6th International Urban Design Conference

Mrs Lucy Hughes Turnbull AO - Businesswoman and Company Director, Turnbull & Partners Limited, NSW - LLB (Sydney University), MBA (University of NSW).

Lucy is a businesswoman and company director.  She chairs ASX listed biotechnology company Prima Biomed Limited.

She has a longstanding interest in cities and their planning, governance and management, as well as the importance of technological innovation to the national economy.

Lucy is Chair of the Committee for Sydney. She is an independent member of the Sydney Metropolitan Development Authority which is charged with the urban renewal and revitalization of several precincts in Sydney, including Redfern-Waterloo. From 2004-2011 was an independent member of the Redfern-Waterloo Authority from its establishment until its repeal in December 2011. Since 2005 she has been a board member of the Australian Technology Park, Redfern.

Since July 2010 she has been deputy chair of the Council of Australian Government’s (COAG) City Expert Advisory Panel, which reports to the COAG Reform Council. The Expert Panel has been charged with a preparing a report that was published on March 1, 2012,  which analyses the metropolitan planning systems of Australia’s capital cities and their consistency with COAG goals of ensuring integrated land use, transport and infrastructure planning, planning to ensure the challenges of population growth, demographic change, economic prosperity and productivity, livability and sustainability are met, and that Australian cities are planned  generally in a way that meet future needs.

From 1999 to 2004 Lucy was Sydney’s first female Lord Mayor ( 2003-4) and Deputy Lord Mayor ( 1999-2003).  She was the first woman to hold both these positions. She served as a Councillor on the City of Sydney from 1999-2004 and chaired many council committees, including the Central Sydney Planning Committee, the Planning, Transport and Development Committee and the Finance and Audit Committees. 

In 1999s she published a book Sydney – Biography of a City

For many years she worked as a lawyer and as an investment banker.

Lucy has also been active in the not for profit sector and is currently a member of the board of the US Studies Centre at Sydney University, the Biennale of Sydney, the Redfern Foundation Limited, and the Turnbull Foundation. She is also a board member of the NSW Cancer Institute. 

She has previously chaired the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Sydney Cancer Centre and the Sydney Festival Limited. From 2006-2010 she was a board member of Melbourne IT and before that a board member of WebCentral Limited.

In 2011 she was awarded an Order of Australia for her services to the community, local government and business.

In 2012 she was awarded on honorary doctorate from University of NSW Business School.

Since 1980 she has been married to The Hon. Malcolm Turnbull, and they have 2 adult children.

Mr Henry Ergas - Senior Economic Adviser, Deloitte Australia & Professor of Infrastructure Economics, SMART Infrastructure Facility, University of Wollongong

Henry Ergas is the inaugural Professor of Infrastructure Economics at the SMART Infrastructure Facility at the University of Wollongong. The SMART Infrastructure Facility is a world-class research and training centre concerned with integrated infrastructure solutions for the future. Henry's focus at SMART is on the economic, regulatory and public policy research program. He takes a special interest in the development and application of cost-benefit analysis and in the analysis of pricing and investment decisions in regulated infrastructure industries.

Henry holds this role concurrently with his position as Deloitte Australia's Senior Economic Adviser, based in their Canberra office. Henry joined Deloitte in 2009 after working as a consultant economist at NECG, CRA International and Concept Economics. Henry's projects for Deloitte have ranged widely across industries, and include including advising and assisting clients in the communications, transport, media, defence and government sectors.

Henry held a range of leading positions at the OECD before returning to Australia in the mid-1990s. He chaired the Australian Intellectual Property and Competition Review Committee for the Australian Government in 1999-2000 and was a member of the Prime Minister's Export Infrastructure Task Force in 2005 and the Defence Industry Policy Review in 2006. He has published extensively on infrastructure regulation and cost-benefit analysis.

As well as his work at the OECD, Henry's career includes appointments with the National University of Singapore, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Centre for Research in Network Economics and Communications at the University of Auckland, Monash University and at the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Economique in Paris. Henry is a Lay Member of the New Zealand High Court, a member of the Deakin Policy Forum and a member of the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network (AURIN) Expert Lens Group 6 (Energy and water supply and consumption).

