Designers in Government & Australian Urban Design Awards

Join us for an evening of design excellence with the Designers in Government Showcase and the announcement of the winners of the Australian Urban Design Awards.

All levels of government – from local councils to state and Commonwealth agencies – have instrumental roles to play in advocating, shaping and delivering good design across the built environment. Designers working within government will showcase their work in a Pecha Kutcha-style format.

The showcase will be followed by a livestream of the Australian Urban Design Awards Ceremony. The Awards are co-convened by the Planning Institute of Australia, the Australian Institute of Architects and the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, with the support of five peak organizations servicing the sector.

Please join us for refreshments during and after the events.

Designers in Government Showcase

Benjamin Cohen, City Renewal Authority

Clare Easterbrook-Lamb, Campbelltown City Council

Alexandra McRobert, NSW Land and Housing Corporation

Julia Pressick, City of Sydney

Susie Young, City of Newcastle

Abbie Galvin, NSW Government Architect

Benjamin Cohen is a Project Director/Urban Designer at the City Renewal Authority Canberra and leads the development of a new waterfront park on the foreshore of Lake Burley Griffin. His approach to design within government focuses on utilising a bottom-up approach to community engagement as a key driver for ensuring places are human centric, place focused and sustainable.

Clare Easterbrook-Lamb is the City Design Specialist at Campbelltown City Council and leads a project to deliver design-led planning policy for Campbelltown’s City Centre. She is a passionate urbanist, with a focus on using design as a catalyst for good governance and a strategic tool for change. This focus has been developed working across both the private and public sectors, in both Australia and the Netherlands.

Alexandra McRobert is a Concept Designer at the Land and Housing Corporation, working on precinct analysis and master planning to deliver well-designed, contextually appropriate social housing across NSW. She is a registered architect with experience across the private, academic, and government sectors focussed on delivering design quality and diverse housing outcomes.

Julia Pressick is an urban designer at the City of Sydney. She currently works in the Development Assessments Unit, with a focus on achieving design excellence across concept plans and development applications within the City. Julia comes to urban design with a background in architecture. She has been working as an urban designer for over 20 years and has experience at state and local governments, as well as working within architecture and landscape architecture studios across Australia and NZ. Julia has extensive experience working as an urban design expert in the Land and Environment Court at all scales of development.

Susie Young is a landscape architect, urban designer and strategic urban planner with City of Newcastle. She has been committed to design, planning and investment in quality public realm and local centres in Newcastle for more than 25 years. She initiated Bathers Way for Newcastle and is currently co-lead on the Place Strategy for Broadmeadow and Hamilton North. The strategy requires the collaborative efforts of multiple agencies and contributors and is set to be the largest urban renewal project outside of the Sydney metropolitan area.

Abbie Galvin is the NSW Government Architect. Prior to this appointment, she worked for 30 years in architectural practice on projects across a range of sectors that have been highly awarded, published and recognized internationally for bringing fresh approaches to common project types. Abbie is passionate about the public domain, and the ability of architecture and our built environment to positively affect human behaviour, the way people interact, and the manner in which institutions and organizations operate.

The Australian Urban Design Awards were created in 1996 by then Prime Minister Paul Keating’s Urban Design Taskforce. The program was established to recognize contemporary Australian urban design projects of the highest quality and to encourage cities, towns and communities across the country to strive for best practice in all projects.

Award Categories

Built projects – city and regional scale
Built projects – local and neighbourhood scale
Leadership, advocacy and research – city and regional scale
Leadership, advocacy and research – local and neighbourhood scale

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This event is brought to you by the University of Sydney's Henry Halloran Research Trust and is hosted in partnership with the Planning Institute of Australia, the Australian Institute of Architects and the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects.