THE GRIMSHAW PODCAST

Mark Coates is a recognised leader in infrastructure policy and digital transformation. In his role, Mark, with over three decades of experience in construction and global project delivery, collaborates with governments, policymakers, and industry leaders globally to champion the adoption of cutting-edge digital solutions, driving efficiency and innovation in infrastructure development. In this episode Mark talks about the work of IPA and the influential Transforming Infrastructure Performance (TIP) Summits he oversees, which bring together leaders in business and government across the globe to tackle shared challenges through innovation, sustainability, resilience, and inclusivity in infrastructure.

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The housing crisis is an international one, though it can take different forms in different countries. What is shared is the need to protect and promote the interests of renters, tenants and others who may be vulnerable in our various housing systems. Two people doing great work in their own neck of the woods that is also, we believe, of international significance are the two leaders brought together for the first time for this Grimshaw Cities podcast: Richard Blakeway, England's Housing Ombudsman and Trina Jones, Rental Commissioner for New South Wales. It's an engaging but important global dialogue.

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People acquire houses but they live in and come from neighbourhoods. In this timely conversation Andrew talks with Grimshaw's Head of Cities, Tim, about the state of British neighbourhoods and the interventions his Commission, chaired by the well-respected former minister Hillary Armstrong, recommends renewing them. Although the Commission has been focussed on neighbourhoods in the UK, the interventions it recommends are relevant well beyond the UK. 

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Everyone talks about the housing crisis.

Few talk about the systems producing it.

In this special edition of the Grimshaw Podcast, Tim Williams sits down with economist Cameron Murray, author of The Great Housing Hijack, to unpack the political, economic, and urban forces reshaping housing in Australia and beyond.

Not just a conversation about property.

A conversation about how cities work, who they serve, and what happens when housing becomes detached from civic purpose.

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AI will transform how we work in the built environment, yet there are still more questions than answers, and many feel unprepared for what comes next. In this episode, Dr Tim Williams speaks with Tom Sanchez, Professor of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Texas A&M University, and author of Artificial Intelligence for Urban Planning. He offers a clear and practical roadmap for urbanists navigating this shift.

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City centres everywhere are seeking renewal. In this episode Robbie Silver, President and CEO of Downtown SF Partnership, tells us what’s creating San Francisco’s new momentum at the city’s heart. Joining us in the conversation is Andrew Byrne, Grimshaw’s Managing Partner for our LA studio.

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Journalist, author and activist Elizabeth Farrelly, is the best known urbanist in Australia, with an international reputation. The title of her recent best-selling book, Killing Sydney: the Fight for a City’s Soul, speaks eloquently of her concerns but also of her independent spirit and determination to change the direction of the city she loves. A feisty and characterful conversation full of insights not just about Australia’s global city but cities in general and how communities need to be galvanised to ensure they still provide opportunities for all.  

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The international drive to increase housing supply is an opportunity to improve existing communities but also to design and deliver new high-amenity, higher density, low carbon, mixed use settlements. In this episode Tim Williams talks with Sara Waller – title, of Sovereign Network Group/SNG and Kirsten Lees, architect, masterplanner and Managing Partner, Paris for Grimshaw, about meeting this dual challenge.

Though, much of the discussion focusses on the UK, where the government is targeting 1.5 million new homes over the next 5 years, many of them in next-generation New Towns, the discussion will be of interest to all th...

In the first of two episodes on social and affordable housing , Tim Williams sits down with Mark Washer the CEO of Sovereign Network Group/SNG, one of the biggest providers in the UK, with an asset base of 85,000 homes, to talk about managing a massive business with a big social purpose: to provide good, affordable homes that are the foundation for a better life – with the aim of sustaining thriving communities, over generations. Joining them in the conversation is architect and master planner Kirsten Lees, Grimshaw’s Managing Partner in Paris and Sara Waller, SNG’s Head of Place, a role show...

Tim Parker has massive experience of successfully managing big urban infrastructure and development projects.

In this episode, he shines a light on his unique insights from an impressive CV and speaks with both passion and clarity about leading his latest large-scale project: the Federal Government’s initiative to build high speed rail initially between Newcastle and Sydney on Australia’s east cost, with the ambition to build further on this link in future.

This is a massive transport undertaking, promoting a low-carbon transition from car and air over to rail, and economic and housing d...

