3 – 4 December 2025
The University of Melbourne, Parkville
How are urban surfaces used for communication, governance, and political contestation in cities? And how are they designed, managed, valued, and contested as public assets?
Our workshop brought together 18 academics, policy makers, and creative practitioners from Australia and New Zealand to develop a research agenda for urban surfaces, focused on the following themes: governance, labour, materiality, economy, and communication.
It was the first of three events in the Urban Studies Foundation seminar series “Walls speak. Are you listening? A research agenda for urban surfaces” (USF-SSA-250602). Calls for the next two workshops in Nicosia, Cyprus (May 2026) and Uppsala, Sweden (August 2026) will be circulated in due course.
Full set of photos and list of participants are on the Urban Surfaces Research Network page.
SABINA ANDRON 