Talking Spaces 12 – Participatory Design in Action

📅 Event: Talking Spaces 12

📍 Location: Fremantle, WA

🎙️ Hosts: Professor Wes Imms (University of Melbourne), A/Prof. Julia Morris (Edith Cowan University), and A/Prof. Ben Cleveland (University of Melbourne)

Our friends at the University of Melbourne, in partnership with Edith Cowan University, are bringing Talking Spaces 12 to Fremantle, WA this October..... and you’re invited to be part of the conversation.

Over two dynamic days, Talking Spaces 12 will explore how participatory design can shape better schools and community learning spaces. Attendees will collaborate across disciplines, from educators and architects to researchers and policymakers, to share knowledge and unpack how inclusive design processes can transform the way learning environments are conceived and used.

Program highlights

• Keynote speaker: Alastair Blyth (Westminster University, London), co-author of Integrative Briefing for Better Design.

• A rich line up of guest speakers bringing expertise in disability inclusion, wellbeing, Indigenous participation, and student/community voice.

• Hands on engagement with school and community sites around Fremantle, applying participatory design principles in context.

In keeping with the tradition of past Talking Spaces events, this year’s program draws on insights from leading research projects, including:

• Innovative Learning Environments and Student Experience: The Evidence

• Designing Learning Spaces for Diversity, Inclusion, and Participation (ARC Linkage project)

The conversations will interrogate how diverse voices - students, teachers, school leaders, parents/carers and more, can come together to influence new spaces that are both innovative and responsive to evolving educational needs.