"As designers of buildings, architects make a major contribution to the totality of the built environment, and nowhere is this more so than in the centres of our major cities. On the eve of the current review of the Town Plan for the City of Brisbane, it seemed appropriate that the Queensland Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects should generate and contribute to public debate on the future direction for Brisbane, which will be established by that plan, particularly as it relates to the Central Business District. To achieve this aim, an ideas competition was conducted to explore the potential for a New Urban Architecture for Brisbane which could express and enhance the unique qualities of a major riverside city in a sub-tropical climate."--Foreword

This is a reprint of the edition which was first printed in 1988.

From its origins as a leading proponent of the 'Sydney School of Architecture' in the 1960s, COX Architects & Planners, known more commonly as COX, has grown to become one of Australia's largest and most successful practices with hundreds of projects and

Urban change is often difficult because we are dealing with people’s elusive notions of place and perception, time and change. Urban design and planning in a changing urban context so that it remains relevant for people is elusive because the idea of place is embedded in memory and identity – but whose memory and whose identity? This book seeks to understand the urban change dynamic so that the planning of urban places aligns with the dynamic of people’s perception of place. Planning Urban Places examines the premise that building cities is a concrete business surrounded by a shifting context. It discusses the notion of urban design and placemaking from the perspective of place perception and cognitive psychology, place philosophy and human geography. It also considers network theory to help illustrate the self-organising paradigm of small word network theory for planning urban places.

Making Better Places: Urban Design Now discusses how to make better places: how monotonous or rich urban development can be, how appropriate to traffic requirements urban improvements are, or how sustainable an urban design approach can be to existing and future urban dispersal. The book reviews the gap existing between the various environmental disciplines leading to the emergence of urban design; as well as the gap between the rhetoric and practical achievements of urban design. The practice of urban design entails the premise that environments are to be created and transformed to provide the most opportunities for the largest number of people. By using an urban tissue plan, the urban developmental planner can produce and evaluate site development appraisal and design proposals. The book also provides an abstract perspective that considers built forms as a set of signs to provide a mechanism which shows the modification of urban space. The text also addresses the issue of urban change in established centers, the urban fringe and beyond, as well as cites four examples of exploration by intervention. The book can prove beneficial to urban planners, sociologists, and policy makers involved in urban and social development.

As the cities of the world increasingly come under threat from crisis and disaster, planners are searching for ways to build resilience into the foundations of modern urban centres. This important book provides a comprehensive account of the theory and practice of urban resilience in response to a range of disruptions, including terrorism, climate change and economic crises. It examines how the concepts and principles of resilience exert increasing significant influence over the form and function of planning. Discussing a 'politics of resilience' in which fundamental questions of social and spatial justice are posed, this book examines how urban planners are increasingly tasked with the responsibility of safeguarding the future of urbanised centres and those that live in them. Drawing on international examples and detailed case-studies, this book provides a nuanced account of the uses, and misuses, of resilience and points a way forward for planning activity, from an approach that is too often narrowly technical in focus towards an integrated and adaptable model for coping with risk, crisis and uncertainty. It will make essential reading for students of urban planning and researchers alike.