Conference Agenda | Australian Placemaking Summit

Speed Networking

This speed networking session will allow delegates to introduce themselves and swap business cards with other conference attendees.

Setting the Pace for Placemaking in Australia

• This keynote will provide insight into the relationship between people and their urban environments
• How we can work better collaboratively to create the kinds of places people want to spend time in
• Evidence-based planning for place-based investment

Kylie Legge, Founder & CEO, Place Score/Place Partners

A Nordic architecture practice sets new standards for placemaking in Sydney

The Quay Quarter Tower is one of the most innovative projects in Sydney, reimagining the office high-rise for contemporary needs, with “campus style” offices and stacked vertical villages that break down the massing of the tower. The comprehensive approach to sustainability considers the tower’s impact across its full life cycle, from recycled structural materials to high-performance façades, all leading to an exemplary energy rating.

The Sydney Fish Market will establish a world-class “foodie” destination. The project seeks to set in place an exemplary example of integrating the public realm and contemporary market space that will become a landmark in Sydney’s unique harbour-based urban landscape. The new market will place people at the centre of the architectural response, with an emphasis on place-making to foster a strong sense of community at Blackwattle Bay.

The placemaking strategy for 3XN’s latest projects on Australian soil is set to redefine the public realm by activating the plinth, enhancing accessibility and nurturing the community through the studios notion that architecture shapes behaviour.

Fred Holt, Architect, Partner, 3XN, Denmark

Illustrating San Francisco’s Unique Expressions of Placemaking

• Imagining, Redesigning and Reclaiming Public Spaces – the story from San Francisco 
• How the city’s varied constituencies are working together to transform public spaces
• Expanding Placemaking through Tactical Urbanism

Robin Abad Ocubillo, Senior Planner, Urban Design, San Francisco Planning Department, USA

Placemaking in Fishermans Bend – Opportunities and Challenges

• Fishermans Bend is entering a period of significant transition. Building on the areas rich history of industry and manufacturing, each of its precincts will soon become distinct mixed-use neighbourhoods focused on people and human scale interactions. 
• This presentation will explore what opportunities exist for placemaking and activation in Australia’s largest urban renewal area.

Peter Smith, Chief Executive Officer, City of Port Phillip

PANEL DISCUSSION

Landscape Design and its key Role in Urban Placemaking

• What makes a great place?
• The role of landscaping in the placemaking process
• Designing for the public realm
• Creating meaningful experiences for people in public spaces

Anna Chauvel, Director, Place Laboratory
Dr Beau Beza, Associate Head of School - School of Architecture & Built Environment, Deakin University
Deborah Kuh, COO, Place + Environment Lead, Geyer
*Warwick Keates, Director, WAX Design

How We Plan and Build Communities through Placemaking

Tara Gloster and Zanda Cameron from RobertsDay will draw on a range of successful examples which demonstrate how Placemaking can inspire the broader industry to think differently about how we plan and build our communities. 

Placemaking has taken the development industry by storm over the past few years.  But for many, it’s a discipline that is still not well understood. It is often cast as short-term, ephemeral improvements that will make our public spaces more comfortable and increase visitation. There is a focus on activation and grassroot-led initiatives, and strategic opportunities that leverage more compelling commercial benefits, are overlooked. 

As Australia’s only national planning, design and place making firm, adopting a placemaking focus at the outset has embedded a transformative approach in the way we approach our work, and is challenging the way our clients have traditionally operated – within the context of both infill and greenfield developments.  

The premise of our focus is that places strategically positioned as destinations with a competitive, commercial edge at the outset will realise stronger financial returns. Communities with a well-considered vision up front are more likely to feel real. They will have a richer sense of personality and offer a more fulfilling lifestyle. This approach also provides a more detailed brief for our designers to better customise planning to place, and a framework that de-risks early investment decisions and builds confidence for investors.

