Darren Billsborough – The role of cities in creating Australia’s future

Darren Bilsborough is Director of Urban Innovation at global architecture firm Woods Bagot, based in the Adelaide studio. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University Sustainability Policy (CUSP) Institute and a Director of the Green Building Council of Australia. Darren defines Urban Innovation as the provision of integrated design solutions which maximise value to built form and minimise risk to future urban resilience. His role within Woods Bagot is aimed at delivering on this promise by identifying and realising the opportunities that emanate from precinct and city scale urban developments.  He wrote the lead story in this edition of Future News.

Australian cities face two challenges and our future urban developments need to adapt to these challenges. Firstly there is the environmental challenges of climate change and resource constraints. Secondly each city faces increasing pressure to maintain the physical and psychological well-being of their occupants in the face of growing population and health risks.

The trend toward increased densification in Australia has brought with it a subsequent focus on liveability, sustainability and productivity (as per the national urban policy) as primary objectives pointing towards class leading urban developments; and given that it is our cities that power our economy, producing at least 80 per cent of our GDP and housing almost eight out of every ten of us, this has seen a subtle shift in thinking beyond individual projects to impacts at a precinct scale.