Hassell Talks

Retrofitting and repurposing existing structures can achieve decarbonisation goals, enhance occupancy, attract investment, and rejuvenate cities – all while reducing environmental impact. No wonder our industry can't stop talking about it. It no longer makes sense to demolish unoccupied buildings, as it's neither cost-effective nor aligned with our circular economy aspirations. In September 2023, Hassell sponsored the inaugural Retrofit & Repurpose Summit on Gadigal Country, Sydney, bringing together sustainability leaders, asset owners, investors, and sustainable building specialists come together to explore the opportunities and positive impacts of retrofit and repurpose strategies. A recorded panel discussion 'Change Levers: Finding New Value in Net Zero Retrofit and Reuse Market', allows us to bring some of the summit's insights to the Hassell Talks audience. Featuring Principal Jeff Morgan; Green Building Council of Australia's Elham Monavari, Solar Victoria's Paul Corkill; Built's Jono Cottee, and hosted by Alison Scotland, Executive Director Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council. We're pleased to be able to bring you this recording, and these insights. Our thanks to the Retrofit Summit for generously capturing and sharing this audio. For more great insights from the summit, check out https://retrofitsummit.com.au/post-event-session-recordings/

Companies that have changed their offices and ways of working since the pandemic have a 17% higher satisfaction score among employees than those that haven’t. That's a big number - just one of many fascinating data points out of our 2023 Workplace Futures Survey. We're calling this one Great Adaptations. Our annual survey casts a light on the link between office transformation and employee satisfaction - and we're sharing some of the big take-outs with you on Hassell Talks. Join the report's author, Senior Researcher Dr Daniel Davis together with Principal Ingrid Bakker, as they reveal valuable insights into the current state of the workplace and what it takes to create the ideal hybrid office.

Architect Julian Gitsham sat down with Professors Tim O'Brien and Teresa Anderson to record this conversation about designing the best campus environments for transformational learning. And who better to quiz than the minds behind the bluedot festival? Located at the UNESCO listed Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, home to the Lovell Telescope, and the award-winning Hassell designed First Light Pavilion Visitors Centre, bluedot is a festival that defies categorisation, and if you're heading along in 2023, make sure you check out Hassell's Xavier de Kestelier's talk on interplanetary habitats and 3D printing in space. This episode sees was originally recorded in 2022.

Are you ready for an 'Epic Yarn'? Listening lies at the heart of so much of what designers do, but listening to what Country and Culture is telling us means connecting deeply and meaningfully with the land and its people. How well are designers — and organisations, individuals and communities — listening to these voices? Together with Landscape Architect Hannah Galloway, we wanted to explore the topic of ​‘Listening’ with First Nations Consultant, Cultural Advisor and Storyteller Kat Rodwell. In Part 1 of this 'Epic Yarn', Kat and Hannah discuss the​‘eggshells’ of engagement — the role of understanding that each project, situation and engagement is a unique opportunity to understand the land from the beginning. They explore the nuances of cultural protocol and etiquette, and the systems of Country that still speak loudly — even in crowded city centres — if we stop to listen. This episode is a must-listen for anyone wanting to deepen their understanding and to recalibrate how they listen to the voices of Country and Culture. In it, you'll hear the practical ways that individuals and organisations can better connect, support, and learn. Recorded on Lands of the Noongar Whadjuk people and the Wadawurrung people. Produced on the lands of the Wurundjeri people. We pay our respects to the original custodians of the lands where we practice, and acknowledge their unique ability to care for country and their deep spiritual connection to it.

With a housing crisis affecting cities and people, we're taking a look at the close ties between design and innovation in the residential sector. How are emerging housing models responding to community needs? What role is design playing in ensuring projects can still succeed despite cost, supply and climate challenges? And what makes larger scale residential alternatives appealing to investors seeking a long-term revenue line? In this episode you'll hear from one such investor in residential innovation. With projects in the UK, the US - and Australia - AustralianSuper is also an enthusiastic partner of pioneering build-to-rent-to-own housing developer, Assemble Communities, and quarter owner of the Assemble Futures. Fiona Dunster, Senior Investment Director within the property team at AustralianSuper joined Residential sector co-lead Jeremy Schluter to explore why investing in quality, sustainable housing for people just makes good financial sense, and why elements like tool libraries, communal laundries, kitchen facilities, spaces for yoga, dog walking and book clubs are designed in from the start, to bring people together and encourage connection.

