Crafting Innovative Places with Ed Blakely and Richard Hu

In their new book Crafting Innovative Places for Australia's Knowledge Economy, Professors Ed Blakely and Richard Hu explore an innovative approach to crafting places, one which recognises the importance of not only government but also the community and private sectors.

To celebrate the launch of their latest work, join the authors for an informal panel discussion at 107 in Redfern. Facilitating the discussion will be 107 Projects board member and strategic advisor at Connell Griffin Duncan Read; and 107 Projects managing director Jess Cook.

Some drinks and nibbles provided.

This event is supported under 107 Presents, a curated multi-arts program that is innovative, experimental, enticing and accessible.

About the authors

Edward J. Blakely is Emeritus Professor of Urban Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, USA, and previously a Commissioner for the Greater Sydney Commission, Australia. He is an US National Science Foundation Professor and Fellow of the US National Academy of Public Administration. Dr Blakely is one of the leading scholar-practitioners in economic development in the world. He advised the OECD on Economic Revitalisation and was appointed Executive Director of Recovery for New Orleans by Mayor C. Ray Nagin in 2007.

Richard Hu is a Professor of Urban Planning and Design at University of Canberra, Australia. He is a professorial fellow of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and associate editor of International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development. Based in the Globalisation and Cities Research Program headed by him, his research cuts across urban design, urban science, and urban policy to investigate important contemporary issues about design excellence, global cities, urban competitiveness and sustainability, and place-based innovation in an environment of increasing uncertainty and change.

About the book

Crafting Innovative Places for Australia's Knowledge Economy integrates planning, policy, economics, and urban design into an approach to crafting innovative places. Exploring new paradigms of innovative places under the framework of globalisation, urbanisation, and new technology, it argues against state-centric policies to innovation and focuses on how a globalized approach can shape innovative capacity and competitiveness.

Developing a co-design and co-creation paradigm that integrates governments, the private sector and the community into shared understanding and collaborative action in crafting innovative places, it discusses place-based innovation in Australian context to inform policy making and planning, and to contribute to policy debates on programs of smart cities and communities.