Kirralie Houghton is a PhD student with Creative Industries and Built Environment at QUT Brisbane, awarded an APA Kirralie’s research will focus on Understanding the Implications of Networked Social Interactions for the Design of Public Urban Spaces.  She holds an honours Degree from UNSW in Town Planning and has extensive experience as a Planning Consultant in both NSW and QLD.   This experience included detailed research on  a range of topics including: the ageing population and its impacts on regional NSW demographics, landuse impacts and implications of small acreage holdings, minimum rural holding size –best practise for NSW, planning policies for retirement villages, retail hierarchies and thresholds, retail trends, environmental management policies for industrial landuses, industrial trends in Australia, landuse policies and measures for sustainability, best practise for neighbourhood planning, new urbanism and its relevance to planning policy, pressures and opportunities for agriculture in regional NSW.  Kirralie has also worked with QUT as a research assistant in Creative Industries investigating innovatinve public space, governance of public places and community engagement.