The focus of this submission is on the quality of the built environment and its importance for enhancing liveability.

This paper will review a range of approaches to place-making, identifying and discussing differences in housing provision and arrangement of public facilities and spaces for students in several overseas cities, including in Germany, Italy, Spain and California where practices vary substantially.

The cost of bad design is a clarion call. There is no excuse for bad design, and no reason to accept poor standards, yet exemplary buildings remain the exception.

This paper highlights the experience of some high profile case studies in Sydney to demonstrate regular intervention by government in the planning process in projects involving the disposal and redevelopment of public land – to ensure that such government backed proposals proceed quickly through the development approval process.

Using the concept of “ethnic community capital” and using data provided by 344 ethnic communal organisations, this paper outlines major social, economic, and spatial aspects that have helped establish Sydney as a multicultural capital on the Pacific.