This edition of the series explores our suburban environment and coincides with our 2020 festival theme: care. We hope that this year’s DESIGN Canberra festival will be a clarion call to our community, to planners and developers, and to the design sector, to care. 

Amidst the uncertainty and opportunity of 2020's rapid changes, we are met with an extraordinary volume of questions:

• Is good design an unaffordable luxury or the best possible use of public money?
• If our public spaces are a reflection of the society that creates them, what will we communicate to future generations from this time?
• How will the decisions we make today about our suburban environments express our concerns and hopes for our community, our city, and our world?
• Has the global pandemic illuminated contemporary planning shortcomings?
• Could the response to the coronavirus, and the lessons being learned, point to better solutions in the future?
• Is it possible or desirable to meaningfully integrate ideas of care into future suburban development?

Join our panel of thought leaders to explore and identify future solutions:

• Provocateur: Shelley Penn, architect and urbanist
• Catherine Simpson, Green The Street founder, urban designer and placemaker

About Two Minutes to Midnight

DESIGN Canberra’s new Two Minutes to Midnight series invites designers and thought-leaders to engage in deeper conversations with the community about the spaces, places and values we need in order to survive and thrive.

With artists excluded from income support, our built heritage needing investment, and suburbs transforming into places of work, study and leisure, this is an unprecedented opportunity to rebuild and reimagine a sustainable and more caring way of living.

Each event is hosted by a provocateur to encourage honest debate beyond the hyperbole. The provocateur frames the debate, the topic for discussion and identifies two high impact proposals to help build a future which is as yet unwritten.

DESIGN Canberra has always strived to be open and accessible to as many people as possible, with up to 90% of our events being free in previous years. In the past, we have found that our free events booked out early, which was great. Unfortunately many people who had booked the free events didn’t turn up on the day, which was not great.

Due to COVID-19, many of our events will be smaller to meet social restrictions. We will need to manage numbers and bookings more closely. We don’t want people to miss out because someone has booked but not turned up. So this year you'll notice a couple of new processes. There will be limits on the number of tickets you can book at one time, and more of our events will have a modest fee this year. This will hopefully mitigate the urge to book first and decide whether to go later. Other conditions of booking will be listed on the individual event pages.

Craft ACT is a registered charity so proceeds from the booking fee will go directly to supporting local craft artists and designers.

The health and safety of our audience and presenters is our top priority so we would like to remind you to please stay home if any of the following applies to you:

•             You have had a COVID-19 test and are waiting on results

•             You have had contact with someone who has COVID-19 in the past 14 days

•             You are unwell or experiencing any symptoms of a cold or flu, even if it is just a little sniffle

•             You have visited a COVID-19 hotspot in the past 14 days.

We are happy to provide a full refund if you are unable to attend the event due to any of the above reasons. Change of mind does not entitle you to a refund.

Location

Midnight Hotel, Autograph Collection
1 Elouera Street, Braddon ACT 2612

Contact Details

Contact Event Organiser