UrbanTalk Podcast

The Planning Institute of Australia has once again partnered with UrbanTalk to create a series of podcast in the lead up to the Planning Congress 2025 in Darwin. Ross Elliott is a founding director of the policy group Suburban Futures and has over 35 years of experience in property and urban development. As a sequel to our previous episode about suburban retrofits, Ross discusses ways Australia can better embrace our suburbs and fulfill housing needs. Planning Congress Website: https://eventfrog.eventsair.com/planning-congress-2025/ PIA Website: https://www.planning.org.au/ UrbanTalk Website: https://www.urbantalk.com.au/

The Planning Institute of Australia has once again partnered with UrbanTalk to create a series of podcast in the lead up to the Planning Congress 2025 in Darwin. Recognised in 2017 and 2023 by Planetizen as one of the 100 most influential urbanists, Ellen Dunham-Jones joins us to discuss retrofitting suburbia and give an introduction into her keynote at the Planning Congress. Along with co-author June Williamson, Ellen literally wrote the book on the topic and maintains a unique database of over 2,500 suburban retrofits.  Ellen gives a fantastic introduction to suburban retrofitting, the benefits they can bring to suburbs, some existing case studies from her extensive database and some lessons for Australia.  Planning Congress Website: https://eventfrog.eventsair.com/planning-congress-2025/ PIA Website: https://www.planning.org.au/ UrbanTalk Website: https://www.urbantalk.com.au/

The Planning Institute of Australia has once again partnered with UrbanTalk to create a series of podcast in the lead up to the Planning Congress 2025 in Darwin. In this first episode, we welcome back the CEO of PIA, Matt Collins.  Planning Congress Website: https://eventfrog.eventsair.com/planning-congress-2025/ PIA Website: https://www.planning.org.au/ UrbanTalk Website: https://www.urbantalk.com.au/  

Former Minister for Planning, Dr Rob Stokes is a passionate urbanist with a unique perspective. He shares some of his philosophy on planning, initiatives that could improve Australia's planning system and the challenges facing State Governments. Get in touch: https://www.urbantalk.com.au/contact  

UrbanTalk were delighted to be joined by Dallas Rogers – the Associate Professor of Urbanism at the University of Sydney in the latest episode of the UrbanTalk Podcast. We discuss unsolicited urbanism using Barangaroo as a case study and examine the broader implications and risks that come from such an opaque process.

Architect and urban designer, Jon Johannsen joined us on the UrbanTalk Podcast to discuss the design excellence process and design review panels. In addition to his five decades of professional experience, Jon has also sat on numerous design excellence panels all across Sydney, including Burwood, Cumberland, Parramatta, Hornsby, Waverley and Inner West local government areas. This podcast was originally recorded at the end of 2023 and in the intervening period our guest, Jon Johannsen, has closed his architectural practice AJA. He continues to contribute to design excellence as an urban design consultant on several local government panels.

UrbanTalk has teamed up with the Planning Institute of Australia to bring you a special series of podcasts centred around the 2024 PIA Congress that was held in Melbourne on the 22nd - 24th of May. This is the final installment of the episode, where we interview delegates live at Congress. We explore what they see as the biggest challenges facing planners, as well as what they enjoyed at Congress. 

UrbanTalk has teamed up with the Planning Institute of Australia to bring you a special series of podcasts centred around the 2024 PIA Congress being held in Melbourne on the 22nd - 24th of May. We're joined by Elle Davidson, Director of Zion Engagement and Planning and Rechelle Brookes, Policy & Project Officer at the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action. We will discuss Planning with Country, PIA's Knowledge Circle and what delegates can expect at some of the plenary sessions at the Planning Congress 2024.

UrbanTalk has teamed up with the Planning Institute of Australia to bring you a special series of podcasts centred around the 2024 PIA Congress being held in Melbourne on the 22nd - 24th of May. This episode is a follow up from our previous talk about the Foresight Program at the American Planning Association. Today we will be talking about PIA's own Foresight Report that will debut at the Planning Congress. Our guests are Nicole Bennetts, PIA State Manager for Queensland and Northern Territory and James White, Research & Strategic Knowledge Manager at Urbis.

UrbanTalk has teamed up with the Planning Institute of Australia to bring you a special series of podcasts centred around the 2024 PIA Congress being held in Melbourne on the 22nd - 24th of May. As Chief Foresight and Knowledge Officer, our guest Petra Hurtardo and her Foresight team keeps abreast of the changing trends and forces that can assist planners in remaining ahead of the curve and plan for the future.

UrbanTalk has teamed up with the Planning Institute of Australia to bring you a special series of podcasts centred around the 2024 PIA Congress being held in Melbourne on the 22nd - 24th of May. We're joined by Ross Harding, who's looking to the future and finding new ways to transform our cities with his team at Finding Infinity. Finding Infinity were responsible for “A New Normal”: a $100 billion strategy to transform Melbourne into a self-sufficient city together with 15 architecture firms. 

