Urban Life Enabled

In this episode we speak with David Wasserman - Civic Analytics Practice Leader at Alter Planning in Seattle (WA) USA, and Chair of the Technology Division at the American Planning Association. From data ingestion, to political soundbite. From data overload, to digital know how. Join us as we get a first hand glimpse of the changing face of planning practices for place intelligence. David referenc...

In this next edition of our Street Lab series we tackle even more change for the public realm and our streets - the introduction of public-area mobile robots (PMR). Thankfully we had Bern Grush from the Urban Robotics Foundation join us to breakdown where this agenda is at, where it is likely to be heading and what it means for our streets. Will we take stock and 'ready' ourselves for this...

In our third part of a series exploring the evolving nature of our streets, we head deeper into the world of e-mobility. In this episode Adam sits down with recent Churchill Fellow, Nikki Huddy , who is a decorated planner and advocate for place-based solutions in our communities, particularly regional Australia. Fresh from her reasearch tour of the United States, Nikki shares what she found and l...

In this episode we share a recording of a webinar hosting by the life_Enabled team. “Let’s ‘add’ a digital overlay, to the planning we have already done”, seems to be the norm. And this may not be the best outcome for our communities. Where are we at, and what's next for digital infrastructure planning? Our panel exploring the topic includes  Catherine Hill  from  Jacobs ,   Jon Obrien  from ...

The National League of Cities is an advocacy organisation that has been representing cities in the United States for almost 100 years. With more than 2,700 city members, Joshua Pine - NLC's Program Manager for City Innovation and Data - has his hands full. We checked in with Joshua to hear what's happening on the city innovation front post-pandemic.

In second part of a series exploring the face of our streets, Adam chats with Graham McCabe (Director, Transport Advisory, Urbis) about vehicles space and time. The discussion looked at the physical aspects of this important public space - trends in vehicle size, electrification and the opportunity with reshaping space allocation. And with an additional load mounting in the right-of-way in the for...

The purpose of this webinar was to look into how Digital Twin capability can support our aspirations of enhancing our natural landscapes and built environment projects, while ensuring digital technology and data insights provide a supporting and enabling role. Our panel included Clarissa Phillips  from  Jacobs ,  Kate Williams  from  FrontierSI , Todd Lankford  from  Indara and Yazid Ninsalam  fro...

After a decade in private practice and a decade of imagining better ways for people to work with data together, Lucy Booth went from planner to tech entrepreneur. But as we share in this episode, the planning instincts of a planner are hard wired, and the relentless pursuit of 'solutioning' always remains.

In this episode of the show we explore yet another PlanTech journey, this time from the New South Wales Government. We are joined by James Strutt from the Department of Planning and Environment, who shares the evolution of Land iQ - one of the governments core platforms enabling a range of capabilities that staff can leverage to optimise asset planning processes. James shares views as they related...

So, when it comes to measuring place – where are we at? In this webinar we work through answering a range of questions, such as what are the fundamental attributes of place analytics? We also discuss how place data gets analysed, and what can be done with it. The panel exploring this topic included  Adam O’Connor  from  Countculture ,  James Peet  from  ENE.HUB ,  Lucinda Hartley  from  Neighbourl...

In this episode Adam talks to Jace Tyrrell, Chief Executive of the New Sydney Waterfront Company. The discussion seeks to lay out the opportunities and additional benefits (above business as usual) of establishing collaborative governance models for city precincts, with the New Sydney Waterfront Company as the case study. Jace's experience from working in similar roles around the world highlig...

We hear about its enabling benefits – the speed, the low latency, the new industries. From life-changing e-health to connected everything. But what does it look like? Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as just turning up the 4G dial. We have to build a national 5G network. It’s a massive infrastructure project. It requires lots of planning and design, digging and deploying. In this webinar audio reco...

Continuing with the theme of digitally-enabled urban development, Adam sits down with Chris van der Pol (Senior Planner and Urban Designer, JFP Urban Consultants) to reflect on the property sector's evolution over the past few decades as it has aspired to build higher performing assets and more sustainable communities. And we ponder.... what happens now for those shaping urban development projects...

In this episode Adam sits down with Julia Thomson, Head of PlanTech at FrontierSI, to discuss the role of digital and data enablers in helping the urban planning process evolve in our digital economy - what the marketplace is referring to as PlanTech. Julia brings to the conversation her deep learnings from her time with the Greater London Authority in helping build the Emerging Technology Charter...

In this episode we unpack emerging desires for future precinct developments and explore in detail the intersections between sustainability and digital, and the conditions that need to be established to accelerate this opportunity. Accompanied by CBRE's Property Management Pacific Head of ESG, Natasha Mulcahy, and Sarah Kinsella who is Partner Climate and Sustainability at Deloitte, Adam leads a di...

Digital trust is an important agenda, and a discussion we must have. We collectively must plan, design, procure and deploy innovative solutions that are shaped by purpose and meaning, deployed with transparency, and operated in an ethical way. In this webinar audio recording we share information about the idea of digital trust and how we nurture it as an opportunity for shaping better places. To h...

In this episode Adam brings together a panel of guests to discuss the why, what and how of measuring urban life in our public places and spaces. Jessica Christiansen-Franks from Neighbourlytics, Chris Pettit from the University of New South Wales and Georgia Vitale from Grimshaw share their respective views on why this is important, how we might go about measuring urban life and what the future ho...

In the first part of a series exploring the digital lifestyles of our streets, Adam chats with Shifani Sood (Senior Consultant at WSP in Australia) about our streets as places and how last mile freight is becoming a significant disruptor to our entrenched mindsets of what role our streets play in a digital economy. The conversation looks at digital lifestyles that are driving significant growth in...

In this episode Adam talks to Katie Earle, Associate Director at McGregor Coxall, and a national Director of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects. Their conversation starts with a conversation around the role of landscape in great places, before touching on assessing, scoring and quantifying best practice places. Adam then asks about digital and data in our landscape, with Katie sharin...

Well, before we jump in and start releasing podcast episodes about connecting, activating and measuring urban life in our public places and spaces, we thought it would be prudent to explain who ENE.HUB is, what we do and what life_Enabled is. Adam Beck, Head of Digital Urbanism at ENE.HUB shares a short history of the company, and its mission in life.

Welcome to the Urban Life Enabled podcast, exploring what’s now, and what’s next on sustainably shaping our streets, parks, places and spaces, and how digital and data supports this. Episode by episode we will work to unravel some of the common, and more emerging digital and data enablers that are powering life in our communities and cities. We will cover themes relating to connecting, activating...