WORKSHOPS

TIME AND DATE: Thursday, May 19, 2022, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

ABSTRACT: This Workshop is applicable to all themes and case studies for each theme will be offered.

Cities are complex systems, and we need to embrace and explore the opportunity this provides for urban planning and design. When increasing complexity is a challenge, there is little point examining the parts of the city system in isolation – we simply perpetuate our seemingly impenetrable silos. Planners, urbanists, and urban development professionals can benefit from understanding and applying new systems thinking approaches to the evaluation, design and management of our cities. This workshop will overview and teach the innovative use of Human Factors (HF) systems methods. The HF discipline has a long legacy in complex and safety critical domains (aviation, road transport, defence, disaster management) but is new to the planning and urban design domain. There are significant parallels between our disciplines, both explore the interface between people and their environments; and both manage the complex relationships between user, designer, social scientist and engineer. Dr Nicholas Stevens will lead this workshop and is a co-author of the Human Factors and Planning cross-disciplinary book - Human Factors in Land Use Planning and Urban Design: Methods, Practical Guidance, and Applications (Stevens et al. 2018). He and others have been successfully applying these methods to a range of complex urban settings for government and industry partners. Workshop participants will learn two systems thinking methods – Work Domain Analyses (Naikar, 2013) and ActorMaps (Stevens, et al. 2018). They will be provided with software, to keep, for the development of systems models and will leave with the skills to explore the boundaries and interdependencies of any complex system. Current systems thinking case studies for each of the Congress themes - Climate, Housing, Inequality, and Public Health - will be presented. Participants will also be introduced to more than 20 other HF methods to explore opportunity in crises, including Cognitive Task Analysis, Situation Awareness, and Interface Evaluation.

TIME AND DATE: Thursday, May 19, 2022, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

ABSTRACT: Across industry, planners are trying to understand how to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges and perspective into their practice. There is a growing awareness of the importance of respectfully responding to Country. Many planners are also thinking beyond starting with Country and looking to learn from the living cultural knowledge and practices, and embed them into planning and design.

GHD in partnership with Zion Engagement and Planning and the Western Sydney Planning Partnership developed a bespoke chapter in the Western Sydney Aerotropolis Phase 2 Development Control Plan (DCP) and a supporting framework, the Recognise Country: Guidelines for development in the Aerotropolis. This new Guideline was informed by an iterative engagement program with Traditional Custodians, cultural advisors, agencies and the broader Western Sydney Aboriginal community that was mostly facilitated online during COVID lockdowns. It supports proponents, assessors and community in achieving built environment outcomes that will see Country, community and culture appropriately responded to and celebrated in the built environment.

Our team will unpack the overarching principles of the Recognise Country Guidelines and share with participants the important learnings from this project. We will highlight the key considerations in starting with Country and give practical tips on how to embed leading practice into planning and design processes.

Building on this foundation, we will facilitate an interactive session for participants to learn how to start with Country based on the Recognise Country Guidelines. Small groups will be given the opportunity to work with maps and apply a cultural values lens to spatial planning. This will increase awareness and capacity in understanding how to appropriately enable planning and design processes to be informed by cultural values, and equip participants in how to respectfully start with Country.

TIME AND DATE: Friday, May 20, 2022, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

ABSTRACT: Planners and urban designers are shaping the future of communities across Australia; defining new solutions to our biggest challenges including population growth, housing affordability and diversity, urban inequality, climate change and the need to transition to net zero.

To shape our equitable and resilient urban futures, practitioners are needing to champion outcomes that reflect a significant step-change from today, are not always supported by the community, and can require key stakeholders to take significant financial and political risk.

To lead this complex change, practitioners need to leverage deep technical expertise whilst influencing their internal and external operating environment, and bring the community and other key stakeholders along on the transition journey.

Do you have the skills needed to lead transformational urban change? What would you need to do differently to take a transition leadership approach on your next project? What are the benefits and impacts of taking this approach?

