. People make up their minds quickly, often within seconds of arriving. That moment defines a precinct far more than its floor-space ratio.
Design the ground plane with purpose
Height and density matter, but they do not determine whether a place feels compelling. The ground plane does. Porous streets, active edges and intuitive movement patterns shape the real experience.
Cities are like people. They are more interesting when they know how to hold a conversation.
The way a laneway invites you in, the way a street shifts in scale and the small reveal of the next space as you move are the moments that make a precinct feel like somewhere with personality. Gordon Cullen described this as serial vision, the unfolding of one scene to the next. It is simple: if the sequence is dull, the precinct feels dull. Cities are like people. They are more interesting when they know how to hold a conversation.
Story and art create orientation, not decoration
Public art, crafted materials, interpretive elements and local references do more than beautify a place. They anchor people and create moments that help them understand where they are. A framed view, a sculptural gesture or an unexpected artwork can quickly give a neighbourhood a recognisable identity.
And the benefits are measurable. Precincts with clear identity consistently outperform generic ones in dwell time, retail performance, leasing resilience and long-term value.
These suburbs already have DNA. Build on it, not over it
Most future TODs sit in suburbs with deep character: Bankstown, Five Dock, Campsie, Footscray, Box Hill, and Sunshine. These places are not blank slates. They have cultural layers, established rhythms and movement patterns that locals intuitively understand.
Good TOD design begins with this DNA. It strengthens what is there rather than flattening it. Density should feel like an evolution, not an erasure.
International examples show what is possible. King’s Cross in London demonstrates how density, heritage and culture can amplify one another. Tottenham Court Road reveals how art, public space and legibility can turn a station arrival into a genuine civic experience. Outernet, directly on the station doorstep, is now one of the United Kingdom’s most visited attractions. It shows how immersive art and public space can transform an interchange into somewhere people actively choose to spend time rather than pass through at speed.
Collaboration is essential. There’s no solo act in precinct making
In TODs, the public realm determines the experience. No single landowner controls it and no individual building can compensate for a precinct that feels disjointed. The quality of the in-between spaces is the difference between a place that works and one that struggles.
This requires early, deliberate collaboration between government, landowners and design teams. The groundwork must be laid before buildings lock the story in place.
Housing is urgent. But urgency is not an excuse for generic places
Australia needs more homes quickly, but speed should not lower ambition. The cities that absorb growth most successfully are those that build identity into every layer. A TOD should feel like somewhere people choose to be, not merely somewhere they pass through.
The opportunity is immediate and significant
Many TODs across Australia are still in formative stages. Construction lies ahead. The risk is creating dense new places that lack character and weaken the identity of the suburbs they join. The opportunity is to create distinctive, story-rich neighbourhoods that elevate communities and generate long-term value for everyone involved.
If we make strong decisions now, we set the foundation for places that feel memorable, grounded and unmistakably local. And when the everyday walk is designed with care, people will feel it every single day.
The numerous holistic skillsets, management practices and professional perspectives required to truly manage (i.e., strategise, design, activate, maintain etc.) “a Place” has been formally underway for around 30 years to date, and there are any number of place analytics, place activation and place planning tools which have arisen from various professional sectors and experiences as an example.
The key to David’s view is that feeling of “not belonging” in a Place when you first arrive, but this does not consider the members of our community who are unable to arrive and move through a Place at all. Up to 25% of our local community across Australia are unable to plan a trip or arrive at all at a Place destination.
These members of our community are unable to enjoy the Place Experience of design patina, street activation and economic vibrancy because the basic foundation of a community focused Place Strategy has been overshadowed by a focus on “place parts” such as Place Walkability Plans, Place Activation Strategies, Place Revitalisation Visions and many other place tools.
Until the basic human right for “everyone” to be able to access and move to and through a Place to access a selected or serendipitous destination is achieved, all the other Place DNA benefits will not come into play and “Places” will remain Urban Theatre Stage sets benefiting just a percentage of the community.
Good stuff Tom. Very well described.