Reshaping the Anthropocene - Urban Design Theory at the Crossroads.

URBAN DESIGN FORUM [WA] INVITES YOU TO AN EVENING OF DISCOURSE - LIGHT FOOD AND DRINK PROVIDED

Reshaping the Anthropocene - Urban Design Theory at the Crossroads.

Discourse on cities, climate change and cultural divides fill our feeds. Is urban design a relevant and evolving force in these times of ecological crises and social change?

Anthropocene - The period of time during which human activities have had an environmental impact on the Earth regarded as constituting a distinct geological time interval (Merriam and Webster Dictionary)

A diverse panel will provide their thoughts in response to the provocation provided by Ross Donaldson [Australian Institute of Architects - President / WA]  

A provocation - 100 years later.

“On or about December 1910 human nature changed.” wrote Virginia Woolf in 1924.

“All human relations shifted,” Woolf continued, “and when human relations change there is at the same time a change in religion, conduct, politics, and literature.”

And so came the fluorescence of what we now call Modernism. The time was associated with a flood of discourse and experimentation in art, architecture, literature and indeed all forms of cultural expression as well as some extraordinary scientific developments.

In the early days of the C20th there was a flood transformative experiments often associated with theoretical positions in relation to the social changes and the perceived needs of this new era. In architecture and city design, these were led by figures such as Gropius, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Reitveld and so on. They were significantly informed by earlier revolutionary spatial experiments in painting by Cezanne, Picasso, Braque and Mondrian.

100 years later, it seems we may be in the midst of similar tectonic social shifts.

Are we seeing a similar level of discourse heralding a direction for urban design commensurate with the changes and challenges increasingly apparent?

Is there an Urban Design Theory for the C21st and if so what is it? And how will these contribute to manifest changes in the urban environment?

Panel  

Ross Donaldson [Panel Moderator] is The President of the Institute of Architects (WA). He has a degree in Architecture from UWA and a Master of Social Theory and Planning The Bartlett London. He is the founder of EPM Experimental, Chairman of Bridge42, Adjunct Professor of UWA and past Global Executive Chair of Woods Bagot. Ross is a highly regarded urban strategist, urban designer and sustainability leader.

Eden Rigo [Panel Member] is a Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning (Hons) student at Curtin University and scored top 1% across her university. She has received the Don Watts High Achievers Scholarship and is the 2025 WA Rhodes Scholar elect. She is a New Colombo Program Alumna, and her studies have taken her to ten Asian and Pacific countries, including an internship in the Maldives and the COP29 UN Climate Change Conference in Azerbaijan.

Dr Giles Thomson [Panel Member] is currently a senior lecturer at the Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute. After living six years in Sweden, he returned to Perth in November 2023 to commence an Australian Research Council-funded project to investigate net zero transit-activated corridors. Prior to academia, Giles worked as an urban designer and city planner in Australia (NSW, SA, WA), the UK and the US within both the public and private sectors.

Julian Bolleter [Panel Member] is the Director of the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC) at the University of Western Australia, the Program Director of AUDRC’s Master of Urban Design course, and an author and public figure. Julian leads an ambitious climate adaptation project, ‘Future climate, future home: adaptive urban design strategies for WA’ with AUDRC partner organisations Development WA, the Department of Communities, the Western Australian Planning Commission, and multiple Local Governments.

Francesco Mancini [Panel Rapporteur] is an architect, landscape architect, and planner registered in Italy with 20 years of professional experience in urban design, planning, and architecture. He is a Professor at Curtin University School of Design and the Built Environment, director of the Perth Urban Research Lab, chair of the Oceania Network of Urban Morphology, and an award-winning educator for his scholarship in design thinking pedagogy. Francesco's research is on sustainable urban design, morphology and typology, adaptive reuse, architecture, and power.

UDF is proudly supported by AIA, PIA and AILA.