In the Media
2024
ABC Breakfast Radio: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/northandwest-breakfast/episodes
The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/when-homes-already-hit-40-c-inside-its-better-to-draw-on-residents-local-know-how-than-plan-for-climate-change-from-above-221870
2023
Story on Channel 9 National News 10th October: https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/oPXwcjkedv
Interview in RICS Modus UK:
https://ww3.rics.org/uk/en/modus/built-environment/urbanisation/keeping-cities-cool-and-liveable.html
2022
The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/climate-change-hits-low-income-earners-harder-and-poor-housing-in-hotter-cities-is-a-disastrous-combination-180960
Public talk at Remix Summit Sydney: https://www.remixsummits.com/syd-2022/talks
2021
Blueprint for Living ABC Radio National: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/lost-and-found-western-sydney-bankstown-parramatta-bringelly/13574478
RTRFM: https://rtrfm.com.au/story/how-city-design-can-help-us-adapt-to-climate-change/
The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/how-new-design-patterns-can-enable-cities-and-their-residents-to-change-with-climate-change-152749
2020
Fifth Estate: https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/patterns-for-cooling-the-commons-in-western-sydney/
The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/how-to-cope-with-extreme-heat-days-without-racking-up-the-aircon-bills-128857
The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/keeping-the-city-cool-isnt-just-about-tree-cover-it-calls-for-a-commons-based-climate-response-120491
Sydney Morning Herald: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/lonely-unfit-and-hooked-on-air-conditioning-is-this-the-summer-of-the-future-20190208-p50whm.html
The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/how-people-can-best-make-the-transition-to-cool-future-cities-80683
The Fifth Estate: https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/trends-and-profit-still-stand-in-the-way-of-sustainability/
Talks and Events
The team has consulted and presented talks in a range of academic, government and industry contexts since 2016. Here are some highlights:
2023
Invited talk at Community Housing Industry Association Victoria (CHIA VIC), 26-27 April, Melbourne Convention Centre.
2022
Public talk at Australasian Housing Institute Buzz event: Sustainability starts at home, 22nd June The Hive, Erskineville.
Public talk at Remix Summit, Sydney 8-9 March: https://www.remixsummits.com/syd-2022/talks
2021
Parks and Leisure, Australia. Heating Up: How Research, Policy and Practice will Make a Difference. Thursday 2nd December, Holroyd Function Centre, Merrylands.
Heat and Social Housing Project with Evolve Housing, Hume Community Housing, Wentworth Community Housing, Hawkesbury and Penrith City Councils. Launched 22nd January at Penrith RSL.
2020
‘Cooling the Commons: commoning infrastructures in Western Sydney’. Common Infrastructure. The Geographical Society of NSW, University of Sydney. Feb 19-20.
‘Unmaking Unsustainability (means remaking design)’ as part of the Unmaking Unsustainability panel at Beyond Business as Usual Conference. Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University Jan 23.
2019
‘Diverse Economies, Design Futures and Unmaking Unsustainability’. Session: Design for Teaching Other Worlds. Theme: Engaging Change in Turbulent Times. Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Portland, Oregon, March. Podcast 20.
‘Cultivating the habits of coolth’, City Habits a two-day workshop exploring how habits are shaped by urban governance, milieus and material forms. Western Sydney University. Nov 6-7.
‘Cooling the Commons.’ Planetary Health and Human Wellbeing Research Theme Champions Event. Western Sydney University. Sept 13.
‘Cooling the Commons.’ A guest presentation to Architecture students, UTS, August 20.
‘Cooling the Commons.’ Rethinking the Urban Forest Cross-Sector Conference. Addison Road Community Centre, Sydney. May 24.
‘Cooling the Commons’. NSW Geography Teachers’ Association Annual Conference – Innovation and Sustainability panel, Sydney, April 2.
2018
‘Cooling the Commons: A university-government collaboration on urban cooling’ Routes to Sustainability Symposium – Cultures and Practices of Local Sustainability: Intersecting Multiple Footprints and the Environmental Humanities, Chile, Dec 11-14.
