CityEDGE International Urban Design Series

 

What people are saying about EcoEDGE2

“Fantastic conference with great speakers.”

“A generally stimulating and inspiring range of speakers. The venue is excellent and the tours, cocktail event and the opportunities that the 'street-life' Melbourne provides is a lesson for excellence in urban design and public space design and management, Well done!”

“More please!”

“All excellent!! Thank You!”

“Conference was simply "great" – need more of it.”

“Great conference – with international speakers – well represented across key nations of interest. We would like more and an ongoing process.”

“I enjoyed the whole conference immensely. The calibre of the speakers was impressive, particularly Enrique Penalosa, Sheela Nair, Bernard Khoury, Mechthild Stuhlmacher … well, pretty much all of them! Great venue, great food, great coctail party – all in all a great event. I will be back.”

“Range of international speakers was excellent. Venue is great. Very well organised.”

“It was good to refresh myself on the importance of case studies such as Bogotá and the principles from Jan Gehl. There were also some great examples of innovative thinking and real environmental solutions.”

“The conference was very stimulating and informative – especially Santha Sheela Nair.”

EcoEDGE2

  • The Urgent Design Challenge in Building Sustainable Cities

    (Click the image above to visit the EcoEDGE 2 website - INCLUDING Speaker Abstracts and Presentations)

    More than half of the world lives in cities. This poses the challenge of how do we plan sustainable urban environments for those in the greatest need, but for those who have the fewest options? As Australia and the globe experience rapid climate change, the design industry faces an urgent challenge to plan and build sustainable cities.

    The EcoEDGE 2 conference is the sixth conference hosted by the City of Melbourne since 1999 in the CityEDGE International Conference Series.

    The EcoEDGE 2 conference will host leading sustainability experts across Australia, the USA, Europe, Africa and Asia tackling the design, social and economic imperatives of making sustainable cities. The four themes of the EcoEDGE 2 conference are:
    1. Green Urban Design
    2. Green Housing
    3. Green Local Government
    4. Green Aesthetics

    Speakers
    Malcolm Smith - Director of Integrated Urbanism, ARUP
    Gerard Evenden - Foster + Partners, Architects, United Kingdom
    Enrique Penalosa - Former Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia
    Stefan Behnisch - Architect, Germany
    Bernard Khoury - Architect, Beirut
    Jossy Materu - Senior Human Settlements Officer UN-Habitat, Nairobi
    Halle Søholt - Partner, Gehl Architects, Copenhagen
    Janette Sadik-Khan - Commissioner, New York City Department of Transportation
    Michaela Brüel - European Green Cities Network, Denmark
    Tim Costello - World Vision, Australia
    Bernard Salt - KPMG Australia
    Rob Adams - Director Design & Urban Environment, City of Melbourne
    Peter Davidson - Co-founder LAB Architecture Studio
    Neville Mars - Architect, Amsterdam and Beijing
    Scott Boylston - Graphic Designer, USA
    Brit Andresen - Architect, Australia
    Wim Hafkamp - Nicis Institute, The Netherlands
    Mechthild Stuhlmacher - Architect, Rotterdam
    Kevin O'Brien - Merrima Design, Architects, Australia
    James Brearley & Qun Fang - Architects, Shanghai
    Mike Berwick - Mayor, Port Douglas
    Xuemei Bai - Senior Science Leader, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Australia
    Santha Sheela Nair - Department of Drinking Water Supply (DDWS), India

What people were saying about EcoEDGE1

I attended for the full 3 days. I didn’t expect to be so challenged and inspired. Without exception, my staff attending from my organisation told me how much they had gained from Ecoedge 1, and how impressed they were at the amazing quality of the speakers. Becky Sharpe, Office of Housing, Victoria

EcoEdge was revolutionary! The fruitful, abundant and pregnant edge condition bounded on one hand by the cry for chaos, and on the other hand the plea for deeper order. When is the next EcoEdge - We cannot wait! Ron Kirby, EcoEdge Speaker & Architect, South Africa

The pursuit of sustainability is now recognised as fundamental to life on Earth but all too often conferences fail to demonstrate tangible sustainable urban actions! EcoEdge 1 was ground breaking in its collection of diverse “green-design” innovation and its ability to connect sustainable design with industry, with politicians and, most of all, with the broader Australian community in search of sustainable cities. Professor John Fien, Innovation Professor of Sustainability, RMIT University

I wish to congratulate the City of Melbourne for organising such an important and thought provoking conference. Issues of sustainability are inescapable and yet often attract a narrow engineering or planning definition. The careful selection of speakers for EcoEdge 1 has been very effective in broadening the agenda of sustainability. Well done! Andrew Olszewski, Director Urbis JHD

I wanted to thank you for a most inspiring and thought provoking program for the EcoEdge Conference last week. My head is still reeling and the brain is trying to catch up with the thought processes it has inspired. Kirsty Mate, Lecturer, Interior Design, UNSW

