2024
OFC 2024 Policy Updates
Diversity and Inclusion
OFC is committed to creating spaces for conservation that are genuinely inclusive and reflect the diversity of our communities, bringing together people with unique and different perspectives. We believe that creating a sustainable future requires all voices to be heard and we therefore welcome everyone to be part of our journey.
Acknowledgement of Country
In the spirit of reconciliation, OFC respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We also pay our respects to their Elders, past and present whose knowledge and wisdom have been protecting and sustaining our water and lands for tens of thousands of years.
Climate Change Position
OFC acknowledge the IPCC findings that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land and that this human-induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes across the globe. We are committed to supporting actions which will limit warming to 1.5°C and support more resilient communities.
2022
OFC 2022 Program Funding Partners
We’re so delighted and excited to announce we have partnered with leading organisations such as Melbourne Water and Greater Western Water for our third edition of Our Future Cities Interdisciplinary Design Program.
Our main sponsor is Melbourne Water and our shared vision to build capacities, encourage innovation, and enhance life and liveability in Melbourne brings us together in this partnership.
Our program funding sponsor is Greater Western Water and our shared vision to help create water-sensitive, diverse and inclusive cities energises this partnership.
And… we’re back for our third edition!
That’s right, we are ready and rearing to go with the Our Future Cities 2022 Interdiciplinary competition! After a jammed packed and award winning 2018 & 2020 program of events, including public seminars, industry workshops, site visits and more we’ve decided to do it all again! So to jump in now to compete or collaborate, either way, it promises to be one hell of a ride!
Our Future Cities is now a Not-for-Profit!!
We are very excited to announce that Our Future Cities has now transitioned into a not-for-profit organisation. OFC has taken the baton from LOCI Environment & Place who have been instrumental in shaping our urban landscapes over the past few years. We look forward to continuing this legacy and work towards a sustainable future.
We would like to thank all those who supported us along the journey. And a big shout out to our amazing committee for their awesome work and enthusiasm. We look forward to this new chapter at OFC.
2021
2021 Australian National stormwater Awards
We are very excited and humbled to share the awesome news that Our Future Cities & Loci Environment & Place won the Stormwater Australia for Excellence in Policy or Education.
Delivering our 2018 and 2020 programs was an amazing achievement that so many people contributed to over 4 years of planning and delivery. The OFC directors Paul and Simon would like to give a huge thank you to all those who supported us along the journey.
Young Water Professional of the Year Award
Simon (pictured left), one of our co-founders, has just been awarded the Young Water Professional of the Year by the Victorian chapter of the @australianwaterassociation for his work with @citywestwater where he is committed to delivering transformational change in the water sector. We wanted to extend our congratulations to Simon and everyone else who was a finalist in these awards and look forward to seeing what you do next.
2020
OFC 2020 Winners Announced!
We are thrilled to announce the winners of the 2020 OFC student interdisciplinary design competition. This year's competition was proudly supported by the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities and the City of Whitehorse. The submissions were guided by a fantastic team of presenters and industry mentors. We pay thanks to the contributions made by all. An absolutely magnificent field of entries this year with some bold and innovative interdisciplinary designs. It is our great pleasure to announce the winners of this year's competition.
First Place - Root Connection
Team 10 earned a distinction for producing one of the most engaging video submissions. The team of Aeri Lee, Shiqi Chen, Carolina Wong and Juan Planells took a story-based approach, which was a very emotive and powerful way to quickly demonstrate the problems and priorities of the Box Hill community.
‘The root connection’ focused on bringing the community together and promoting cultural diversity through shared community gardens, aiming at alleviating inequality at the same time. Through fostering cultural diversity, this team scored one of the highest in the whole competition in addressing the SDGs in a holistic, inter-connected way via a sustainable community and reducing inequalities. Group 10 were especially praised for a people centric approach and their truly unique artwork style which really made them stand out from the other submissions.
Second Place - OOTH
Team 13 of Bikash, Sofya, Clara and Sophia stood out through their excellent research into sustainable transport and making it accessible for all. The “Out of the Hills” OOTH approach was guided by first nations principles and their submission video was highly engaging with a great balance of people, rendering and submission visualisations.
The choice of design, materials and vegetation was something that the judges noted aided in enhancing the overall diversity and sustainability of the Box Hill area. There were some very strong design skills on showcase and the utilisation of technology for “Go-bikes” to create a more sustainable community whilst at the same time, creating jobs growth opportunities made Team 13 stand out.
Third Place - Cross Loop
Team 6: Luyue, Yiqiao, Xiaoming, Xinyue and Tian shone through with their water sensitive design principles, scoring almost perfect marks in addressing the reduction of urban heat through the clever usage of outdoor space.