UrbanTalk has teamed up with the Planning Institute of Australia to bring you a special series of podcasts centred around the 2024 PIA Congress being held in Melbourne on the 22nd - 24th of May. This second episode is split into two parts and focuses on the National Planning Awards. In this second part we speak with the 2023 National Young Planner of the Year, Bunfu Yu. Bunfu speaks about her passion for planning, the importance of mentors and she reveals her strategy for winning the 2023 National Young Planner of the Year.

UrbanTalk has teamed up with the Planning Institute of Australia to bring you a special series of podcasts centred around the 2024 PIA Congress being held in Melbourne on the 22nd - 24th of May. This second episode is split into two parts and focuses on the National Planning Awards. In this first part we speak with Megan Adair, a National Awards judge and the state awards convenor for Western Australia. She talks about how the awards are judged, what she loves about them and why they're important for the planning profession.

UrbanTalk has teamed up with the Planning Institute of Australia to bring you a special series of podcasts centred around the 2024 PIA Congress being held in Melbourne on the 22nd - 24th of May. In this first episode we speak with the CEO of PIA, Matt Collins to hear about his vision for the Institute and what people can expect from the 2024 Planning Congress.

In the latest episode of the UrbanTalk Podcast we welcome Karla Castellanos, Director of Urban Design at Audax Urban. Karla has lived and worked in cities all over the world and sits on a number of design excellence panels in NSW. With Karla, we talk about how density is perceived by the public and defined by government, which are often at odds. We also discuss the way planning policy is formulated and examine some of the initiatives put forward by the NSW Government to address housing shortages like pattern books.

The landscape of urban development in Australia often involves a tension between local communities and new development. In this episode of the podcast we're joined by Andrew Butt, Associate Dean in Sustainability and Urban Planning at RMIT University. Andrew specialises in rural and peri-urban planning issues, observing that development related community tension in these areas mirror those in urban areas. He discusses underlying causes of development opposition and NIMBYism, as well as how our planning system creates the ways in which opposition can be mounted.

UrbanTalk had the great privilege of speaking with a legend of the urban planning and development world, Dr. Ed Blakely. Ed has decades of experience leading disaster relief, teaching, sitting on panels & committees. As a result, we dive into just about every part of urban planning and outline what a city should be like and how we plan for that future vision. 

In this episode of the UrbanTalk Podcast, we're joined by Mehra Jafari, Director of Policy & Urban Analytics at urban planning consultancy, Mecone. Mehra discusses the current landscape of strategic planning in Sydney, how different entities work together, what is and is not working and how policy could move forward to create better outcomes for the city.

Acting as a companion to the last episode, we speak with Danielle Mate. Danielle is a First Nations artist working in large-scale mural design and public art. She's also a cultural ambassador recognised by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Danielle speaks about Country and engagement with First Nations communities. She also speaks about public art and the role it plays in storytelling and bringing people together.

In this episode, the UrbanTalk Podcast welcomes Dean Boone – Director and Founder of landscape architecture firm, distinctive Living Design. Dean speaks with us about the role of the landscape architect and how projects can get the best possible landscape outcome. In addition, he gives a brief introduction to Designing with Country, explaining what it involves and how a developer might begin the process.

Mixed-Use developments make up many of the new projects that are constructed in our cities, but they aren't all created equal. When done correctly mixed-use can provide an affordable, sustainable, inclusive and convenient way of living that contributes positively to our cities. Gary Henighen – Senior Associate at award-winning architecture and design studio, Architectus – joins us to discuss architecture and mixed-use development.

We're joined by Simon Kuestenmacher, Director of Research and co-founder of The Demographics Group, to discuss some of the findings from the 2021 Census and what they mean for Australia. The data from the census can play a huge role in how we plan our cities and approach development in the future. A demographer like Simon has the ability to see problems years in advance, so how can we respond to challenges like housing, aged care, worker shortages and the decentralisation of our cities?

Belinda speaks with Kylie Legge, founder of social research company Place Score to discuss how we measure and think about liveability in our cities. Place Score has done fantastic work in collecting data from communities all over the country to discover what they value, need and want from their neighbourhood. The goal is to use this data to help councils and the private sector create great, people centric places and spaces.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a shift in the way we use our cities and interact with our local neighbourhoods. More people are shopping local, working from home and using local amenities as a result of lockdowns. Our host, Belinda Barnett, speaks with Sonny Embleton, head of urban design at Gyde Consulting, to talk about the implications this will have on city and town planning in the future.

Hyecorp's Co-Managing Director & Head of Development, Stephen Abolakian joins us to discuss the steps of development and his philosophy and approach to the process.

Our host, Belinda Barnett, touches on who she is and what can be expected from UrbanTalk and the podcast series. UrbanTalk is an online platform that aims to bridge the gap between the development sector and community by sparking a thriving, inclusive and progressive dialogue around development in Australia, that creates great places. Our podcast is educating the public and demystifying everything to do with the development sector.