Posts Tagged ‘urban design and built form’
Speed Date a Sustainable Designer
Posted in Events by sashashtargot on January 30th, 2012
| 19 February , 2012 | ||
| 1:00 pm | to | 3:00 pm |
Are you renovating or building? Do you have plans and ideas you’d like to discuss with green architects or building designers? The Alternative Technology Association (ATA) would like to invite you to Speed Date a Sustainable Designer.
When: Sunday 19th February
Time: 1-3pm
Where: The Atrium, Federation Square, Melbourne
Speed Date a Sustainable Designer brings together Australia’s leading sustainable architects and building designers so that you can discuss your plans in a relaxed ‘no obligations’ environment.
What to Bring
Bring your sketches, plans and photographs on your tablet, laptop or good old hard copies! The designers will offer solutions, ideas and alternative viewpoints.
You can watch the short YouTube video from the last event here: http://bit.ly/gi1vnt
Supported by bankmecu
A free event. Limited spots available! Bookings are essential. Go to sdsd.ata.org.au
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Seven Billion: It’s Getting Crowded in Here!
Posted in Events, Opinion, Research by Kate Archdeacon on October 7th, 2011
| 12 October , 2011 | ||
| 6:15 pm | to | 7:30 pm |
Photo by bricoleurbanism via flickr CC
High density living is great for the environment, right? But what does it do to our heads and hearts? The Australian psyche was moulded by the myth of the ‘wide brown land’, so what might life packed like sardines look and feel like? With the world’s seven billionth person is about to be born, can we learn from the Asian megacity experience? And will we still be sharing a cup of sugar with our neighbours? As the population debate gets mental, we’re going in search of the soul in urban sprawl.
Hosted by Natasha Mitchell and featuring Kim Dovey, Helen Killmier, Bernard Salt and Sein-Way Tan.
Presented in partnership with ABC Radio National. Free event, bookings highly recommended.
The Wheeler Centre, 6:15PM – 7:30PM, Wednesday 12 October 2011
http://wheelercentre.com/calendar/event/seven-billion-it-s-getting-crowded-in-here/
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Food-sensitive Planning and Urban Design: Forum
Posted in Events, Research by Kate Archdeacon on September 22nd, 2011
| 5 October , 2011 | ||
| 1:45 pm | to | 5:00 pm |
The Heart Foundation invites you to a forum to learn more about the resource: Food-sensitive planning and urban design: A conceptual framework for achieving a sustainable and healthy food system.
Guest speakers:
- Associate Professor Trevor Budge (AM), La Trobe University
- Jenny Donovan, Inclusive Design
- Dr. Lukar Thornton, Deakin University
- Kirsten Larsen, Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab (VEIL), Melbourne University
‘Food-sensitive planning and urban design (FSPUD) does not simply assert that we have a problem in our cities, but sets out to identify new ways of tackling issues, providing a suite of ideas and innovations that cities should now embrace.’ (Trevor Budge, foreword to FSPUD).
This forum will be of interest to planners, architects, urban designers, engineers, public health professionals, policy makers, community members and elected representatives. It will explore the critical need to consider food in urban land use and development, and how that might be achieved.
1:45 – 5:00pm, Thursday 6 October 2011
Darebin Arts and Entertainment Centre, Cnr Bell Street and St. Georges Road, Preston
Admission: free
RSVP: acceptances only by 5pm Friday 30 September 2011 to cvhvic@heartfoundation.org.au
Places are limited – booking essential
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Climate Change Adaptation National Congress
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on September 15th, 2011
| 13 October , 2011 | ||
| 14 October , 2011 |
Photo by benzpics63 via flickr CC
Climate change presents planners and decision-makers with unique challenges. How, when and at what scale climate change will impact us remains uncertain. What is clear is that adaptation needs to be part of our planning and risk management now.
3 Pillars Network in partnership with Net Balance, the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility and CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship present the 2nd Climate Change Adaptation Congress, a landmark event exploring the policy, strategies and business models needed to enable a climate resilient future for Australia. Planning for adaptation remains an outstanding challenge for the vast majority of Australian organisations. This is why we believe a practical and collaborative approach to addressing this issue is required. The Congress will create a space for knowledge sharing and ‘peer learning’ – drawing on the collective and unique expertise of organisations at all stages of adaptation planning. See About the Congress Structure for more details.
