TEDxCanberra Adventure: Awakening City Hill

City Hill sits at the very centre of Canberra - where major avenues meet and civic life converges. This TEDxCanberra Adventure will select one team to deliver a real activation on the hill, with up to $10,000 in project funding.

The site is heritage-listed parkland, central to Griffin's original vision for the city - and now surrounded by a city that's growing faster and denser than ever before.

Recent ACT Government engagement confirmed what many people already feel: City Hill should be easier to enter, safer to move through, and more inviting to pause in.

In partnership with BlockPlanner, City Renewal Authority and Canberra Innovation Network, with input from Brand Canberra, we're looking for designers, planners, builders and community thinkers to respond to a real brief, real constraints and real engagement data.

This is not speculative. This is not hypothetical. One idea moves forward - and the winning team takes responsibility for bringing it to life, with support from our partners.

What to expect

You’ll work in a small, high-capability team made up of people with complementary skills. You're welcome to come with colleagues as a pre-formed team, or register individually and join a team on the night.

You’ll have 90 minutes to design a low-cost, temporary and permissioned installation that meaningfully shifts how City Hill is used or perceived - whether that’s linked to a greater sense of movement, safety, gathering, pause, or belonging.

The brief is real. The site is real. The constraints are already defined.

A judging panel will select one concept to move directly into feasibility and delivery.

Who should attend?

This event is for people who want to shape public space - and see it built.

Urban designers, architects, landscape professionals, First Nations creatives, artists, builders, engineers, and strategic thinkers from government or community are encouraged to attend.

Each team will need a mix of creative, practical and strategic capability. You don’t need to have all the answers - but you do need to be ready to collaborate.

Why this matters?

The listening phase is complete. This event moves the conversation forward - with a visible first step, a real budget, and a civic outcome that sets a new tone for the future of City Hill.

It’s about testing what’s possible, learning in public, and showing how design can respond to community insight - quickly, credibly, and collaboratively.

Program timing

• 5:30pm: Networking, food and drinks

• 5:50pm - 8:00pm: Facilitated team design challenge

About TEDx Adventures

TEDx Adventures are unique and intimate events designed to offer you unparalleled, behind-the-scenes access to the people and places making the local community so dynamic. As many of our adventures are purposely cross-generational, and open to all, we can stimulate conversations among people of all ages, professions and neighbourhoods.

Our partners

Presented in partnership with:

• Principal Partner - Synergy Group

• Adventure Partners - BlockPlanner and City Renewal Authority

• Venue Partner - Canberra Innovation Network

• Creative Partner - Impress Design

• Media Partner - Region Canberra

• Human Potential Partner - Yellow Edge

Image credits: City Hill Ideas Exhibition: City Renewal Authority, ACT Government + Martin Ollman + Canberra Innovation Network