In PX128 our guest is architect and author Jorge Almazan. Jorge is a Tokyo-based architect and associate professor at Keio University. He holds a degree in architecture from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and a PhD from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. His practice focuses on ecologically responsible and socially inclusive design, ranging from urban to interior projects. His built work has earned significant recognition in Japan, including the Ota City Urban Landscape First Prize (2019) ...
Mar 02, 2025•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX127 our guest is architect, former academic and author Dr Derham Groves. He studied architecture at Deakin University and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and art history at the University of Minnesota. He taught architecture at RMIT from 1985 to 1997 and the University of Melbourne from 1999 to 2019 and was a Senior Fellow in the Faculty of Architecture, Building, and Planning at the University of Melbourne from 2020 to 2024. Derham is the author of many articles and books about...
Feb 10, 2025•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest is Sara Bronin a Mexican-American architect and attorney whose interdisciplinary research focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places. She is the author of Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World , and she founded and directs the National Zoning Atlas , which aims to digitize, demystify, and democratize information about zoning in the United States. She has advised the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Sustai...
Jan 19, 2025•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, Jess and Pete reflect on the tenth anniversary of the PlanningxChange podcast. This discussion occurs before an Ai review of the planningxchange podcast series. A rather indulgent episode to mark the anniversary! For podcast extra / culture corner, Jess recommends making pizzas at home with the family. Her New Year resolution is to have more interesting podcast extra recommendations. Pete recommends doing background research about books you like. He also discusses film locations...
Dec 27, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Katherine is a social planning practitioner with over 14 years’ experience working for a range of government and non-government organisations in Australia and the Pacific. Katherine has considerable experience in developing and implementing community plans, programs and policy to improve social inclusion and participation. Katherine was awarded the 2018 Rodney Warmington Churchill Fellowship to increase inclusion and accessibility in public toilets by researching taboos, design, policy and legal...
Dec 07, 2024•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX123 our guest is Bryan Caplan. Bryan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University and a New York Times Bestselling author. We interview him about his ground breaking graphic novel ‘Build, Baby, Build - The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation’. The book is so described: 'In Build, Baby, Build: The Science and Ethics of Housing Regulation, economist Bryan Caplan makes the economic and philosophical case for radical deregulation of this massive market―freeing property owners to bu...
Nov 12, 2024•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX122 our guest is Rafael Mangual a distinguished writer and researcher on crime issues in cities and regions. He is the Nick Ohnell Fellow at the Manhattan Institute (MI), a contributing editor of City Journal , and a member of the Council on Criminal Justice . His first book, Criminal (In)Justice , was released in July 2022. He has authored and coauthored a number of MI reports and op-eds on issues ranging from urban crime and jail violence to broader matters of criminal and civil justice r...
Oct 22, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX121 our guest is Calvin Po ( https://www.calvinpo.com ). Calvin Po is a strategic designer at Dark Matter Labs, co-leading the Radicle Civics portfolio, where he explores institutional and governance systems as sites of design. He has led projects with the Scottish Government’s Land Commission on land governance reform, the Taiwanese Government on decentralised web3 civic infrastructure, and is developing multi-actor governance approaches for river ecosystems, and in FreeHouse, a commons ho...
Sep 10, 2024•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX120 our guest is Assistant Professor Akane Bessho, Ph.D of the Housing and Urban Analysis Laboratory, Department of Engineering, The University of Tokyo. Information about Akane’s work is at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Akane-Bessho-2 and her website is: https://www.akanebessho.com Akane has a wide range of research projects and in the field work including those that seek to reverse depopulation in Japan’s rural areas, assisting people with disabilities in the agricultural sector (s...
Aug 09, 2024•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX119 our guests is Kylie Legge of Place Score ( https://www.placescore.org/about-place-score/ ). Kylie is a leading voice in placemaking, an architecture graduate, planner, place maker, author, facilitator, curator and entrepreneur. She is founding Director of Place Partners, a multidisciplinary placemaking consultancy based in Sydney, Australia and Place Score – the world’s first place experience measurement company. An engaging interview about new methods to find out what citizens seek in ...
