Urban Planning
Events
What does a city made with care actually look like?
At Living Cities Forum 2026, Finn Williams, Ludwig Engel and Anupama Kundoo approached the future of cities through governance, adaptive reuse and material practice.
Events
We talk to Anupama Kundoo ahead of Living Cities Forum 2026
As the Living Cities Forum returns to Sydney and Melbourne this August, Kundoo — appearing alongside international speakers such as Finn Williams and Ludwig Engel — tells us about time, abundance and care in her work.
Events
Sydney Open gears up for some Home Truths
What does home mean to us and how does it shape the way we live? These questions and more will be the focus for the second Sydney Open Symposium on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th May, 2026.
Ideas
SyLon Report: Housing as infrastructure, housing in crisis
AFK Studios’ Earle Arney joined STORIESINDESIGN podcast last year to speak about SyLon. Here, we reproduce a summary on a recent report with NLA that builds on research into housing as infrastructure amidst a landscape of housing crisis.
Project
Student housing moves into the city
With projects such as Scape Kensington by Plus Studio, student accommodation in Sydney is shifting from isolated housing towards integrated urban infrastructure.
Events
Designing density with character in our inner suburbs
Kerstin Thompson of KTA and Neometro Director Lochlan Sinclair discuss density, character and the inner city during a recent gathering in St Kilda East.
Project
Pod hopping
Nestled in the heart of Chandigarh, TuBu is a burger joint that understands its clientele and the city it lives in.
Ideas
Architecture, democracy and feeling at home in our cities
The built environment is all around us; would the average citizen feel less alienated if the education system engaged more explicitly with it?
Ideas
NSW Government releases nine new architect-designed mid-rise housing patterns
The Minns Labor Government has unveiled nine new architect-designed mid-rise apartment patterns, expanding the NSW Housing Pattern Book and accelerating the delivery of accessible, high-quality housing across the state.
Events
Between Sydney and London: Earle Arney on Stories Indesign
The London-based architect was recently in Australia for SyLon, an event broadcast simultaneously in Sydney and London to explore housing solutions across both cities.
News
Sydney Open symposium launches with a deep dive into design, infrastructure and urban identity
Sydney Open Symposium launches 23 August, bringing together architects, planners and cultural leaders to explore the design and impact of the Sydney Metro Martin Place precinct.
Ideas
Ross Harding: What about the work-life balance of our cities?
The Finding Infinity Principal comments here on the question of balance in city life, with architecture and design highlighted as the key levers for making change.
Events
UNSW housing analytics lab launches in Sydney
A new analytics lab led by UNSW researchers will draw on generative AI in an attempt to tackle Australia’s housing crisis, and has opened with an event attended by the NSW Premier in Eveleigh.
Ideas
ArtMade Architects’ Director weighs in on NSW Housing Policy
With more NSW Housing Policy rolled out early this year, ArtMade Architects’ Sherif Saad comments on the importance of good design to its success.
Workplace
Hassell’s vision for Australia’s newest city in over a century starts with workplace design
In Western Sydney, Hassell’s First Building for Bradfield City Centre aims to be regenerative, adaptable and connected to First Nations culture.
Events
Where Melbourne goes next
Looking to the future, NH Architecture has collaborated with RMIT Architecture and embarked on years of research to understand and anticipate the urban landscape of Melbourne.
Project
Finding Brisbane’s 2032 sweet spot
With experience in the 2012 London and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, WilkinsonEyre is proposing a bold new vision to kickstart Brisbane 2032.
Events
Sydney-based architect is joint winner in Norman Foster Foundation competition
In a prestigious design competition for a site in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Jansen Che has been announced as one of three winners at the competition stage.
Ideas
Don’t demolish Flemington Estate, says OFFICE – ‘Retain, Repair, Reinvest’
Australia’s only not-for-profit architectural practice, OFFICE, is supporting the residents of Victoria’s housing estates in their fight to save their homes and communities.
Ideas
Comment: Designing for community harmony in mixed-use urban renewal
“The primary objective is to mitigate noise at the source” – this comment piece by Daniele Albanese, Head of Acoustics APAC, Cundall delves into how this pre-emptive solution can be soundly integrated.
Project
A win for high-quality housing with EM BE CE
EM BE CE’s competition-winning design for an inner-city affordable housing development achieves efficiency and durability without sacrificing elegant design.
