Speakers


Dr Pierre Bélanger 
(USA/Canada)

Associate Professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, Pierre was curator and director of the controversial Canadian exhibition “EXTRACTION” at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale (@1partperbillion). He is currently completing an edited volume, “EXTRACTION EMPIRE”, profiling the scales, states, spaces and systems of Canada as the largest extraction nation on the planet. Read more.


Prof Hillary Brown (USA)

Professor of Architecture at the City College of New York, and former Assistant Commissioner, Hillary founded New York City’s Office of Sustainable Design in 1997, developing its High Performance Building and High Performance Infrastructure Guidelines. Since 2001, her consulting practice, New Civic Works, has engaged public and institutional clients in greening their capital programs. Read more.


Melissa Cate Christ
(Hong Kong)

Melissa is a Landscape Architect, Research Assistant Professor of Design at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and founding director of transverse studio, a collaborative practice which intersects trajectories of landscape, culture, urbanism, and infrastructure through a documentary process of investigation, design, and activism. Read more.


Prof Jeff Hou (USA)

Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington, Jeff focuses on community design, design activism, cross-cultural learning and engagement of marginalised communities in planning, design and placemaking. He has worked with indigenous tribes, farmers, and fishers in Taiwan, neighbourhood residents in Japan, villagers in China, and inner-city immigrants in North American cities, in projects ranging from conservation of wildlife habitats to design of urban open space. Read more.


Mia Lehrer (USA)

Mia is the founder of the Los Angeles-based landscape architecture and urban design firm, Mia Lehrer + Associates (ML+A), known for the design and implementation of ambitious public and private-sector projects including complex mixed-use development projects, urban revitalization initiatives, and neighborhood and regional parks. Read more.


Prof Nina-Marie Lister (Canada)

Founding Principal of PLANDFORM studio with a background in landscape ecology and environmental planning, Nina-Marie’s career has spanned public and private sectors, working with developers and designers, policy makers and planners. Her work is known for creative, effective and accessible integration of science and policy with planning and design. Read more.


Jan van der Grift (Netherlands)

Jan is an urban planner, landscape architect and founder of Bureau Plano. Currently he is working on the extension of the A15, the highway between Rotterdam Harbour and Germany. He also works on a regular basis for the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment, providing reports for government on the scope and on the quality of environmental assessments. Read more.


Adam Beck

Adam is Founding Executive Director of Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand, dedicated to accelerating sustainability outcomes in cities and towns through the adoption of technology, data and intelligent design. He is also an Ambassador with Portland-based think tank EcoDistricts. Read more.


Dr Julian Bolleter 

Julian is an Assistant Professor at the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC) at UWA, where his role includes teaching a master’s program in urban design and conducting urban design related research and design projects. He is an awarded landscape architect and urban designer.  Read more.


Prof Robert Freestone

Robert is currently Professor of Planning – City Planning, Urban Typologies at UNSW. He is author of Urban Nation, which provides the first national account of the historical impact of urban planning and design on the Australian landscape. Read more.


Dr Amy Hahs

Amy is an urban ecologist, with a keen interest in understanding the interplay between biodiversity and urban environments. She is the Director of Urban Ecology in Action and is committed to providing decision-makers with the most recent urban ecology knowledge to help make cities that support people and biodiversity. Read more.

Jon Hazelwood

With experience in Australia, UK,USA and China, leading a range of projects from High Street renewal to pop up playgrounds, Jon leads the global HASSELL public realm team as he designs places for people to use, gather, be inspired and play.  Read more


Tim O'Loan

Tim is an urban designer and landscape architect, having worked for a leading practice in the United Kingdom and a large, highly innovative global architectural group he now leads the Design Practice across Australia and New Zealand for AECOM. Read more


Roderick Simpson

Roderick is the inaugural Environment Commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission. He is an architect and urban designer and has worked at all scales of the built environment; as manager of urban design at the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust and as a consultant to State and local governments. Read more.


Prof Rob Roggema 

Rob is a Landscape Architect, Professor of Sustainable Urban Environments at UTS, renowned design-expert on sustainable urbanism, climate adaptation, energy landscapes and urban agriculture and developer of the Swarm Planning concept, a dynamic way of planning adaptation to climate change impacts. Read more. 

Amalie Wright

Amalie is an enthusiastic designer and dabbler. Registered as an architect and landscape architect, she’s spent the past 20 years designing and dabbling her way through projects big and small, jotted down a few words here and there, and spoken to audiences in various states of wakefulness. Read more.


Anne-Marie Pisani

An experienced and passionate Landscape Architect, Anne-Marie has worked on a variety of projects in a diverse range of Australian environments, ranging from the tropical environment of the Torres Strait to the idyllic natural setting of Kangaroo Island, off the coast of South Australia. These projects span across private, public and government sectors and have generally had a strong environmental or community based focus. Read more.


Prof Margaret Somerville 

Margaret Somerville is a professor of Education at Western Sydney University where she was director of the Centre for Educational Research from 2012-2016. She has led a rich and varied life as a mother of four children, including periods of time on remote Aboriginal communities, in rural Australia as a self sufficient farmer, and as a professor in three universities. Read more. 


Jacinta Tobin 

Jacinta Tobin is a Darug descendant of the Aboriginal people of the Greater Sydney Region with English and Irish ancestry. Jacinta began her studies and community work in 1997 with a Master of Applied Science in Social Ecology. Since then she has worked in with schools, universities, community and government events using her music and her community worker background to educate all on Darug language, songs and local Darug culture. Read more. 


Leanne Tobin 

Leanne Tobin is descended from the Boorooberongal and Wumali clans of the Darug, the traditional Aboriginal people of the Greater Sydney region. Leanne uses her art to tell local stories and to evoke an environmental conscience and respect towards the land and its original people. Read more. 


Libby Gallagher

Libby, director of Gallagher Studio, is a landscape architect with 20 years of experience. Libby’s delivered innovative public domain projects including parks, squares and streets as well as strategic, urban design and master planning projects whilst in practice in the UK, Canada, Malaysia and Australia. Read more.


James Weirick

Prior to joining UNSW in 1991, Professor James Weirick was the Head of Landscape Architecture Unit at RMIT. James brought a wealth of lecturing experience to UNSW, having enjoyed previous posts as Visiting Lecturer, Master of Urban Design Course and Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, RMIT. Read more.


Fiona Robbé

Fiona Robbé is a Landscape Architect and Horticulturist who has specialised in the design of outdoor children’s environments, and has worked as a Landscape Architect for 30 years. Her work encompasses public playgrounds in parks (local and state government), as well as play areas in schools, preschools, zoos, churches, museums and anywhere children play outside. Read more.