Significant conferences on Urban Health and Australasian Cities round out 2025

As flagged on LAA in June, a particular hallmark of the events calendar for the second half of 2025 has been the two major international events with significance for landscape architecture and urban design that have been hosted in Aotearoa New Zealand for the first time.

Following on from last month’s Adaptation Futures conference in Ōtautahi Christchurch. the second of these is the 21st International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH 2025) taking place from 17-21 November in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.

Separately the State of Australasian Cities (SOAC) research conference is taking place in Brisbane from 9-12 December. It was last held in Wellington - another ‘first’ for the country - in 2023.

Next week’s ICUH 2025

This global event, for which LAA will be present, has five plenary speaker sessions:

1. Healthy built environments: Building equitable, climate-resilient cities

Drawing on evidence from public health, epidemiology, urban planning and environmental science, the session will highlight how interventions in street design, mobility, housing, ventilation, air quality, and social infrastructure yield health co-benefits while strengthening cities’ capacity to adapt to climate change. There will be a clear focus on climate equity: ensuring that all communities, especially those historically underserved, can access health-supportive environments in a changing climate.

  • Skye Duncan, executive director of the Global Designing Cities Initiative is one of eight speakers for this session.

2. Nourishing landscapes: Natural environments and food systems

This plenary will explore the role of nature, food, and culture in shaping sustainable, climate-resilient, and health-supportive urban environments. Speakers will highlight the importance of food sovereignty, regenerative agriculture, biodiversity, nature landscapes, cultural knowledge, and urban food system transformation in achieving healthier and more equitable cities. Drawing on Indigenous leadership, landscape architecture, community health, placemaking, and city governance, the session will showcase practical models of healing landscapes and food environments that support both planetary health and human wellbeing.

3. Age-friendly environments and wellbeing: Prioritising healthy ageing in communities

This plenary will explore how national, local, and community-led initiatives are advancing age-friendly environments with concrete examples from across the WHO’s eight-domain framework in the age-friendly model (Community and healthcare; Transportation; Housing; Social participation; Outdoor spaces and buildings; Respect and social inclusion; Civic Participation and employment; Communication and information). It will feature leaders and innovators from across the Global Network, particularly from New Zealand and the Western Pacific region, the session will highlight diverse approaches—ranging from national programmes and social enterprises to indigenous housing models and community-designed spaces — demonstrating how holistic, people-centred environments support healthy ageing across cultural and policy contexts.

4. Place matters: Local and cultural insights for urban wellbeing

This plenary will explore the power of place in shaping equitable urban health outcomes and advancing community wellbeing. From Indigenous governance and land stewardship to participatory planning and neighborhood-based interventions, the session will spotlight strategies that respond to place-specific needs while building collective resilience.

5. Indigenous solutions and regional insights: Strategies, rights, actions and experiences

This plenary highlights Indigenous worldviews and regional expertise across the Asia-Pacific that are reshaping urban health and resilience. Grounded in Māori, Aboriginal, Pacific Islander, and Asian place-based knowledge systems, panelists will share rights-based strategies and culturally embedded approaches to health, housing, climate, and disaster resilience.

The ‘warm up’ day on Monday 17 November features two pre-conference symposiums; one titled ‘Kai and Kōrero: Local Food Systems’ and the other ‘Designing Cities for Every Age’ (hosted in collaboration with the Office for Seniors | Te Tari Kaumātua, the World Health Organization, and the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities).

As part of the welcome mat being rolled out for the hundreds of delegates there are three tours on offer: Rewilding the City – A Guided Tour of Zealandia Ecosanctuary; a tour of Ngā Mokopuna, as a signal of a future through Indigenous Design; and a Wharewaka Hidden Māori Treasures Walking Tour to uncover the living stories beneath Wellington’s waterfront.

The line-up for the State of Australasian Cities (SOAC)

While the final programme isn’t yet available, three keynote speakers have been announced for this biennial flagship event of the Australasian Cities Research Network: Prof Robert Freestone - Professor of Planning at UNSW Sydney; Prof Nicole Gurran of the University of Sydney’s Henry Halloran Urban & Regional Research Initiative; and Dr Nayomi Kankanamge, a Lecturer in Urban Design and Town Planning at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

There will be two ‘keynote panels’:

  • The First Nations Panel includes Owen Café, Principal Landscape Architect at Blaklash, Dr Charmaine ‘Ilaiū Talei a Pouako Matua at the University of Auckland Greg Kitson of Griffith University, and Alayna Rā, Indigenous Design Director at WSP (New Zealand)

  • The Women in Urban Research Panel will explore how gendered perspectives are reshaping urban theory, policy, and practice through topics such as Topics feminist urbanism, intersectionality in city-making, mentorship and leadership, and the role of women in driving transformative change in planning and urban studies. All of the panelists are Australia-based

Conference, Cities, Urban Design, #Around-the-worldStephen Olsen