John Suckling, Chairman, ReStart, Christchurch to speak at this year's Urban Design Conference in Melbourne

John Suckling

In Christchurch, New Zealand, Re:START have used shipping crates to form a temporary retail center on the site of the Cashel Mall that was destroyed in the 2011 earthquake.

Having received funding from the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal and ASB bank, Re:START created the project in order to stimulate economic recovery and tourism in the city center while plans are made for a more permanent use of the space.

The precinct currently features 27 shops, including a variety of retailers and two cafés, and a series of concerts were used to mark its opening, which coincided with the activity and excitement around this year’s New Zealand Cup and Show week.

Mayor Bob Parker believes the mall will restore pride in the city, saying “is the beginning of our city making the most extraordinary comeback”. The video below shows the temporary mall in more detail:

The  5th International Urban Design Conference 2012 - The Hilton on the Park, Melbourne, Victoria 10th to the 12th of September - 2012 - www.urbandesignaustralia.com.au

Dubai, City of Vision and Challenge

Dubai is historically influenced by sea trade and seafarer, and associated tales of visions and adventures.

Roxy Binno

Dubai development follows the visions of its successive Rulers. The visions are so far well shared and supported by the locals and elites. It seems that Dubai’s leadership had acquainted itself with the knowledge of the opportunities waiting for city within its region, and learned how to be competent globally with all the ups and downs. It took tolerance, and challenging efforts to brand the city and mark it on the world map. In this case, it is true to quote “When we dream alone, it is only a dream. But when we dream together, it is the beginning of reality.”

Dubai emerged during the last decade as modern metropolitan area with diverse and wide range of complex aspects. Since 1950, Dubai’s hybrid population grew about 100 times, and its urban fabric extended 400 times approximately. Dubai’s growth is economically driven, but its spatial urban development is design led.

The rapid development of modern Dubai became well known on the world map as a city of free zones and iconic mega projects. The latter cover large territories and some mega projects are initially intended to accommodate more than 1.0 million inhabitants. The mega projects constitute cities within a city with specialized themes and functions such as Academic City, Medical City, etc; and include front end residential areas and compounds, and activity hubs; etc.

The Free Zones include the whole spectrum of manufacturing, trading and services and almost cover the global markets. The case of Dubai could represent a lesson on urban development based on vision, design, and challenge. It will cover an overview of the relevant contexts and trends of urbanization and related concerns and challenges.

Mr Roxy Binno, Expert of Planning and Urban Design, Municipality of Dubai, will speak at:
the  5th International Urban Design Conference 2012 - The Hilton on the Park, Melbourne, Victoria 10th to the 12th of September - 2012 - www.urbandesignaustralia.com.au

Watch A Fascinating Short Film On How Cities Will Drive Global Change

Cities are the future, and innovations to make them better, smarter, and faster are happening every day. Take a beautiful tour of some of the most interesting urban projects and thinking going on today.

Urban Design News - Australia

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Town planning hastening the slide to isolation The Australian With a quarter of all households now single-person homes, with isolation a key contributor to loneliness, and with loneliness a factor in life-expectancy reducing issues such as obesity and depression, there is a role for urban design in helping people ...

Adelaide tops table on city planning The Australian It looked at whether planning was integrated and hierarchical, provided for nationally-significant infrastructure, addressed population growth and climate change, allowed for ordered land releases, encouraged world-class urban design and architecture ...

Australia's Leighton Properties Starts $1.7 Billion Mixed-Use Sydney Project World Property Channel Established in 1972 it is a 100% owned subsidiary of Leighton Holdings, Australia's largest contracting and developing Group. Mark Gray, Managing Director Leighton Properties said the milestone marked the next steps for Australia's largest urban ...

Capital city planning at 'watershed point' Brisbane Times The region was assessed according to nine criteria set by the Council of Australian Governments' council, but southeast Queensland scored only "partially consistent" in investment and innovation; urban design and architecture; performance measures; ...

New design rules for Adelaide buildings Ninemsn "We want the best and brightest engineers, architects and developers, not just in South Australia but around the world, to focus on Adelaide where the future of urban design is now a reality, not just an aspiration." Lord Mayor Stephen Yarwood said the ...

5th International Urban Design Conference, Melbourne 2012, Call for Papers Now Open

Download the 2011 Proceedings

OPPORTUNISTIC URBAN DESIGN - 2012 

Authors or organisations interested in submitting a paper or presenting a workshop are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 300 words outlining the aims, contents and conclusions of their paper or presentation; or about their intended role in a workshop. 
Important Dates
Call for Abstracts Open: 28th November 2011
Call for Abstracts Close: 14th May 2012
Notification to Presenters: 29th May 2012
Presenters Acceptance Close: 6th June 2012
Full Papers for Peer Review: 18th July 2012
Acceptance/Modification of full paper: 15th August 2012
Final academic-refereed papers due: 29th August 2012

Conference Streams

1. Political Strategies

2. Design Approaches

3. Initiators & Entrepreneurs

4. Finance & Funding

5. Open Papers

All proposals will be reviewed by  the Conference Program Committee. Presentations will be selected to provide a program that offers a comprehensive and diverse treatment of issues related to the conference theme.

Authors will be notified by e-mail of the outcome of their abstract submission.

All accepted abstracts will be published in the book of proceedings with an ISBN number and distributed through the National Library Canberra.

www.urbandesignaustralia.com.au