Thanks for a brilliant conference. Working in Gold Coast City Council to achieve Sustainability is a huge task. Your hard work and the innovation from the speakers left me recharged and ready to hit the coal face. Ned Wales, Urban Design Unit, Gold Coast City Council

Thanks for the marvelous conference. Most beneficial on several levels not the least of which was the enrichment of one’s soul. Jenny Rizzo, Inarc Design

I was amazed by the vast range of perspectives brought to the subject of sustainability from around the world and I am left with the best conference ‘aftertaste’ that I have had for quite some time. Bob Perry, Director Scott Carver Architects and Planners

Congratulations on an inspiring conference. The speakers I saw were first rate and really motivated me in the work I do in strategic transport planning. The smooth and ‘to time’ event coordination was also a tremendous achievement. Maureen Brewer, Strategic Transport Planner, City of Yarra

EcoEDGE

  • Urban Environments Vs. Urban Disasters?

    Cities are in crisis. As they grow - seemingly unchecked - across the earth, cities are disfiguring the environment through their consumption of raw materials and deadly, uncontainable emissions. Are cities genuinely unruly, growing uncontrollably and exacerbating already unmanageable social and economic tensions?

    The ECO Edge conference will explore how Australian and international planners architects, and policy makers can respond to the challenge - from the design of individual buildings to the development of strategic frameworks for action.

    Keynote Speaker
    William McDonough “EcoExpert” (Dean of Architecture, University of Virginia, US)

    Speakers
    Glen Murcutt
    Alan Atkisson - Author of ‘Believing Cassandra’; Founder Sustainable Seattle Movement
    David Orr - Professor of Environmental Studies, Oberlin College; Ecodesign Specialist
    John Todd - Urban Wastewater Treatment Specialist
    Peter Newman - Murdoch University; Urban Planning and Transport
    Les Brouen - Professor, GU; Environmental Assessment and Planning
    Joachim Fischer - Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Green Party, Germany
    Ken Livingstone - Lord Mayor of London
    Tony Wory - Water sensitive urban design
    Fuknoka - UN Habitat Office for Human Settlements (Habitat) Asia and the Pacific
    Paul Keating
    Nicholas P. Low - Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning, The University of Melbourne
    Peter Garrett - President, Australian Conservation Foundation
    Shigeru Ban - Japanese Architect, Renewable Building Materials Specialist
    Michael Sorkin - Professor of Urban Design, City College of New York
    David Yencken - Professor Emeritus, The University of Melbourne
    Rodney Simpson, Architect, Greenpeace
    Mick Pearce - Architect and Environmental Design Specialist, City of Melbourne
    City of Curtiba (Brazil)

     

    CLICK HERE to read what people were saying about the first EcoEDGE Conference.

CityEDGE 4

  • Cities on the Edge

    The conference explored the themes of architectural and planning interventions in a range of cities ‘under fire’ from Kabul, Johannesburg and New York to Dili, Mostar and Belgrade. It focused on the pivotal role that Australian architects and built environment professionals can play in the reconstruction of these contested urban metropolises.

    Keynote speakers
    Dr Sultan Barakat - Post-war Reconstruction and Development Unit, Ubiversity of York
    Norman Day - Melbourne Architect and Dili Reconstruction Expert
    Bernard Khoury - Architect Beirut

PUBLICATIONS

City Edge Book

This series of essays outlines a number of case studies from Europe, North America, Australia and Asia and provides first hand accounts of the experiences that planners, architects and politicians have had in reshaping cities. These insights provide a pragmatic assessment of the challenges and constraints posed by changing patterns of urban growth in a broad spectrum of urban environments. The reader will discover, through these multiple voices and views, the diverse forms of global cities, and will have a grasp of where the debate on urban design stands today, and where it may be going in the future.

1. Hear first hand from planners and architects who have worked on some of the most challenging urban design projects
2. Gain an insight into the latest debates on urban design, including reconstruction and sustainability
3. International examples from Melbourne through Tokyo to New York provide a global perspective on the subject

Click the cover image above to purchase this book from Amazon.

CityEDGE 3

  • Centre Vs. Periphery

    Centre vs Periphery, explored themes of architectural and landscape interventions on the ‘edge’ of city areas and on the conceptual ‘edge’ of architecture and urban design

    Keynote speakers
    Prof Francine Houben - Mecannoo, Architects
    Joel Garreau - Author ‘Edge City’
    Dr Nadim Karam - Dean of Notre Dame University, Beirut

CityEDGE 2

  • Reinventing the Edge

    Keynote speakers
    Josu Ortuondo - ex-Mayor of Bilbao
    Arie Rahamimoff - Architect-Urban Designer, City of Jerusalem

CityEDGE

  • Private Development Vs. Public Reality

    CityEdge1 united capital city Lord Mayors, private and public sector planners, architects and academia. It fostered Australia’s first and foremost urban design event and gave a global perspective on contemporary urban design and planning initiatives that addresses the rejuvenation of city cores and peripheries.

    Keynote speakers
    Dr Hans Stimmann - Berlin, Urban Development
    Juan Busquets - Architect, Barcelona