INSIGHTS

Planning Perspectives Shaped by Experience

With over four decades of our team’s urban planning leadership across several continents, The Planning Bureau shares commentary, analysis, and reflections on the issues shaping our cities. From planning governance to mega-project delivery, our insights draw upon lived experience at the intersection of policy, design, and execution.

Urban Governance: Delivering the Vision

Too often, cities suffer not from lack of vision—but from lack of implementation. Sound urban governance is the missing link between planning and reality. Drawing on our team’s international sphere of work we explore best practices for institutional reform, planning department restructuring, and delivery agency coordination.

The Strategic Planner’s Role in Mega Projects

From Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah to Riyadh’s New Murabba, we reflect on the unique responsibilities strategic planners carry in shaping and coordinating complex, high-profile developments—and how early decision-making impacts long-term urban form.

Learning from the Middle East: Adaptable Lessons for Australian Cities

What can Melbourne and Victoria’s regional capitals learn from large-scale city-making in Dubai, Riyadh or Doha? We explore transferable principles in zoning reform, infrastructure-led planning, and land consolidation.

Planning as a Tool of Cultural Stewardship

Our team’s experience in AlUla shows how master planning can protect heritage and cultural landscapes while opening new opportunities for economic growth and tourism. Here’s how planning frameworks can nurture—not erase—cultural identity.

The Importance of Independent Advisory

As planning processes become increasingly politicised, the role of an independent adviser becomes critical. We unpack how our advisory role often acts as a circuit-breaker—bringing clarity, objectivity, and direction to complex multi-stakeholder projects.

Form-Based Codes vs. Traditional Zoning

A reflection on our team members roles in drafting development control and design guidelines in Australia and the Middle East including for Palm Jumeirah UAE, Riyadh city, Wadi Hanifah and Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter, in Saudi Arabia —and why form-based planning can be a powerful tool for delivering context-sensitive design outcomes.

Planning for Tourism in Sensitive Environments

Drawing from team’s work in AlUla, KSA and preparation of National and State tourism action plans for Oman and Victoria (Australia), as well as our earlier policy development for Australia’s Great Ocean Road and regional and metropolitan frameworks, we examine how to plan for tourism while respecting ecological, cultural, and visual sensitivities—highlighting the need for clear infrastructure prioritisation and capacity thresholds.