To restore our economy, Australian cities should embrace culture and imagination / by Tom Oliver Payne

Covid-19 has sent Australia’s creative industries into distress, and the damage has been severe. More than half of the jobs (53%) in this sector ceased to function during lockdowns, resulting in hundreds of thousands of job losses across Australian cities. But what if we actively invest in making places more unique, exciting and creative? Could we make domestic travel more appealing – or even – make Australian cities the envy of the world?

Thought-piece I’ve written for RobertsDay - you can read online here.

Perth artist Matt Adnate’s work of celebrates Aboriginal culture. Photo courtesy Juddy Roller/Nicole Reed.

Perth artist Matt Adnate’s work of celebrates Aboriginal culture. Photo courtesy Juddy Roller/Nicole Reed.

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In Portugal, Milan and on the Med in Sicily in October. I forgot how beautiful this part of the world is in Autumn. And as much as I love Australia, I always forget how beautiful old European architecture is. The ornament and detail makes for interes
Denys Lasdun’s 1957 Keeling House, taken a few years back when I was living nearby in Bethnal Green, London. Concerned that modernism didn’t consider what made neighbourhoods work, he designed the building with wings to encourage interact
Great time helping launch The Place Economy III with the rest of the @hoynedesign team. 800+ pages of case studies and interviews on best practice placemaking projects. When Andy asked me to write for the book, I wanted to cover projects that better
Back in London last year I visited Battersea Power Station. Bricks and mortar that honour history and with a chimney lift-shaft, encircling shared street and basketball courts engage with the city in a new way. We’re lucky in Sydney that we can
Hong Kong, Mar 2023 _____________ . . . . . _____________ #hongkong #hk
_____________ . . . . . _____________ #berrynsw #bnw