In the second of our Future Thinkers series collaboration with Renewal SA, we wonder whether the cities we inhabit for work, home and play might also be able to regenerate us and improve the wellbeing of our population.

Join a world-leading expert and a guest panel at a free event next week to look at what defines a liveable city and how Adelaide compares to other cities in aspects such as walkability and public transport.

Keynote speaker Distinguished Professor Billie Giles-Corti of the Healthy Liveable Cities Research Group at RMIT’s Centre for Urban Research and the panel will also explore how design and technology can enhance our urban environments.

Future Thinkers – Urban Design and Wellbeing will be held on the evening of Thursday, 31 October at the Lot Fourteen ideas neighbourhood, being developed on the site of the old Royal Adelaide Hospital.

This session is part of a Future Thinkers series being presented by Renewal SA to help inspire a more connected, creative and innovative future in South Australia. The series will offer public talks featuring industry leaders and innovators who can give South Australians an insight into how the future may look in many aspects of our lives, including urban living, technology and design.

Future Thinkers – Urban Design and Wellbeing will be facilitated by The Lead South Australia’s publishing editor, Jim Plouffe, and is supported by Lot Fourteen.

Keynote Speaker: Professor Giles-Corti

Billie Giles-Corti – this photo: Kit Haselden

For more than two decades, Professor Giles-Corti and a multi-disciplinary research team have been studying the impact of the built environment on health and wellbeing and she is ranked in the top one per cent of researchers in her field around the world.

She leads a National Health and Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in Healthy Liveable Communities which works closely with local, national and global policy-makers and practitioners.

The panel discussion will feature Gabrielle Kelly, founding director of the Wellbeing and Resilience Centre of South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute; Karina Lester of the University of Adelaide’s Mobile Language Team, and architect Richard Stranger of Renewal SA. Members of the audience will have a chance to ask questions of the speakers.

Gabrielle Kelly is the founding director of the Wellbeing and Resilience Centre at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute and has been working on human behaviour and systems change for several decades, as an international film-maker, digital media executive, social entrepreneur and strategist. She is a member of the Dubai World Government Summit’s committee investigating the implementation of wellbeing as an enabler of sustainable development goals and sits on the board of the Australian National Development Index.

Gabrielle was also director of the ground-breaking Adelaide Thinkers in Residence program, which resulted in significant advances in city design, advanced manufacturing, early childhood education, ageing and positive psychology in South Australia. Her work on this program laid the groundwork for the SAHMRI Wellbeing and Resilience Centre.

Karina Lester is a Yankunytjatjara Aṉangu woman who grew up on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytja-tjara Lands (APY Lands) in the Far North West of South Australia.  In her spare time, she works as an Aṉangu interpreter and translator for the Western Desert Language that covers a large area of the State.

Karina is very passionate about maintaining her Aboriginal language and about hearing from other South Australian Aboriginal people on how they would like to maintain their languages. Karina hosts a weekly radio show Nganampa Wangka about language activities in the state, broadcast on Radio Adelaide.

Richard Stranger is Director, Planning and Design at Renewal SA with oversight of planning and design for Renewal SA projects, including Lot Fourteen and Bowden. This role provides the opportunity to influence wellness and sustainability outcomes of Renewal SA’s projects including active and passive recreation, incorporation of public open space and the integration of active transport opportunities including walking and cycling.

Future Thinkers – Urban Design and Wellbeing, will be held on Thursday 31 October from 5.15pm for a 5.30pm start, finishing at 6.45pm. The venue is the Lecture Theatre in the Eleanor Harrald Building at Lot Fourteen, with entry via Frome Road.

Admission is free but seats are limited, please register below.

renewalsa.sa.gov.au/futurethinkers