Abstract: Cities are often said to be the engines of the global economy in an age of rapid urbanization. Cardependent cities - particularly those that characterize North America and Australasia - are largely cities of suburban sprawl, freeways, shopping malls and poor public transport. They are also cities of great opportunity for significant reductions in carbon emissions through transit-oriented intensification within existing suburbs. Such development, however, depends on a multi-scalar understanding that links the shaping of built form and public space at an urban design scale to larger scales of metropolitan structure and urban flows. This paper is an overview of how such urban design and transport opportunities can be explored with a focus on Melbourne. The paper seeks to show how transit-related problems and opportunities at different scales interconnect to form synergies and alliances both between projects and between scales. Through a series of design research studies we explore scenarios for the transformation of suburban railway stations, tram corridors, private shopping malls, university campuses and post-industrial zones. The analysis is undertaken within a theoretical framework of self-organization, emergence, complexity, adaptation and assemblage. Design research at every scale is argued to be a necessary link in the process of unlocking capacities for urban transformation.