The creation of an urban wetland with a detailed species selection to increase biodiversity and attract local fauna into the area was also a great way to address sustainable communities and increase public amenity. This team was noted by the judges to have extremely strong architectural and engineering skills that effectively showcased the existing identified problems and respective solutions in an easily understandable before and after setting.
OFC 2020 Judges
We are delighted to announce our expert judging panel for the 2020 OFC program.
Dr Rebecca Koss
Executive Manager Environmental Policy and Reporting, Westpac
Dr Rebecca Koss is a passionate sustainability professional with over 20 years’ experience within the sustainability sector. Dr Koss has experience developing and implementing sustainability policy across both government and corporate sectors. Previously, Dr Koss worked with the Victorian Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability and a great team of science writers in authoring the inaugural State of the Yarra and its Parklands 2018 Report and the Victorian State of the Environment 2018 Report.
Dr Koss is experienced in applying the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations System of Environmental Economic Accounts and other evaluation frameworks to understand how organisations are tracking towards achieving their sustainable targets.
Dr Koss enjoys helping businesses achieve their full sustainability potential by bringing together data analytics and sustainability tools to measure and track outcomes and sharing these narratives with stakeholders and the community.
Sam Loni
Program Director, UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)
A former Iranian refugee, Siamak Sam Loni leads the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Youth, which he founded in 2015. SDSN Youth trains young leaders and organizations to create cutting-edge solutions for sustainable development in their communities through research, advocacy and social entrepreneurship. The network currently has 750 organizations from 85 countries. SDSN Youth has been developing a comprehensive sustainability curriculum for primary and secondary schools. So far, 700 schools across 72 countries, representing more than 200,000 students, are involved in the curriculum.
Sam has received a number of awards for his leadership in these areas, including the John Bertrand Leadership Series, the Harvard WorldMUN Diplomacy Award and the Resolution Project’s Social Venture Challenge. In 2015, he was shortlisted for the Victorian Student of the Year Award - Internationalisation. In 2017, Loni was recognized as a young peacebuilder by the Nobel Peace Prize Forum and was a finalist for the Sir John Monash Awards.
Dr Peter Breen
Director, Urban Ecology & Water Resource Management, E2Designlab
With a long and diverse career in industry, government, academia and research, Peter has experience in all aspects of the water sector. He has a longstanding interest in the integration of water science into the master planning and management of urban and rural catchments. This has driven his collaborative interest in master planning, urban design and landscape architecture.
Peter is an Adjunct Associate Professor in Civil Engineering at Monash University, and a project leader at the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities. He is widely published in the fields of water sensitive urban design and water sensitive cities master planning, having authored or co-authored more than 100 papers.
Peter is a member of the Australian Society for Limnology, the Australian Water Association, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Ecological Society of Australia, the Society for Restoration Ecology, and the Wetland Specialist Group of the International Water Association.
Dr Sareh Moosavi
Post-doctoral researcher in Landscape Architecture, Université libre de Bruxelles
Sareh is a Landscape Architect and academic fellow, currently working as a post-doctoral researcher at ULB in Brussels. Sareh holds a PhD in landscape architecture from the University of Melbourne, Australia, focusing on designing with water flux in drylands and their potentials as public open spaces. Sareh has also worked in design firms in Tehran and Shiraz, including Rahshahr, Eram, and Shaar Design Group, working within a team of architects, urban designers and landscape architects on small and large scale architectural and landscape projects for 5 years.
Sareh is trained in Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) Principles and Strategies and has developed the knowledge and skills in designing landscapes for water sensitive cities. Her master’s dissertation focused on WSUD, integrating water management strategies with the provision of recreational spaces in fluvial systems in Tehran, Iran.
Sareh’s current research project focuses on building resilient coastal and fluvial landscapes through innovative Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) and the role of design experimentation in co-creating responsive NBS.
Sheridan Blunt
Executive Manager, Loci Environment & Place
Sustainable city development has been the focus of Sheridan’s career, training and interests over the past twenty years providing her with confident leadership on ways we can overcome new and emerging development issues for our urban communities.
Sheridan has developed a great portfolio of measurable and innovative outcomes for her workplaces, local communities and the broader urban and environment industry. This has been spread right across the areas of urban design, sustainable transport, climate adaptation, water conservation, waterway health, greenhouse mitigation, waste prevention, green purchasing, urban ecology and sustainable business.