Jul 20, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX118 our guests are Jonathan O’Brien and Jonathan Nolan of YIMBY Melbourne. Details of YIMBY Melbourne are at https://www.yimby.melbourne YIMBY Melbourne seeks a ‘ People-led’ ‘Grassroots’ ‘For Housing Abundance .’ The YIMBY website states: ‘ A better Melbourne is possible. A Melbourne that is affordable, liveable, and sustainable. A city that is walkable, accessible, and which gives everyone access to the amenity-rich areas that make living here so special. Creating housing abundance will t...
Jun 24, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX117 our guest is Rob Parker, President of Trilith Development, LLC. Rob oversees with a development team the continued growth of the Trilith Township and Film Studios. Trilith is located on the edge of Altana in Fayette County, Georgia. Trilith is in the advance guard of new urbanism practices. Details at https://www.trilith.com Trilith is a large masterplanned community which seeks to ‘redefine the modern American town’. Based on New Urbanism 2.0++ principles, the town has a vibrant commer...
May 31, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX116 our guest is Stephen Rowley. Stephen is the author of two books, ‘Movie Towns and Sitcom Suburbs: Building Hollywood’s Ideal Communities’ and ‘The Victorian Planning System: Practice, Problems and Prospects’. In February 2022 he was made of a Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia, the citation included: ‘Over the first 20 years of his career Dr Stephen Rowley has made a very significant contribution to planning as an inspiring and passionate lecturer, through his publications, h...
May 02, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX115 our guest is Liz Mackevicius. Liz is an urban planner who has taken a new role as an organisational coach for those in the built environment industry. She will be leading the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) program ‘Pathway to Lead’. Information about the program, and the link to register for the session is: https://www.planning.org.au/eventsandcpdnew/additional-programs . It’s for consultants across Australia. An accredited organisational coach, Liz has built a reputation of stro...
Apr 08, 2024•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX114, our interview guest is Anna Lowder, a co-founder and director of Hampstead , a New Urbanist community in Montgomery, Alabama, inspired by her experiences while living in London before returning to Montgomery. Established in 2008, the 416-acre master-planned residential and mixed-use development features homes, townhomes, condos, apartments, restaurants, shops, workspaces and a school, farm, and a lake. Anna helped Hampstead and Montgomery become the first neighborhood and largest city ...
Mar 21, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Episode PX113 is all about Advanced Aerial Mobility (AAM) aircraft, these are typically electric or hybrid powered, air taxis and the like. They have appeared in various science fiction films such as Blade Runner 2019 and Blade Runner 2049 (nicknamed ‘spinners’). They will soon be appearing above our cities and towns. Clem Newton-Brown our guest is CEO and founder of Skyportz ( https://skyportz.com ), the only Australian business developing a network of landing sites for a future air taxi networ...
Mar 01, 2024•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX112, our interview guest is Jessica Lee, a principal architect at Fender Katsalidis Architects ( https://fkaustralia.com ). Jessica discusses the ‘Alba’ project, the conversion of a 1970’s former office building into 150 rooms of age appropriate housing (retirement accommodation and aged care). The site is located within South Melbourne, an inner city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria Australia. The cost of the conversion was $125m (AU). Whilst not being significantly cheaper than a rebuild the...
Jan 02, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX111, our interview guest is Jesse Suskin, Head of Government Relations & Public Policy at Wing Aviation ( https://wing.com ). We talk all things drone delivery particularly the experience learnt in Logan in Queensland, Australia where there has been extensive delivery operations over a lengthy time period. Wing Aviation is an offshoot of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. Jesse Suskin is the head of government relations and public policy in Australia for Wing, a company that sees a futur...
Dec 04, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX110, our interview guest is Professor Tim Parkin, we talk all things Roman particularly their city life. Tim Parkin joined the Classics and Archaeology department at the University of Melbourne in 2018 as the inaugural Elizabeth and James Tatoulis Chair in Classics. Before this he had spent over 11 years as Professor of Ancient History at the University of Manchester (UK). Tim is a New Zealander by birth who was awarded a D.Phil. at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and who, since 1989, has worked...
Oct 29, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX109, our interview guest is Professor Douglas (Doug) Tallamy, the author of many nature books and co - founder along with Michelle Alfandari of Homegrown National Park ( https://homegrownnationalpark.org ). Homegrown National Parks is a grassroots call - to - action to regenerate biodiversity and ecosystem function by planting native plants and creating new ecological networks. The group encourages homeowners and landowners to substitute native species for traditional garden approaches to e...
