Cities In Australia Research Articles

Mask use, risk-mitigation behaviours and pandemic fatigue during the COVID-19 pandemic in five cities in Australia, the UK and USA: A cross-sectional survey

ObjectivesTo determine patterns of mask wearing and other infection prevention behaviours, over two time periods of the COVID-19 pandemic, in cities where mask wearing was not a cultural norm. MethodsA cross-sectional survey of masks and other preventive behaviours in adults aged ≥18 years was conducted in five cities: Sydney and Melbourne, Australia; London, UK; and Phoenix and New York, USA. Data were analysed according to the epidemiology of COVID-19, mask mandates and a range of predictors of mask wearing. ResultsThe most common measures used were avoiding public areas (80.4%), hand hygiene (76.4%), wearing masks (71.8%) and distancing (67.6%). Over 40% of people avoided medical facilities. These measures decreased from March–July 2020. Pandemic fatigue was associated with younger age, low perceived severity of COVID-19 and declining COVID-19 prevalence. Predictors of mask wearing were location (US, UK), mandates, age <50 years, education, having symptoms and knowing someone with COVID-19. Negative experiences with mask wearing and low perceived severity of COVID-19 reduced mask wearing. Most respondents (98%) believed that hand washing and distancing were necessary, and 80% reported no change or stricter adherence to these measures when wearing masks. ConclusionPandemic mitigation measures were widely reported across all cities, but decreased between March and July 2020. Pandemic fatigue was more common in younger people. Cities with mandates had higher rates of mask wearing. Promotion of mask use for older people may be useful. Masks did not result in a reduction of other hygiene measures.

The Canberra Bubble

The Canberra Bubble

A comprehensive assessment of the global warming potential of geopolymer concrete

Approximately 5%–7% of global Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions can be attributed to Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), which has traditionally been used as the primary binder in concrete. Geopolymer concrete has been widely claimed to have lower global warming potential than OPC concrete, and this claim has formed the basis of many studies examining mix designs and mechanical properties of geopolymer concretes. A major limitation with the vast majority of existing studies is a lack of the direct quantification of the global warming potential of the materials developed. That is, the underlying assumption in the majority of these studies is that geopolymer concrete is more sustainable than OPC based concretes. The aim of this paper is to quantify the CO2 equivalent (CO2-eq) emissions associated with production of a large number of previously developed mix designs (1404 mix designs from 110 studies) including the impacts of curing, allocation and transportation and allowing for variation in energy grid source and the production of the activator solution. When considering the impact of transportation, a case study based on five major capital cities in Australia is presented and the critical transport distances at which the manufacture of geopolymers becomes more emissions intensive than conventional concrete is identified. The results show that the relative CO2-eq emissions of geopolymer and OPC based concretes of the same strength, are highly dependent on the system boundary for analysis, the type of allocation scenario and material transportation distances and mode, and further, that depending on these factors geopolymer concretes can either have significantly lower, or significantly higher CO2-eq emissions than OPC concretes of the same strength. It is expected that the findings of this work can aid in specifying the optimal concrete types for reducing CO2-eq emissions considering the intended use of the concrete.

Priorities and practices of risk reduction among gay and bisexual men in Australia who use crystal methamphetamine for sex.

Crystal methamphetamine (hereafter crystal) is associated with deleterious health outcomes, such as drugdependence and physical and mental health disorders. While some harms from crystal use can affect all users, there may be additional risks for people who combine the use of drug with sex. Compared with the broader population, gay and bisexual men in Australia report a higher prevalence of methamphetamine use, and crystal is the most commonly injected illicit drug among this population. The Crystal, Pleasures and Sex between Men research project was conducted between 2017 and 2019 and examined gay and bisexual men's crystal use in four capital cities in Australia, with the aim of identifying how to best support men who use crystal for sex. In this article, we examine how risk is understood and prioritised by gay and bisexual men who combine crystal use and sex and identify the range of risk reduction practices that they used. We classified these risks as those associated with the transmission of HIV, HCV and STIs, and those associated with dependence on either crystal or the sex it facilitated. Gay and bisexual men overwhelmingly prioritised the risk of dependence over any other risks associated with crystal-enhanced sex, and this prioritization was reflected in the risk reduction practices they employed. While some of the strategies that gay and bisexual men have adopted may contradict anticipated public health principles, they derive from a carefully considered and shared approaches to the generation of pleasure, the maintenance of a controlled form of feeling "out of control", and the negotiated reduction of risk. The consolidation of these strategies effectively constitutes a "counterpublic health" underpinned by forms of "sex-based sociality", which gives primacy to the priorities and practices of gay and bisexual men in Australia who combine crystal and sex.

