Thursday, 5 September 2013

Book Recommendation


Made in Australia: The Future of Australian Cities

By Richard Weller and Julian Bolleter

How do you creatively plan for a population of 62 million by 2100? Australia’s current major city planning frameworks only account for an additional 5.5 million people. Whether we want a ‘Big Australia’ or not, Australia’s 21st century is likely to see rapid and continual growth — and if we want liveable, high functioning cities and regional centres we need to think outside the box. 

Of course, many things could change between now and then but for the purposes of planning we think it is prudent to take this figure seriously. So what does this big number mean? It means we would need to house an extra 40 million Australians over the course of the next 87 years. This means building the equivalent of an extra 10 Sydneys – one every 9 years!


Richard Weller and Julian Bolleter (from the Australian Urban Design Research Centre) offer optimistic and creative solutions for the future with one imperative: what we build this century will make or break our country. The authors explore where these people might live so that Australia remains ecologically resilient, socially amenable and economically productive.

  • Part 1 – Big Cities, Big Ideas, Big Australia: Australia; Visionary Cities; and Visionary Infrastructure.
  • Part 2 – Australian Cities 2012–56: Sydney; Brisbane and SEQ; Melbourne; Perth; Adelaide; Canberra; Hobart; Darwin; and Growing Pains.
  • Part 3 – Australian Cities 2101?: Australian Megaregions and New Cities; The East Coast Megaregion (ECM); The West Coast Megaregion (WCM); and Darwin – The New North.
  • Part 4 – Essays: Living with the Land; Back to the Future; Urban Resilience & Adaptation; Urban Metabolism: A way to make Australian cities more efficient?; Infrastructure: Now and then; New Settlements on the Fringe: Understanding contemporary peri-urbanisation; And now for the good news…; Cities as Water Catchments; Coding the City; and Follow the Money.
  • Part 5 – Designs: Boyd’s Error: Planning’s curse; Infill Precincts; Mean Streets; A National Green Network for Australia.
 Buy it now from Amazon

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