October 13 & 14, Melbourne Town Hall
Register now – early bird registration closes September 22. Download the Event Program.
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Urban Infrastructure: Towards a Sustainable Economy?
Posted in Events by unaavic on August 26th, 2011
| 14 September , 2011 | ||
| 5:45 pm | to | 7:45 pm |
UNAA Earth Summit Series 2011: Urban Infrastructure: Towards a Sustainable Economy?
In the lead up to the next United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June 2012, the UNAA Victoria Earth Summit Series examines Victoria’s transition to a green economy in the context of the two themes of Rio+20: a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication; and the institutional framework for sustainable development. The upcoming UNAA Victoria Earth Summit event will discuss Victoria’s urban infrastructure and Melbourne’s progress towards becoming a sustainable city.
Guest Speaker: Professor Rob Adams
Architect and urban designer, Rob Adams has been at the nerve centre of the revitalisation of the City of Melbourne and surrounds and numerous redevelopments and flagship buildings bear his mark and influence. Acquiring perspectives in urban design from Africa and the UK Rob moved on to adopt Australia in the early eighties. A Professorial Fellow at The University of Melbourne since 2004 and lecturer in demand at RMIT, Rob’s passion is now turning toward the liveability of Victoria while addressing its growth.
Forum Discussion
Rob Gell will facilitate a discussion following Rob’s presentation and will invite contributions from members of the audience. The issues of sustainable development and infrastructure as they relate to transport, Melbourne’s CBD, metropolitan areas, regional Victoria and rural areas will be explored in this stimulating and thought provoking forum.
5.45pm, Wednesday 14 September, 2011
Allens Arthur Robinson
530 Collins St, Melbourne
RSVP Essential. For more information and RSVP form please visit the UNAA Victoria website or contact us on: (03) 9670 7878 or events@unaavictoria.org.au
Updates posted on Facebook and Twitter @unaavic
Bike Futures 2011
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on August 24th, 2011
| 12 October , 2011 9:00 am | to | 14 October , 2011 5:00 pm |
With the transport crisis a long-term reality for Australian cities, there has never been a better time to improve livability by embracing the benefits of bicycling. Bikes bring back the human scale of public spaces, changing streets from places to avoid into places to congregate. Delegates will hear how bicycling plays a key role in transforming cities into liveable spaces at Bike Futures 2011 from 12 – 14 October.
Now in its third year Bike Futures has become the key annual professional development for national and local leaders, planners, designers and builders to use bike transport and recreation to advance their communities. Bike riders have emerged as a critical indicator species of livability. In towns and cities around the world business and civic leaders, questing for the secret to attracting talent and innovation, are reaching for the Bike Plan.
Bike Futures 2011 will discuss how to take the next steps from providing bike infrastructure – essential for mobility – to changing the ways cities work. When Bike Plans are done well, we know we will find a healthy social and economic ecology. There is little doubt that bikes subtly but powerfully transform the street, calming it, warming it, making it magnetic to people and their conversation and commerce. Bike Futures 2011 will bring together world leading experts as well as some of Australia’s leading practitioners on how to best respond to the issues confronting communities as they embrace the bicycle revolution.
Keynote speakers:
- Gil Penalosa is an internationally renowned liveable city advisor and is passionate about creating cities for people. He is Executive Director of the Canadian non-profit organization 8-80 Cities and also works as Senior Consultant for the renowned Danish firm Gehl Architects.
- Gordon Price is the Director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University. Gordon has served many terms as a City Councillor in Vancouver, BC. As the Vancouver Sun declared when Price stepped down from the City Council, “‘Councillor Bikeways’ has done more than any other elected official to shape the city and the way we use it”.
The three-day conference is presented by the Bicycle Network and hosted by Bicycle Victoria.
