Future-thinking design critical for growing Western Sydney
The Initiating Change by Design(opens in a new window) symposium, to be held at University of Western Sydney’s Parramatta Campus this week will explore how design can help reimagine a more resilient future for Western Sydney.
“Through its practices of research, creative thinking and collaboration, design can provide a wider and deeper understanding of the challenges faced by Western Sydney – an understanding which can both guide future development and provide lessons for the rest of Australia,” says the organiser, Dr Abby Lopes.
“Design really matters to Western Sydney, which is earmarked for massive population growth over the next 20 years and with this a need for tens, if not, hundreds of thousands of new jobs.
“The region also faces specific climate change challenges including water scarcity, soil degradation and urban heat islanding caused by hard urban development alongside hotter and more extreme climate conditions, and design has a role to play in providing solutions to these issues.”
International cities and regions, such as Penrith’s twin city of Kunshan, China, Detroit, USA or Havana, Cuba have demonstrated extraordinary resilience from which we can learn, particularly with regard to the rise of sustainable urban agriculture.
Guest speakers at the symposium include information designers Angela Morelli and Tom Halsør, visual ethnographer Sarah Pink, activist and social designer Russell Kerr and sociologist of communication and design, Oliver Vodeb.
Ends
22 April 2014
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