Assessing the popularity of urban beaches using metadata from social media images as a rapid tool for coastal management

Coastal natural areas, such as beaches in cities, are valued by locals and visitors for their recreational and aesthetic value. For coastal and beach managers, it is important to know who visits beaches, when and where they go and what they value. However, as beaches are long linear structures often with multiple access points, collecting this data can be challenging. Using data from the image sharing platform Flickr, we compared temporal and spatial patterns of use between locals, Australian and international tourists along 31 km of beaches in the sixth largest city in Australia, the Gold Coast. Beaches are popular with 9.8% of all images of the Gold Coast on Flickr taken from a beach. Out of the nearly 7,000 images posted by 908 people on, or near, Gold Coast beaches, 2,388 were posted by 124 locals, 964 by other Australians, and 1,444 by 234 international visitors, mainly from the USA, United Kingdom and New Zealand. Australians, including locals, were more likely than international visitors to take images early in the day and on weekends. There were images from almost every section of the beaches along the coast, with locals using more of the beaches, and each group having their own favourite places. Locals used more words to describe the images, and the most common used words were related to geographic location, natural features, time of the day and activities or events. Despite important limitations, including who uses social media platforms such as Flickr and why, data from geolocated social media images can be a low cost, quick and effective way for managers and others to monitor spatiotemporal patterns of use of open spaces in coastal cities, complementing traditional data.

Socio‐economic groups moving apart: An analysis of recent trends in residential segregation in Australia's main capital cities

AbstractWe study changes in the spatial distribution and segregation of socio‐economic groups in Australia using a new data set with harmonised census data for 1991 and 2011. We find a general increase in residential segregation by education and occupation groups across the major capital cities in Australia. Importantly, these trends cannot be explained in general by changes in the demographic structure of groups and areas but rather by the rise in the over and underrepresentation of groups across areas. In particular, our analysis reveals clear diverging trends in the spatial configuration of high and low socio‐economic groups as measured by their occupation and education. Whereas high‐skilled groups became more concentrated in the inner parts of cities, the low‐educated and those working in low‐status occupations became increasingly overrepresented in outer areas. This pattern is observed in all five major capital cities, but it is especially marked in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Growing public spaces in the city: Community gardening and the making of new urban environments of publicness

The demise of public space in cities across the Global North has received considerable scrutiny from urban scholars in recent years, with accounts of the loss, privatisation and increased regulation of public space prevalent within the academic literature. This paper seeks to complicate these dominant narratives of public space transformation by exploring the complexities of existing public spaces and the emergence of new spaces of publicness in the city. It uses a case study of community gardening in mundane and everyday neighbourhood spaces to provide a more nuanced and progressive reading of the relations between publicness and space in the city. Drawing on empirical materials from recent research on community gardening projects in 15 cities in Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA, the paper highlights how community gardening is creating new environments of publicness across public, private and in-between spaces that complicate both the end of public space discourse and conventional understandings of public space within urban studies.

Utilization of an improved crow search algorithm to solve building energy optimization problems: Cases of Australia

To design low-energy buildings, mathematical optimization can be an effective method for the minimization of energy consumption. Due to the nonlinear thermal operation of buildings, simulation-based optimizations have been used in recent studies. In the building industry, achieving optimum solutions with acceptable calculation cost is an important factor. Therefore, in this paper, an Improved Crow Search Algorithm (ICSA) coupled with the EnergyPlus simulation tool is used to optimize an office building in four cities of Australia. Based on the achievements more than 11.8% of energy consumption can be decreased by employing energy-saving actions. The proposed algorithm was compared to some benchmark algorithms and it has resulted that ICSA gives more proper solutions with lower calculation time.