News
The beating green heart of SJB’s plan for Sydney Olympic Park
The next phase for Sydney Olympic Park is now on exhibition as part of the SOP Master Plan 2050.
News
Sydney Metro Central and Crows Nest Stations open to public
Part of Australia’s largest public transport project, the Sydney Metro Chatswood to Sydenham line officially welcomed passengers on Monday 19th August.
Events
Learning from the Global South with Tosin Oshinowo
The Nigerian architect was recently in Australia for Melbourne Design Week. We spoke to her about the power of design in cities such as Lagos.
Ideas
Bradfield City Centre, the climate-responsive masterplan aiming to green Western Sydney
Designed by TURNER, Hatch Roberts Day and Turf Design Studio, the Bradfield City Centre masterplan is the blueprint for a new CBD taking shape in Sydney’s west.
Project
8 thought-provoking stories about housing and its multiple crises
From housing affordability to questions of density, multi-residential design and the future of cities, here are eight varied stories from our archives.
Ideas
The dialectic of colonialism: Rethinking maps, remaking our cities
Dallas Rogers, Head of Urban Discipline at the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney, comments on the history of map-making in our cities.
Ideas
Three Canberra architects on lessons from history for a planned city
We spoke with three architects currently practising in Canberra to investigate the city’s planned history and what it means to work in that shadow.
Events
WY-TO on well-being for all in tropical cities of the future
In a time of climate emergency, how can cities support and balance the needs of their people and the planet, while ensuring their prosperity?
Events
AI, Tokyo Metabolism and the city of the future
From INDESIGN #90, the ‘Future Cities’ issue, we consider a precedent from mid-century Japan in terms of confronting crises and rapid technological change.
Ideas
Meet Dikshu Kukreja, a man of vision
Dikshu Kukreja is a man of stature. Not only is he a leader in architecture and design, he conceives projects and speaks of change that looks to a future of more thoughtful, sustainable urbanism.
Ideas
‘Sticky tenants’ with Make Architects: UK learnings for Australian build-to-rent
What can Australian build-to-rent (BTR) developers learn from the experienced UK market and how can these lessons be applied locally? Frank Filskow shares valuable insights from Make’s work and research in the UK and Australia.
Events
Three essential changes: NSW AIA criticises the state’s Affordable Housing Strategy
The NSW Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects, led by president Adam Haddow, voices concerns about the NSW Affordable Housing Strategy, citing a risk of abuse for financial gain. The Institute advocates for permanent affordable housing, management by registered non-profits and a restriction on development approval times to deter land banking.
Events
Sustainable, livable and naturally urban: Sydney’s future at the VIVID Collectivity Talks
While Sydney’s VIVID celebration is typically associated with stunning visuals and light shows, it is also a place to ponder the futures of the harbour city.
Ideas
Comment: Why is it important to communicate the value of architecture?
In this comment piece, Lindy Johnson, director of Lindy Johnson Creative, urges architecture to communicate its value. Johnson says that architects are needed more than ever but their value is highly underrated — and that we’re all the poorer for it.
News
New tool helps you experience a city like a toddler
Using a custom virtual reality tool, the Proximity of Care Design guide is intended to help developers and designers create urban environments that are more liveable for pregnant women, children, their caregivers — and in fact everyone.
News
“The missing middle”: Contemporary terraces and the future of urban density
SJB is well versed in designing residential architecture and, while Ashbury Terraces might be a relatively small project in relation to Sydney as a whole, it provokes some fundamental questions about the future of Australian cities.
Project
CapitaSpring is vertical urbanism done right
Designed by Bjark-Ingels Group in collaboration with Carlo Ratti Associati, CapitaSpring is a perfect case study for a biophilic skyscraper in the city.
Project
Working where the grass is greener: Turner Studio’s Norwest Business Park
This Sydney business park by Turner Studio has its own amenity-rich mixed-use precinct – a slice of CBD life in the ‘burbs.
Project
<strong>City Gather Park: Where art, nature and people come together</strong>
In the City Gather Park in Changsha, China, Chengdu-based Dean Design merges natural ecology and urban life with installations to create a memorable and poetic respite in the heart of the city.
Ideas
Wellness-driven cities can be an antidote to loneliness
What makes a healthy town centre in 2022? HDR director, Alex Wessling, comments on how important it is for architects to place wellness at the very centre of neighbourhood and town centre design.