Sheridan’s ability to deliver comes from her main strength as a strategist. The big picture is the centrepoint of her leadership, helping her identify emerging issues; gaps in policy, programs and skills; and then develop policy and programs that will fill the gap in a way that has not been done before. At the same time, these ideas are making it on to the ground showing her dual capacity of visioning and implementing.
Timothy Shue
Sustainability Communicator, ICLEI Oceania
Timothy’s experience and qualifications lie at the intersection of local governments, climate change and communication. Timothy believes in creating opportunities for people to live more sustainably at the local level through principles of dignity, empowerment and meaningful dialogue, framed within global limits.
Timothy Shue is an interdisciplinary communicator with a background in urban geography. He worked as a science communications specialist for a national peak body before completing a Master of Environment in sustainable cities at the University of Melbourne. After graduating he founded an interdisciplinary research-to-practice student partnership in Danish local government, and now works for ICLEI Oceania in media and communications, coordinating the Climate Communicators program. Timothy also works as a librarian at the City of Port Phillip and tutors the Master of Environment subject "Interdisciplinarity and the Environment” at the University of Melbourne.
And… we’re back!
That’s right, we are ready and rearing to go with the Our Future Cities 2020 student compeittion! After a jammed packed and award winning 2018 program of events, including public seminars, industry workshops, site visits and more we’ve decided to do it all again! So to jump in now to compete or collaborate, either way, it promises to be one hell of a ride!
2019
We won! Victorian Water Awards
That’s right, we took home the Award for Excellence in Policy and Education at the 2019 Victorian Water Awards for the 2018 Our Future Cities interdisciplinary program!
We would like to extend our thanks to all the individuals and organisations who contributed to the success of the Our Future Cities program. With a special mention to our partners Loci Environment & Place and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning for funding the project through the Port Phillip Bay Fund. Thanks and congratulations to all the other winners and finalists!
OFC Committee Formed
The Our Future Cities Committee was established to get creative in designing the next chapter for the organisation. With members from many disciplines and lots of passion, the program is in excellent hands!
2018
Film Stars
OFC premiered a short film at the 2018 Environmental Film Festival Australia (EFFA)!!! The short was screened alongside two feature films, The Experimental City and Bird of Prey.
During one session, our very own Dr Paul Satur joined a panel conversation with Valli Morphett (CEO CoDesign Studio), Dr Tanja Beer (Academic Fellow in Performance Design and Sustainability) and A/Prof Wendy Steele (RMIT) exploring the future of our cities.
Giving Thanks
The 2018 seminar series and student competition were funded through the Port Phillip Bay Fund (Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning) and delivered in partnership with LOCI Environment & Place Inc, E2Designlab and the University of Melbourne
2018
Competition Winners Announced
Congratulations to Chun Wai Choi, Laurensia Yap, Lingrui Luo, Yuk Chun Kwong and Yunxin Li of Arden Action, who were announced as the winners of the Our Future Cities student competition in 2018! See more of their entry and others here.
Introducing the Judges!
We are very excited to announce the panel of judges for the 2018 Our Future Cities Student Competition! We have Professor Tony Wong, Chief Executive Officer, Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Emily Mottram, Executive Director, Inner Melbourne, Victorian Planning Authority, Professor Kate Auty, ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment and Dr Nigel Bertram, Practice Professor of Architecture in the Faculty of Art Design & Architecture at Monash University.
Site Visit
The 2018 participants were able to get out in the field and visit the site that the competition brief is all about the Arden Urban Renewal Precinct. With guest presenters including Ross Allen, of Ross Allen Consulting and Joseph Griffith, of Monash University, the day was eye-opening and full of learning!
Public Seminars
Our Future Cities held a four-part public seminar series. We heard from those currently leading the way in shaping sustainable, liveable, socially just and resilient future cities.
From indigenous values to urban forestry, from water sensitive cities to active transport, from urban planning to climate resilience - participants were encouraged to question how to make our cities better.
How do we ensure thriving, healthy and enjoyable environments for our cities?
How do we create cities that connect, inspire and empower for action?
How do we foster resilience and intergenerational equity in our cities?
KEEPING IT REAL! Why innovation and interdisciplinary practices are crucial for transforming our future cities?
2018 Student Competition
The 2018 city challenge focused on the Arden Urban Renewal Precinct. This unique site challenged students to revitalise the industrial areas of North Melbourne and create vibrant neighbourhoods that reflect best practice urban design.
5 interdisciplinary teams of students from a range of different university disciplines tackled the challenge, with mind-blowing outcomes! See more here.
Our Future Cities Takes Shape!
Our Future Cities has partnered with Loci, to deliver a student competition in 2018. Loci Environment and Place Inc. challenges practitioners from all urban fields to each play a role in making healthier places, people and environments.
