In the public realm, a photo essay

In the public realm, a photo essay

Date: Monday, 14th October 2024

Time: 4:15pm—4:45pm

Location: Chau Chak Wing Museum

Join us for a special photo essay and discussion about public urbanism over afternoon tea, featuring the work of researcher, urbanist and photographer, Dr Vera Xia. Dr Xia will discuss her work in conversation with urbanists Dr Ian Woodcock and Estelle Grech. 

Confirmed Speakers

Dr Vera Xia, Design and Urban Technologies Lecturer, University of Sydney

Dr Ian Woodcock, Senior Lecturer in Urbanism & Program Director in Urban Design / Urbanism / Urban & Regional Planning, University of Sydney 

Estelle Grech, Urban Planner & Policy Specialist, Committee for Sydney

Chair

Dr Greta Werner, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Henry Halloran Research Trust at The University of Sydney

Dr Vera Xia is a Design and Urban Technologies Lecturer in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney. She has a PhD in urban and regional planning and expertise in various urban technologies such as smart street furniture, social fitness apps, light festivals, and smart greenhouse technologies. Her PhD research titled 'Smart Technologies, Loneliness and Young Adults: Towards an Understanding of the People-Place Relationship in Urban Open Space' focuses on the use of smart technology in urban open spaces and its impacts on social wellbeing, particularly for young adults.

Apart from her research, Vera is also a creative and visual storyteller. Her film “(un)habitable circulation,” created for The Festival of 'Endangered' Urbanism 2021, encourages the audience to reconsider the liveability of transit and the rhythms of our daily lives during and after the pandemic.With prior professional experience in strategic planning and urban design in both private and public sectors, Vera is committed to researching and creating sustainable and equitable cities through her teaching and research activities.

Dr Ian Woodcock is Senior Lecturer in Urbanism in the Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning, The University of Sydney, Australia. He is a UK-registered architect with over 30 years of experience encompassing practice, research and teaching, across government, private and community sector settings. His research focuses on urban change, sense of place, and the use of design as a research method. 

Estelle Grech is an urban planner, passionate about improving social equity in cities. With experience in local government, consulting, and as a senior advisor in the NSW Government, she now leads planning and housing policy at the Committee for Sydney. 

A Churchill Fellowship recipient, Estelle recently travelled to over 13 cities across Europe and the US to research how to design better cities for women and girls. She has worked on a wide variety of projects, from community and cultural strategies to affordable housing studies, and has overseen the development of initiatives such as the Safer Cities program, Greater Sydney Parklands and policies to increase women in construction. 

Dr Greta Werner is a Postdoctoral Research Associate. Her research examines the social and economic processes that inform urban development including transport and residential infrastructure. Her PhD research project compares the discursive and political fields in which social housing is constructed in Sydney, Australia and Vienna, Austria. In alignment with her research interests, she has both a theoretical and practical interest in both academic and civic governance. In 2024 she was elected Co-President of the International Sociological Association’s Research Committee 43 – Housing and Built Environment. She has been a community organizer for many years and has led local campaigns for parks and urban infrastructure and in December 2021 was elected to Bayside Council, a local government in Sydney’s inner south. She was elected to the Australian Local Government Women’s Association Executive Committee in 2023. 

Festival of Public Urbanism 2024

Great cities are defined by the quality of their public realm. From parks to civic architecture, well designed public infrastructure supports and enables the social, cultural, and economic dimensions of urban life. But are these public assets, along with public processes of urban governance and planning, under attack? Over the past fifty years key legacies of the modern urban project – such as publicly funded housing and urban infrastructure; or comprehensive planning for new development – have been eroded by waves of political and economic reform. Faith in market based ‘solutions’ has reduced public planning processes to ‘red tape’ and replaced public investment in rental housing with subsidies for private investors and households. At the same time, digital transformation under ‘platformisation’ has seen private corporations able to evade domestic regulations, disrupting every facet of urban life and governance. 

The Festival of Public Urbanism will debate these topics and more. Join us to engage with academics, activists, politicians, industry leaders through our program of panel discussions, walking tours, and podcasts across Sydney and Australia.