Cooler Places is an online resource to help town planners, urban designers, developers, councils and the community reduce urban heat. It provides clear guidance on how to use urban structure, greening, water and cool materials as building blocks to create cooler, more resilient places to live.
We can all take action
No matter what you are planning or building, you can take positive actions to combat urban heat and make our cities and suburbs cooler places.
Town planners, urban designers, councils and developers can create cooler places by optimising the layout of streets and buildings and integrating existing natural assets, such as waterways and bushland into the design of urban areas. If you’re designing a precinct or large-scale development you could start your cooler places journey at Cool Urban Structure.
Anyone building or renovating a home or business premises can use landscaping, orientation and cooling materials and colours to make comfortable environments to live in. If you’re building or renovating you could start your Cooler Places journey at Cool Materials.
Start building cooler places now
Urban structure, greening, water and cool materials are the key building blocks of effective, climate-resilient, place-based planning and design. When considered early and used together, these approaches can be applied to respond to local climate conditions and community needs and maximise cooling benefits.
Cooler Places provides a starting point for you to find out how these approaches can be used to mitigate urban heat. We also give key examples of where this has already been achieved. To read about how Landcom has implemented cooling strategies into their developments, visit the Case Study on Using planning strategies and controls for cooling.
How the layout and orientation of our streets and buildings can create cooler places.
How urban greening can create cooler places.
How water in the landscape can create cooler places.
How light, reflective materials can create cooler places.
