We tend to think of “innovation precincts” as hubs for technology and knowledge workers, like the Australian Technology Park in Sydney. But cities need innovation in the very nature of building — especially in managing construction waste and using materials efficiently — to meet the challenges thrown up by accelerating urban growth.
If the relative emptiness of the central city feels like a shock, we’d do well to remember how relatively novel is the particular, pre-pandemic form of the city we’re familiar with. Skyscrapers stacked tight in the centres, with radial train networks transporting commuters in and out of dormitory suburbs, represent distinct configurations of home and work, domesticity and commerce, that might be slipping. Has the “age of dispersion” arrived?
Read MoreThe digitisation of urban interactions creates productive data that can be leveraged to support better decision-making and critical transformations in the design of cities. And yet, as attention toward platform business models makes clear, many of today's digital platforms yield not just new data points or information flows that can enhance urban intelligence. They also raise complex new challenges to do with how data are used to capture and govern the informational landscapes of digitally mediated cities, provoking new challenges for urban leaders and decision makers.
Read MoreCan we imagine a better outdoor media landscape? Storybox is a project that does just that. We promote more inclusive spaces for digital storytelling and creative media outdoors, in partnership with city governments and cultural organisations.
Read MoreAn article on digital contact tracing commissioned by Inside Story, ahead of the launch of the Australian Government’s COVID Safe tracing app. Read a short excerpt here.
Read MoreA reflection on coronavirus and Australian cities, commissioned by Inside Story in the opening week of Australia’s lock down and shift to social distancing measures.
Read MoreI’ve written a new book on Platform Urbanism, published by Palgrave Macmillan December 2019. Read an Introductory excerpt here.
Read MoreIs the data-rich city taking on a life of its own? And can Hugh Stretton’s Ideas for Australian Cities help us navigate its hazards? My piece for Inside Story, commissioned to mark the 50th anniversary of Stretton’s seminal work.
Read MoreA piece of speculative fiction I wrote for an edited book collection. In this piece I imagine Sydney as a ‘pivot city’ chosen by a major tech company to show how data-driven accountability can be used to enforce a carbon budget in the fight to limit carbon emissions. Problem is, our guy can’t quite behave like he should.
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