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The Great Kanto Earthquake and Second World War Fire Bombings have left contemporary Tokyo with almost no monuments from the past. One of the areas that has been spared in both destructions is Yanesen, part of the three neighbourhoods Yanaka, Nezu, and Sendagi located in northeast central Tokyo. Nezu has a peculiar urban character that persists despite the lack of conservation and constant change in its built environment. Its unique character is defined by a sense of local, domestic, and neighbourhood closeness and is linked to the traditional identity of Shitamachi. This article hypothesizes that the main element that preserves the character of Shitamachi in Nezu is based on the relationships rather than on objects that need to be preserved. The analysis focuses on the relationships between public and private spaces and captures changes in the built environment in Nezu over six years. The comparative analysis applied mapping and a photographic survey of the public-private interface. The results showed how the persistence of the urban character is supported by a dynamic change in the built environment which functions as a complex system. The relationships between elements of the built environment are demonstrating non-linear causality at the public-private interface and contribute to Nezu’s enduring character.

The design and construction of adaptive façades have garnered increasing attention as a means to enhance the energy performance and sustainability of high-rise residential buildings. Adaptive façades can dynamically respond to environmental conditions, reducing reliance on energy-intensive systems and improving occupant comfort. Despite their potential, research on adaptive façade systems in the context of high-rise residential buildings, particularly in Australia, remains limited. This study aims to bridge this gap by identifying the key design parameters, challenges, and optimisation methods for adaptive façades. Through a combination of a comprehensive literature review and 15 semi-structured interviews with industry experts, this research provides insights into the design and performance of adaptive façades. The key findings reveal that the successful implementation of adaptive façades depends on a range of factors, including material choices, shading system typologies, and advanced simulation tools for energy performance analysis. A significant outcome of the study is the development of a conceptual framework that incorporates these design elements with environmental factors and building energy simulation, offering a structured approach to optimise adaptive façade performance. The framework assists architects and engineers in creating energy-efficient, sustainable high-rise residential buildings tailored to the Australian context. Additionally, the study highlights critical challenges, such as financial barriers, regulatory gaps, and the need for improved maintenance strategies, which must be addressed to facilitate the broader adoption of adaptive façades in the residential sector.

Almost all sustainable theories agree that to be sustainable suburbia needs to increase density and thus become aligned with urban spaces, focusing mainly on energy efficiency and transport. Even though suburbia represents one of the least sustainable spaces in the city, it remains one of the most desirable spaces for living. People choose to live in suburbs, new suburbs are built and old suburbs are preserved. The liveable aspects of suburbia are being ignored in theoretical arguments around sustainability. Using the case of Canberra, this paper aims to discuss liveability of suburbia as part of its sustainable development. Suburbia represents an important aspect of every city in Australia, particularly Canberra. With a strong commitment to being sustainable, we believe that this context represents a good place to test some of the ideas around sustainable suburbia. This paper tests the hypothesis that public green spaces are essential in discussing the liveable aspects of suburbia that can be employed to further explore sustainability. The research compares new sustainably-developed suburb and old suburban spaces to discuss liveable aspects and the connection with green spaces. The analysis uses morphological characteristics of the built environment and mapping with ArcGIS software. The results show that older suburbs had predominantly larger plots of land and smaller floor area ratio. The houses obtained link with the ground through a private garden at the back. On the other hand, with market pressure, contemporary suburban developments, even those claiming to be sustainable, are reducing the size of plots and losing the connection with the green. The paper concludes that sustainable developments are focusing mainly on densification of suburbia and liveability aspects are lost. We confirm that for achieving sustainability we need to consider public green spaces, their morphology and structure.

The school grounds provide students opportunities for respite, relaxation and relief from daily stresses during breaks in the school day. However, it is unclear whether secondary schoolyard designs adequately support the diverse and evolving needs of adolescents, particularly at a time when they are experiencing rapid emotional and physical developmental change. To investigate this, quantitative methods were used to explore differences in perceptions of schoolyard attractiveness and restorative quality based on student gender and year level. A school-wide survey was administered to approximately 284 students in years 7 to 10 at a secondary school in Canberra, Australia. Results indicate significant declines in student perceptions of schoolyard attractiveness and restorative quality. Higher ratings of schoolyard likeability, accessibility, personal connection and restorative quality of ‘being away’ were associated with male students across all year levels. Further work is needed to explore how schoolyard environments can better support the design preferences and well-being needs of older and female students. Such information would help planners, designers and land managers develop schoolyard designs that are more equitable in their benefits to secondary school students of different genders and year levels.

Urban regeneration projects often deal with activation of public space and pedestrian-oriented environments. That activation is based on idealisation of a good public space. It could be argued that our understanding of public space is deriving from the utopian ideas of democracy, ancient Greek agora and Roman forum. When we think about public space we usually imagine it as urban open space, accessible to all citizens, with ideal enclosed form of plaza of a particular size and scale, which welcomes everybody and demonstrates ultimate level of urbanity. This paper uses the example of Garema Place in Canberra to discuss the interdependence of public space and place identity and their role in the regeneration of Canberra City Centre. Canberra is a planned city, with dominantly low density, dispersed town-centres, and nature as main element of its identity. The notion of public space and urban life differs from utopian ideas of agora and forum. The main character of Garema Place is noted within the nature. Yet the process of regeneration of Canberra city centre has been attempted within number of artistic and other public events, bringing people to the public space. The efforts to create a notion of plaza have not done much in generating the process of revitalisation. Garema still remains mainly vacant with low levels of street activities. Because of different understanding of public space and place identity in Canberra, the paper hypothesises the need for a different kind of regeneration scenario. The discussion is drawn from an analysis of the character of Garema Place and history of public events in recent years in relation to the data of vacancy of built environment and everyday activities. The conclusion argues for importance of the place identity in the process of regeneration for more sustainable future of Canberra and its city centre.

Among existing and anticipated changes in global urbanisation and population growth, the challenge of retrofitting suburbia within sustainable cities needs to be considered.  However, given the opposing nature of sustainability and suburbia, this task is not easy.  Different approaches have tried to define the theory for achieving sustainable cities, but the nature of suburbia presents issues in densification, as density is perceived to limit the liveability and importantly the private sphere that makes suburbia desirable.  To begin addressing sustainability in suburbia, the question of how to densify suburbs while maintaining their liveable quality, needs to be addressed. Focusing on the case of Canberra the paper builds a framework for discussing these questions within analysis of suburb density, behavioural studies and the public private interface.  In doing so, it is evident that sustaining suburbia through densification, within the context of sustainable cities, cannot be considered without recognising morphology and the need for, and integration of, the public private interface.

Livelihoods depend on access to natural, human, physical, financial, social, and cultural capital; the social relations people draw on to combine, transform, and expand their assets; and the ways people deploy and enhance their capabilities to act and make lives meaningful. The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of climate variability on rural livelihoods; to begin to understand the dynamism of the livelihood patterns concerning new challenges and threats; to analyze the value added to resource utilization at various stages from their primary harvesting through local processing and trading, to their final point of sale or consumption; and provide a distributional analysis to indicate how these values accrue to different social and economic groups living within the area. This research will lead to a new understanding of climate variability on natural resource-dependent livelihoods. It goes beyond traditional approaches to exploring the impact of climate variability by providing a more holistic picture.