Measuring Urban Change Readiness: Insights and Implications
Australian cities are rapidly transforming. To make these shifts beneficial and fair, it's important to understand how they impact our communities. This understanding can guide us in better planning and managing these changes. It can also help us develop strategies to build community support for urban change.
Navigating Urban Change: A Call to Action
Over the next two decades, Australia is set to experience a profound change in its urban environment due to population increase, economic shifts, climate change goals, and urban equity issues. The challenge lies in managing these changes effectively.
Urban change leadership: Why community readiness beats selling change
Urban change leaders must recognise the crucial role of fostering community readiness, rather than simply promoting change, in the successful implementation of transformative growth initiatives in our cities and towns.
Embracing the future: Communities are open to sustainable urban growth
Australian communities undergoing rapid change show a surprising willingness to adopt sustainable urban growth, according to recent surveys conducted as part of Studio THI’s Step-Change Cities Partnership practice exchange.
Step-Change Cities Partnership: Preparing communities for urban growth
More than 100 practitioners from 13 forward-thinking organisations are joining forces to assess how ready their communities are for urban growth and develop new strategies for helping navigate rapid change.
Housing reform can start with more informed communities
Community sentiment around development is one of the biggest hurdles facing governments in any discussion about housing.
Students lead the way in developing community understanding of urban change
Queensland University of Technology students have responded to a challenge from Studio THI to help develop ways to enable and promote community-driven urban change for people living in high-growth areas in Australia.
Practical approaches to leading communities through rapid growth
Councillors from metropolitan and regional areas around Australia are consolidating their knowledge about how to best help their communities navigate rapid growth.
Councillors play a crucial role in helping communities navigate urban change
Councillors are often the closest elected officials to the community, talking about changes big and small, connecting council policy and programs to the community and the values and needs of the community back to council. But how much support do they have to help their communities navigate major change?
Why we need a new approach to lead communities through urban change
Studio THI challenged more than 50 urbanists to take a different approach to strategic planning during a Leading Transformational Urban Change workshop at the Planning Institute of Australia Planning Conference.
Communities are an under-utilised asset in the transformation of our cities
Valuable insights and potential solutions to sustainable urban change are being missed because we are not adequately preparing communities to be innovation partners in the transformation of our cities.
Leaders, culture, community knowledge the key to sustainable urban change
More than 50 Sunshine Coast urbanists have highlighted the development of transition leaders and cultural programs and the need to broaden general community awareness as critical factors in the success of sustainable urban change in their community.
Why early intervention is the missing piece in urban community engagement
Current practice around community engagement is not enough to lead major urban transformation or to shape equitable and resilient urban futures. There needs to be a step-change process in community engagement to ensure a sustainable transformation of our cities.
Building low-carbon urban futures
Cities play an ever-increasing role in addressing climate change, and some of the world’s leading cities are taking action to respond to the climate crisis and to shape more sustainable futures. Urban planners have been pushing for the establishment of zero carbon precincts and to ensure buildings, roads and other infrastructure are geared towards tackling climate change.
Shifting gears: Why we need to plan for more bicycles and less cars
To create a sustainable transport system and reduce CO2 emissions, we need to reduce the car's importance in planning and instead highlight the role of the bicycle in planning infrastructure and prioritise cycling infrastructure. In order to do that the current car culture needs to be addressed and changed.
Urban leadership as change management, do we have the right skills?
What does it take to lead transformational urban change? How do we build the right skills and capabilities across the urban development ecosystem? These are just some of the key questions Studio THI is currently exploring.
Why does urban literacy matter?
Australia is one of the most urbanised countries in the world, with close to 90 per cent of the population living in major urban areas. But while urban areas are good for economic growth, they’ve also earned a reputation for a whole host of societal issues. So how can building urban literacy help us better manage growth and change within urban spaces?
City views: Why we need a new outlook on urban growth strategies
Cities have been growing at a rapid pace and have proven to be powerful drivers of economic growth. This requires a shift in how we view our cities, moving from just consequences of growth and development, to opportunities to address environmental and social challenges.
Stop shying away from stakeholders
While many governments and organisations might espouse the idea of stakeholder engagement, in reality, it’s generally considered an arduous, angst-fuelled exercise which reeks of effort and returns minimal value. But meaningful stakeholder engagement has huge potential and shouldn’t be shied away from