In the latest Grimshaw Cities podcast, Dr Tim Williams interviews Syrian architect and best-selling author Marwa al Sabouni. Unable to practice her profession in her battle-ravaged city of Homs, as the buildings and the lives around her and across Syria were reduced to rubble, Marwa Al Sabouni turned her fierce intelligence to chronicling how her city and country were undone through decades of architectural mismanagement and mistakes. The result was The Battle for Home in 2016 and Building for Hope:Towards an Architecture of Belonging(2021). We talk about these important books, her architectural advocacy and the values Marwa believes that architecture ne...

Tim talks with international housing expert Professor Josh Ryan-Collins of UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.

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Tim Williams talks with Austin Williams, director of Future Cities and author of China’s Urban Revolution: Understanding Chinese Eco-Cities. What can we learn, as environmentalists, planners and architects, from the eco-city initiative and overall from the Chinese process of urbanisation?

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Dr Aruna Sathanapally, CEO of Australia’s leading urban thinktank, the Grattan Institute, talks about the key policy priorities to make a more productive and inclusive nation.

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Joel Kotkin, a fellow in urban studies at Chapman University in California, is the author of the best-selling book The Coming of Neo-Feudalism: A Warning to the Global Middle Class. He is widely recognised as a leading international commentator on the future of cities and suburbs.

In this episode, Joel joins Tim Williams for a passionate and insightful conversation about key urban trends. They explore Joel’s concern that declining home ownership and growing inequality are leading to a concentration of wealth and power reminiscent of pre-modern Europe. An important and thought-provoking discussion.

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Today's episode features Dr. Caroline Butler-Bowden, State Librarian for the State Library of New South Wales, alongside Dr. Tim Williams and Grimshaw Principal, Eduard Ross. Together, they explore the role of libraries and museums in shaping cities and their significance as dynamic public spaces.

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On today's episode, Dr. Tim Williams examines how America's largest city has grappled with the tensions between cars and public transit since the 1960s, with Nicole Gelinas, author of 'Movement: New York's Long War to Take Back Its Streets from the Car' and Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. As a key part of this conversation, we also have Grimshaw Deputy Chairman and Partner, Vincent Chang sharing his insights.

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Dr Hila Oren has an international reputation as a city-making and branding expert. In her work in Tel Aviv over decades she has helped make that ‘smart-city’ a recognised global leader in tech start-ups and innovation. In conversation with our host Tim Williams, Head of Cities at Grimshaw, Dr Oren shares that journey with us and her insights into what other cities can learn from it.

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We are excited to share this unique episode to begin the fifth series of the Grimshaw Cities Podcast, The Resurgent City. Today we speak with our very own Jorrin ten Have, Associate Principal and Graham Gibbon, Principal about how Grimshaw, collaborators and clients collectively designed and delivered the Elizabeth Line – and won one of the world’s most prestigious architectural awards. Featuring special guest Howard Smith, Transport for London Elizabeth Line Director.

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Making sure that cities provide enough social and affordable housing has become a global priority. Rebecca Pinkstone, head of new government agency Homes NSW with its $6b budget and 130,000 homes in ownership, leads the charge in Australia’s global city. Joining Tim Williams in this episode is housing specialist Leigh Hanekom, Associate Principal at Grimshaw.

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Cities are in flux in the wake of the pandemic with further disruption imminent in the era of Urban AI. On today's episode of the Grimshaw Cities Podcast Series, Carlo Ratti, Director of MIT Senseable City Lab & Curator of the 2025 Venice Biennale asks, "What role for architects in the future city?" Also joining the conversation is Keith Brewis, Partner at Grimshaw.

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This episode's guest is Beck Dawson, who has an international reputation in her crucial role as Chief Resilience Officer for Australia's global city, Sydney. In this conversation, Beck shares her acute insights into the international innovation and best practice for promoting the resilience of our cities.

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Today's guest is Todd Litman, Executive Director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, based in Canada. Todd is recognised internationally as a thought leader in transport and city-planning. This episode discusses everything from congestion charging through Transit Oriented Development, to EVs and AVs, so don't miss it.

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Our guest is Gail Connolly, urban planner and now CEO of one of the most important councils in Australia, Parramatta, at the fast-growing heart of the nation’s global city, Sydney.

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In this episode, Tim talks with Andrew Chappell, the Head of Origination at international developer, LendLease about his current, broad real estate, place-making and ESG portfolio. Andrew also discusses LendLease's recent development work in Silicon Valley, and his early and continuing involvement in innovation districts.

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In this episode, Tim talks to the Chief Executive of Leeds City Council, Tom Riordan CBE about managing the services for and economic development of Leeds, one of the biggest and most important British cities. Joining them is award-winning architect Mark Middleton, Grimshaw's Group Managing Partner who has the further distinction of being a fellow Yorkshireman.

