ISUF2020 is the annual urban form conference of the International Seminar of Urban Form (www.urbanform.org/). This organisation comprises geographers, architects and historians who study urban morphology. This year’s conference host was the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Utah. Dorina’s speech was part of the New Voices plennary session, which featured up … Continue reading
The Sunshine Coast design approach is an exemplar of government-initiated, community-led design that reflects local values in ‘good design’ to guide new public and private developments in that fast growing region of Australia. UQ|UP’s Laurel Johnson provided planning advice about design regulation to the Sunshine Coast Council during production of the Sunshine Coast Design Book. … Continue reading
Sydney’s pedestrian bottlenecks, Brisbane’s barren streetscapes and Perth’s freeway fiascos: cities across the country are making classic mistakes. Frustrating cities: behind Australia’s urban design fails: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/06/frustrating-cities-behind-australias-urban-design-fails. A story by The Guardian writer Naaman Zhou Continue reading
While a substantial amount of study of informal settlements has been undertaken, they remain largely unstudied in terms of urban form. The purpose of this article is to set forth a conceptual framework, which considers the context in which informality takes place, the settlement itself, the houses contained therein, the dwellers of those houses and … Continue reading
New research by UQ|UP, by former MURP student Enshan Hooi and Dr Dorina Pojani, studied 10 of Brisbane’s suburbs and how their high streets are designed. The research was featured by Brisbane Times, and Dr Pojani was interviewed by journalist Lucy Stone for the paper. Read the full piece: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/walking-through-beauty-how-brisbane-s-high-streets-could-change-the-way-we-live-20190122-p50sy1.html The research was also featured … Continue reading
If well planned and designed, suburban high streets can fulfil important economic functions and carry social significance, in addition to allowing for the passage of traffic. However, in newer cities which have been built around the automobile, suburban high streets have struggled to attract and retain customers. This study quantitatively assesses the design quality of … Continue reading
Adelaide is one of Australia’s foremost planned cities, and it is typified with a compelling parkland and grid system. In the innermost part of the city lies the grid-iron layout, and five central parks: Light Square, Whitmore Square, Hurtle Square and Hindmarsh. The city also features a greater parklands system which surrounds the Central Business District on all sides. However, these were not the most impressive aspect of Adelaide’s planning, from my brief research. The city radiates outwards, with the densest buildings located centrally, and there is a gradual decrease in height and density as buildings approach the parklands. This is often referred to as Adelaide’s pyramid planning. Continue reading