Australia – The Comfort Pursuit

Thinkers in the Tropical Shade: Empowering Lessons for Livable Places

Cairns, Queensland, Australia: avoiding the humidity using active transport (Photo by Chuck Wolfe)

Last June, Chuck Wolfe, David Sellars and I published an article on Planetizen about the fundamental relationships at the heart of urban public health and livability, particularly in tropical Australia. In this article we discuss the importance of context, the relevance of the UN-Habitat New Urban Agenda, the Urban Thinkers Campuses recently hosted by JCU (Understanding Cairns and Townsville through the urban diary tool), place-based urban planning and design and the lessons learned so far.

Presentation at the IPWEAQ 2018 Conference

A few weeks ago, on the 19th April, I presented a 3-part project I have been working on at the IPWEAQ 2018 Conference (Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia North Queensland Branch), here in Cairns. Read more…

Urban Thinkers Campus – Cairns and Townsville, Australia

James Cook University‘s College of Science and Engineering and College of Public Health, Medical & Vet Sciences, through myself and David Sellars, with the full support of Nikki Huddy from Planz, have been organising an Urban Thinkers Campus (UTC) framed around the topic of urban planning and design and public health. The UTC entitled ‘Urban Health and Livability in Tropical Australia through urban diaries and community engagement’ will take place on the 8th June in Cairns and 15th June in Townsville, and they are both day-long events (see preliminary schedule here). Read more…

Urban Thinkers Campus in Cairns and Townsville

I am very pleased to share the news that our proposal to host two Urban Thinkers Campus in support of the New Urban Agenda at JCU this year – one in Cairns (8th June) and one in Townsville (15th June) – has been approved. Read more…

TUDLab Opening Day – 20th October 2017

This is a very exciting week at JCU. A week where our Tropical Urbanism and Design Lab (TUDLab) will come to life. Read more…

Committing to a sustainable urban future in the Tropics

This post was originally published on JCU’s Brighter, and is available here.

Growing populations in tropical cities will face many challenges in the coming decades. Rethinking the way we build, manage and live in cities could be the way to cultivate sustainable development. JCU’s Dr Silvia Tavares is exploring what roles expanding cities and regional towns will play in the future.