With the addition of all-round provocateur Elizabeth Farrelly to its programme, next month’s two-day 2018 Urbanism New Zealand conference on Wellington’s waterfront is guaranteed to start with a bang.

Farrelly holds a PhD in urbanism from the University of Sydney and is well known for bringing debate on architecture and urbanism into the mainstream through such platforms as her regular columns for the Sydney Morning Herald.

As detailed in the newly released programme for Urbanism New Zealand, Farrelly’s opening presentation on Monday 14 May will focus on the relationship between urbanism, landscape and survival under the title of ‘Between Order and Chaos – 6 Rules for New Zealand Cities’.

Wellington City Council design manager Gerald Blunt – a mover and shaker behind the historic 2005 Urbanism Down Under conference – is on the advisory committee for Urbanism New Zealand and is brimming over with enthusiasm for the event’s far-reaching line-up of presenters and topics.

“For anyone who wants to grasp this thing we call urbanism, in a meaningful and more collective way, this event couldn’t be more timely,” says Blunt.

“Because people are struggling with the complexity of change and the fragmented frameworks we operate within, we need more opportunities like this to join the dots, to talk together without talking past each other, to get our heads around how we’re shaping our cities and to create points of connection.”

Alongside the new lens on urbanism emerging from the work of another keynote presenter, Jonathan F. P. Rose, author of the book The Well-Tempered City, Blunt is excited by the diverse array of locally-grounded perspectives that will be delivered at Urbanism New Zealand through a series of well-balanced panels and 38 break-out sessions.

Blunt: “We need as many voices in the room as possible to help set the scene for ongoing dicussions about urbanism across New Zealand. The key question we will be asking from the very first panel discussion at this conference, to be moderated by Rod Oram, is ‘what has to change?’”

More details about the Urbanism New Zealand conference can be found here.

Early bird registration is open through to this Monday 9 April, and delegates can also book study tours available in Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington on the weekend before the conference.

As a media partner for UrbanismNZ, ArchitectureNow will be featuring pre-event interviews and conference coverage.