Oct 02, 2023•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX108, our interview guest is Dr Stefan Gruenert, the CEO of Odyssey House Victoria. Odyssey House Victoria is a state-wide, specialist treatment organisation dedicated to improving the lives of individuals who experience significant or long-term problems from alcohol and other drug use. Stefan describes the work of Odyssey House and the clients they serve. He talks of the various programs on offer. He describes how the OH facilities work and about the knowledge gained in providing effective ...
Sep 05, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX107, our interview guest is Kate Hardwick an exceptional planning professional originally from Australia who now works in South East Asia. Kate takes the listener on a fascinating journey describing her professional career. Along the way she offers tips to those starting out and also to those seeking a new direction after a number of years in the job. She talks of recognising and responding to cultural variations and social norms in many different countries. Also in gaining humility and the...
Jul 27, 2023•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX106, our interview guest is James Vincent who is the CTO at NCS NEXT Australia, a global digital, data and cloud services consultancy ( https://www.ncs.co/en-au/next/ ). James is a senior people leader with 25 years’ commercial IT experience and an established authority in large-scale strategic transformation in enterprise environments and delivering business outcomes through technology. In this episode James shares four smart city technology solutions government could adopt to improve citi...
Jul 03, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX105, our interview guest is Torie Brown, Executive Director of the Student Accommodation Council. The Council was formed in 2022 by the Property Council to give a voice to the critically important purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) sector which provides homes for over 76,500 students per year, a figure that continues to grow. https://www.propertycouncil.com.au/advocacy/our-divisions/student-accommodation-council Providing vibrant and connected housing options for students underpins ...
Jun 05, 2023•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX104, our interview guest is Vanessa Schernickau, the Chief Executive Officer of the Geelong Regional Library Corporation (GRLC). The GRLC provides library and information services to residents and visitors across the Geelong region on behalf of five local government councils. The network consists of a central library, 18 community libraries, three mobile libraries and website. It provides free, universal access to lifelong learning, reading and discovery. The Geelong Library began in 1858 a...
May 01, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX103, our interview subject is Tim Jackson, a +40 year veteran of local government. Tim recently retired for a second time from the paid workforce after completing his four year role as the State Government appointed Administrator at the District of Council of Coober Pedy in South Australia in February. This was the first time an Administrator had been appointed to a South Australian Council in almost forty years. Prior to his first retirement, Tim was CEO of the City of Playford in South Au...
Mar 23, 2023•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, PlanningxChange delves into the history of heritage conservation in Australia. James Lesh is an urban historian specialising in heritage conservation. He is interested in the potential for history and heritage to enhance cities, places and society. His latest book is Values in Cities: Urban Heritage in Twentieth-Century Australia (Routledge, 2022) . It synthesises the history of the Australian heritage movement and advocates for innovative modes of heritage practice. James is a ...
Feb 23, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PX101 our guests are Natalia Weglarz and Peter Johns. Natalia is a planner at the Canberra office of WSP ( www.wsp.com ). She has been in Canberra for eight years, prior to that she was in Sydney and the UK. Peter Johns has lived in Canberra since the mid 1960's and has worked as a planner in Canberra over several decades. They describe the history of Canberra, the orginal grand plan for the city developed in 1911, how it has evolved and its role as Australia's most planned city. Should there...
Jan 07, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast To celebrate our 100th episode we re-interview four of our previous guests. We ask them about their experiences with the podcast and what has happened in their professional sphere since their earlier interview. To begin with, Jess has a brief introduction where she explains the origins of PX and the subsequent journey over the past eight years. Our first guest is Chris Abery, one of Australia's leading retail planning analysts. Chris is at the consultancy Deep End Services https://www.deependser...
Dec 14, 2022•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast In PlanningxChange episode 99 our guest is Alex Fenech, a landscape architect based in Florida. At the time we recorded the interview Alex was a Vice President at EDSA ( https://www.edsaplan.com ) one of America’s leading landscape and urban design firms. Alex is the past President of ALSA Florida (American Society of Landscape architects) - https://www.aslaflorida.org/AboutFL In a wide ranging interview Alex talks of the many parts of a landscape architect’s role. These include not just technic...
Oct 28, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
