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AI Cities + Renewable Energy Regions

Brian Haratsis + Declan Haratsis

How could technology change where we live and work?

An exploration of artificial intelligence, renewable energy and the possibilities ahead for our cities and regions.

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Cover of AI Cities + Renewable Energy Regions, by Brian Haratsis + Declan Haratsis
  1. People & placeWhen services come to us.

    AI Cities explores how remote work and digital services could alter the relationship between households and city centres.

    Arrows lead out from a crowd of people to six destinations: work, shopping, banking and services, healthcare, education and entertainment.
    People travel to activities
    Arrows lead in to a home from remote work, e-commerce, online learning, telehealth, digital services and streaming, all built on AI assistants, digital services, and cloud and data.
    Activities travel to people

    “The twentieth century was organised around moving people to jobs. The AI City is organised around moving knowledge to wherever it creates the greatest value.”

    From the book · Figure 1.1: The Changing Economic Centre · Chapter 19: Conclusion
  2. Capital & regionsA new geography of opportunity.

    The book considers how renewable energy, digital infrastructure and changing industries could influence where activity takes place.

    Data centre investment in the pipeline
    $155bn
    Renewable energy investment in the pipeline
    $200bn

    From the book · Introduction

    “None of this implies that geography stops mattering. It implies that it starts mattering for different reasons.”

    From the book · Chapter 1: The AI City
  3. Adaptive thinkingPlanning for possibilities.

    An exploratory argument for planning that can respond to change and preserve useful options for the future.

    The optionality test

    “Does this decision preserve or reduce the city’s ability to adapt over the next 50–100 years?”

    From the book · Chapter 18

Our approach

Collaborative.

Bring the right perspectives together.

Different disciplines, connected early enough to shape the thinking.

Complex.

Make the relationships visible.

Economics, movement, land use and infrastructure. Separate the layers, understand the relationships, then bring the bigger picture into focus.

Creative.

A place holds more than one possibility.

Question the assumptions. Explore different uses, connections and patterns of demand. Give the next decision room to be different.

The master table's floor space as a bar chart, stepped into the outlines of ten buildings along a street, with trend lines and land-use strips beneath.

Our projects.

See all projects
Architectural rendering of the Whiterock Estate masterplanned communityRipley Valley, QLD

Whiterock Estate

What would it take to open up land with no road and no services?

  • Town planning
  • Project management
  • Economic services

2,300residential lots

A $15M catalyst loan for a new 2 km entrance road brought delivery forward 10–15 years.

Read the project: Whiterock Estate
The QV precinct in Melbourne’s CBD at duskMelbourne CBD, VIC

QV

Can one city block stack retail, offices and homes?

  • Retail curation
  • Economic research

≈600apartments above three levels of retail

Macroplan’s research made the case for a vertical, mixed-use centre, which reports extremely high trading performance at both Woolworths and Big W.

Read the project: QV
Hands marking routes on printed mapsAustralia-wide

Pharmacy Guild of Australia

What share of Australians can readily reach a pharmacy?

  • GIS analysis
  • Data analytics

5,800community pharmacies assessed

Demonstrated that the pharmacy location rules give Australia a national network of pharmacies that optimises the community’s access to prescription pharmaceuticals.

Read the project: Pharmacy Guild of Australia
Published image from Macroplan’s Hunter Region mapping projectHunter Region, NSW

Hunter Region mapping

Where are the region’s businesses, and what could decarbonisation mean for them?

  • GIS database
  • Interactive web mapping

Businesses, zoning, investment and major projects in one online map, to assist government and industry decision making about decarbonisation.

Read the project: Hunter Region mapping
Rendering of a linear plaza in Leppington Town CentreSouth-west Sydney, NSW

Leppington Town Centre

Which development scenarios stay viable under Council’s contributions schemes?

  • Financial feasibility
  • DCF modelling

2large mixed-use developments tested

Analysed the profitability impacts of Council’s development contributions schemes, as part of Aland’s ongoing negotiations with Council.

Read the project: Leppington Town Centre
Aerial view of Darwin’s city and waterfrontGreater Darwin, NT

Greater Darwin activity centres

How much retail floorspace will a growing region need, and where?

  • Activity centre audit
  • Floorspace projections

Confirmed the scale and hierarchy of centres for the Palmerston growth corridor.

Read the project: Greater Darwin activity centres

Your question.
Our collective thinking.

We help our clients harness and interpret change. Choose a sector to see the question it starts with, and the services that answer it.

Retail · Places people choose.

What does a changing market mean for your place?

Macroplan can help you understand changing demand and shopping habits, and how to take advantage of these changes.

  • Understand the market and the people it serves.
  • Explore the role, offer and mix of uses.
  • Connect the commercial proposition with a planning pathway.

IllustrativeA high street, the trade area it draws on, and the people coming in.

  • Urban Economics & Property ResearchPopulation, demographic, residential and retail forecasts, and economic impact assessments.
  • Town PlanningTimely approvals, rezonings and planning advice, including expert evidence.
  • Retail Analysis & InsightsTrade areas, expenditure forecasts, gap, needs and impact assessments.
  • Financial Modelling & FeasibilityCash-flow and EstateMaster models, business cases and transaction support.
  • Data Analytics & GIS MappingCatchment, density and travel-time mapping, and the MapCloud online map.
  • Decarbonisation Tools & AssessmentsGreen Star Communities assessments and regional precinct grant applications.

Who we work with

Developers, landowners, financiers, all three levels of government, infrastructure and planning agencies, universities, and health, childcare and aged care providers.

A national team of specialists.

“We are economists, analysts, planners and problem solvers. We consider challenges through an alternative lens.”

Macroplan

More than 40 years of solving problems and shaping cities.

  1. 1985

    Brian Haratsis leaves the Victorian State Government to start his own property economics and planning consultancy, in North Melbourne.

  2. Early 2000s

    Macroplan becomes a national consultancy, with offices in Australia’s major capital cities.

  3. Today

    One national team of economists, analysts, planners and problem solvers.

Brian Haratsis, Chief Executive Officer

Brian Haratsis

Chief Executive Officer

Founded Macroplan in 1985. Author of six books on Australia’s cities, and a Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia.

Glenn Lamont, Chief Operating Officer

Glenn Lamont

Chief Operating Officer

An urban economist with almost 30 years’ experience, including senior roles at the ABS, the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance and KPMG.

  • Jim TsirimiagosActing General Manager, NSWSenior Management
  • Ian ChurchillGeneral Manager, RetailSenior Management
  • Declan HaratsisGeneral ManagerSenior Management
  • Estella ZhangManager Urban Economics & Property ResearchEngagement Managers
  • Richard LeManager, Data Analytics & ResearchEngagement Managers
  • Lainey HaratsisProject Director, Strategic ProjectsEngagement Managers
  • Darren RuddManager of Planning, VICEngagement Managers
  • Stephanie BarkerPrincipal PlannerEngagement Managers
  • Damian TanSenior Consultant, Economics & Property ResearchConsultants & Analysts
  • Felicity KelsonSenior AnalystConsultants & Analysts
  • Gilda Di VincenzoSenior Planning ConsultantConsultants & Analysts
  • Sienna QianAnalystConsultants & Analysts
  • Brianna CooperExecutive Assistant to the Chairman & CEOBusiness Services
  • Mohd Hafiz SairiGIS ManagerBusiness Services
  • Rachel MulderAccounts ReceivableBusiness Services
  • George AlexiouIT ManagerBusiness Services

Map data: City of Melbourne, Vicmap (State of Victoria), CC BY 4.0

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Meet the team

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Previous books by Brian Haratsis

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