Arts, Design & Architecture City Futures Research Centre

City Futures Planning

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The Planning Program provides cross-cutting, impactful research on key urban planning and policy issues facing Australian cities, regions and beyond. Underpinned by a firm grounding and understanding of urban social and economic process and geospatial analysis, the Planning team has particular expertise in:

  • The design, dynamics and delivery of the Compact City, notably the drivers, implementation and lived outcomes of urban densification, suburban renewal and neighbourhood change.
  • Strategic and metropolitan planning frameworks, including housing market analysis, land use, spatial disadvantage, and governance arrangements for progressive, fair and productive cities
  • Integrating health considerations into urban planning and design, providing critical evidence to inform key policy, professional practice, and place making strategies
  • Urban and regional policy debate across all spatial scales, including planning for regional/mid-sized cities, regional growth and contemporary population shifts

Competitive advantage

Researchers in the Planning Program draw upon a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds including geography, economics, law, housing and city and regional planning. We also draw upon extensive expertise and insight in policy and practice with many in the group also benefitting from state and local government as well as private sector experience. Our team acts as the key nexus between City Futures research and the City Planning Program in the UNSW School of Built Environment – a partnership recognised as a world-class research hub and receiving the highest rating in the last three Australian Research Council (ARC) ERA assessment exercises for Urban and Regional Planning (in 2012, 2015 and 2018). Much of our research is supported by competitive (Category 1) grants through the ARC and AHURI and typically undertaken in partnership with policymakers across all levels of government and academic colleagues across Australia and internationally. This provides a unique platform for rigorous, evidence-based research that seeks to ask the critical issues facing our cities, regions and communities and helps drive action towards fair, productive, progressive, healthy and sustainable urban outcomes.

Impact

Our research seeks to address the critical challenges facing our cities through using evidence to not only provide policy-focused and directly relevant insight and toolkits to inform debate and practice, but also to give voice to the many stakeholders involved in shaping and stewarding our built environments. Our planning research has been recognised in Planning Institute Australia’s National Planning Awards, has informed and been cited in high level strategic and local planning reports, and our publications contribute to international academic debate on densification, urban renewal and healthy built environments. Government agencies seek our advice and expertise, and our team regularly make submissions to a range of Federal and State government Inquiries on planning and urban policy matters. Our research also provides a key resource in contemporary public debate through media engagement around key research insights.

Successful applications and research highlights

Planning program researchers have a strong funding track record, with an excellent portfolio of completed and underway projects funded by the ARC, AHURI and industry partners including state and local government and public sector agencies. A suite of ARC projects focused on building the evidence base for the Compact City has unpacked a breadth of design, governance, development, lived experience and renewal considerations tied to urban intensification. Highlights in our current research portfolio include analysis of development feasibility models and processes underpinning high-density residential development, and in-depth case studies of the experiences of owners in upzoned precincts and collective sales and land assembly activity. Recently completed AHURI research has contributed to policy debates on the future of Australian regional cities. Through the work of the Healthy Built Environments Program, planning, designing, developing and managing cities, towns and infrastructure to promote and protect health for all people is now seen as a core component of contemporary professional practice and policy formulation. Forward research will continue to build critical insights into the drivers and impacts of processes of urban change at all spatial scales and how planning and policy impacts upon city outcomes and lived experience.

Capabilities and facilities

The Planning team has expertise across a breadth of research techniques in support of our research and typically adopt a multi-methods approach in our work. We also work collaboratively with research teams nationally and internationally to underpin grounded, evidenced, accessible insight. We have extensive expertise in policy analysis and evaluation, case study research, undertaking expert and stakeholder in-depth interviews, survey design and implementation, conducting focus groups, and research which directly engages local communities in urban and regional futures. Much of our work benefits from the urban big data and analytical capabilities enabled through the City Analytics Lab (CAL). The Housing Analytics Lab (HAL) based in South Eveleigh offers a state-of-the art facility for academics, policymakers, practitioners and the community to collaborate on, and co-design, research activities. 

 

 

Teaching

Our research is closely linked to a number of courses within UNSW Built Environment at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.  The following courses are taught by City Shaping staff who leverage considerable research experience delivering the most up to date knowledge relevant to today’s changing urban landscape.

Projects

Current

AI, cities and development assessment: developing trustworthy support tools

This ARC Discovery project (2025-2027) investigates the legal, technical and ethical requirements for the trustworthy use of AI in urban Development Assessment, the regulatory process required for all new property development.

Bonnyrigg longitudinal study

The renewal of the Bonnyrigg public housing estate in western Sydney commenced in 2007 through a public private partnership (PPP), the first of its kind in social housing delivery in Australia.

Developing the compact city

This project aims to investigate the operation of the higher density multi-unit residential development sector in Australia’s largest city.

Reassembling the city: understanding resident-led collective property sales

This project examines the phenomenon and process of neighbouring residents acting together to sell their properties in areas of urban renewal, illustrated by case study research in Sydney and Vancouver.

Sydney, for me: understanding accessibility and mobility to everyday activities at a neighbourhood level

The project recommends which key data sources, priorities for improved measurement and data sharing are needed to implement these goals in NSW.

Wicks Road South Opportunities Assessment

The "Wicks Road South: Key Metrics and Implications for Macquarie Park Corridor" report assesses the feasibility of Wicks Road South as a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) precinct for.