This is Public

In this episode, we explore resistance and regeneration in the city across the decades. A city is constantly changing, developing, regeneration yet every generation resists this change. Landscape amnesia or creeping normalcy sets in, where people believe the city has always been in the form they know and love and want little change during their lifetime. What are some of the most significant campaigns against change in the city? And have they been warranted? What was lost and what was gained? What is the underlying reason for resistance? We also interrogate how developers/development give back to the city in generous and meaningful ways if demolishing or changing much-loved aspects of the built environment. How are they soothing us during times of major disruption and is the healing balm working? Resistance and Regeneration interviews include: Felicity Watson, Executive Advocacy Manager from the National Trust Victoria talks about key moments in Melbourne’s history that have truly shaped the city. Sophie Kvist and Anna Muessig from Gehl Architects discuss the evaluation of the Metro Tunnel Creative Program.

In this episode we look at the themes emerging from Open House expanded July program – access and inclusivity in the city, specifically blindness and vision impairment in response to the Urban Tactility program. Urban Tactility is an installation and public program exploring the sensory city and design + disability as part of the Open House Melbourne July 2019 program. Building on the thought-provoking nature of the Sensory City tours we ran in partnership with OoPLA in 2017 & 2018, the Urban Tactility installation is designed to inspire people to connect with the experience of those living with low vision and blindness and the way they navigate the city.  Through associated walking tours, workshops and talks, developed in collaboration with Vision Australia, the project will directly engage multiple public communities with a focus on people living with blindness or low vision, senior adults, and children, along with the broader Open House audience. We explore the underlying two-fold agenda of Urban Tactility – a chance to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes and also think about how the city can be improved and redesigned for different communities and users.

The third episode of This is Public responds to the 2019 National Architecture Conference theme: Collective Agency. The conference reminded us that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and with unity comes an ability to affect an outcome. This year’s event encouraged us to reflect on today’s challenges, the articulation of more meaningful protocols, and most importantly, the willingness to act.  Collective Agency interviews include:  AIA National Conference Curators Stephen Choi and Monique Woodward discuss the inception and theme of the Conference, and what it means to be an architect in 2019.  Conference speakers Elizapeta Heta and Sara Lynn Rees discuss their work in developing Indigenous design protocols and help us imagine what Indigenized cities might look like. 

As a partner of the Living Cities Forum (with Naomi Milgrom Foundation (http://www.naomimilgromfoundation.org/) ), Open House Melbourne’s second episode of This is Public focuses on the conference theme: Future Needs. Hosts Emma Telfer and Sally McPhee spoke with Forum speaker Christopher Hawthorne (https://livingcitiesforum.org/christopher-hawthorne) , Chief Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles, and Rob Adams (https://creative.vic.gov.au/design/BoDW-program/rob-adams) , Director of City Design at the City of Melbourne about how design responds to future needs in our cities, specifically LA and Melbourne.  In this fascinating long-form conversation with two city design leaders, we traverse densification to de-growth, innovation to adaptive re-use, transforming ideas into decisive action, and playing the long game in city transformation. Photo credit: Living Cities Forum by Tom Ross

The first episode of This is Public documents Open House Melbourne’s special Waterfront program for Melbourne Design Week 2019.    Open House took a deep dive into the role design could play in reframing our relationship with water, with a special focus on urban waterways and Birrarung (the Yarra River). All of the guests interviewed on the podcast participated in the Waterfront program.   This is Public: Waterfront Interviews include: (2:35) Dr Melissa Neave from RMIT University and Andrew Kelly, the Yarra Riverkeeper, explore the flow on effects of past urban design decisions, current challenges and possible futures for the river;  (20:22) Paul Thomas from Rail Projects Victoria explains how the Metro Tunnel project navigates complex tunneling under the Yarra; and  (30:25) Michael O’Neill from Yarra Swim Co and Andre Bonnice from WOWOWA Architecture share how the Yarra Pools proposal encourages connection and contact with the river.