Design and architecture

Fixing Australia’s housing crisis

Remember the housing crisis dominating the 2022 election? Three years on, the conversation feels frustratingly familiar, but there is a path forward.

Architecture

Public housing demolition should be a last resort

Plans to knock down and rebuild 44 Melbourne public housing towers are flawed. Retrofitting and upgrading is feasible, cheaper, and better for people and the planet.

Design and architecture

Grand designs: Improving World Health Organisation guidelines

Through consultations with more than 70 end-users, Monash University and the World Health Organisation have developed five core design principles to improve accessibility, clarity, and relevance of the organisation’s health guidelines.

Design and architecture

Building in the same old ways won’t end the housing crisis

Without innovation in all five building phases, the industry won’t have the capacity to meet market demands or to deliver the social and affordable housing the government is promising.

Architecture

How to give natural systems the space to recover from the cities built over them

Cities are starting to restore natural systems such as waterways, wetlands and bushland. But restoration on the scale these systems need to function properly calls for a rethink of urban planning.

Architecture

Artist's impression of the proposed new Kementerian Sekretariat Negara government building in Indonesia's new capital, Nusantara.

Indonesia’s capital relocation mirrors the move of the country’s former colonisers

Leaving behind the troubled city of Jakarta isn’t a new development in Indonesia’s history.

Architecture

What makes a great city building?

While each city building is part of an overall urban composition, its individual impacts are also important. Here are eight of Melbourne’s best.

Architecture

A map showing the relocation of Indonesia's capital city from Jakarta to Borneo,

Urbanisation in Indonesia, and the sinking city

Is Indonesia's proposed new capital in Borneo a model for sustainable urban transformation in Southeast Asia, or an impending environmental disaster?

Design and architecture

On the move: The changing face of urban mobility

Electric scooters, e-bikes and other forms of micromobility have set the wheels in motion for a revolution in the way we move around cities.

Design and architecture

Diabetes jewellery aimed at reducing the stigma for those who would ordinarily need to inject on a daily basis.

Making health technology human through wearable devices and smart jewellery

Human-centred design approaches can help solve some of our most pressing health challenges.

Design and architecture

Flight to the regions: Will working from home change our cities for good?

Cities and regions can capitalise on the benefits of the COVID-induced intercity and intracity migration, but it will require a pivot in planning and design policy.

Design and architecture

A man in a boat paddles past rubbish on the Citarum River, West Java, Indonesia.

Saving Citarum: Cleaning up one of the world’s most polluted rivers

The Citarum River in Indonesia is the focus of a revitalisation project, and a Monash University cross-faculty team has been called on to help make it happen.

Sustainability

Penn with a plan: Bringing beauty through urban design

Monash University Architect Shelley Penn AM’s commitment is to enrich society by refining the built environment.

Design and architecture

Digital image depicting NFTs, or non-fungible tokens

The paradox of NFTs: What are people actually paying for?

Colloquially known as ‘Nifties’, non-fungible tokens have recently hit the headlines. But is there any real value in a digital asset?

Culture

Safe in the city? Shifting the focus on CCTV and women’s safety

Public-space cameras are meant to make us feel safer, but women don’t always see them that way.

Politics and society

Men and women cycling along a busy road.

Forget your fixie, we're more likely to ride bikes if we can carry more on them

Australian bicycles are largely influenced by sport, not utility. We should embrace cargo bikes for their usefulness.

Design and architecture

An elderly woman pushing the button on a voice-activated speaker, with a smartphone in her other hand.

Getting smart: Seniors see the benefits of technology in the home

A new study highlights how a group of older Australians engaged with smart-home technologies to enhance their wellbeing and independence.

Technology

The Djab Wurrung embassy at the birthing tree on the Western Highway

Indigenous people have much to teach the rest of us about the value of trees

How do you measure the worth of a tree? A forester sees the value of the timber, an environmentalist sees a habitat for possums, insects and birds, and an Indigenous Australian sees the tree as part of the living web of Country.

Politics and society

Two masked Asian women sitting on the ground hugging, and comforting each other

US shootings should ring alarm bells in Australia – the same racist sexism exists here

Like the US, Australia’s "massage parlours" are reliant on the prostitution, fetishisation and trafficking of Asian women.

Politics and society

A design for the end of life

The death of a family member inspired a rethinking of palliative care to make it more of a home away from home.

Medicine and health

The William Barak apartment building in Melbourne's CBD

Reconciliation through architecture: A chance to build on the past

Can architecture be a tool for acknowledging Australia’s original inhabitants?

Design and architecture

Manufacturing an opportunity: Will COVID-19 change city life for the better?

The COVID-19 crisis presents an opportunity to revive manufacturing.

Design and architecture

Why arts funding matters now more than ever

During the COVID-19 crisis, we need the arts more than ever to feel connected, but it's also exposed the fragility of the sector.

Politics and society