Henry writes a weekly op-ed column for The Australian newspaper and blogs on matters economic at www.blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/henryergas/. Recent publications include: 'Some Economic Aspects of Mining Taxation (with Jonathan Pincus and Mark Harrison) published in the Economic Papers of the Economic Society of Australia (winner of the 2011 prize for the best paper in the Economic Papers of the Economic Society). 'The Economics of Defence Efficiency' (with Mark Thomson) in Agenda: A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform. and 'Economic Aspects of Climate Change Policies', in Australian Economic Papers.

Prof Peter Newman - Sustainability Curtin University, Director CUSP

Peter Newman is the Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University and Director of CUSP which has 60 PhD students working on all aspects of the green economy. Peter is on the Board of Infrastructure Australia that is funding infrastructure for the long term sustainability of Australian cities, and is a Lead Author for Transport on the IPCC. He has three recent books: 'Technologies for Climate Change Mitigation: Transport' for the UN Environment Program, 'Resilient Cities: Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change' and 'Green Urbanism Down Under' for Island Press.

In 2001-3 Peter directed the production of WA's Sustainability Strategy in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, the first state sustainability strategy in the world. In 2004-5 he was a Sustainability Commissioner in Sydney advising the government on planning issues. In 2006/7 he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Virginia Charlottesville.

In Perth, Peter is best known for his work in saving, reviving and extending the city's rail system. Peter invented the term 'automobile dependence' to describe how we have created cities where we have to drive everywhere. For 30 years since he attended Stanford University during the first oil crisis he has been warning cities about preparing for peak oil. Peter's book with Jeff Kenworthy 'Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile Dependence' was launched in the White House in 1999. He was a Councillor in the City of Fremantle from 1976-80 where he still lives.

Mr Gordon Price – Director of the City Program at Simon Fraser University, CANADA

Gordon Price is the Director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University.

He sat for six terms as City Councillor in Vancouver, BC and also served on the Boards of the Greater Vancouver Regional District (Metro) and TransLink.

In 2003, he received the Plan Canada Award for Article of the Year - "Land Use and Transportation: The View from '56" - from the Canadian Institute of Planners.  In 2007, he was the winner of the “Smartie” People Award from Smart Growth B.C.  In 2009 he was made an honorary member of the Planning Institute of B.C.

He sits on the boards of the Sightline Institute and Sustainable Cities International, as well as the Advisory Committee for ULI British Columbia.

He publishes a blog on urban issues, with a focus on Vancouver, called "Price Tags"- www.pricetags.wordpress.com - and also writes a monthly column for Business in Vancouver.

Mr Ben Hewett - South Australian Government Architect and leads the Office for Design and Architecture SA (ODASA)

Ben Hewett is the South Australian Government Architect and leads the Office for Design and Architecture SA (ODASA). In his role Ben provides strategic advice to government for major projects, programs and policy. Ben advocates for the value of design by working across state and local government and with industry and academia. He is chair of the Capital City Design Review Panel and Head of South Australia's Design Review Program.

Ben was the Executive Director of the Integrated Design Commission SA which ran 2010-2012. During this period Ben was also Project Director of 5000+ an Integrated Design Strategy for inner Adelaide. 5000+ is a collaborative national pilot project involving the three tiers of government working on the creation of a design-based vision for Adelaide.

Previously Ben was a Senior Lecturer with the University of Technology School of Architecture, and Director of Offshore Studio, an architectural design research practice. He has worked as an Architect in large and small practice on master plans, commercial towers, residential and mixed-use developments in Sydney, Newcastle, Brisbane, Melbourne, as well as China and the United Arab Emirates. As a Design Architect at the NSW Government Architect's Office, graduating from the prestigious cadet program, Ben worked on a diverse range of public projects and programs including the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Circular Quay Redevelopment, the Residential Flat Design Code (supporting SEPP 65) and Parramatta Children's Court.

Mr Kobus Mentz – Director, Urbanismplus and adjunct professor, masters of urban design University of Auckland.

