UD strengthened at RMIT University

It is now indispensable for urban planners to employ a broad multidisciplinary approach to their profession where positive policy outcomes are to be achieved. This needs to be reflected as comprehensively as possible at the level of planning education. At RMIT, planning students are given a first-hand encounter with urban design culture – not necessarily by acquiring advanced creative and visualisation skills, which remains the domain of the Urban Design stream of the program, but by learning, through practical experience and exercises, to see built environments, their opportunities and their problems through the eyes of designers.

Trained as an architect and urban planner in Hamburg (Germany) in the early 1990s, Jan conducted an evaluation study of ecological housing developments in metropolitan Copenhagen (Denmark) before coming to Australia on a PhD scholarship in 1997. During a five-year period at Murdoch University in Perth, Jan continued to investigate sustainability performance in innovative urban neighbourhoods in several European countries and Australia. His PhD thesis revolves around the links between physical design and user behaviour in residential areas, with regard to resource consumption, social interaction, mobility patterns and lifestyle aspirations. It was completed in 2001 and can be downloaded from www.istp.murdoch.edu.au/publications/ projects/jan

Jan's research interests further include the comparison of urban sustainability initiatives in different regional and cultural contexts, paradigms and scenarios of urban change in the post-industrial era, non-motorised and public transport modes in cities and the policy drivers that encourage their usage.

Dr Jan Scheurer has recently joined the School of Social Science and Planning at RMIT University and can be contacted at jan.scheurer@rmit.edu.au