Research on Development Codes in Brisbane

Now, we are facing an important reforming period of national territory plan. If we still use the traditional development control means to solve the problem, we will not be able to face the rapidly developing world. Brisbane is the third largest city in Australia. The development codes of Brisbane originated from the development rules of the United Kingdom, but combined with the integrated development assessment system of Australia. It has formed an institutional system with performance development as the purpose, development codes as the means and multi-type permission as the result. In the form, all codes, laws, regulations and planning documents related to development are integrated into one folder. In the implementation of planning objectives, hierarchical management is adopted, and objectives are decomposed level by level to form detail control elements, so that planning objectives are closely combined with practice. In the management after approval, the "special channel" was adopted to improve the administrative efficiency. In this paper, we hope that through the analysis of its background, composition and control mechanism, we can get some enlightenment on the problems we are facing.

Cathy FREEMAN: Trailblazer, Black Activist, Kuku Yalanji Woman

In 2020, FREEMAN became the most-watched documentary in Australia. This article situates the film's intercultural, multivocal, and multiperspectival story of Cathy Freeman's gold-medal win at the Sydney 2000 Olympics in three contemporary contexts: the Trailblazers collection of sports documentaries that entertained Australians during COVID-19 lockdowns; the Black Lives Matter protests in Australia cities and towns that defied COVID- 19 bans in 2020 and provided a context for remembering Cathy Freeman as a Black activist in the 1990s; and a First Nations context that recognizes Freeman as a Kuku Yalanji woman whose public roles have helped to transform the terms of stranger relationality between Indigenous, settler-colonial, and immigrant Australians.

Urban Overheating and Cooling Potential in Australia: An Evidence-Based Review

Cities in Australia are experiencing unprecedented levels of urban overheating, which has caused a significant impact on the country’s socioeconomic environment. This article provides a comprehensive review on urban overheating, its impact on health, energy, economy, and the heat mitigation potential of a series of strategies in Australia. Existing studies show that the average urban heat island (UHI) intensity ranges from 1.0 °C to 13.0 °C. The magnitude of urban overheating phenomenon in Australia is determined by a combination of UHI effects and dualistic atmospheric circulation systems (cool sea breeze and hot desert winds). The strong relation between multiple characteristics contribute to dramatic fluctuations and high spatiotemporal variabilities in urban overheating. In addition, urban overheating contributes to serious impacts on human health, energy costs, thermal comfort, labour productivity, and social behaviour. Evidence suggest that cool materials, green roofs, vertical gardens, urban greenery, and water-based technologies can significantly alleviate the UHI effect, cool the ambient air, and create thermally balanced cities. Urban greenery, especially trees, has a high potential for mitigation. Trees and hedges can reduce the average maximum UHI by 1.0 °C. The average maximum mitigation performance values of green roofs and green walls are 0.2 °C and 0.1 °C, respectively. Reflective roofs and pavements can reduce the average maximum UHI by 0.3 °C. In dry areas, water has a high cooling potential. The average maximum cooling potential using only one technology is 0.4 °C. When two or more technologies are used at the same time, the average maximum UHI drop is 1.5 °C. The mitigation strategies identified in this article can help the governments and other stakeholders manage urban heating in the natural and built environment, and save health, energy, and economic costs.

The effect of cold-start emissions on the diurnal variation of carbon monoxide concentration in a city centre

The diurnal variation of pollutants such as particles and carbon monoxide (CO) in urban environments typically follow the traffic density, with two peaks coinciding with the weekday morning and evening rush-hour periods. However, observations made in central Brisbane, the third largest city in Australia, demonstrated an anomalous diurnal variation with the CO peak in the evening being significantly higher than that in the morning. This imbalance was not observed for particle concentrations. Here, we show that the imbalance is a direct result of the difference in CO emission factors from motor vehicles during warm and cold starts. Over 30,000 cars with warmed-up engines enter Brisbane city centre car parks every weekday morning. They all start their engines from cold and leave the city in the evening, producing the anomalously higher emissions of CO in the city centre. This pattern of air quality, while clearly apparent within the city car parks and within the central business district of the city, was not observed outside the city limits and in the suburbs. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has drawn attention to this phenomenon and no explanation has been provided in the literature to-date.

