CP3, Hawke EU Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence and Reset#5 Guest Lecture

Dan Hill

Sweden’s streets, Australia’s suburbs, Europe’s Bauhaus

Thursday 5 August 2021 4:00 to 6:00 pm

Location: UniSA City West Campus | Bradley Forum (H5-02), Hawke Building, and online

Eventbrite: Register Here   

Webinar link: https://unisa.zoom.us/j/85038633966?pwd=NEVNUCtRUCtPOHJqZWZnVm5jNXlaZz09

The global events of the last 18 months, from Covid to BLM to bushfires, have shattered many assumptions about everyday life. Yet the fundamental questions so awkwardly thrown onto the table by the pandemic are actually deeper than these events, concerning far greater long-running challenges framed around crises of climate, health and social justice. Equally, these shifts in living patterns may also be a harbinger of ‘slowdown’ dynamics, driven by decreasing global population growth, diminished productivity, and slowing technological innovation—and the need to recalibrate economics.

What patterns might be forming amidst all this chaos? What are the new forms of cities and places that can be imagined under these conditions? What new patterns and practices of everyday life could emerge, finally addressing these so-called wicked problems? How might new technologies and social infrastructures suggest participative and regenerative relationships with nature and human nature?

In this talk, Dan will draw from the thinking shared in his Slowdown Papers series, but also from his project work all over the world, as a designer at SITRA’s Helsinki Design Lab, at Arup in Australia, Europe, and the US, and most recently with Vinnova in Sweden, where he is forging design-led place-based missions to help reimagine streets, public space and food systems. Dan will also draw from his significant experience in Australia, exploring how these ideas might connect to current and future cities and cultures. Finally, Dan will describe how Sweden, and the European Commission, is approaching the New European Bauhaus programme, a leading edge of the Green Deal oriented around sustainability, aesthetics and inclusion.

Dan Hill is Director of Strategic Design at Vinnova, the Swedish government’s innovation agency. A designer and urbanist, his previous leadership roles include Arup, Future Cities Catapult, Fabrica, SITRA and the BBC. He’s lived and worked in UK, Australia, Finland, Italy and Sweden. Dan is Professor at Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Visiting Professor at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose and Design Academy Eindhoven, and Adjunct Professor at RMIT University, Melbourne. He is a member of the UN Council on Urban Initiatives, a Design Advocate for the Mayor of London, and a Trustee of Participatory City Foundation.