Tara Gloster, Senior Place Planner - VIC, RobertsDay
Zanda Cameron, Principal – WA, RobertsDay

Exploring Movement and Place: Making Human-Centred Transport Planning a Reality

• How the concept of Movement and Place is gaining momentum cross Australian Cities
• Recognising the dual function of streets as both through corridors and destinations in their own right
• Case Studies

Christian Bodé, Director, GTA Consultants

PANEL DISCUSSION

Indigenous Placemaking and the Built Environment 

• Urban design, public art and architecture by, for and in collaboration with Aboriginal people 
• Contribution of aboriginal artists to cities’ urban fabric
• Encouraging architects and designers to be more engaged with Indigenous culture

Dr Emily Potter, Associate Head of School, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University
*Dr Janet McGaw, Senior Lecturer in Architectural Design & Practice, Melbourne School of Design, The University of Melbourne
Gregory Burgess, Director, Gregory Burgess Architects
Jefa Greenaway, Director, Greenaway Architects
*Timmah Ball, Policy Advisor, Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning

Taking a Place-Focused Approach to Maximise the Benefits of New Transport Infrastructure across Sydney

Graham Pointer, Key Account Manager – Planning and Strategy, WSP

The Woolley Street Project -  A Pavement to Plaza Experiment

Woolley Street in Dickson ACT is Canberra’s Chinatown. It is well known locally for being family friendly, multi-cultural and having a mix of great inexpensive food. Recognising the effect of years of neglect and changing public expectations of how an eat street could be experienced, led local traders and residents to identify Woolley Street as requiring a major upgrade. Grounded in place-based principles, the ACT government has chosen action orientated planning approaches to transform tired open spaces. As lead landscape architect Anna Chauvel will step through the iterative process of place planning, experimentation, measurement and consultation as part of reimagining Woolley Street.

Anna Chauvel, Director, Place Laboratory

Digital Placemaking 

• How can digital infrastructure improve our public spaces
• Relationship between technology and place
• Using technology to improve civic, economic and social interaction in public spaces

Emile Rademeyer, Creative Director, VANDAL

Embedding a Place Making Approach

• Place-based audits to establish measures and apply data
• Community visioning and expertise to frame projects
• Continual small changes
• Examples and learnings on how a place making approach delivers a broad range of benefits

The City of Greater Dandenong in Melbourne’s south east is delivering a place making approach to support urban renewal in its three activity centres.

• Dandenong has evolved from an 1850’s Market Town, through the boom of the post war period, to today’s culturally diverse activity centre. The most significant of these changes, in the past decade, follow announcement of the state governments $290 million Revitalising Central Dandenong initiative.
• This presentation maps a placemaking approach supported with a Placemaking Framework and place-based Measures to guide a program of continual small scaled improvements. A compelling series of images show lighter, quicker, cheaper approaches that build a strong local narrative and high place attachment.

Jenny Pemberton-Webb, Place Manager - Revitalising Central Dandenong, City of Greater Dandenong

Do Smarter Cities Really Lead to Better Places? Unpacking the Role of Data in Placemaking

• Taking stock: how well are we doing? The health of our cities and neighbourhoods is declining, loneliness is rising, how can we do better?
• The place-maker's challenge: We can't create human-centered places without data about the humans (that would be like trying to prepare a transport plan without traffic data)
• New technologies like big data can transform the way we understand cities
• Case studies from cities around the world who are using data to plan better places 

Lucinda Hartley, Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer, Neighbourlytics

Placemaking After Dark

• Creating inspiring places after dark
• Developing vibrant night time economies through placemaking

Tim Hunt, Melbourne Lighting Leader, ARUP

Starting With Place and Not Forgetting the People

• Shakespeare said “What is the city but the people?” Why starting with place is right, why place is critical to humans in cities and why we aren’t really all that different when it comes to planning, making and then living in these things us urbanisers are making”

Frith Walker, Head of Placemaking, Panuku Development Auckland – New Zealand

PANEL DISCUSSION

Placemaking and Property Development

• Potential Benefits of placemaking for developers 
• Creating more desirable communities through placemaking
• Placemaking as a winning real estate development strategy