Teaching traditional indoor school lessons in nature: The effects on student learning and behaviour

The natural environment is associated with better behaviour and academic performance in children. However, research to date has been cross-sectional and it is important for experimental studies to investigate if a causal relationship exists. Further, participant samples from areas characterised as disadvantaged are underrepresented in the research. This study investigates the effect that lessons in nature have on disadvantaged young people’s behaviour and learning compared to lessons in a standard classroom over one school term (10 weeks). A quasi-experimental study was conducted in a socioeconomically disadvantaged city in Australia. Three classes were taught in a standard indoor classroom for 5 weeks; then two of those classes relocated to a green outdoor classroom for the remaining 5 weeks; researcher observations of redirect rates, teacher ratings of behaviour, and academic grades were analysed. Students (13–14 years old) spent more time on-task in outdoor classrooms at the rate of an extra 20 s per teacher redirect, and this effect lasted over several weeks. Although engagement was better, this did not translate to better grades; reasons for this discrepancy are discussed. Outdoor classrooms may promote less disengagement and misbehaviour in class, and this could be significant for those affected disproportionately by it.

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Smart City Strategies and Planned Smart Development

Smart city strategies developed by cities around the world provide a useful resource for insights into the future of smart development. This study examines such strategies to identify plans for the explicit deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. A total of 12 case studies emerged from an online keyword search representing cities of various sizes globally. The search was based on the keywords of “artificial intelligence” (or “AI”), and “robot,” representing robotics and associated terminology. Based on the findings, it is evident that the more concentrated deployment of AI and robotics in smart city development is currently in the Global North, although countries in the Global South are also increasingly represented. Multiple cities in Australia and Canada actively seek to develop AI and robotics, and Moscow has one of the most in-depth elaborations for this deployment. The ramifications of these plans are discussed as part of cyber–physical systems alongside consideration given to the social and ethical implications.

