Cities as Provocation with Paul van Herk
Today we’re speaking to Paul van Herk – urban design and architect in Melbourne, and someone with a perfect mix of humour and frustration towards our city for a conversation on the Super Urban podcast.
As his own website says: Paul is an urban designer, architect and writer who articulates the intentions, instruments and outcomes of contemporary urban development. His research and design projects produce cut-through cultural and political insights, direct public discourses and new spatial opportunities for complex urban sites.
Paul applies skills and knowledge from extensive international experience in architecture, urban design, public art and academia. His industry roles have included Project Architect at McBride Charles Ryan, Urban Designer at MVRDV and Senior Urban Designer at Snøhetta. In 2018, he was a Research Fellow at Strelka Institute and has been Associate at Monash Art Projects since 2021. He is an experienced educator, teaching innovative spatial analysis, design and communications techniques at postgraduate and undergraduate level since 2015. In 2022 he was a founding director of EXCX, a collaborative practice designing playful public installations for local and state government authorities seeking to reactivate public spaces following the pandemic.
Show Notes and References
People + Teams
Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)
American professor of literature looking at comparative mythology
Australian film director and architect looking at the intersection of design fiction and critical design
Joseph Graeber (1961-2020)
American anthropologist and activist challenging narritives surrounding debt, bureaucracy, work and human history
Dutch historian and author focused on radical utopian ideas for society
Global Case Studies
Fisherman’s Bend Precinct (Melbourne, 2024-current)
What killed Fisherman’s Bend? (Paul van Herk and Gabriela Amstalden Martins, 2024)
Urban research project on the failure of the Fisherman’s Bend renewal precinct project.
Matthew Guy’s impact from rezoning Fisherman’s Bend
Suburban Rail Loop (Melbourne, 2022-ongoing)
90km railway project that connects suburbs and makes travel faster around Melbourne
Westgate Tunnel (Melbourne, 2026)
8km tunnel linking Yarraville and Port Melbourne
The Matrix (Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, 1999)
Filmed in Sydney because it ‘looks like a generic US city’
Theories + Planning
Planet City (Liam Young, 2020)
A short film providing a window into an alternative urban future that has been created as an antidote to the climate crisis.
Urban Myths: Counterfactuals for Articulating Political Dissonance (Paul van Herk, 2025)
Paul van Herk’s PhD research
The New Normal Final Project Review (Strelka Institute – Moscow, 2018)
Produced from Paul Van Herk’s time as a research fellow at the Strelka Institute
Literature + Critical Perspectives
The Death and Life of Great American Cities – Jane Jacobs, 1961
Bullshit Jobs – David Graeber, 2018
Learning from Las Vegas – Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, 1972
See Also
ARM Architecture: Building the impossible and making a culture (Vivian Mitsogianni, 2016)
ARM Architecture and the big public (Rory Hyde, 2016)
The writing on the wall: the language of buildings (Tom Wilkinson, 2019)