Another year has come and gone, so what were the main themes that have come through in The Fifth Estate’s articles?
Search results
Posted inInvestment/deals/companies
Views from the industry for 2018
We asked a few people for their views on what to expect in 2018.
Posted inInfrastructure & transport, Spinifex
It’s time to stop prioritising cars when designing streets
Have a walk down Parramatta Road – take a helmet – and see what prioritising the car user has done at Strathfield.
Posted inPlanning
Can NSW’s green infrastructure policy stop canopy cover decline?
NSW’s government architect has released a draft policy that aims to put green infrastructure at the heart of city-making.
Posted inPlanning
NSW planning reform: Minor changes celebrated, but the system’s still broken
Last week’s update to NSW planning laws has been called the biggest overhaul of the system in its near 40-year history, but critics say it fails to tackle the big issues, including transport planning, affordable housing and climate change.
Posted inInfrastructure & transport, Spinifex
Funding Sydney: Where’s the value capture?
The release of the Greater Sydney Commission’s “A metropolis of three cities” at the same time as Transport for NSW’s Future Transport strategy amounts to a great step forward for planning and delivering Sydney’s growth.
Posted inInfrastructure & transport, Planning
Greater Sydney Commission firms up plan for three cities
It was not so much a reveal than a reiteration when Greater Sydney Commission head Lucy Turnbull announced Sydney would become a tale of three “30-minute” cities by 2056 – we heard that last year when the city’s draft district plans were released.
Posted inNews from the Front Desk
News from the front desk: Issue No 360 – On whether Sydney’s full or if it’s just a bad case of congestion
The development industry was in defence mode this week over a poll published in the Sydney Morning Herald, with two-thirds of residents declaring the city full, and that the 1.74 million extra people we’re expecting over the next 20 years be pushed to the outskirts. It was an unsurprising result given the framing of the question, […]
Posted inBusiness & Politics
Tim Williams steps down as Committee for Sydney head
Tim Williams, one of Sydney’s highest profile urbanism commentators, has resigned as chief executive of the Committee for Sydney to become head of cities at Arup.
Posted inPlanning, Spinifex
Density in Sydney: Do as I do not as I say
The Sydney Morning Herald’s article on Sydneysiders “in revolt” over development is interesting, but the numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt.
Posted inSpinifex
Respect for planners is crucial for liveable cities
A few weeks ago, The Fifth Estate covered the burgeoning demand for planners in Australia. As our cities and their populations grow at a rapid pace, it follows that more and more urban planning is required to keep those cities functional and liveable. Concurrently, as the world tries to come to grips with how to […]
Posted inSpinifex
How plastics are being reinvented for the future
Though widely maligned and criticised, plastics are not only here to stay – they’re also essential for our future, says UK sustainable plastics expert Dr John Williams whose company is about to launch what it claims is a bio degradable plastic.
Posted inNews from the Front Desk
News from the front desk: Issue No 352 – On liveability, inequality and timeless truths
Melbourne has again won the Economist Intelligence Unit’s most liveable city crown – an unprecedented seven times in a row – but again the chorus has risen: “For whom?”
Posted inSpinifex
Mind the gap: Why you’ll die earlier in Sydney’s west
Research based on new Census data has shown that life expectancy goes down dramatically as you travel west in Sydney. At its most extreme the gap between average life expectancy in an Eastern Suburb of your choice and Mount Druitt in Sydney’s west is 20 years.
Posted inInfrastructure & transport
Arrivals looking beautiful at your local train platform
Infrastructure is no longer just about engineering. A growing number of major transport projects are turning to leading architects to make the humble train station or light rail stop into a thing of beauty.
Posted inConstruction & Development
Melbourne’s trains may soon glide into new biophilic precincts
Melbourne Metro might very well be the first biophilic public transport project in Australia.
Posted inConstruction & Development
Why fire safety is more about people than products
Phones are ringing off the hook at the peak fire protection associations as governments and building owners scramble to mitigate the threat of fire risk in multi-storey buildings.
Posted inJobs News
Market Pulse: Planner shortage amplified as young planners leave in droves
Employers are working hard to retain young planners with Sydney and Melbourne still in the grip of a planner shortage, according to the Planning Institute of Australia.
Posted inNews from the Front Desk
News from the front desk No 345: On the interesting new Queensland Planning Act and its significance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
There’s broad agreement that the new Planning Act in Queensland – coming into effect on Monday – will take the development industry and planners by storm.
Posted inNews from the Front Desk
News from the front desk: Issue No 344 – On why we must fight back on cynical anti-sustainability sentiment
Cynical media is blaming sustainability for the Grenfell disaster. But that’s well off the mark.
Posted inPlanning, Spinifex
The battle for Western Sydney Parklands: why we need a new approach to transport planning
It’s not just the Royal National Park under threat from the NSW government’s rampant road building agenda.
Posted inClimate Change
Major city landmarks will submerge under business as usual conditions
Sydney Airport, Fishermans Bend in Melbourne and Elizabeth Quay in Perth will all be underwater by 2100 if emissions don’t fall, updated modelling from Coastal Risk Australia shows.
Posted inSpinifex
Are we really serious about tackling housing affordability?
Let me ask you a question. Would you like housing in Sydney to be more affordable? As this is like being against motherhood and apple pie I suggest you all correctly answered “yes”. Let me ask another. Would you be willing for the price of your home to go down the 30 per cent required […]
Posted inJobs News
Planners in red hot demand
MARKET PULSE: Demand for planners in Melbourne and Sydney is “red hot” at the moment with many consultancies finding it difficult to fill positions. John Wynne, national planning director of consultancy Urbis, said it’s an incredibly busy time for planners and so recruiting them is a challenge. “It’s fair to say that nationally the demand […]
Posted inNews from the Front Desk
News from the front desk: Issue No 331 – On zoning changes and “winning the lottery”
NSW’s new planning minister Anthony Roberts has been in the papers this week, with the announcement that an expanded “priority precincts” program would occur around rail stations to foster development.
Posted inInfrastructure & transport, Spinifex
There is more than Trump that Australia can learn from the US election
During the November election in the US many people voted for local initiatives to pay for the infrastructure their town or city needed. In some cases, they voted to increase sales tax in order fund a 20-year transport improvement plan Look out the window at all the houses, roads, railways and buildings we’ve built over […]
Posted inNews from the Front Desk
News from the front desk: Issue No 320 – on housing and why it’s time for change
Sometimes the gods of exquisite timing smile upon us and we know the moment is right to seize the opportunity for action.
Posted inArticles, Business & Politics, Spinifex
Stokes on negative gearing? Not so fast, says Property Council
Every debate needs a strawman – and in the one about housing affordability, negative gearing is the chosen target. Tim Williams is the latest to position it so. In his piece for The Fifth Estate (28 November) he praises NSW Planning Minister’s Rob Stokes for his contribution to the debate on negative gearing. See Tim […]
Posted inHousing
NSW Minister Rob Stokes is right to call out negative gearing
The NSW Planning Minister Rob Stokes is right in his analysis of housing affordability – profoundly so. Despite claims to the contrary, we will not reduce house prices in Australia just by building more homes. We have tested that proposition both here and internationally. Here are the facts. Annual housing supply in Sydney has more […]
Posted inEvent News
A Surround Sound on housing: sustainable/affordable/disruptive
Housing is one of the touchstones of this year. We’ve seen prices soar and decent housing is now unaffordable for many people, young and old. But great challenges stimulate responses, and never before in Australia has the potential for change seemed so great. Developers, designers, planners, architects, various levels of government, financiers, materials manufacturers and […]