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 Site Ecology
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 Sustainability Management

Development Phases

Browse Fact Sheets by development phase: Design

Cohousing

  • Place Making and Social Sustainability
  • Estate Design
    • Content rating:
    • 3 stars
    • Commissioned Content: Commissioned Content

Cohousing is a major strategic category of the movement back to community known as ‘Intentional Community’. Both the community and the intention are critical to understanding and implementing such projects.

 

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Heritage and Culture

  • Place Making and Social Sustainability
    • Content rating:
    • 3 stars
    • Commissioned Content: Commissioned Content

This fact sheet provides information on how heritage issues may relate to your development. It addresses; what is heritage?; why heritage is important; how to determine what aspects of heritage are important; what if my site is on a heritage list or register?; and how to manage heritage in your development.

 

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Infrastructure

  • Estate Design
  • Access and Transport
  • Water Management
  • Energy Management
    • Content rating:
    • 3 stars
    • Commissioned Content: Commissioned Content

Infrastructure is the systems that make urban places function. It is defined in the Penguin and Macquarie Dictionary of Economics & Finance as ‘the network of services in a society which are essential for its cohesion and for the efficient functioning of the economy…’


 

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Mobility Management: Design for Active Transport

  • Access and Transport
    • Content rating:
    • 3 stars
    • Commissioned Content: Commissioned Content

This Fact Sheet provides suggestions and is intended to advise how residential development participants can help deliver better environments for walking, cycling and using public transport. Ideally, new developments have viable access and transport options are always a viable choice, so transport impacts are lessened throughout the life of developments.

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Energy efficiency - influence of design

  • Estate Design
  • Energy Management
    • Content rating:
    • 3 stars
    • Commissioned Content: Commissioned Content

Energy is money. Energy efficiency is not only a way of conserving energy: it is also fundamental to good and profitable project development and design in a broader sense. It conserves financial resources over time, and can boost profits. A high degree of efficiency translates into a low level of waste: this simple ratio has wide-ranging benefits in environmental and economic terms, supports the interests of developers, planning agencies, buyers and tenants - and brings tangible advantages to the project approval, marketing and sales processes.

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Design for a mix of uses

  • Place Making and Social Sustainability
  • Estate Design
    • Content rating:
    • 3 stars
    • Commissioned Content: Commissioned Content

Shops and apartmentsA mix of uses within a neighbourhood enhances the livability and sustainability of a new development.  The incorporation of various non-residential uses, such as retail, business and community facilities, within the residential development, can reduce reliance on private vehicles, provide for local working opportunities and enhance the interaction between residents. 

A variety of housing types associated with mixed use developments (eg. Shop top housing) can also encourage affordability and allow residents the opportunity of progressing through different cycles of life within a single neighborhood, avoiding situations of isolation and gentrification.

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Water Recycling

  • Water Management
    • Content rating:
    • 2 stars
    • Commissioned Content: Commissioned Content

Recycled water is an important resource for Australian residential developments. There is the need to identify alternative water sources to adapt to rising population driven demand and increasing unreliability of rainfall dependent freshwater supplies. Recycled water can form an important part of an Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) approach for greenfield developments, reducing demand on freshwater resources and also reducing discharge of wastewater to receiving environments. 

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Housing Mix

  • Place Making and Social Sustainability
  • Estate Design
    • Content rating:
    • 3 stars
    • Commissioned Content: Commissioned Content

A sustainable community is a diverse one, accommodating people of different life stages, incomes, and household composition.  For instance, a nuclear family is likely to prefer a larger dwelling with several bedrooms and access to private open space; a university student may seek shared accommodation; a young single professional may require a small apartment, while an elderly couple may seek an easy care unit within a retirement village.  All of these groups will have very strong preferences for the location their homes – some will prefer the inner city while others may more space in an outer suburban area.

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Community Engagement

  • Place Making and Social Sustainability
  • Estate Design
  • Sustainablity Management
    • Content rating:
    • 3 stars
    • Commissioned Content: Commissioned Content

This fact sheet is designed to help small to medium-sized builders and developers find appropriate ways of engaging with communities about their proposed sustainable developments, while taking into account the complexity of sustainability options. It’s about how to get started, rather than the whole community engagement process with all the detailed planning.

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Successful Public Spaces

  • Place Making and Social Sustainability
  • Estate Design
    • Content rating:
    • 4 stars
    • Commissioned Content: Commissioned Content

The purpose of this factsheet is to describe the basic principles and qualities of successful public places. The principles and dimensions are covered in this introduction whilst the qualities are discussed in the contexts of key issues and best practice processes within the project development phases.
 

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