Creative city conversations

Creative city conversations is a series of free public talks to inspire you and ignite a wider conversation about the opportunities for our city.

Watch our videos to catch up with the conversation so far

Active transport consultant, researcher and author Dr Rodney Tolley talks about conquering our addiction to speed to decelerate climate change and accelerate a safe, healthy and sustainable city. Dr Tolley has chaired the International Conference on Walking and Livable Cities for more than 20 years and has been central to the development of the International Charter for Walking, which has been signed by more than 500 mayors to lead their communities towards better walkability.

Urban strategist Greer O'Donnell shares a fresh perspective on the role of housing for health and wellbeing, exploring examples of housing models that have evolved in response to rising house prices and housing inequality, and outlining what cities like Palmy can do to expedite the development of more diverse, fit-for-purpose and affordable homes.

Reflecting on his own projects over the last 16 years, landscape architect Craig Pocock asks the question: Does our carbon consumption offset our carbon creation? While landscape and open spaces projects can be seen at face-value as green and sustainable, how sustainable they are when applying a cost to them?

Liz Halsted is the NZ Advisory Services Leader for global infrastructure company Arup. Her talk explored human-centric transportation and how we can bring about social, environmental, economic and cultural improvements through road strategy and design that support all transport modes, including walking.

Stantec's Daniel Chapman discussed the role of walking in vibrant and creative urban places, ingredients of walkable urbanism, and inspiration from elsewhere of successful transformations from suburban stasis to urban dynamism.