The 15 Minute City has become a hot topic - gaining traction in corners of the internet not typically involved in the dialogue around city planning and urban living. With forward-thinking conversations threatened to be overtaken by conspiracy theories, we wanted to share an episode we recorded with London-based research lead Camilla Siggaard Andersen in 2022 on the topic of 15 Minute Cities. Specifically looking at the research she conducted, and the challenges she discovered are facing cities in Ireland and elsewhere as they grapple with climate change, urban sprawl and wellbeing. In this episode you'll hear from: Pat Farrell, CEO, Irish Institutional PropertyBrian Moran, Senior Managing Director, HinesNiamh Moore Cherry, Associate Professor, School of Geography, University College Dublin; andAli Grehan, former City of Dublin Architect As Hassell’s ​“Close to Home” report shows, 15-minute cities provide opportunities for more convenient living, more equitable communities and more sustainable development. What's not to like?

How did Sydney, London, and Barcelona pull off Olympic-sized events that delivered enduring, generational change? In 2032, southeast Queensland - a region with the city of Brisbane at its heart - will host the summer Olympics and Paralympics. The Games create extraordinary opportunities for communities, economies, and cultures to design legacies for future generations. The most important discussions in the city and the region around design are only just beginning - and this episode is one of them. Urbanist, city-shaper, and Hassell Principal Caroline Stalker explores the opportunities for Brisbane and Southeast Queensland - beyond 2032 - with Hassell Fellow Ken Maher AO and Emeritus Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, Helen Lochhead in this first episode in the fifth season of Hassell Talks.

*ENCORE EPISODE* Nature in our cities. If you're paying attention you'll notice the effect it's having on you. The slowed heart rate, a stolen moment to notice flickering leaves, buzzing insects, birds landing. Those designed-for, natural moments in our cities aren't in stasis - they're constantly changing and also spontaneous, influencing how we move through our cities, how we use them - and how they give back to us. In this season of Hassell Talks we've heard how spontaneous experiences are often behind the connections that bring people together; how designing in response to the perceptions of safety in rail precincts can help to encourage greater use by women, girls and the gender diverse; what workplaces need to do to become more 'magnetic'; and how listening, reflecting and learning from First Nations partners creates more inclusive experiences and connections. In this encore episode we revisit one of our most loved conversations from earlier in our catalogue, exploring a topic that's just as relevant as ever: the significance of our emotional connections to nature in cities - and the power it has to bring people together. Episode host, the Landscape designer, writer and gardener Jon Hazelwood is joined by writer, garden designer and TV presenter Michael McCoy as well as Professor Nigel Dunnett, responsible for some of the UK’s most spectacular planted environments like the Barbican, Buckingham Palace’s Diamond Garden and the planting designs for the London Olympic park (with his colleague James Hitchmough). We know you'll enjoy hearing how the creation of magical experiences in our cities has the power to profoundly move, connect and bring people together. Parts of this episode were recorded on the lands of the Gadigal people, and produced on Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung land, in Naarm.

When it comes to how workers feel about their workplace, it's hard to mount an argument against three years' worth of data and insights into possibly the most disruptive period for workers in memory. Senior Researcher Daniel Davis has been studying the effects and challenges facing workplaces in our Annual Workplace Futures Survey since 2020, and this year the survey grew to include 2,500 office workers across Australia, China, Singapore, the United States and the United Kingdom. And while foot traffic is returning to central business districts on the weekends — weekday activity remains far below pre-pandemic levels. People are returning to the city but not to work. So how do we attract people back to the workplace and — after over two years of remote and hybrid working — is there reason enough for them to even be there? In this episode of Hassell Talks, join Daniel and Principal Domino Risch as they share some behind the scenes insights and explore the top three takeouts from our latest annual workplace survey. To find out more, and download your own copy of the report, visit The Magnetic Workplace: 2022 Workplace Futures Survey

