The FreeThinking Podcast

Today on the FreeThinking Podcast we have Roger Black, Creative Director for Ballymore Property Group. Roger is a visionary leader across the board; Strategy, Design, Communications & Experience... all our favourite things!

With great care he talks about the conception and delivery of some iconic mixed-use London projects; City Island, Goodluck Hope, Embassy Gardens - and critically, how to flip the model and bake in social infra...

Today’s guest on the FreeThinking Podcast is James Parkinson - Senior Programme Manager for Regeneration & Economic Development for The Greater London Authority - and a great champion for innovation, participation, and design quality across London's 600 High Streets!

We talk about building social resilience at a local level - crowdsourcing city-making innovation - and what the real enablers of sustainable regeneration look like.

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Today on the FreeThinking Podcast, we speak with Suzana Bishop, Chief Experience Officer for Federation Square in Melbourne.

We hear about the public being the true owners of the space - how the community rose up against the giants that compromised the spirit of the square - and how a more experimental approach is forging a more energetic cultural dialogue between place and people.

Tune in for Episode 27 of the FreeThinking Pod...

Today on the podcast it’s our pleasure to speak with Beth Hise, Project Director for Sydney Living Museums - and a wonderful storyteller.

Beth shows us the importance of social infrastructure to hold the space for community and connection and discusses how the immersive experience creates meaning in place. We are then transported to Paramatta's Female Factory in Sydney, Australia; an upcoming project honouring the deeply emotiona...

In May, Adam was in Melbourne and fortunate enough to visit a major new 'contemporary arts incubator' called Collingwood Yards... A veritable melting pot of community creativity, a place that exudes openness and dynamism with every step!

We are overjoyed to be joined by Sophie Travers - CEO of Collingwood Yards - who is going to tell us all about it. She speaks with us about how Collingwood Yards is led by their tenants, artists ...

'Bulldoze the high street and build a giant park - Is Stockton the future of Britain?' So ran the headline in The Guardian last February... But why?

Let's ask a real hero of ours; Neil Schneider - former Chief Executive at Stockton upon Tees Borough Council and someone who real knows how to inspire change at a city scale!

Neil tells us the story of how Stockton-on-Tees came to be the canary in the mine of High Street revival, i...

Today on the FreeThinking Podcast we have stellar connector Will Chamberlain; founder of Creative Wick and the Cultural Interest Group in London, UK.

We spoke with Will about how he and a growing network are establishing a permanent sustainable creative community in East London's Hackney Wick and Fish Island - and particularly how creative activism and the sharing economy can advance the arts and culture in the face of rabid comm...

Today on The FreeThinking Podcast we have Ben Gattie. Ben is the Founder and CEO of The Triple P Group, a neighbourhood building platform in Singapore, which began with a trailblazing community hub called The Working Capitol.

From humble beginnings, The Working Capitol emerged (figuratively and literally) from the concept of shop houses; professional spaces on the ground floor, living spaces above. This blend of working environme...

Today on The FreeThinking Podcast we have Simon Pitkeathley; CEO of The Camden Collective - The Business Improvement District for Camden Town - Facilitator of all manner of good works, most notably The Camden Highline.

The Camden Highline is London’s newest park in the sky, running between Camden Town and King’s Cross. Repurposing disused railways, linking the east and west region while providing green space to over 20,000 people...

Today on The FreeThinking Podcast, we have Kate Willard OBE - Chair of the Thames Estuary Growth Board and the Thames Estuary Envoy - spearheading action at an extra-ordinary scale.

Kate has extensive experience as a consultant, working on a diverse portfolio of infrastructure and growth projects. She has also worked across Europe as a Regeneration Expert with the European Commission and established the first UK-Hungarian cultura...

Today on The FreeThinking Podcast we have Penny Cameron - Development Director at Stanhope plc - and a key player in the Visioning, Designing and Activating of their far-reaching White City Campus in West London.

White City Place is a new frontier in development that took a people-first approach, amplifying what already existed. Penny talks with us about creating a village – blending the established global brands with the emergin...

Today on the podcast we have Christy Traore and James Scroggs - Founders of New Working Class - the worker/learner college that both transforms lives AND re-ignites high streets.

Christy and James talk us through how NWC works hand-in-hand with the community to blend educational and professional spaces, transforming learner-to-worker and worker-to-learner. They’re embarking on a ground-breaking idea that will redefine the High St a...

The FreeThinking Podcast is back for 2022 and today we have Rumi Bose from the London Borough of Southwark – a facilitator for the Low Line; The Overall Winner of this year's New London Architecture Awards.

Rumi tells us about the power in local and the beauty of collective impact. She shows us how one initiative can quickly become many, growing a rich mix of community projects across different scales that – critically - involves e...

Kat is a Masterplan Strategist on Lendlease's big Euston Project in Central London. She talks about the virtuous circle of how the right diverse questions propel more inclusive strategies - of how to best walk the talk of that vision with always meanwhile initiatives - and how we might ensure those valuable cultural and social uses are not just 3D marketing but baked in to a perpetually relevant piece of city. And we also get mass...

Tara urges us to push beyond the rhetoric of re-ignition, to how we might better nurture the flame with long-term support for the micro-enterprises, creative start-ups and community-partnerships... And all spinning around a transformed shopping street - Bridge Mall - a powerful precedent for how public and private interests can unite around a shared vision.

Become an honorary Balla-fornian in Episode 15 with Tara Poole and subscrib...

This week we chat with Chris Levine – acclaimed light artist, best known for his holographic artworks of the Queen and Grace Jones and his large & immersive laser and LED installations, including Houghton Hall (UK), The Museum of Arts and Design (New York, USA) and Dark Mofo (Australia).

A renowned artist and a wonderful story-teller, Chris speaks with us about his experiential work, the powerful energy at play in the universe and ...

The next episode of the FreeThinking podcast has arrived and today we’re speaking with Sally Curtain; board member, leader and current CEO of Bendigo Kangan Institute. Sally has an impressive background in enacting innovation and major reforms in public arenas – such as City of Casey and VicRoads – making her an expert in strategy development and implementation.

Sitting smack bang in the middle of one of the most successful innovat...

Today we spoke with Historian, Writer, Broadcaster and Educator Tom Dyckhoff about the rise and fall of the late capitalist city - the rub of super-gentrification versus creative-anarchism as an engine for innovation - and building communities where we can all find our 'ledge'.

Tom is a master in the architecture space and has a CV overflowing with experience in top design institutions, including writing for The Architects Journal,...

Today on the FreeThinking Podcast, we have Bill Grimsey, legendary retailer with 45 years experience - from butcher’s boy to CEO of Wickes and Iceland. In 2012 he wrote 'Sold Out: Who really killed the High Street’, and since then through his highly influential ' The Grimsey Reviews' he has been leading the debate on the future of the high street.

Bill talks about localism on steroids, practical steps to creating magnetic high stre...