Will COVID-19 shape the future of cities?

Mr Day argues that Australia needs to focus on the importance of creating new neighbourhoods in our urban growth areas where essential services – schools, shops and workplaces – are provided early in the life of these ventures, easily reached from home on foot or by bike, and where the aim is not only to provide housing affordability but also attainable and over liveability.

“Nearly all Australian suburban neighbourhoods prioritise vehicles over pedestrians. As the cost of owning and running cars in the growth areas of our capital cities is beginning to exceed the cost of housing, ‘liveability’ – rather than ‘affordability’ – has become the new catch cry. 

“In self-sufficient cherished inner-city neighbourhoods of our capital cities, where there are often mixed-use developments, such as townhouses and residential apartments, serviced by trams or trains and built above shops, residents can leave their homes to get their groceries on a daily basis – without relying on the car,” Mr Day said.

Mr Day believes that in light of the COVID-19 outbreak and the social shift that has gone through while isolating, it will likely lead to a change in city landscapes.

“In light of the deep societal challenges posed by the coronavirus, I predict more mixed-use developments will emerge to create self-contained communities built around pedestrians, cyclists and ‘light’ modes of public transport, such as e-bikes, trackless trams and small-scale electric buses. Australians in their teens and 20s, in particular, will drive the demand for more compact, connected, mixed-use, liveable neighbourhoods that have these characteristics,” Mr Day concluded.