Hassell Talks

In Europe, Australia, the US and Asia - there's not enough quality housing stock to go around, and limited affordable choice in the types of homes available.

The current generation of renters and buyers are connected, design-savvy and socially aware. They are driving the demand for homes that challenge traditional models of living.

They’ve also lived through the pandemic, so they need to be able...

How did Sydney, London, and Barcelona pull off Olympic-sized events that delivered enduring, generational change?

In 2032, southeast Queensland - a region with the city of Brisbane at its heart - will host the summer Olympics and Paralympics. The Games create extraordinary opportunities for communities, economies, and cultures to design legacies for future generations.

The most important discussions in the city and the region aroun...

Feeling overwhelmed in the face of climate and sustainability challenges? Have we got the episode for you.

With the built environment contributing to around 40% of global emissions, our industry has a critical – and pivotal - role to play to limit the projected impacts of climate change to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century. So we held an event to hear from the people making the changes in our industry that...

*ENCORE EPISODE* Nature in our cities.  If you're paying attention you'll notice the effect it's having on you. The slowed heart rate, a stolen moment to notice flickering leaves, buzzing insects, birds landing.

Those designed-for, natural moments in our cities aren't in stasis - they're constantly changing and also spontaneous, influencing how we move through our cities, how we use them - and how they give back to us.

In this se...

"What you create as an organisation has to be something that pushes the boundaries everywhere," said Co-Director of Danjoo Koorliny, Carol Innes AM to a gathering of designers, government representatives clients and First Nations collaborators.

This gathering, as part of Hassell's Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) journey aimed to listen and learn from First Nations partners better ways to engage on projects. The resulting conversat...

When it comes to how workers feel about their workplace, it's hard to mount an argument against three years' worth of data and insights into possibly the most disruptive period for workers in memory. Senior Researcher Daniel Davis has been studying the effects and challenges facing workplaces in our Annual Workplace Futures Survey since 2020, and this year the survey grew to include 2,500 office workers across Australia, China, Sin...

Rail precincts don't always feel like the safest places to be for women, girls and the gender diverse, particularly after dark.

Alert and constantly on guard, it's a relentless navigation of sightlines, lighting, exposure, surveillance and positioning for safety.

As designers, we believe we can do more than simply meet the governing standards and technical requirements demanded of rail stations - we can change the way people feel w...

Welcome back to Season 4 of Hassell Talks! This season we're taking a look at Designing for a New State of Togetherness.

We believe good things - great things - can happen when people come together through seemingly spontaneous experiences.

The emotional response we get when we’re surprised or delighted is hugely powerful. It can help us feel more connected to others, and our cities. It can inspire and move us toward great change -...

While technology rapidly advances — people, by contrast, remain constant.

Creatures of habit, we need others to survive. We are the sum of our skin, our organs and body parts. Our minds distinguish us, and our intelligence is key to survival but it's our ability to work together that tells the true story of our potential.

The team behind the Herston Biofabrication Institute in Brisbane, Australia knew this, and deliberately removed...

What does bouncing Kraftwerk’s music off the surface of the moon have to do with the future of the university campus?

Universities are paying close attention to the way interstellar music-science-arts-technology-culture experience makers bluedotfestival engage audiences in cross-disciplinary learning. But how far do they need to go on campus? 

Turns out - they need to create a 'wow' factor deeply rooted in curiosity and learning. 

...

To celebrate the start of Melbourne Design Week, we’re excited to share a podcast from Australia’s leading architecture commission MPavilion.

The MPavilion MTalks series brings some of Melbourne’s brightest and most creative minds together on the lands of the Eastern Kulin Nation, to debate, share ideas and be inspired. The episode you're about to hear was part of an 'Illuminating' event exploring the role of data, knowledge and de...

Even before Covid-19, many working in the health system would claim that Emergency Departments weren’t in the best of health.

The narrative in the media, and from clinicians themselves, paints a picture of overcrowded spaces, overwhelmed and unsafe for patients and staff, bottlenecked and stretched beyond capacity yet growing bigger – and bigger - but not necessarily smarter.  Creating healthcare systems that meet the very best exp...

Cities around the world are committing themselves to creating compact, amenity-rich neighbourhoods as they tackle the challenges of climate change, urban sprawl and wellbeing.

Ireland’s cities, with their history, natural amenities and passionate residents seem more ready-made than most to embrace an agenda of compact growth. But despite national planning frameworks in place, local governments, private developers and stakeholders a...

There's no simple answer to the workplace-during-a-pandemic conundrum, but there are many ways that organisations can fine-tune their workplaces to appeal to the inevitably changed habits and expectations of their people while meeting their own objectives.

From following the data and ensuring your business goals are rock-solid to ongoing testing and refining while nailing the office basics, our 2021 Workplace Futures Survey of 2300...

Mental health is making headlines - including in the architecture and design industry as the cumulative effects of living and working through a second year of the global Covid-19 pandemic start to become known.

So how can organisations, the industry, and individuals, take advantage of this moment to establish change and in doing so, protect the longevity and diversity of the design industry into the future? In this special episode...

Finding it both necessary and convenient, patients and clinicians across Australia embraced the change brought about by COVID-19 and took to telehealth in huge numbers – jumping from one million service events in March 2020 to six million a month later in April.

Healthcare is traditionally an area that can be slow to change, so this leap in uptake was a novel event in itself.

Under pandemic restrictions, clinicians didn’t have much...

At the heart of any co-working environment is the idea that it can do much more than provide a hotspot and a hot coffee.

The best ones ask: Can we build a great like-minded community?

In the COVID-19 context, the best co-working spaces then ask whether they can solve some of the challenges thrown up by the pandemic to design for safety and trust in a physical environment.

And right now? They’re asking how the design of their spaces...

We're back for Season Two of Hassell Talks - thanks for joining us! Once practically unthinkable, silent city centres were a feature of 2020. And to attract people back as the COVID-19 recovery picks up pace across the globe, the challenge lies in truly understanding how and why spaces work.

The solution might be staring us – city shapers and designers – in the face. Big Data.

What exactly can big data reveal to city shapers and d...

Whether you’re a CEO, a property manager or a workplace designer, the office has been the headline conversation of 2020. How many will go back? What will it look like? How will workplace culture change?

Whatever line of inquiry you follow, we know a mix of qualitative and quantitative insights will give us the greatest handle on what’s happening in a workplace.

Evodia Alaterou, our design strategy lead joins Alex Birch, co-founder ...