Hassell Talks is a conversation between designers and the world, exploring the transformative power of design to make the our built environment a better, more inclusive place. In this series you’ll hear from architects and urbanists, place makers, researchers and designers alongside incredible guests on how we’re reimagining and re-thinking our built environment - and beyond - and designing places people love: creating a more equitable, sustainable and thriving future for everyone.
This episode explores the value and opportunities in retrofitting and repurposing existing buildings to meet decarbonization goals and enhance urban spaces. The panel discusses challenges and solutions, including the Green Building Council's roadmap, electrification incentives, adaptive reuse strategies, and the importance of circular economy principles. They also address equity, accessibility, and the need for regulatory support to drive broad-scale adoption of sustainable building practices.
Parkville, Melbourne — home to one of the world’s leading biomedical innovation communities. Arden — the next stage of the expanding Parkville innovation ecosystem. These precincts serve as catalysts where ideas, industries, and investors converge — shaping the places that unite us. In this episode we explore the threads that hold these precincts together in the context of future developments of major institutions spanning health, education, transport and research. Melbourne's Lord Mayor Sally C...
Companies that have changed their offices and ways of working since the pandemic have a 17% higher satisfaction score among employees than those that haven’t. That's a big number - just one of many fascinating data points out of our 2023 Workplace Futures Survey. We're calling this one Great Adaptations. Our annual survey casts a light on the link between office transformation and employee satisfaction - and we're sharing some of the big take-outs with you on Hassell Talks. Join the report's aut...
On this episode of Hassell Talks, architect and urbanist Caroline Stalker joined retired Partner of Buro Happald Andrew Comer and architect, urbanist and Head of Design Ashley Munday to explore the potential mechanisms for creating a successful Olympic and Paralympic Games legacy for Brisbane and SEQ. London's approach was to look beyond 2012 - to 2057, with the hard decisions made at the very beginning resulting in transcendent change across the city. Is Brisbane brave enough to do the same? Re...
Architect Julian Gitsham sat down with Professors Tim O'Brien and Teresa Anderson to record this conversation about designing the best campus environments for transformational learning. And who better to quiz than the minds behind the bluedot festival? Located at the UNESCO listed Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, home to the Lovell Telescope, and the award-winning Hassell designed First Light Pavilion Visitors Centre, bluedot is a festival that defies categorisation, and if you're heading a...
You asked, Kat answered! Get ready for our 'Epic Yarn' - Part 2. Part 1 saw Landscape Architect Hannah Galloway explore the topic of ‘Listening’ with First Nations Consultant, Cultural Advisor and Storyteller Kat Rodwell. For the second half of this Epic Yarn, we asked listeners to send in questions to ask Kat - and boy, did you deliver. No question was off-limits, and the prompt of 'get comfortable with being uncomfortable' saw questions about the dangers of 'fetishisation', about agriculture ...
Are you ready for an 'Epic Yarn'? Listening lies at the heart of so much of what designers do, but listening to what Country and Culture is telling us means connecting deeply and meaningfully with the land and its people. How well are designers — and organisations, individuals and communities — listening to these voices? Together with Landscape Architect Hannah Galloway, we wanted to explore the topic of ‘Listening’ with First Nations Consultant, Cultural Advisor and Storyteller Kat Rodwell. In...
Perth in Western Australia has joined thousands of other cities around the world aiming for Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050. How will this unique city, facing unique climate challenges, meet the target? And how will designers help the city go beyond the standards to beat the clock and make a thriving, regenerative hub? Hassell’s Sustainable Design Leader Karla Fox-Reynolds joined self-confessed 'sustainability nerd' the Hon. Dr. Brad Pettitt MLC and environmental scientist Prof. Josh Byrne for...
With a housing crisis affecting cities and people, we're taking a look at the close ties between design and innovation in the residential sector. How are emerging housing models responding to community needs? What role is design playing in ensuring projects can still succeed despite cost, supply and climate challenges? And what makes larger scale residential alternatives appealing to investors seeking a long-term revenue line? In this episode you'll hear from one such investor in residential inn...