Wed 12 – Fri 14 October 2011
Etihad Stadium, Melbourne
http://bikefutures.conferenceworks.net.au/
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Build Green Expo
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on August 19th, 2011
| 18 August , 2011 10:00 am | to | 21 August , 2011 6:00 pm |
http://buildgreenexpo.com.au/melbourne/
Carolyn Steel: Feeding Cities
Posted in Events, Research by Kate Archdeacon on July 14th, 2011
| 21 July , 2011 | ||
| 6:15 pm | to | 7:30 pm |
Essential items delivery to SE QLD, Jan 2011: Aust Defence Force via flickr CC
Carolyn Steel – Keynote Address - A State of Design Festival project presented by the British Council and Grimshaw
Australia is one of the most urbanised countries on earth. In Victoria, nearly 75% of the population lives in major cities. Do not miss this important keynote address that will inspire new thinking around how we can sustainably feed our growing metropolises. Carolyn Steel’s keynote address will highlight how feeding cities arguably has a greater social and physical impact on the planet and us than anything else we do. Yet, too few of us in the developed world are aware of the process. Food arrives on our plates as if by magic, and we rarely stop to wonder how it might have got there. Recent extreme weather and peak oil prices have sent the cost of food soaring, while supermarket price wars mean produce is being valued at unsustainably low levels. The conversation around how cities can be designed more productively with appropriate pockets of urban agriculture and smarter food networks, is one that we need to consider seriously. This lecture will stimulate discussion around food security, accessibility, production, consumption and distribution.
Roll Up Bicycle Valet Parking will be available at this event from 30 minutes before the start time.
Thursday 21 July, 2011
6.15pm – 7.30pm
Cost: $20
Bookings: PURCHASE TICKETS
Phone: 03 9650 3963
Email: info@stateofdesign.com.au
Location: BMW Edge, Fed Square, Flinders Street Melbourne
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The Housing We’d Choose: Grattan Report
Posted in Movements, Research by Kate Archdeacon on July 6th, 2011
The Housing We’d Choose explores the relationship between the housing we want, and the housing we have. The report presents original research on the housing preferences of Australians. A representative sample of over 700 residents in Sydney and Melbourne was asked to make real-world housing choices, limited by their budgets. The housing they chose was a much more varied mix than either city currently provides. In particular, the research suggests significant shortfalls of semi-detached housing and apartments in the middle and outer areas of both cities.
The second part of the report examines recent construction trends and argues that there are barriers to delivering more of the housing people say they want. These disincentives include the cost of materials and labour for buildings over four storeys, land assembly and preparation, and the risk and uncertainty of our planning systems, especially in Victoria.
A subsequent Grattan report will recommend changes to the design of the housing market in order to provide people with more of the homes they say they want. Download a Copy of the Main Report
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Improving Urban Streams Through a Stormwater Retrofit Approach: Forum
Posted in Events by Kate Archdeacon on June 23rd, 2011
| 29 June , 2011 | ||
| 9:30 am | to | 1:00 pm |
Image: eXtension.org: Gardens, Lawns, and Landscapes via flickr CC
Clearwater in partnership with the University of Melbourne, Monash University and Melbourne Water invite you to a unique event where you will hear insights into the contrasting approaches of two innovative catchment-scale stormwater retrofit programs:
- Shepherds Creek project – Cincinnati, Ohio
- Little Stringybark Creek project – Melbourne, Australia
Both projects aim to improve the condition of receiving waters using novel incentives to engage the community. These incentives encourage the uptake of allotment and streetscape scale stormwater retention and treatment systems.
Key speakers include:
- Chris Walsh – Principle Research Fellow, University of Melbourne
- Tim Fletcher – Associate Professor Water Engineering, Monash University
- Bill Shuster – Research Hydrologist, US Environmental Protection Authority
- Darren Bos – Project Coordinator, Little Stringybark Creek project
- Helen Brown – UK Endeavour Award Fellow, University of Melbourne
Presentations throughout the day will be supported with facilitated discussion and the opportunity to meet and chat with three stormwater experts from the US EPA, over an informal lunch setting. The forum is ideal for water industry practitioners, environment staff, urban designers, town planners, engineers and contract staff. This forum will provide practical insights on: effective engagement of the community in stormwater management economic incentives for encouraging stormwater management at allotment scale design, construction and performance of streetscape and allotment-scale stormwater retention, harvesting and treatment systems the future of stormwater management objectives in Australia.
Price: $60 – includes arrival tea & coffee, morning tea and lunch
9:30 – 13:00, Wednesday 29th June
Visit the Clearwater website for more information and to register.
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