Urban Design Forum | Inspiring Women Shaping the Urban Agenda: Helen Kerr

Urban Design Forum is excited to present Inspiring Women Shaping the Urban Agenda, our first International Lecture Series.

This series celebrates leading women in urban design, and explores their ideas, projects and approaches shaping cities around the world.

Join us for a conversation about community, connection and the role of designers in navigating a changing world.

Hosted by Urban Design Forum Melbourne in partnership with Urban Design Forum New Zealand.

Our first speaker is Helen Kerr, Principal at Isthmus and a landscape architect and urban designer with 25 years of experience leading projects with community at their core.

Helen will share the story of Westport’s Adaptation Masterplan, ‘Cutting Our Own Track’, exploring how community-minded, place-led approaches can help navigate climate uncertainty and shift behaviours and mindsets. In 2025, the masterplan was nationally recognised by Local Government New Zealand as a “playbook on humanity, demonstrating how to move a community with dignity.”