It is time to move on from the pursuit of iconic architecture. The issues keeping our clients and collaborators up at night are the same things pushing our cities closer to the cusp of wholesale change. Things like the competition around attracting and keeping great tenants, providing magnetic experiences and destination workplaces in uncertain times, dealing with 'great bones' in a building and delivering sustainable spaces are all complex, and often perplexing, challenges. Challenging the buil...
The 15 Minute City has become a hot topic - gaining traction in corners of the internet not typically involved in the dialogue around city planning and urban living. With forward-thinking conversations threatened to be overtaken by conspiracy theories, we wanted to share an episode we recorded with London-based research lead Camilla Siggaard Andersen in 2022 on the topic of 15 Minute Cities. Specifically looking at the research she conducted, and the challenges she discovered are facing cities i...
They say there's no place like home. In Europe, Australia, the US and Asia - there's not enough quality housing stock to go around, and limited affordable choice in the types of homes available. The current generation of renters and buyers are connected, design-savvy and socially aware. They are driving the demand for homes that challenge traditional models of living. They’ve also lived through the pandemic, so they need to be able to work comfortably from home with a supportive community around...
How did Sydney, London, and Barcelona pull off Olympic-sized events that delivered enduring, generational change? In 2032, southeast Queensland - a region with the city of Brisbane at its heart - will host the summer Olympics and Paralympics. The Games create extraordinary opportunities for communities, economies, and cultures to design legacies for future generations. The most important discussions in the city and the region around design are only just beginning - and this episode is one of the...
Feeling overwhelmed in the face of climate and sustainability challenges? Have we got the episode for you. With the built environment contributing to around 40% of global emissions, our industry has a critical – and pivotal - role to play to limit the projected impacts of climate change to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. So we held an event to hear from the people making the changes in our industry that we all want to see more of, in the world. The event, in November...
*ENCORE EPISODE* Nature in our cities. If you're paying attention you'll notice the effect it's having on you. The slowed heart rate, a stolen moment to notice flickering leaves, buzzing insects, birds landing. Those designed-for, natural moments in our cities aren't in stasis - they're constantly changing and also spontaneous, influencing how we move through our cities, how we use them - and how they give back to us. In this season of Hassell Talks we've heard how spontaneous experiences are of...
"What you create as an organisation has to be something that pushes the boundaries everywhere," said Co-Director of Danjoo Koorliny, Carol Innes AM to a gathering of designers, government representatives clients and First Nations collaborators. This gathering, as part of Hassell's Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) journey aimed to listen and learn from First Nations partners better ways to engage on projects. The resulting conversation was rich, provocative and full of lessons, and in this episod...
When it comes to how workers feel about their workplace, it's hard to mount an argument against three years' worth of data and insights into possibly the most disruptive period for workers in memory. Senior Researcher Daniel Davis has been studying the effects and challenges facing workplaces in our Annual Workplace Futures Survey since 2020, and this year the survey grew to include 2,500 office workers across Australia, China, Singapore, the United States and the United Kingdom. And while foot ...
Rail precincts don't always feel like the safest places to be for women, girls and the gender diverse, particularly after dark. Alert and constantly on guard, it's a relentless navigation of sightlines, lighting, exposure, surveillance and positioning for safety. As designers, we believe we can do more than simply meet the governing standards and technical requirements demanded of rail stations - we can change the way people feel while using them, creating a more equitable and prosperous society...
Welcome back to Season 4 of Hassell Talks! This season we're taking a look at Designing for a New State of Togetherness. We believe good things - great things - can happen when people come together through seemingly spontaneous experiences. The emotional response we get when we’re surprised or delighted is hugely powerful. It can help us feel more connected to others, and our cities. It can inspire and move us toward great change - and great change is something our cities, communities and planet...
While technology rapidly advances — people, by contrast, remain constant. Creatures of habit, we need others to survive. We are the sum of our skin, our organs and body parts. Our minds distinguish us, and our intelligence is key to survival but it's our ability to work together that tells the true story of our potential. The team behind the Herston Biofabrication Institute in Brisbane, Australia knew this, and deliberately removed the physical and mental limits in their way. Given the right spa...
