Planning for a Continent of Cities

(Paperback)

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Some 50 years after Ideas for Australian Cities appeared we now have another milestone publication that envisions future pathways to the grand challenge of planning more sustainable and resilient cities - the nation's greatest asset. Planning for a Continent of Cities assembles a unique and thought-provoking set of continental scale settlement scenarios that address the twin challenges of long-term spatial planning and urban governance.
EMERITUS PROFESSOR PETER W. NEWTON, Swinburne Institute of Technology, Centre for Urban Transitions

It is a time of interlocking planetary crises - ecological, social and economic - Bolleter and Freestone ask what this means for one of the world's most urbanised continents, Australia. In an important contrast to many recent urban books, they consult social opinion as well as the best scientific evidence to draw up an outline for a workable and sustainable future for Australia. It departs from the current 'Business Council' program of stacking the metropolitan cities with new population and (always lagging) investment. Mindful of historical policy antecedents, Planning for a Continent of Cities conceives a National Urban Policy that plans for a network of regional cities that can take us through the coming storms of change.
PROFESSOR BRENDAN GLEESON, Melbourne School of Design, The University of Melbourne.

Author Bio

Julian Bolleter is the Director of the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC) at the University of Western Australia, the Program Director of AUDRC's Master of Urban Design course, and an author and public figure. Julian leads an ambitious climate adaptation project, 'Future climate, future home: adaptive urban design strategies for WA' with AUDRC partner organisations Development WA, the Department of Communities, the Western Australian Planning Commission, and multiple Local Governments. He has received a stream of awards for his research, including the UWA School of Design's Mid-Career Research Award,' in 2023.


Robert Freestone is Professor of Planning in the School of Built Environment at the University of New South Wales. His other books include Australian Urban Policy (2024), Iconic Planned Communities and the Challenges of Change (2019), Designing the Global City (2019), Place and Placelessness Revisited (2016), Urban Nation (2010), and Model Communities (1989). He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Australian Academy of Humanities, Planning Institute of Australia, and Institute of Australian Geographers. He is a former president of the International Planning History Society and chair of the Editorial Board of Planning Perspectives.