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Tom Wright, President of the storied and influential Regional Plan Association of New York talks about their impact, current campaigns – and the future of the tri-state area. Tim is also joined by Niharika Shekhawat, an Urban Designer at Grimshaw's New York studio, to discuss how she interacts with the RPA's legacy in her own work.

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Architects Gustavo Maldonado-Gil and Christina Lenart, both Masters in Space Syntax from the Bartlett School, do a deep dive into data analytics, housing and urbanism, with acute insights into success factors for social housing design and location.

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Today, the Grimshaw Cities podcast is pleased to launch the first episode of our new, fourth series: The Intelligent City. Dr Tim Williams welcomes Dr. Sarah Barns, founder and director of ESEM Projects, a leading expert in experiential art, design and digital storytelling for urban precincts. Sarah Barnes was recently awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellowship from RMIT to further her work as an urban strategist. She is known for her facilitation of community, creative and digital programs that connect people, places and habitat. Grimshaw’s Head of Design Technology, Andy Watts, joins Tim and Sarah in this conversation.

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In this episode Oxford University’s Professor Michael Keith talks about his unique experience as someone who has combined analysing cities across the globe with leadership of a major London council.

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Professor Billie Giles-Corti of RMIT is a global expert on the links between how cities are structured and public health and climate outcomes. In this podcast we discuss her research but also the strategies she identifies to improve cities - and public health.

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In this edition, Tim Williams interviews Professor Alex Krieger of the influential Harvard School of Design about his recent book City on a Hill: Urban Idealism in America from the Puritans to the Present. Visions drive city-making and in this podcast we learn about the diverse visions that have shaped US cities.

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In this episode of the Building the City series, Julie Wagner, President of The Global Institute on Innovation Districts, discusses her new report on the seven key factors in designing effective governance of innovation districts – crucial new foundations of the next stage of the urban economy. Listen to Episode 9 Governing Innovation with your host, Tim Williams.

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In the latest episode of the Building the City series for the Grimshaw Cities podcast, Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas, a global leader in green finance tells us "Box-ticking and greenwashing won’t achieve the scale of the transformation required to meet the challenges of the climate emergency. Cross-sector collaboration and the focused application of the creativity, innovation and skills of the financial services industry to finance the global transition will". Listen to Episode 8: Financing the Green City with your host Tim Williams.

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This is the seventh episode in the Building the City podcast series. Hear from your host Tim Williams in conversation with Kate Davies CBE who ran one of the largest and most dynamic Community Housing Providers in Europe, with over 60,000 properties in its portfolio by 2022. In this podcast, she describes the impact of Notting Hill Genesis Housing Association and how to deliver ‘homes for all in the city for all’.

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The Net Zero City is the sixth episode in the Building the City podcast series. In this episode, your host Tim Williams interviews Peter Newman AO, Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. Peter has written 20 books and 300 papers on sustainable cities and is well known for creating the term "automobile dependence". As a key author on transport on the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Peter is a global leader at the interface of urban policy and transport on the journey to the net zero city. 

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Asia and the Urban Future is the fifth episode in the Building the City podcast series. In this episode, Professor Richard Hu of Canberra University and author of Reinventing the Chinese City (2023) and Smart Design (2021) gives us an impressive overview of key city trends in Asia and indeed across the world.

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Cities by Design is the fourth episode in the Building the City podcast series. In this episode, your host Tim Williams interviews David Hutton, Group Head of Development with global firm Lendlease. Based in Singapore David has worked on major city-shaping projects all over the world and oversees the company's Urbanisation Practice, focused on sharing best practice in design and development across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. 

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Regenerating Cities is the third episode in the Building the City podcast series. Your Grimshaw host, Tim Williams, discusses urban regeneration and planning with Dame Alison Nimmo DBE who has a distinguished career in the field of UK cities and urbanism. She spent eight years helping to win and subsequently deliver the London 2012 Summer Olympics as a Director in the Olympic Delivery Authority and has led major city centre regeneration projects in Manchester and Sheffield. Listen to Tim Williams and Alison Nimmo DBE’s conversation on regenerating cities. 

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As cities grow, affordable housing options need to be made available for all communities. In Episode 2 of the Building the City podcast series, Grimshaw talks to an internationally acknowledged expert in social and affordable housing who is the former Group Chief Executive of Places for People Group, one of the largest social and affordable housing providers in the world. If anyone knows the way forward for affordable housing, it’s David Cowans. Listen to David and Grimshaw’s Tim Williams, himself a former UK government advisor on housing, discussing the future of building more inclusive and affordable cities.

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