Conference

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

Owning Institution

The State of Australian Cities (SOAC) national conferences have been held biennially since 2003 to support interdisciplinary policy-related urban research. SOAC 7 was held in the City of Gold Coast and hosted by Griffith University.

The 164 peer reviewed papers were organised into seven broad themes but all shared, to varying degrees, a common focus on the ways in which high quality academic research can be used in the development and implementation of policy. The conference featured leading national and local politicians and policy makers who shared their views on some of the current challenges facing cities and how these might be overcome in the future.

Papers from all past and subsequent SOAC conferences can be found at the State of Australian Cities Conferences Collection on APO.

Conference paper

Time poor, health poor? Travel-related time poverty and resident health in a greenfield master-planned estate

11 Dec 2015

Larissa Nicholls,

Kath Phelan,

Cecily Maller

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

Master-planned estates (MPEs) on edges of cities are a major source of new housing in Australia. Concerns about limited local services and amenities and negative impacts on resident health have contributed to changes in design of some MPEs.

Conference paper

The zombies of sleepy hollow: reimagining Geelong

11 Dec 2015

Fiona Gray,

Matt Novacevski

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

This paper explores the Sleepy Hollow predicament and considers how the branding of Geelong might move beyond parody to better reflect its position as Victoria’s largest regional centre through an approach based on imageability, narrative, assets and investment.

Conference paper

Indicating quality of place for station precinct development: enhancing 'place' in the place/node model

11 Dec 2015

Anthony Duckworth-Smith,

Courtney Babb

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) aggregates urban activity and development around nodes in a public transport network. This research focuses on the underlying spatial qualities of precincts which would seem to be important in influencing their development towards TODs.

Conference paper

Green Urbanism in Australia: An Evaluation of Green Building Rating Schemes

11 Dec 2015

Jessica Holz,

Thomas Sigler

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

Creating sustainable cities requires rethinking the built environment, a fundamental component of mitigating the environmental impacts of buildings. To evaluate this, stakeholders in Australia increasingly rely on third party verification via green building rating schemes. These rating schemes address and encourage a variety of green features which are incorporated into the design and construction of...

Conference paper

Defining the inevitable: micro-practices of strategic spatial planning

11 Dec 2015

David Mitchell

7th State of Australian Cities Conference, 9-11 December 2015, Gold Coast, Australia

This paper examines the micro elements of strategic planning: the rules, shared understandings, and structures.