Erratum

City & SocietyVolume 33, Issue 2 ErratumFree Access Erratum This article corrects the following: Reflections on COVID-19 in Sydney, Australia Robbie Peters, Volume 32Issue 1City & Society First Published online: April 22, 2020 First published: 29 September 2020 https://doi.org/10.1111/ciso.12350AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Peters, Robbie. 2020. “Reflections on COVID-19 in Sydney, Australia.” City & Society. In the above-mentioned article, the reference list was mistakenly omitted. The reference list is provided below. References Agamben, G. 1998. Homo Sacer: sovereign power and bare life. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Agamben, G. 2005. State of Exception. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Agamben, G. 2020. “ The coronavirus and the state of exception.” Accessed March 3. https://autonomies.org/2020/03/giorgio-agamben-the-coronaviris-and-the-state-of-exception Bakhtin, M. 1963. “ Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics.” In The Bakhtin Reader: selected writings of Bakhtin, Medvedev, Voloshinov, edited by P. Morris (1994). London: Arnold. Beaumont, A. 2020. “ Morrison sees massive ratings surge in Newspoll over coronavirus crisis; Trump also improves.” Accessed April 17. https://theconversation.com/morrison-sees-massive-ratings-surge-in-newspoll-over-coronavirus-crisis-trump-also-improves-135693 Benjamin, W. 1936. “ The storyteller: reflections on the works of Nikolai Leskov.” In Illuminations, edited by Walter Benjamin. 1973. Glasgow: Collins. Benjamin, W. 1955. “ On the mimetic faculty.” In Reflections: essays, aphorisms, autobiographical writings, edited by Walter Benjamin. 1978. London: Harvest/HBJ Books. Crowe, D. 2020. “This virus could change the way we live for years, not months.” The Age. Accessed April 10. https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/this-virus-could-change-the-way-we-live-for-years-not-months-20200409-p54inu.html De Poloni, G. 2020. “How coronavirus could forever change the look and feel of Australia's cities and suburbs.” ABC News. Accessed April 11. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-11/how-coronavirus-could-forever-change-our-cities-and-suburbs/12137122 Evershed, N., A. Ball, H. Izzard, P. Lum, and D. Constable. 2020. “ Coronavirus numbers in Australia: how many new cases are there? Covid-19 map, stats and graph.” Accessed April 17. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-interactive/2020/apr/15/coronavirus-australia-numbers-how-many-new-cases-today-deaths-death-toll-covid-19-stats-graph-map-by-postcode Foucault, M. 2003. Society Must be Defended: Lectures at the College de France 1975–1976. New York: Picador. Foucault, M. 2008. The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the College de France 1978–1979. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Foucault, M. 2009. Security, Territory, Population: lectures at the College de France 1977–1978. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Hage, G. 2000. White Nation: fantasies of white supremacy in a multicultural society. New York: Routledge. Hendeson, G. 2020. “Coronavirus shutdown: total economic shutdown not in everyone's interest.” The Australian. Accessed April 4. https://thesydneyinstitute.cmail19.com/t/ViewEmail/d/218D38F088D7F4802540EF23F30FEDED/C0C26562A769258FC4DA2C823DDA3384 Janda, M. 2019. “Australia's household debt is the second highest in the world—and it's changing how we Live.” ABC Radio National. Accessed October 18. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-18/household-debt-leaves-australians-working-longer-spending-less/11608016 Lee, J. 2020. How deadly is the coronavirus? It’s still far from clear | Spectator USA. Accessed March 26. https://spectator.us/deadly-coronavirus-still-far-clear-covid-19 Macintyre, S. 2006. The Oxford History of Australia [volume 4]: The succeeding age, 1901–1942. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press. Nawal, A. 2020. “Science will not come on a white horse with a solution.” The Nation. Accessed April 6. https://www.thenation.com/article/society/sheila-jasanoff-interview-coronavirus New York Times Magazine. 2020. “Restarting America Means People Will Die. So When Do We Do It?” New York Times Magazine. Accessed April 10. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/magazine/coronavirus-economy-debate.html Purtill, J. 2020. “How come Australia suddenly has billions of dollars to pay for welfare?” ABC: Triple J. https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/coronavirus-covid19-how-australia-is-paying-for-welfare/12133292 Saeri, A., E. Grundy, L. Smith, M. Noetel, and P. Slattery. 2020. “More Australians are worried about a recession and an increasingly selfish society than about coronavirus itself.” The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/amp/more-australians-are-worried-about-a-recession-and-an-increasingly-selfish-society-than-about-coronavirus-itself-135297 Sakkai, P. and B. Hall. 2020. “Hoarders spark supply crux for essential meds.” Sydney Morning Herald (19 March), p. 15. Volume33, Issue2August 2021 ReferencesRelatedInformation

Construction Defects and Disputes in Low-Rise Residential Buildings

AbstractAcross the major cities in Australia, there has been a remarkable increase in population that has yielded a significant boom in the building construction sector. Despite the rigorous proces...

Optimizing the solar energy capture of residential roof design in the southern hemisphere through Evolutionary Algorithm

Australia's national energy system is heavily reliant on coal-fired power plants and requires quick action to decrease CO2 emissions in order to meet the Paris climate change agreement by 2030. As a good alternative to coal power, renewable resources can produce the required energy for Australia while keeping the environment clean. The annual amount of falling solar irradiation in Australia is a few thousand times higher than its energy consumption, but the amount of the collected solar energy is unsatisfactory. In Perth, the sunniest city in Australia, one-third of the residential dwellings have roof-mounted solar collector systems. However, there have been limited studies into the integration of these systems in building design and it is still unknown which roof design can deliver maximum efficiency based on the local environmental conditions. Therefore, the aims of this study are to determine the optimum residential roof design in Perth, Western Australia and to maximise extracted solar power throughout a year. To reach this aim, a combination of analytical modelling, numerical simulation, and evolutionary algorithm methods have been selected. At first, a series of detailed mathematical calculations were performed in Excel to find the optimum solar collector mounting settings. In the numerical simulation, the examination was repeated in the Rhino-Grasshopper interface to verify the earlier findings and calibrate the chosen simulation package with the help of parametric architecture. In the last step, a wide range of housing roof shapes has been tested by evolutionary algorithm plugin-Galapagos, to find the optimum roof shape design in the given context. Our results show that, unlike the traditional approach and common belief, a roof shape with a 25-degree tilt angle, 170-175 azimuth angle, and aspect ratio of 1:1.2 is optimum to gain maximum solar gaining annually. Moreover, this study advances the knowledge of solar capturing by suggesting a new parameter -oblique angle- in finding the optimum roof shape design. After evaluating the importance of the mentioned factors, it is found that, after tilt angle, the oblique angle is the most effective parameter in rooftop solar gaining, higher than roof aspect ratio and azimuth angle. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that an ‘oblique shed roof design’ can generate 15.7% higher solar radiation compared to the base case. The findings of this study can be applied by architects, construction companies, and householders to optimize the solar gaining in the future of the residential building in Perth.

