City Futures
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DOWNSIZING SURVEYHave you moved home, or thought about it since turning 50? This survey has now closed. |
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REPORT LAUNCHThe Governing the Compact City Report will be launched on 21st May. |
2011
ARC Success
City Futures has been successful in securing the following 2 ARC Grants:
Living Together: The rise of multigenerational households in Australian cities
Increasing numbers of Australians are living in households consisting of multiple generations of related adults, especially in our major cities. This project will determine the principal drivers of this increase in multigenerational households. It will demonstrate the dynamic relationships between the financial, political, demographic, social and cultural factors influencing the nature and extent of theses households. It will provide insight into intergenerational family relationships and individuals' understandings of family and home; challenge and extend understandings of intergenerational dependency; and provide valuable information to enable policy-makers better plan for urban development and forecast demand for services and subsidies.
Livable bathrooms for older people: Designing out dependence in activities of daily living
Current bathroom environments may not support the functional performance of older people and the assistive technologies helpful for bathing are under-developed and underutilised among older people living at home. A lack of knowledge about bathing environments, uncertainty about the design preferences of older people, lack of basic human factors data, design guides and standards without adequate validation process, and reports of design practice not based on empirical evidence are hallmarks of current bathroom design research. As part of a collaboration with GWA the largest single supplier of Australian sanitary ware, this research will assist in incorporating human factor and computational knowledge obtained in partnership with older people.
This 3 year ARC Linkage project will be undertaken in partnership with Caroma Industries.
AHURI Multi Year Research Project: Addressing Concentrations
of Social Disadvantage
City Futures has recently won a tender to lead the major multi-year project for AHURI with a total grant value of $721,000. Under the Directorship of Professor Hal Pawson, the project will bring together a series of work programs and will involving City Futures working in partnership with housing researchers at Swinburne University and the University of Queensland, and a number of international experts – including Professor George Galster in the US and Prof. Peter Williams in the UK- will complement the team. A research plan has been structured to explore three key issues. Firstly, understanding how concentrations of social disadvantage have been conceptualised and how this relates to our broader understanding of the operation and impacts of housing and urban systems. Secondly, identifying the impacts of spatial disadvantage, and the importance of housing and place in mediating the incidence and experience of residents of disadvantaged areas. Thirdly, the research will consider how policymakers, practitioners and communities can respond to spatial disadvantage in ‘best for people, best for place’ terms.
New CFRC Staff
City Futures Research Centre is please to inform that we have recently had three new staff members joining our Centre:
Prof Hal Pawson has joined us from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, where he retains a professorship in the Institute for Housing, Urban and Real Estate Research. At Heriot-Watt, Hal led numerous government-funded studies in both England and Scotland. Hal is a social researcher specialising in housing policy, and his key interests include housing needs and homelessness, the provision and management of social housing and neighbourhood regeneration.
Dr Crystal Legacy recently commenced employment as a Research Associate with City Futures. She previously held a position as a Post Doctoral Researcher at the University of Melbourne working on a project for UN-Habitat and Women in Cities International.
Ryan van den Nouwelant has joined City Futures as a part time Senior Research Officer. Up until joining our Centre he worked as a Planner at City of Sydney Council. Ryan has also recently started a PhD at Built Environment looking at Place management and conflict mediation in mixed-use neighbourhoods.
Building Stronger Communities Final Evaluation
City Futures Research Centre, in partnership with the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences’ Social Policy Research Centre, has won a $300,000 tender from Housing NSW to conduct the final evaluation of the Building Stronger Communities initiative. This project will involve a large telephone survey with public housing residents of the 6 priority locations that underwent the initiative, as well as in-depth interviews and focus groups with the local regeneration teams, project partners and other stakeholders. This project commenced in late May and will conclude in December 2011.
Click here for more information.
Vivienne Milligan - Honorary Appointment with Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh Scotland
Associate Professor Vivienne Milligan has been appointed Honorary Research Fellow in the School of the Built Environment, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh Scotland from March 2011 to July 2014. This appointment coincided with the establishment of a new research group in that school, to be known as the Institute for Housing, Urban and Real Estate Research (IHURER). A number of leading UK-based urban and housing researchers in the group already have strong links with City Futures, including Professor Glen Bramley (head of IHURER), Professor Suzanne Fitzpatrick and Professor Hal Pawson, who is joining City Futures in July 2011.
For more information on the new centre please have a look at the Centre's website.
Housing Industry Association Summit:
Building Better Cities – Australia’s Density Challenge at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, 12 May 2011
The Summit addressed the key development challenge of accommodating Australia’s growing urban populations. Prof Randolph’s presentation discussed the range of current barriers to the delivery of urban renewal targets through infill and offered a suite of policy solutions, based on an integrated place focused policy framework.
Click here to download Prof Randolph’s presentation
Comment: A divided city?
'Left to the market, Sydney will become ever more polarised and unequal in the distribution of affordable housing and the good life', writes Professor Bill Randolph to Sydney Morning Herald.
Click here to view Bill Randolph's opinion piece.
Where will Planning be after 26 March?
Invitation to Seminar featuring David Broyd,
Group Manager, Sustainable Planning, Port Stephens Council
TIME: Wednesday 16 March, 6.00pm—8.00pm
VENUE: Hugh Dixson Theatre (G03), Ground Floor , AGSM Building, Gate 11 Botany Street, University of NSW
Planning is at a crossroads in NSW, maybe at a precipice!
