HASSELL has teamed up with San Francisco’s Resilient by Design organisation to deliver a series of panel events throughout Australia, focusing on innovative strategies to tackle the impacts of climate change. 

The panel events  in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne will feature speakers including Gabriel Metcalf (CEO, Committee for Sydney, previously San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association), Amanda Brown-Stevens (managing director, Resilient by Design San Francisco), Beck Dawson (chief resilience officer, Metropolitan Sydney), and Toby Kent (chief resilience officer, Resilient Melbourne).

HASSELL principal and urban design sector leader, David Tickle says resilience is often narrowly interpreted as pertaining simply to climate change and resulting sea level rise.

“Climate change, rising sea levels, and increased temperatures are clearly all major influences on the resilience of city or community, but these naturally have flow on effects,” says Tickle.

“Infrastructure failure, housing crisis, disease outbreak, cyber threats, and terrorism, are some other examples that can severely impact the long term resilience of cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. This is why it’s so important to have open, ongoing conversations about how we plan and design the most resilient buildings, precincts and cities with a broad understanding of future challenges.

“The most important thing we have learnt from being involved in projects such as Resilient by Design is the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses and systems within a city to come together to survive, adapt and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience.”

Melbourne and Sydney are part of The Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities network, which focuses on planning for long-term resilience. The network supports the adoption and incorporation of a view of resilience that includes not just the shocks—earthquakes, fires, floods, etc.—but also the stresses that weaken the fabric of a city on a day-to-day or cyclical basis. Through these actions, 100 Resilient Cities aims not only to help individual cities become more resilient, but will facilitate the building of a global practice of resilience among governments, NGOs, the private sector, and individual citizens.

“Even though Melbourne and Sydney are currently the only two Australian cities that are part of 100 Resilient Cities, we hope to increase awareness through the program of events and panel discussions and empower more people and communities to be engaged in this important initiative,” says Tickle.

Upcoming events:

Tuesday, 13 November – International Urban Design Conference (Sydney) Amanda Brown-Stevens (Managing Director, Resilient by Design San Francisco) and Richard Mullane (Principal, HASSELL) will present a keynote address exploring the outcomes and learnings for the recent Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge.  

Wednesday, 14 November – Resilient Urbanism Panel (Brisbane)  Amanda Brown-Stevens (Managing Director, Resilient by Design San Francisco), Toby Lodge (Principal, Sydney) and Richard Mullane (Principal, HASSELL) will sit on a panel event partnering with Committee for Brisbane discussing the impact urban design can have on resilience of a city.  

Thursday, 15 November – Resilient Urbanism Panel (Melbourne)  Amanda Brown-Stevens (Managing Director, Resilient by Design San Francisco) and Richard Mullane (Principal, HASSELL) will sit on a panel event partnering with City of Melbourne discussing the impact urban design can have on resilience of a city.