Jessica Christiansen-Franks

Jessica is a qualified Urban Designer and Landscape Architect with over fourteen years’ experience working within Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and Asia planning and delivering a wide variety of urban projects for the public and private sector. Jessica’s passion and expertise lies in town centre design and management, public space activation, and community engagement. Working as a project manager, urban designer and landscape architect, Jessica has worked on a range of notable and complex urban projects including the Ho Chi Minh City BRT Transport and Land Use Study, the Port Melbourne Waterfront Urban Design Framework, and Brisbane's Vibrant Laneways and Small Scale Spaces Strategy. Recognising that community development is an essential skill for all urban designers, Jessica augmented her professional experience by undertaking tertiary research into the social impacts of urbanisation, including identity construction in existing and emerging communities and social marginalisation of urban migrants. Jessica has applied this understanding through her community development work across Victoria, as well as with donor agencies in South Asia and South East Asia. Jessica is the Project Director for The Neighbourhood Project, Australia’s largest Tactical Urbanism program which will see the transformation of underutilised land into vibrant community assets across Victoria.