Ideas
“We want more green space, less traffic”: The case for placemaking in Perth
Buchan’s Andre Jones outlines five factors that will positively impact on the design evolution of Perth. From policy to population, biophilic measures and sense of place. Read Andre’s insights here.
Ideas
How can privately owned public space transform our cities?
From 1960s New York when private developers were incentivised to create civic space in the public realm, to today: where POPS tread a fine line between the private and the public. Denton Corker Marshall looks at how we can bridge the two.
Project
This ribbon-like infrastructure is more than just a pedestrian bridge
Integrating connectivity, biodiversity, culture and ecology, this pedestrian bridge by the Melbourne-Shanghai-based firm, BAU, is a hybrid public destination for leisure and relaxation.
Ideas
Making placemaking endemic in our post-pandemic city
As cities emerged from the pandemic with plans to become more resilient, it is an opportunity to engage people in better placemaking. Regular columnist Justin Zhuang shares his perspective.
People
Manuel Der Hagopian: Public housing advocate
Manuel Der Hagopian of G8A believes that public housing is necessary to maintain social balance and that good architecture which serves people is borne of a deep understanding of time and place.
Ideas
How Adelaide became Australia’s most liveable city
Hames Sharley MD, Cailin Howard, and DWP’s Adelaide-based CEO, Michael Hegarty, how Adelaide’s planning has paid off in the 2021 Global Liveability Index.
Project
SJB reveals the latest development in its masterplan
A new urban design and planning project coming to the NSW Central Coast, courtesy of SJB, will add a new notch to the leading architects’ belt.
Ideas
Singapore’s resilience in the face of the pandemic
How adaptable and resilient is the Master Plan 2019 set forth by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)? Indesignlive.sg investigates.
Project
SJB, DBJ and TZG teach us a lesson in design excellence
Radical collaboration between three of Australia’s leading architecture studios and local council has realised Newcastle as an exemplar of design excellence objectives at work.
Project
“AACC will be a building of the 21st century, flexing to curation, use and time”
Concept designs by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Woods Bagot for a new Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre in Adelaide have been revealed.
Project
Behold the timeless winning design for Pier Pavilion, Sydney
Jessica Spresser may be an emerging Australian architect but her design for Pier Pavilion — a new public pavilion to be developed at Barangaroo, Sydney — is timeless.
Ideas
When did placemaking become a private business matter?
For whom and for what reasons do we make ‘places’? Could a more inclusive approach to placemaking improve social connections and opportunities?
Ideas
Architectus leads Western Sydney in a sustainable direction
In cahoots with Bligh Tanner and Sydney Water, Architectus has explored urban typologies and stormwater management, with a look to shape a sustainable urban environment in Western Parkland City.
News
Fender Katsalidis and SOM win bid to design Silicon Valley, down under
Fender Katsalidis and SOM’s triumphant design for Central Place, a $2.5 billion commercial development as part of Sydney Tech Central, has been unveiled.
News
Celebrating the launch of Architectus Urban Design and Planning Melbourne
Victorian design just got better! Renowned design firms Architectus has launched its Urban Design and Planning arm for the city of Melbourne.
Project
Is this the world’s most liveable suburb?
Melbourne’s YarraBend has been marked as the world’s most liveable suburb, but what makes it so? We hear from Glenvill’s strategic director, Ashley Bramich, as well as the forecaster who made the claim, Martin Raymond of The Future Laboratory.
Ideas
Train station design done right – Indesign’s top 5
Can train station design be more than a boring tube to funnel commuters to and from work? These 5 stations show a more beautiful side of urban design.
Ideas
De-Smarting the City
Are cities too clean, too predictable and ultimately too smart for their own good? Taking Korea’s Songdo as an example, Adam Scott from FreeState, and Global Head of Design at HASSELL tells us how we might just be missing the mark when it comes to planning a city.
Ideas
Education Hits the Road in Uganda
A multidisciplinary team in Kampala will transform the urban landscape with MatatArt, a mobile educational arts facility.
Project
State of the Art: Sydney Opera House Renewal
The Sydney Opera House has unveiled designs for an impressive renewal project by ARM architecture. While an upgrade might be long overdue, are we overlooking the bigger picture?
Events
Vertical Cities: Looking Up
This four-day event considered the ever-pressing issue of urbanisation, and how the design and architecture community can build up in a sustainable and efficient way.