The global homogenization of urban form. An assessment of 194 cities across time

The spatial structure of cities, i.e. their composition, shape and degree of fragmentation or compactness, is a physical expression reflecting development efficiency. Identifying the evolution of urban systems in time and space is crucial towards sustainable urban development. In this paper, we assess the spatial structure of 194 cities from 1990 and 2015, in order to identify patterns, clusters of similar cities, trajectories, and the global distribution of urban form. We delineated the contiguous urban fabric, employed landscape metrics to quantitatively describe urban patterns, applied a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to reduce the dimension of data to an uncorrelated set of variables and identified groups of cities with similar urban forms by means of hierarchical clustering. We found four types of urban form: compact-grey, transitional, ragged-small and fragmented-complex cities. Globally, continentally and regionally, cities have followed a trend towards more homogeneous urban forms, most of them becoming transitional as a consequence of both, processes of fragmentation and compactness. The only exception of this trend is a group of large cities in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, which are still predominantly fragmented-complex. Under the persisting process of urban expansion, small to medium-sized cities showed to be the most dynamic in terms of expansion and change in urban form, which makes them key towards sustainable urban development. This analysis contributes to the understanding of the transformations induced by the process of urban expansion that shapes urban form. Such information is crucial for achieving urban sustainability.

Valuing public transport customer experience infrastructure–A review of methods & application

One of the most significant contemporary trends in public transport systems internationally has been the refocussing of planning and operations on improving the customer experience. This has been matched by the work of transport economists who have been advancing the field of economic appraisals using willingness to pay methodologies to place a value on customer experience infrastructure so as to better represent customer valuation of these amenities in project evaluation. This paper provides an international review of this field by reporting on a major international research program on this topic. The first phase of the program assembled the results of over 500 valuations to assess the general range and values for a range of amenity infrastructure including Information, Environment, Access, Customer Facilities and Security amenities. Values were normalized between currencies of the countries where they were measured and adjusted to create present value estimates. The second phase of the program sought to understand authority practices in using customer experience infrastructure valuations in practice using a survey of 12 cities in Australia, Europe, North America and Asia. This established patterns of use by breadth of modes evaluated, types of methods used and the degree of sophistication which valuations were undertaken. The third and final phase of the research program involved an international expert Delphi survey of researchers and practitioners involved in measuring values of customer experience infrastructure. The main focus of the expert survey was problems and issues in measurement methods and best practices in approaches to measurement. The paper presents an overview of all the phases of the research program and provides a view on best practices for industry in providing methods and estimates for valuing customer amenities in public transport into the future.

“I Made a Choice”: Enrico Taglietti Citizen of the World in Canberra

ABSTRACT When Italian architect Enrico Taglietti landed in Sydney for the first time in 1955, he had no idea he would become one of the most acclaimed architects of Australia. The reason for his first trip to Sydney was the invitation to curate a commercial display of Italian design to be held at the country’s most famous department store, David Jones. Taglietti decided to set up his career in Australia after discovering Canberra, a city that he found inspiring and full of opportunities: a unique condition of tabula rasa. In 2007, Taglietti was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects, becoming the second Italian-born architect to receive such an honour. This essay unpacks Taglietti’s move from Milan to Canberra, discussing his background, motivations, ambitions and vision for the capital city of Australia. The paper focuses in particular on the circumstances in which he discovered Canberra, critically positioning him as a “citizen of the world” – an expression he used referring to himself. In so doing, this paper adds a layer of complexity to the discourse of 20th century Australian émigré architects, considering the case of an Italian architect whose relocation to Australia was a deliberate choice.