Welcome back to Season 4 of Hassell Talks! This season we're taking a look at Designing for a New State of Togetherness. We believe good things - great things - can happen when people come together through seemingly spontaneous experiences. The emotional response we get when we’re surprised or delighted is hugely powerful. It can help us feel more connected to others, and our cities. It can inspire and move us toward great change - and great change is something our cities, communities and planet urgently needs. But how do we design for spontaneity? Is this not inherently contradictory? We asked Principal and previous Hassell Talks host Jon Hazelwood to return to the microphone for a conversation with FreeState’s Su Lim around the role of spontaneity in our cities and how we can curate spaces for the unplanned. Su and Jon discuss how to design for experiences that we don’t always know we need but that can connect and reconnect us in novel and essential ways that will create memories and reset cities. We discuss the role of landscape and nature in creating surprise and delight in cities and, with Hassell Principal Chong Wang, explore how one of the world’s great cities, Shanghai, has woven spontaneity into its DNA. We also hear from Hannah Fox, the creator of Melbourne’s renowned Rising Festival, about how spontaneous interactions feed creativity. References: Journalist, author, theorist, and activist Jane JacobsPsychologist James Gibson Parts of this episode were recorded on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung people of the Kulin nation. We pay our respects to elders past and present. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land where we live, work, and learn.

What does bouncing Kraftwerk’s music off the surface of the moon have to do with the future of the university campus? Universities are paying close attention to the way interstellar music-science-arts-technology-culture experience makers bluedotfestival engage audiences in cross-disciplinary learning. But how far do they need to go on campus? Turns out - they need to create a 'wow' factor deeply rooted in curiosity and learning. Who better to debate the future of the university campus than Hassell's co-lead of Education and Science, Julian Gitsham, together with the creators of bluedot, Professor Teresa Anderson and Professor Tim O’Brien of the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank. In this episode we hear how to look at the benefits of designing environments around problem solving – rather than disciplines – and how good design can create and facilitate inclusive, innovative, and problem solving campuses. LinksCultural chemistry on campus web pagebluedot festivalFirst Light PavilionJodrell Bank Observatory

Even before Covid-19, many working in the health system would claim that Emergency Departments weren’t in the best of health. The narrative in the media, and from clinicians themselves, paints a picture of overcrowded spaces, overwhelmed and unsafe for patients and staff, bottlenecked and stretched beyond capacity yet growing bigger – and bigger - but not necessarily smarter. Creating healthcare systems that meet the very best expectations and conditions for staff and patients should be a focus for communities and operators, and this involves examining the models of health, safety, privacy, the popularity of telehealth and the role of emerging technologies. As part of a WomenIn_ panel event hosted by our Melbourne studio, we invited Mya Cubitt, Emergency Physician at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Stefano Scalzo, from the Victorian Health Building Authority, as well as Health, Infrastructure and Planning Consultant Brian Stevenson, to join Hassell's Health sector leader Leanne Guy and Managing Director Steve Coster to discuss the ever changing needs of Emergency Departments. This episode was produced by Prue Vincent and Annie Scapetis.

Mental health is making headlines - including in the architecture and design industry as the cumulative effects of living and working through a second year of the global Covid-19 pandemic start to become known. So how can organisations, the industry, and individuals, take advantage of this moment to establish change and in doing so, protect the longevity and diversity of the design industry into the future?In this special episode of Hassell Talks to recognise RUOK Day and World Mental Health Day we invited Parlour co-founder, Researcher and Professor of Architecture at Monash University Naomi Stead to share some of the early observations coming out of a survey of 2300 industry professionals into wellbeing in architecture. Joining Naomi is landscape architect, Place Intelligence co-founder and Human Potential Coach Bonnie Shaw, who explains how her own extreme experience with stress and pursuit of mental wellbeing marries data, endocrinology, neuroscience and behavioural psychology to support change, and community resilience.Together with Managing Director Steve Coster they explore opportunities to promote an open help-seeking culture, foster wellbeing and create real, positive change around mental health for the benefit of individuals, organisations, clients – and ultimately the communities and end users of design. "Designers are motivated by a desire to make the world a better place, and so they keep designing until they get to the best possible outcome beyond the point where they're really pushing their own personal well-being." - Naomi Stead "When you're working in really big, challenging adaptive problems, it puts so much pressure on people. And being able to do that work in a context where it's okay to talk about how you might be struggling or when you might be having problems, I think, is the only way we get through it." - Bonnie Shaw Hassell is a proud partner of mental health advocacy organisation, PukaUp. Find out more about the work PukaUp is doing to eliminate suicide. References and further resources The British Architects Mental Wellbeing Forum ToolkitThe Australian Architects Mental Wellbeing Forum ToolkitLiterature review on Architects and Mental Health commissioned by the NSWARBMonash University's Wellbeing in Architecture surveyBonnie Shaw: 'Making good decisions' - Dumbo FeatherFounder of Stress Theory, Hans Selye