Where do you think that planning should be after the State election?
What are the main messages that should be sent to the major political parties about the future of planning in this state?
In this special seminar, one of NSW’s most experienced planners, David Broyd, presents his thoughts about the future of the planning system in NSW. Based on his recent paper "Where to Planning? ", David will outline a set of key reforms that might rekindle the public’s trust in and the effectiveness of the NSW planning system. He will be joined on the platform by a guest panel of senior planners and commentators, including Malcolm Ryan, Director of Planning and Development Services at Warringah Council and Tony MacNamara – Director of Planning at Canada Bay Council and NSW President of the Planning Institute of Australia. Other guest speakers have been approached.
David’s paper is available to download from the following link.
David's view is that planning in NSW needs a comprehensive re-think and that the NSW Planning system has been subject of excessive, piecemeal, ad-hoc and politically expedient changes that have made it a system in need of comprehensive reform and new directions. He therefore proposes a range of proposals for the incoming State Government to achieve that comprehensive reform of planning in NSW.
David will present his ideas for change and the seminar will invite engagement from the guest panel and the audience to raise the debate on the ideas that David will present. The outcome of the seminar will be to make further submissions to the NSW Labour Party, NSW Coalition and NSW Greens to advocate change for those ideas and proposals from David that have total or majority support from the audience.
David has been in Senior Management positions in Local Government Planning for 20 year, including positions as Director Development Services at Tweed Shire Council, and Director of Environment and Planning at Wollongong City Council. David took up the position in April 2006 as Group Manager Sustainable Planning at Port Stephens Council, and he still holds that position. He is a fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia since 1997 and he was the NSW President of the Planning Institute of Australia between 2000 and 2004.
A Free Event but please RSVP before Monday 14 March to:
Maria Schwensen, Ph: 02 9385 7777
Or via e-mail: m.schwensen@unsw.edu.au
2011 AHURI Funding Round Outcome
Results of the 2011 AHURI Funding Round have been released and City Futures Research Centre have been successful with four bids:
- Understanding leadership, strategy and organisational dynamics in the not-for-profit housing sector
This study will examine decision making, leadership and organisational dynamics in the Australian not for profit housing sector drawing on international studies and experts. - Downsizing amongst older Australians
This project aims to understand the extent of downsizing amongst older Australians, who is doing it, and the motivations, obstacles and financial and social consequences of downsizing. - Multi-generation households in Australian cities (Essay)
This essay will draw on recent Census data on quantifying the number of multi-generational households; consider the drivers of cohabitation amongst adults of different generations; and raise questions about its effects on psychological, economic and social wellbeing. - Affordable housing, urban renewal, and planning: Emerging practice in NSW, South Australia and Queensland
This project aims to review the new planning powers in NSW under the State Environmental Planning Policy to examine how planning and housing policy domains can work together to increase affordable housing supply and their effectiveness.
The four Research Projects have a total value of $512,867.
Congratulations to our Researchers on the great outcome!
ARC Linkage Success
The City Futures Research Centre has been involved in a successful ARC Linkage application titled Understanding 'encounter' as a dimension of social inclusion for people with intellectual disability.
Drawing on ideas from disability studies and human geography, and using the concept of ‘encounter’, this research aims to develop greater conceptual clarity about the meaning of social inclusion for people with intellectual disability, and to explore the influence of the social and built environment on opportunities for people with intellectual disability to be socially included. It explores the types of ‘encounters’ experienced by people with intellectual disability in their local areas to identify factors that support or inhibit encounters. This knowledge will inform development of strategies to facilitate social inclusion for people with intellectual disability.
The project is led by Prof. Christine Bigby from La Trobe University. Ilan Vizel from City Futures is a Chief Investigator. Prof Jim Mansell and Dr Julie Beadle-Brown from the Tizard Centre at the University of Kent in the UK are both Partner Investigators. Jewish Care and Yooralla – two disability services providers in Victoria – are the Industry Partners for this project. An Early Career Researcher Grant provided by Faculty of the Built Environment provided some of the resources necessary for the preparation of the Linkage application. Laura Davy from HMInfo at our faculty has provided valuable support in developing and writing the application.
While none of the other submitted applications were successful, two came in the top band of near misses, one of which (led by A/Prof Bruce Judd, E/Prof Ian Burnley and Dr Hazel Easthope) was awarded an UNSW Gold Star grant of $40,000 to assist the team to further refine the application for re-submission in 2011.
Housing Theory Symposium: Housing and Urban Change
17-18 March 2011, Sydney
Housing has been a central theme in recent debates about the major challenges facing cities today. Climate change, ageing, immigration and other key challenges are experienced or anticipated as drivers for significant transformations in cities. Such transformations may expose the limitations of existing housing systems, but also give rise to new housing opportunities. A better understanding of the links between housing and urban change is therefore critical for researchers interested in housing theory. At the same time, these close links with urban studies challenge housing researchers to continue and explore the unique nature and contribution of housing theory.
The relationship between housing and urban change is the central theme of the fourth Housing Theory Symposium. The symposium aims to bring together housing researchers with an interest in housing theory from a range of perspectives and disciplines.
Attendance at the symposium is free for those presenting a paper and includes lunch and snacks for both days.
A small number of free places may also be available for participants who wish to attend without presenting a paper. Please contact Ilan Vizel at i.vizel@unsw.edu.au to reserve your place.
Page Last Updated: 16 Jan 2012