As Arup’s former Head of Cities for Australasia, what were some of the most impactful urban strategies you helped develop, and how have these strategies continued to influence your current work at Grimshaw in shaping future cities? 

During my time at Arup, I worked extensively on the Canberra Light Rail project, and it’s been delightful to see not just the Light Rail being built, but the positive impact it’s had on the ground in the nation’s capital. As a result of that work, I was consulted by the Chief Minister of the ACT Andrew Barr to do a substantial amount of advisory work on strategic urban policy and economic issues. 

With that experience, and being Chief Executive of the Committee for Sydney, I was able to further develop my understanding of public-private collaboration, which I’d first gained working with key decision makers in the UK before coming to Australia. All this experience has shaped my work for Grimshaw as Global Head of Cities.

You’ve spoken about the importance of achieving net-zero carbon by 2050. What role do you see adaptive reuse and retrofitting playing in urban development, and how can cities balance ambitious sustainability goals with economic growth, particularly in the built environment?

This is a rather big question. The shift to hybrid working has changed the office market, forcing every city to rethink the future of CBDs and what will replace the single-use office district. People have talked about the idea of the CBD being replaced by the “central experience district”. Once primarily focused on providing offices, the future or “post-CBD” is likely to have more diverse activities including experiences and cultural attractions to get people to fill the streets with life, and to provide new users for legacy buildings. Clearly if we’re seeing more adaptive reuse, this will have a positive impact in terms of net zero discussion but we must never forget the challenge of new-build, and ensure that the materials we use, and processes we go through are consistent with our decarbonisation goals.

Architecture has a big role to play in the net zero discussion. Grimshaw is a very committed participant in this discussion. I don’t think it’s an either-or between ‘ambitious growth’ and ‘sustainability’, but consistent strategies of growth with decarbonisation must be deployed. What is a challenge is that decentralised home working has increased car use in our cities, and we need to develop effective transport or land-use strategies to deal with that. In fact, my overall view is governments everywhere have been slow to plan for the post-Covid city.

As 70% of the world’s population will soon live in cities, and with the global ageing population rising, how do you believe urban infrastructure should be adapted to better support older citizens, particularly in terms of accessibility, public transport and social integration?

This is an interesting point. I think just as we’ve suffered since the 1920s in western cities from the radical separation of uses—jobs were separated from homes, needing long commutes resulting in reduced social interaction—so too have we seen the separation of the generations. I suspect that land use, transport and cross-generational integration will be trends of the future.

Given your personal positive experience growing up in social housing in Wales and your professional work advising UK ministries and the mayor of London on housing, what do you think are the biggest mistakes made in public housing and affordable housing policies in cities like London and Sydney? If you had the housing portfolio in the UK or Australia, what key policies would you advocate to alleviate the current housing crisis? 

Build more public housing.

In both countries we stopped building significant amounts of public housing since the 1970s, yet we wonder why we haven’t got enough homes, because frankly, the private sector cannot—and has not been able to—provide the number of homes that we need. Unless governments bite the bullet on providing more non-market housing, this will be a permanent crisis.

With your experience growing up in a multigenerational home, how would you advocate for multigenerational housing to address the current crisis?

It’s funny we use rhetoric such as “it takes a village to raise a child” without realising that really means families—and that actually, we have been creating societies and cities in which families have gotten smaller, and the generations have been separated. Ironically, we are now de facto increasingly creating multigenerational housing organically because young people cannot afford to leave anymore to get their own homes. I think whatever form it takes, we are going to end up with such accidentally multigenerational housing unless we solve the housing crisis. All the evidence suggests we are in an era in which women want to, and need to work more than previous generations. At the same time, they retain ambitions to have families. The balance we need to understand is the advantages of communities where family support is provided multigenerationally, as it enables the best of both worlds. We also know that the modern city has been fostering alienation and isolation; loneliness for both old people living on their own, and for small families without grandparental presence. Knitting the generations back into the built environment would seem to be a significant agenda to address these challenges.

Given your vast experience in city planning and strategy, what key design elements should cities focus on to create inclusive, multigenerational environments? 

Mass transit, walkable cities and inclusive design. 

I'm not convinced that the virtues of the multigenerational city are really understood. I think the first thing to do is have a proper, civic debate (something you're trying to achieve at The Luxury of Ageing) around that subject. We need to understand why this is a good thing before we even think about deciding to achieve it. For me, the moment before design is the most important—the civic discussion. Design will then follow. You can design as much as you like, but first, you need to understand the reason why multigenerationality has been designed out of cities in the first place, and therefore why it’s worth designing it back in. I think there are good reasons to do so, but the debate is still in its early stages.

You host your own podcast, The Grimshaw Podcast, where you’ve discussed a range of urban and infrastructure topics with industry leaders. How has podcasting shaped the way you engage with discussions on housing, urban policy and city design? Have there been any particular episodes or insights that have changed how you view the future of cities, especially regarding sustainability and smart cities?

I’ve always had a great face for radio so I’m a natural for the podcast world, but unexpectedly for many, I just don’t like the sound of my own voice. I enjoy having impactful conversations, and what’s interesting for me is that the format has shown that there’s a very large number of experienced and informed voices we should listen to in terms of planning the future of our cities, and that expertise can come in very many different forms. 

It’s important to have civil conversations, because there’s been far too much partisanship around public discussion. I’d like to think we’ve created a positive platform where all such voices can contribute to addressing our rather wicked problems. We have a deep understanding of what sustainability can really mean in the round—not just environmental sustainability but also social and economic sustainability. I hope the podcast has developed a bigger conversation around these issues. 

It’s not just the building and the communities around them—we also need to focus on the quality of life that people enjoy in our cities. There have been loads of great guests but there are certain themes that stand out that are very important. We must develop cities for all, which includes big social housing programs and planning for the future city’s economy.

Generative AI is about to arrive on the urban scene and will also have a role. Fifteen to twenty years ago we talked about the “smart city”, a data-driven, responsive urban environment based on technological platforms. While some cities achieved remarkable things with technology in designing their cities and engaging their citizens, few cities were able to fully execute the idea. AI strikes me as delivering the revolutionary potential of the smart city, but again its adoption is similarly patchy across the globe. Chinese cities in particular are taking a leadership position. We need to really understand what AI will do to our cities, and the practice of designing for them. And to learn very quickly from what's going on internationally, to feed into the western cities discussion.

Lots to think about, lots of it exciting.