Kobus is one of Australasia's leading urban thinkers and his practice is active in Australia, New Zealand, India, China and the UK. They are widely known for pioneering sustainability based practices, through demonstration projects, research, publications new methodologies. Some key projects include:

• Assisting councils improve their ability to drive sustainable urbanism through their 'deFrag', strategic alignment, external leverage and sustainable financial management strategies.
• Pioneering growth and infrastructure strategies calculated to achieve significant economic gains (an estimated $25-43billion for the Melbourne growth strategy alone) whilst delivering major benefits to the individual, communities and the environment with significant energy, carbon and travel savings. Their
• Greater Christchurch Urban Development Strategy is regarded as international best practice by the UK government and has attracted attention in the US, Canada, and Europe.
• Comprehensive strategies for regions which operate at city, town, settlement and district wide levels such as 'Growing Marlborough' which received a national planning award in 2011.
  Several new town and new town centre projects such as the new town centre at University Hill at Whittlesea, which has received numerous awards including the 'Best Master Planned Community in Australia' by the Australian Property Council for 2011.
• Numerous town plans and town centre regeneration throughout NZ and Australia, as well as the recent post-earthquake reconstruction plan for Lyttelton and Sydenham recipient of national planning award in 2012.
• Delivering the National Urban Design Curriculum for the NZ Urban Design Protocol (with Stephen Thorne), professional urban design training for over 800 professionals and lectures and talks at numerous universities and conferences internationally.

See: www.urbanismplus.com

Ms Michelle Tabet - Strategic designer leading Arup's Urban Informatics and Strategic Design Team in Sydney, NSW

Michelle Tabet is a strategic designer leading Arup's Urban Informatics and Strategic Design Team in Sydney. From an urban planning and mapping background, Michelle has developed an interest in smart cities, strategic design and culture-driven regeneration. She is interested in how technology and innovation can create better urban experiences that focus on people rather than systems.

For Arup, Michelle helps clients frame the right questions through the 'strategic design' process, identifying the key drivers for taking action, guiding clients through decision-making and develop the best strategies to enact decisions.
Much of Michelle's work involves stakeholder engagement and consultation. Michelle has developed an extensive toolkit to facilitate and drive highly interactive workshops that are productive and fun.

Michelle also works with GreenStar tools looking at strategies for environmental and social innovation in commercial buildings and in communities.

Mr Tim Williams - Tim Williams Architects, NSW

Tim is an architect and urban designer practising in Sydney. Tim wears several hats. He splits his time between parenthood, practice, research, education and advocacy. His practice, established in 1998 has been built on a collaborative approach to working with clients and users with an emphasis on community engagement. His projects include the urban design aspects of infrastructure, policy and strategy, town centre visions and plans, public spaces and cultural buildings.

Tim is a recipient of a 2012 Australian Award for Urban Design for "the future of Penrith, Penrith and the future", as part of the art and urban design collective, Campement Urbain, a project he spoke about at last year's Opportunistic Urban Design conference . He shared his research on Le Grand Paris as a keynote speaker at Resilience, the 4th International urban design conference.

Tim is a member of the Sydney architecture Festival organising committee and has been an active participant in its events over the last few years. Tim was the originator and director of the Super Sydney project of the Festival.

Tim lectures and tutors urban design at UTS, Sydney University and the University of New South Wales. He devised the masters of architecture design course based on Super Sydney at the University of Sydney in 2012.

Earlier this year, at the invitation of the French government, he had the honour of representing Australia at an international seminar on how culture stimulates urban and territorial development.

It was Tim who suggested the name for this year's conference UrbanAgiNation

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You can review the past conference speakers, read about the keynotes from 2012 and download the Conference Proceedings from the  2012 . 

Peer Reviewed Papers
Non-Peer Reviewed Papers

A Conference Video Archive has been created with 12 month subscriptions available.  If you are a past delegate of the International Urban Design Conference, click here. If you have not attended the conference previously, contact the secretariat for more details regarding access to over 90 Urban Design Conference presentations.