Rob Adams: Challenging the status quo on urban planning

On The Fifth Estate’s latest podcast, our managing editor, Tina Perinotto, spoke with urban planner Rob Adams.

Rob became Australia’s urban planning poster child when he launched an audacious goal to transform Melbourne’s CBD as director of planning at the City of Melbourne.

In those days, the city was suffering from a prolonged recession. The city streets were abandoned, especially at night and on the weekends. People had not yet discovered that CBDs could be vibrant and active.

So Rob started a program was called Postcode three thousand.

Part of the transformation involved refurbishing office buildings into apartments. 

As a result, the city’s population blossomed. Suddenly, living in the CBD was cool, not a sad, windy endurance test when the city workers departed for their homes.

But that’s not all Rob is well known for. He’s recently launched a plan about concentrating development along the city’s transport routes, designed to leave the rest of suburban sites alone. This helps to “calm” residents so that they aren’t so fearful of development.

Elizabeth Mossop on community resilience in the Northern Rivers – How to build a better world

Elizabeth Mossop, founding principal of Spackman Mossop + Michaels and former dean of Design and Architecture School at UTS, knows quite a bit about flood disasters and their aftermath. She was deeply involved in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when it hit New Orleans in the US in 2005 and she now heads up the academic side of the Living Lab Northern Rivers which is grappling with the reconstruction of Lismore badly hit by two consecutive floods in 2022.Host: Tina PerinottoProduced by: The Fifth EstateThe Fifth Estate website: www.thefifthestate.com.auSign up to the newsletter: https://thefifthestate.com.au/subscribe Support The Fifth Estate: thefifthestate.com.au/support-us LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/the-fifth-estate Twitter: @FifthEstateAUFacebook: www.facebook.com/thefifthestateAu 

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2. Adam Bandt on new strategies and the built environment for the ACF 37:02
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4. Parnell Palme McGuinness on unpacking thoughts from a ‘diversity hire’ 01:17:58
5. Kaushik Chakraborty on trends on infrastructure 01:05:25