During this workshop, Studio THI will guide participants through a series of interactive activities exploring:
- Your individual change leadership skill strengths and areas of development
- The results of Studio THI’s research into the change-readiness of high-growth urban communities in SEQ and greater Sydney and Melbourne
- A change leadership approach to a real life housing strategy project

Participants will leave this workshop with practical insight on how to take a change leadership approach on their next strategic urban planning process, and an understanding of their individual transition leadership strengths and areas for development.

By participating in this workshop you will become part of a growing movement of transformational urban change leaders, shaping a more equitable and resilient urban future for all.

TIME AND DATE: Friday, May 20, 2022, 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

ABSTRACT: Australia is committed to net zero emissions by 2050. Urban environments are a key part of the solution: transport and buildings each make up for 20% of emissions. Urban planning influences the emissions intensity of our cities, shaping how we live. For example, sprawling residential and car-dependent communities drive up emissions, especially when the planning system contributes to the development of energy and carbon intensive buildings. How do we solve for net zero emissions and prioritise the shifts needed in the planning system to get us there?

ClimateWorks champions a system-change approach to tackling climate change. We apply a backcasting methodology to develop creative and high-impact solutions that leverage system-change and achieve decarbonisation at scale. Our methodology involves facilitating collaboration across stakeholder groups to help them identify the shifts that need to happen to achieve net zero emissions. We facilitate workshops that allow groups to collectively identify the key leverage points in their system to catalyse change, working with the shared purpose of achieving net zero emissions. We will take the perspective of a future where Australia has achieved net zero emissions and ask: what has changed in the planning system to allow this? What can we do today to achieve those changes?

This future-focused, skill-development workshop will have three main outcomes: 1/ Building capacity amongst participants to adopt a system-change and ‘backcasting’ mindset to developing solutions; 2/ Enhancing understanding, motivation and capacity amongst participants of why and how urban planners can solve for net zero, and 3/ Identifying tangible pathways and next steps to take action, exploring how system-change skills can be applied to the context and day-to-day of participants. The workshop will identify critical areas for action at a range of scales from specific planning projects and reforms through to collaborative action and partnership across the sector.

TIME AND DATE: Friday, May 20, 2022, 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM, The LongHouse

ABSTRACT: Country is everything to Aboriginal people, it is alive with interconnectedness, story and memory which is held in the genetic memory of Aboriginal people. Country is sacred and Aboriginal people have cultural obligation to care for Country for future generations. This sacredness exists within the cultural values of landscape rather than heritage items within a landscape. Current legislative frameworks only recognise tangible heritage items and miss cultural values of Country which is where the sacredness exists. 

Through colonisation Country has been threatened in a myriad of ways. Colonial dominance has resulted in catastrophic environmental degradation which requires immediate action. Sustainability is intrinsic to Aboriginal cultural frameworks in relation to how we live with Country. Aboriginal people value the relationship between elements of Country and work to maintain the balance in the interconnectivity of life. Caring for Country promotes cultural outcomes alongside sustainability outcomes. 

The built environment industry continues to notify Aboriginal communities of projects that will irreversibly change Country and are asked to provide comments on projects – often when plans are well developed, with only an opportunity to raise concern. Aboriginal communities want to be part of developing plans that minimise negative impacts on Country but face massive pressures of being under-resourced (time and money). We need to identify solutions and strategies to elevate Aboriginal voices and enable Aboriginal communities to be part of solutions. Aboriginal people are relational, valuing the interconnectivity of all life. In this workshop we will examine the importance of trust building, the value of partnership and role of reciprocity in establishing relationships. 

Through our bespoke online training environment we have learnt a lot about the challenges that planners have in working with Country and community. Our workshop will unpack these learnings and support participants to make actions focused personal and professional commitments. 

This session will facilitate a conversation about Country in crisis through exploring these important issues and identifying assumptions the built environment industry has when working with Country.