We interviewed the Dean of the School of Design at the Institute for Sustainable Futures of the University of Technology Sydney, participant in the VI Australian Leaders Program | View the Program Summary in PDF
Elizabeth Mossop is the Dean of the School of Design at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She is a landscape architect and urban planner with extensive experience in both landscape design and urban planning. Her professional practice focuses on urban infrastructure and open-space projects, such as the award-winning Bowen Place Crossing (Canberra), Press Street Gardens (New Orleans) or Cook & Phillip Park (Sydney). She also participated in many aspects of the reconstruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after the hurricane, as well as in the revitalization of Detroit.
As an urban planning architect and Dean of the School of Design at the Institute for Sustainable Futures, what are your professional interests?
My professional interests are generally related to public spaces. I am very interested in how cities adapt to climate change. I also work for the university on issues such as development, innovation, and creative precincts.
What are Australia’s priorities regarding sustainable cities?
Australia has a lot of work to do when it comes to climate adaptation, and much of it relates to natural disasters. Our cities are often exposed to floods, catastrophic storms, and increasingly frequent bushfires. In addition, historically we have had—and will continue to have—problems with droughts and rising sea levels. I think those are the real priorities.
Many cities also need to address their priorities in terms of infrastructure investment. I think we have done a very poor job in this respect, especially over the past twenty or thirty years. In general, there has been a failure to invest effectively in public transport and walkable areas. There is now a readjustment taking place, although it seems that we are still building many highways and road tunnels.
And of course, the other major problem is housing. Again, we have not had investment in social housing or affordable housing, at any scale, since perhaps the early 1980s. For a variety of strange reasons, we have a very, very dysfunctional real estate sector—a kind of culture of speculation. In addition, there are many aspects of the regulatory environment and policy framework that have led to a really severe housing crisis.
How can planning help solve these problems?
We need to think carefully about how to adapt our cities. We cannot prevent natural disasters, but we can make cities more resilient to these kinds of events.
This means we have to think very differently about how we invest and what kind of infrastructure we build. It also means that much of our infrastructure must be more multifunctional, in the sense that it should serve a much wider range of purposes. And we need to take natural systems and processes much more seriously. We cannot ignore them. We must find ways to integrate them into the way we transform our cities and design new developments.
Like Australia, Spain is also a country with frequent droughts and severe wildfires. How could institutions from both countries cooperate?
I think it is very interesting because there are things each country can learn from the other. These kinds of cultural exchanges are incredibly effective in broadening people’s perspectives about what can be done. In Spain, many things are easier to achieve, both for cultural reasons and because of the way different levels of government operate. In Australia, however, there are also some very interesting and innovative strategies, especially regarding adaptation to natural disasters.
Another point is that it should not only be about professional exchanges: I would also like policymakers to be more exposed to how things are done in other cities and countries—particularly places like Spain, which is doing really interesting work in urban planning. It would be beneficial for them to learn more about these approaches and be more exposed to them.
For a long time in Australia, urban issues have not been high on the political agenda. Ideas about healthy or livable cities have not been a political issue. However, some matters—such as livability, congestion, and lack of access to housing—have now become so extreme that they are starting to occupy more space in political debate.
One of the principles of the Spain–Australia Council Foundation is promoting public-private collaboration. How can both sectors cooperate in the context of urban planning and sustainable cities?
We have a wide range of different people represented in this Program: business interests, research institutes, professionals, and creatives. And we have had conversations with a very broad range of people while we have been here, from both government and the private sector. Somehow we need to expand these conversations.
In Australia, for example, we do not have a strong tradition of research and development in the private sector. And, with a few exceptions, we do not see much investment in emerging technologies. I think we need to look for more opportunities for Australian companies and for people working in these emerging technologies.
For instance, we should look at what they are doing in Málaga or in some of these other innovation districts. Because it is far more advanced than what is happening in Australia. This is very interesting because it is within our reach—we have seen how it can be done.
Regarding the Leaders Program, what is your overall impression and which activities did you enjoy the most?
It has been wonderful. I was particularly interested in seeing projects and talking to people in Barcelona, as it is a city that has interested me for a long time and has a great tradition of contemporary innovation in terms of design and planning. I loved seeing how far things have progressed since the last time I was here.
But also everything that is being done to go further: ongoing work around the city, especially related to health, housing, and new technologies.
It is very inspiring to see how public funds and European Union grants are invested. I found it very interesting, and I think some of the projects we saw and the people responsible for them are closely related to the work we are doing in Australia—certainly some of the work by researchers at RMIT and the Observatory 2030 process.
But many of the visits—even those I initially thought might not interest me—made me reflect and turned out to be very engaging. I have a lot of information to process.
View the Executive Summary in PDF.
