Lead authors and editorial team:

Michael Buxton is an Emeritus Professor at RMIT University and former head of RMIT Planning and Environment Program. He has 25 years’ experience in in environment and planning in local, regional and state governments including 12 years in senior management with Victorian Planning and Environment agencies. He has published widely particularly on urban form, and on outer urban and peri-urban development. He formerly led the Premier’s Green Wedge Working Party advising the Victorian Government on green wedge protection.

Geoffrey Falk has been a practicing architect since the early seventies, designing climate-sensitive, sustainable buildings. He is also a practicing artist and illustrator. He has extensive experience in commercial building, educational, institutional and local government buildings, complex heritage issues and ‘one family’ houses. He is a strategic thinker with sophisticated knowledge of architectural planning and contemporary aesthetics and practiced environmental design skills. His visualizations are highly successful in communicating key criteria in planning and design to public and stakeholder groups.

Jim Holdsworth is an architect and urban designer with wide-ranging experience as a consultant to the private sector and to State and local governments, and as a senior officer in local government. He was a sessional member of Planning Panels Victoria for eight years to 2017 and served on many Panels and several Ministerial Advisory Committees. He currently conducts a specialist urban design and planning consultancy.

Mike Scott began his planning career in the UK before taking up senior positions in Victorian Councils, including the City of Melbourne at the time of the 1985 Strategy Plan. In 2001 he co-founded the consultancy Planisphere, where he pioneered methodologies for landscape assessment and Place DNA, winning more than a dozen professional awards. He was also in demand as a communicator and facilitator. He currently chairs the RMIT planning industry advisory committee, runs professional courses in communicating with communities, and is a member of the Victorian Design Review Panel.

Steve Thorne is an architect and urban designer and Director of Design Urban Pty Ltd. He has worked in the private and public sectors and held various positions including; Director of Urban Design (Victorian State Government) and Principal Urban Designer (City of Melbourne). He has experience gained from working in Australia, the United Kingdom, South Africa, New Zealand, Oman, Saudi Arabia, China, the UAE and the Czech Republic. His work has been awarded more than 30 international, national and state urban design awards in a career spanning 37 years.