Australia’s premier planning event will live up to its 2014 theme of ‘Connecting People and
Ideas’ with speakers from around the globe descending on Pyrmont for the Planning Institute
of Australia’s (PIA) Annual Congress.
Planning professionals, Architects, Urban Designers and others will hear details of good
planning experiences from around the world with speakers coming from Spain, the United
Kingdom, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Singapore.
PIA Chief Executive Officer Kirsty Kelly said the National PIA Congress is held each year to
ensure Australian professionals in the planning, development and design industries are right
up to date with best practice worldwide.
“Communication is the key to any industry staying on top of the game and the annual PIA
Congress is a great forum for planners to network and exchange information and ideas,” Ms
Kelly said.
“There’s a lot of planning reform currently underway in Australia and the improvements cover
many areas. Our speakers will cover much of what we are dealing with.
“This year our overseas contingent includes a healthy number of professionals all highly
qualified in their area of expertise.
“There’s absolutely no doubt delegates will hear about how many interesting planning
challenges were overcome in different parts of the world.”
One of the international speakers is President and CEO of Fundación Metrópoli in Spain.
Alfonso Vegara is also an architect, economist and sociologist with a PhD in City and
Regional Planning.
He’s an adviser to the Government of Singapore and has been adviser to the cities of
Curitiba, Dublin, Bilbao, Casablanca and Sydney. He’ll address the Congress on the subject
of spatial planning in the 21st century.
Ms Kelly said the speakers and their topics have been carefully selected to be relevant to
what is happening with planning in Australia as many jurisdictions undergo planning reform.
“When planning reform is underway there’s no escaping the ‘politics of planning’ so we have
included Dr Andy Inch from the University of Sheffield in the UK.
Dr Inch’s research focusses on planning reform initiatives and their effects on planning
professionals and the relationship between citizens and the state.
His recent work has particularly dealt with the element of ‘culture change’ that has
accompanied such reform initiatives in the decentralised nations of the UK, questioning the
changes being implemented and their effects on planners, citizens and what’s required from
21st century planning.
The 2014 PIA National Congress will be held at Doltone House, Pyrmont in Sydney from 16th
to the 19th March and will include the annual National PIA Awards for Planning Excellence.
Delegates will also be treated to a healthy social program and have a choice of a number of
study tours dealing with different aspects of current planning in Sydney.
Download Program
program_for_2014_PIA_Congress.pdf
• Planners Key to Modernising Planning
Planning professionals dealing with reform and change in planning systems across Australia
will hear new insights into the profound role they must play in modernising planning.
Research to be presented at a major national gathering of planners suggests that some
reform initiatives already undertaken may not have the desired outcome of improving
planning.
Dr Andy Inch from the University of Sheffield in the UK believes some planning reform can
obscure deep seated tensions between different notions of what makes good planning.
His research on the politics of planning and in particular planning reform initiatives and their
effects on planning professionals will be the subject of a presentation at the 2014 Planning
Institute of Australia (PIA) National Congress in Sydney.
“Planning in many places around the world including Australia is undergoing reform. And
increasingly there has been this commitment to changing the ‘culture’ of planning,” Dr Inch
said.
“The term culture suggests that the attitudes of all involved are part of the problem.
“I think we have to first understand the meanings of ‘culture change’ initiatives and their
potential role in realising transformative planning reform.
“I’ll be drawing on examples from the UK to argue that managerial imperatives of culture
change can often mask the complex politics of planning reform.
“This can obscure deep-seated tensions between different conceptions of what constitutes
good planning and what is required to be a good planner.”
Andy Inch is a lecturer in the Department of Town and Regional Planning at the University of
Sheffield.
He completed an MSc and PhD in planning at Oxford Brookes University and has also
lectured at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
His research is broadly concerned with the politics of planning, and particularly planning
reform initiatives and their effects on planning professionals and the relationship between
citizens and the state.
Recent work has focused particularly on the idea of ‘culture change’ questioning the
changes being implemented and their effects on planners, citizens and the idea of planning
in the 21st century.
“I will argue that real culture change may only be possible when the dilemmas generated by
competing ideas of planning are acknowledged so that planners, and the societies within
which they work, can find new ways to explore the future worlds we want to make.”
The 2014 PIA National Congress will be held March 16 – 19 at Doltone House, Pyrmont,
Sydney and will include the 2014 PIA Awards for Planning Excellence where the best of the
best planning projects in Australia will be announced.
• Density Essential for Healthy and Successful Cities
The age old argument over the benefit of greater density in our cities will be settled in an
inspiring presentation at the 2014 Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) National Congress in
Sydney.