What does bouncing Kraftwerk’s music off the surface of the moon have to do with the future of the university campus? Universities are paying close attention to the way interstellar music-science-arts-technology-culture experience makers bluedotfestival engage audiences in cross-disciplinary learning. But how far do they need to go on campus? Turns out - they need to create a 'wow' factor deeply rooted in curiosity and learning. Who better to debate the future of the university campus than Hasse...
To celebrate the start of Melbourne Design Week , we’re excited to share a podcast from Australia’s leading architecture commission MPavilion . The MPavilion MTalks series brings some of Melbourne’s brightest and most creative minds together on the lands of the Eastern Kulin Nation, to debate, share ideas and be inspired. The episode you're about to hear was part of an 'Illuminating' event exploring the role of data, knowledge and design in amplifying access to the ideas moving around the city. ...
Even before Covid-19, many working in the health system would claim that Emergency Departments weren’t in the best of health. The narrative in the media, and from clinicians themselves, paints a picture of overcrowded spaces, overwhelmed and unsafe for patients and staff, bottlenecked and stretched beyond capacity yet growing bigger – and bigger - but not necessarily smarter. Creating healthcare systems that meet the very best expectations and conditions for staff and patients should be a focus ...
Cities around the world are committing themselves to creating compact, amenity-rich neighbourhoods as they tackle the challenges of climate change, urban sprawl and wellbeing. Ireland’s cities, with their history, natural amenities and passionate residents seem more ready-made than most to embrace an agenda of compact growth. But despite national planning frameworks in place, local governments, private developers and stakeholders are encountering ongoing challenges of their own in bringing “15-...
Mental health is making headlines - including in the architecture and design industry as the cumulative effects of living and working through a second year of the global Covid-19 pandemic start to become known. So how can organisations, the industry, and individuals, take advantage of this moment to establish change and in doing so, protect the longevity and diversity of the design industry into the future? In this special episode of Hassell Talks to recognise RUOK Day and World Mental Health Da...
Finding it both necessary and convenient, patients and clinicians across Australia embraced the change brought about by COVID-19 and took to telehealth in huge numbers – jumping from one million service events in March 2020 to six million a month later in April . Healthcare is traditionally an area that can be slow to change, so this leap in uptake was a novel event in itself. Under pandemic restrictions, clinicians didn’t have much of a choice. But the switch to telehealth wasn’t as simple as j...
At the heart of any co-working environment is the idea that it can do much more than provide a hotspot and a hot coffee. The best ones ask: Can we build a great like-minded community? In the COVID-19 context, the best co-working spaces then ask whether they can solve some of the challenges thrown up by the pandemic to design for safety and trust in a physical environment. And right now? They’re asking how the design of their spaces helps people to connect – and reconnect. To go a step further an...
We're back for Season Two of Hassell Talks - thanks for joining us! Once practically unthinkable, silent city centres were a feature of 2020. And to attract people back as the COVID-19 recovery picks up pace across the globe, the challenge lies in truly understanding how and why spaces work. The solution might be staring us – city shapers and designers – in the face. Big Data. What exactly can big data reveal to city shapers and designers that they previously never had access to? What does it te...
We don’t know exactly what our lives, work and communities will look like post COVID-19. But one thing we’re sure of is that some of the trends we saw developing over the past few years have only accelerated since the global pandemic took hold. They’re trends that are changing how we reimagine or repurpose spaces, think about mobility, and connect with each other and our communities – not to mention increase the appeal of a slowed-down culture. These shifts all have implications for the way peop...
Whether you’re a CEO, a property manager or a workplace designer, the office has been the headline conversation of 2020. How many will go back? What will it look like? How will workplace culture change? Whatever line of inquiry you follow, we know a mix of qualitative and quantitative insights will give us the greatest handle on what’s happening in a workplace. Evodia Alaterou, our design strategy lead joins Alex Birch, co-founder and CEO of tech start-up XY Sense to discuss what they’ve learned...
