"Dominique Hes is an academic at the University of Melbourne who has been asking: ‘Why, when we have been ""doing"" sustainability for so long, are we having an ever-increasing impact?’ People create such beauty with music, food, art, buildings and community, so why is it so difficult to be a thriving part of the earth’s systems? She has degrees in Science (Botany) from the University of Melbourne, Engineering (Cleaner Production) and a PhD in Architecture from RMIT University, Australia. Chrisna du Plessis is Associate Professor in the Department of Construction Economics, University of Pretoria, South Africa, where she explores what concepts such as resilience and regenerative design would mean for how we think about urban sustainability and how we live our lives. She holds degrees in architecture from the University of Pretoria, a PhD from the University of Salford, UK and an honorary doctorate from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden."
Designing for Hope provides excellent resources and recommendations for further reading. It would be equally at home on the bookshelf of academics, students, and practitioners in any of the disciplines that work in sustainable urban design, and useful for any decision-maker involved in the planning and design of our cities and towns. - Lia Labuschange, Earthworks Designing for Hope marshalls ideas, tools, techniques, the social and personal agencies and the motivating ideas required to change direction. Theirs is not a utopian vision - although vision is indispensable - but a set of processes with the potential at least to stop the rot and re-invigorate organic growth and human sensibility. - Malcolm Skilbeck