An internationally acclaimed practitioner in advanced urbanism will tell planners, architects
and urban design professionals that strategic and creative densification of cities is critical for
their future.
Brent Toderian consults for cities and developers across the globe and currently has
international engagements in Sydney, Auckland, Oslo, Helsinki, Medellin and Ottawa.
He says many cities are rejecting higher densities due to “not in my backyard” reactions or
allowing it to be done poorly, not appreciating it can be done extremely well.
“Density done well is what I’ll be discussing at the Congress in Sydney,” said Mr Toderian.
“We can’t afford not to make the very best of all the benefits our cities offer, from shared
infrastructure to social interaction.
“Strategically and artfully creating better neighbourhoods and places to accommodate an
ever increasing population is critical for more healthy, sustainable, successful and affordable
cities.
“There are important keys to doing density well and I will outline some strategies when I talk
to the delegates at the Sydney Congress. The first point I will make is that doing density well
is a huge responsibility.”
Brent Toderian established TODERIAN UrbanWORKS in 2012 after six years as Vancouver
Canada’s Chief Planner. Vancouver is internationally known as a livable, walkable, transitfriendly
and green city
His significant achievements in that role included 2010 Winter Olympics-related planning and
design, the EcoDensity and Greenest City Initiatives, and strategies emphasizing a
“complete city” not just a liveable one.
Brent is also the President of the Council for Canadian Urbanism, is a regular broadcaster on
city-making with CBC Radio, writes for several publications and is a highly sought-after
international speaker and teacher on advanced urbanism.
PIA Chief Executive Officer Kirsty Kelly said Australian planners are thrilled to have Brent as
a speaker at the 2014 National Congress.
“Through his own experience, Brent will be able to show us some strategic and creative ways
of approaching challenging city density projects,” Ms Kelly said.
“Planning laws vary from country to country but many Australian jurisdictions are currently
undergoing planning reform and this often includes improvements in planning policy to allow
more creatively driven outcomes.
“We welcome Brent Toderian to Australia’s premier annual planning event.”
Connecting People and Places PIA National Congress 2014 will be held at Doltone House,
Pyrmont, Sydney from March 16 – 19 and will include the 2014 PIA Awards for Planning
Excellence.
• New Thinking to Reconnect Detached Communities
A North American planning expert will tell a major planning conference in Sydney that planners
need to rethink long standing paradigms and assumptions to future proof communities.
Founding Principal of VIA, Alan Hart, will show how pioneering planning projects have
reconnected communities on the West Coast of North America, and explain how the increasing
dominance of the automobile helped drive land use and zoning in the wrong direction.
Alan Hart is among a number of international experts set to address Australian Planners, Urban
Designers, Architects and other professionals at the Planning Institute of Australia’s (PIA) 2014
National Congress, Connecting People and Places.
Mr Hart says integrating land use and transport strategies can reconnect communities that
became separate only to rely on the motor car to connect them.
“During the past one hundred years we have seen zoning codes and infrastructure development
that focused on segregating the city into distinct and separate districts,” Mr Hart said.
“Over time these districts depended more and more on the automobile.
“As the car became the dominant component of urban form, city development became more
segregated and discontinuous, producing monoculture residential neighborhoods and single
occupancy vehicle transportation dominating urban infrastructure.
“This has undermined the make-up, the sustainability and health of our communities.
“On the West Coast at the moment we are rethinking the nature of our urban infrastructure
investments by looking for ways to better integrate more choices of travel into the built form of
our cities.”
Alan Hart is a strong advocate for clarity and integrity in the planning and design process. He
consistently serves as a champion for the planning and design of infrastructure as an integral
part of community vision.
Alan has built a reputation finding opportunities for innovation in unlikely places that have
resulted in the creation of high quality urban environments from transit systems to urban
development.
His firm’s planning work includes the creation of rezoning applications, development
agreements, overlays of planning and parking strategies on transportation projects, and the
development of technical requirements for transit systems.
VIA’s numerous pioneering projects such as the SkyTrain ALRT system and False Creek
communities in Vancouver reflect this standard of excellence.
Alan will illustrate the planning and envisioning tools that his firm has developed that embrace
the quantitative and qualitative aspects of these reintegration and reconnection efforts.
The 2014 PIA National Congress will be held March 16 – 19 at Doltone House, Pyrmont,
Sydney and will include the 2014 PIA Awards for Planning Excellence where the best of the
best planning projects in Australia will be announced.
PIA Chief Executive Officer Kirsty Kelly