‘Cooling the Commons’ Co.Lab. Landcom and Urban Growth, Parramatta, Nov 22.
‘Cool Commons in Hot Sydney’. Spatial inequality and Australian cities in a warming world panel presentation for Sydney Ideas, Sydney Environment Institute, University of Sydney. May 7.
2017
‘Everything is Connected: Stephen Healy Plenary on the Commons’ The Green Institute. Talk available here.
‘Cooling the Commons’ Translational Health Research Institute Seminar, Western Sydney University, Sept 25.
‘Cooling the Commons: engaged research to support the transition to cool future cities’. EcoCity World Summit’17. July 12-15.
A parent and child talk about the weather at Hacking the Anthropocene II: Weathering. University of Sydney, May 26.
Learning and Teaching Projects
From the beginning, Cooling the Commons has been aligned with learning and the input of students, particularly from the design, geography and planning disciplines. Our first pedagogical project was a Higher Degree Research Event, called Initiating Change by Design. This event sought to explore how to engage communities in activating commons in Western Sydney by design. We invited international and local design scholars to collaborate with 40 HDR students and event participants to explore this question. This resulted in the publication of a Special Issue of the Global Media Journal (Australian edition).Since then we have run workshops, subjects and education events across two universities including:
- Cooling the Commons with Design students in the Visual Communication program at Western Sydney University and Parramatta City Council video (2017)
- Cooling the Commons Master of Planning students at Western Sydney University: Represented in Cooling Common Spaces Report (2018)
- Cooling the Commons Interdisciplinary Design Studies at UTS: Represented in Cooling Common Spaces Report (2019)
- Cooling the Commons podcast as part of Sustainability Bootcamp at Western Sydney University: video(2019)
- Cooling the Commons / Cancer Council project as part of Social Design program, Visual Communication at Western Sydney University (2019)
- Cooling the Commons Studio with Master of Design students at UTS. (2020)
- Cooling the Commons Studio with School of Design Honours students in Social Innovation stream at UTS. (2022)
Please contact us if you would like further information on any of these projects.
Publications
Klinenberg, E., Legacy, C., Mellick Lopes, A. & Healy, S. (2023). Community. In Steele, W., Handmer, J., & McShane, I. (eds). Hot Cities: an Interdisciplinary Urban Agenda. Edward Elgar Publishing https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/hot-cities-9781786434586.html
Mellick Lopes, A. & Arora, V. (2022). Action 26 Create Cool Commons. In Cairns, S. & Tunas, D., (eds). Future Cities Laboratory: Indicia 03. Zurich: Lars Müller Publishers, 2022. Lars Muller.
Mellick Lopes, A. Crabtree-Hayes, L. (2021). A conversation about the weather. In Hamilton, J., Reid, S., van Gelder, P., & Neimanis, A. Feminist, Queer, Anticolonial Propositions for Hacking the Anthropocene. Open Humanities Press. Print ISBN: 978-1-78542-066-5
Mellick Lopes, A. & Healy, S. (2021). Cultivating the Habits of Coolth. In (eds) Hawkins, G. & Bennett, T. Assembling and Governing Habits. Routledge.
Mellick Lopes, A., Arora V., Healy, S., Power, E., Armstrong, H., Crabtree, L., Gibson, K., and Tonkinwise, C. (2020). Cooling Common Spaces in Densifying Urban Environments: A Review of Best Practice and Guide for Western Sydney Renewal. Sydney: Landcom.
Mellick Lopes, A., Healy, S., Power, E., Crabtree, L., and Gibson, K. (2019). Infrastructures of care: opening up ‘home’ as commons in a hot city. Human Ecology Review, vol.24, no.2. Australian National University Press.
Mellick Lopes, A., Gibson, K., Crabtree, L., Armstrong, H. (2016). Cooling the Commons Pilot Research Report. Sydney: Western Sydney University.
Armstrong, H. and Mellick Lopes, A. (2016). Re-ruralising the Urban Edge: Lessons from Europe, USA and The Global South in Balanced Urban Development: options and strategies for liveable cities (Maheshwari, B. Ed.) Springer Books.