1.62 Sustainable Centres of Tomorrow: People and Place

Australian cities are going through a transition, with a clear priority to make more productive, sustainable, liveable centres. This project follows on from previous SBEnrc research which examined how to deliver better connected and integrated cities using land development opportunities and how emerging public transport technologies such as the Trackless Tram could unlock this. This project will create a framework from world’s best practice principles, tools and governance models, tested against a number of Australian case studies for sustainable centres of tomorrow. The improved value outcomes of such urban design will complement the work done on transit enhanced value. The framework will establish how such design can accelerate public and private investment decisions for urban centres and integrated transit technology that are more people and place friendly.

Objectives

The specific objectives of this project are to:

Identify a framework of world’s best practice principles, tools and governance models that will help accelerate the transformation of urban centres into being more people and place-oriented.
Identify how innovations in transit technology (such as Trackless Trams and autonomous shuttles), affordable housing and place-making, can be integrated into these urban transformation projects to help improve the value outcome of such projects.
Examine the most appropriate delivery mechanisms for the above as an integrated package.
Test and refine the above framework on city centres and sub-centres across Australia to identify how they can be transformed as part of the growing need to revitalise existing urban areas.

Industry Outcomes

This project will:

Enhance understanding and build the capacity of planners, developers and relevant agencies in best practice approaches to making our cities more liveable and vibrant.
Deliver a framework of principles, tools and governance models to help guide better investment decisions around revitalisation of urban centres and how new transit technology can unlock this.
Provide clear advice to decision makers on how innovations in transit technology, affordable housing and place-making can be activated to achieve such transformations.
Provide case studies to inform better practice by the sharing of real experiences, thereby assisting planners and other agencies in how to take up the new opportunities in urban revitalisation.