Amanda Steele, Executive Managing Director - Property Management, CBRE Pacific
Narelle Hutchins, Place Experience Strategist, Principal, Stitch Consulting Pty Ltd
*Seamus McCartney, Head of Urban Strategy and Place Development, Lendlease
Vincent Lazzara, Senior Place Strategist, Hoyne

Place Management for City of Parramatta

• Building partnerships between City of Parramatta, property owners, local businesses, state agencies and community groups to create better places
• Overview of Parramatta’s placemaking projects

Bruce Mills, Group Manager – Place Services, City of Parramatta Council

Bridging the gap between engineering design and the community

Rail, roads and power supply infrastructure is  a vital set of services that both connect and sustain our cities. Shaping how we travel, live and engage with community, the infrastructure that surrounds us is traditionally delivered as a purist engineered solution. Seeing the opportunity to disrupt the norm and impact how infrastructure curates the world we live in, Heath brings the end user to the forefront of project outcomes, challenging multidisciplinary design teams to think beyond the brief and the process to realise future focused, connected people centric solutions which create elements of play, elegance and ergonomics in our urban realms, leaving a lasting legacy.

Heath Gledhill, Architectural and Urban Design Interface Leader, Aurecon

Placemaking Strategy for Lot Fourteen

• Lot Fourteen on the site of the former Royal Adelaide Hospital is our neighbourhood to inspire ideas and change the game across innovation, research, art and culture.
• The seven-hectare neighbourhood is bringing together members of the Space and Defence, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence and Creative Industries to share spaces, experiences and most of all, talent.
• Simplifying the place vision for Lot fourteen

Rachel Walsh, Director – Place & Marketing, Renewal SA

Design-Led City: A Design Strategy for Brisbane

As the largest local government in Australia, Brisbane City Council recognises the value of well-designed places, spaces, buildings and structures and their collective contribution to the culture, lifestyle, prosperity, environment and health of Brisbane and its communities. Design-led City – a design strategy for Brisbane is a new corporate, city-wide strategy that seeks to achieve a people-centric approach to design, delivery and maintenance of the built environment, and ensure that all developments make a positive contribution to the community. The strategy demonstrates Council’s leadership in Australasia and commitment to design that reflects Brisbane’s character, identity and climate across all aspects of the built environment, as well as cultivating a culture across Council, industry and the community that values design quality

Omar Barragan, Manager - City Planning and Development, Brisbane City Council

PANEL DISCUSSION

Placemaking and Public Lighting 

• Lighting’s contribution to the creation of a high quality public realm
• Adding visual interest to public spaces through engaging, interactive lighting designs where appropriate.
• Exploring lighting’s influence on the quality of our built environment

*Bruce Ramus, Founder & Creative Director, Ramus Illumination
*David Bird, FIALD, Managing Director, 2B Designed
Ian Dryden, Principal - Industrial Design, City of Melbourne
Tim Hunt, Melbourne Lighting Leader, ARUP

HoneySuckle Placemaking Project

• The Honeysuckle Precinct is a 50 hectare, harbour side site on the west side of Newcastle city.
• The 'Honeysuckle Placemaking' project consists of five placemaking projects located within the Honeysuckle Precinct.
• The projects were funded through the Community Contribution Fund, established by the Newcastle Port Authority and funded by the New South Wales Government.
• The projects respond to an on-going debate about how best to engage various stakeholders and communities with regards to activating the public realm.

Professor Sue Anne Ware, Chief Investigator, School of Architecture & Built Environment, UON, Landscape Architect

HIVE Project – Townsville

• The HIVE is a unique 18,000m2 placemaking project with a focus on supporting science, heritage, arts and culture.

The HIVE capitalises on its unique location fronting the iconic Townsville Strand and supports one of the most innovative waterfront development precincts in Australia

From Paddock to Postcode – Placemaking in Greenfield Developments

• Around 65,000 people move to Melbourne’s outer urban growth areas each year
• Hear a local Government view on the opportunities and challenges of creating a new community
• What soft and hard infrastructure is needed to turn a paddock into a postcode?

Bronwen Clark, Executive Officer, National Growth Areas Alliance