Hot Cities: Speculative design, artistic visions and practical policy

The future is being shaped by a warming climate and rapidly urbanizing world. The result is an increase in extreme heat waves, droughts, floods, storms and catastrophic fires impacting cities and their communities.

Bringing together transdisciplinary research, speculative design, artistic visions and practical policy from experts in Thailand to Togo, Australia, Europe, the UK, USA and Canada, this interactive panel argue that radically creative and ethically innovative responses to the urban heat problem are urgently needed. The panel are contributing authors to a new book 'Hot Cities: A Transdisciplinary Agenda' which synthesizes the latest research with practical policy, putting an emphasis on positive environmental and socially just outcomes and urban regeneration.

Humanity’s relationship with the planet comes with responsibilities of care and repair that pass to next generations and all forms of life. For all their problems, cities are likely to be the best and safest places to be in the climate and heat challenged near future. Drawing on real world examples, the panel highlight some of the diverse ways in which this vital work is already underway at this critical juncture in history - as the world races to keep global warming temperatures to well below two degrees. 

'Hot Cities: Speculative design, artistic visions and practical policy' is part of the 2023 NGV Melbourne Art Book Fair program. 

Presenters in conversation:

Wendy Steele is a Professor in Sustainability in the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University. Her research focuses on cities in a climate of change. Recent books include Planning Wild Cities: Human-Nature Relationships in the Urban Age, and Quiet Activism: Climate Action at the Local Scale. 

John Handmer is a Senior Research Scholar at IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis), Vienna, and Emeritus Professor at RMIT University and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and co-author of the Handbook of Disaster Policies and Institutions.  

Ian McShane is Honorary Principal Researcher in the Centre for Urban Research at RMIT University. His research focuses on community networks, infrastructure and the role of digital technologies. He was a senior curator for the National Museum of Australia and appointed to UNESCO’s creative cities evaluation panel.