Timothy Alouani-Roby: So, this is the inaugural event! Why now? 

Sophie Lanigan: Coastal Design Assembly began with a simple observation: Sydney’s relationship to water is everywhere in daily life, but conversations about its coastal future are often dispersed between planning processes, scientific forums, design studios, community groups and cultural institutions. I want to create a public setting where these worlds could meet through particular projects.

The event is also a way of bringing my recently completed PhD research on coastal urbanism into conversation with contemporary practice. Its starting point is that the coast is not a stable line separating city and sea, but a dynamic shared environment shaped by ecology, infrastructure, culture, weather and changing sea levels. The Assembly is an attempt to make that complexity tangible through the work of people already designing, researching and caring for these places. My hope is that it becomes an annual occasion for this conversation to grow.

What’s the scope — coast, harbour, waterfront more generally? 

The scope is deliberately broad: coasts, harbours, headlands, pools, reefs, waterfronts and other places where urban life meets tidal and marine environments. Rather than treating ‘the coast’ as only the ocean beach, the Assembly looks at the many city-sea edges that make up Sydney and other coastal cities: harbour infrastructure, public promenades, civic spaces, ecological systems, sites of recreation and Sea Country.

It is not only about climate adaptation, although rising seas and changing coastal conditions are an important backdrop. It is also about public access, repair, cultural relationships with water, material experimentation and imagining more generous ways to live with the sea.

What are you hoping to achieve with the gathering and who will find it rewarding to attend?

I hope the gathering makes exceptional coastal work more visible and creates links between people who may not ordinarily be in the same room and collect all those who people who simply care about the places where they swim, walk, fish or spend time.

The format is intentionally focused. Rather than broad portfolio presentations, each speaker takes the audience deeply into one project or field of inquiry. The evening should be rewarding for anyone interested in architecture, public space, landscape, art, environmental change or Sydney’s waterfront futures.

Who will be speaking?

The speakers represent different ways of working at the city-sea edge:

• Steven Fighera of CHROFI and Shannon Foster and Jo Kinniburgh of Bangawarra will discuss the North Head Viewing Platform, a project that brings public access, interpretation of Country and a sensitive headland condition into close relation.
• Adrian McGregor of McGregor Coxall will present the Tsukiji Tokyo Waterfront, opening a discussion of large-scale urban waterfront transformation and public landscape.
• Jessica Spresser and Peter Besley of Besley & Spresser will present Pier Pavilion, a project that considers civic gathering, coastal exposure and the architecture of a public waterfront.
• Anna May Kirk will speak from her sculpture and installation practice, bringing an artistic approach to material, site and coastal experience.
• Maya Martin-Westheimer will present La Perouse Fieldguide, developed with Aunty Maxine Ryan: a situated project connecting walking, observation, story and the coastal landscapes of La Perouse.

I will introduce the evening by drawing together some themes from my research on coastal urbanism.

Related: Project feature on Pier Pavilion

How does it all tie into your own work on coastal design? 

My work across research, design, writing and teaching asks how architecture can engage more meaningfully with rising seas and shifting boundaries between land and water. My PhD, Between City and Sea, used oysters as both ecological actors and cultural prompts for rethinking coastal urban life. It considered how design might move beyond defensive, fixed-edge solutions toward more adaptive and reparative relationships with tidal environments.

The Coastal Design Assembly extends this research into a public program. It is less about presenting a single answer than convening a range of people whose practices show that coastal design is already cultural, ecological, political and spatial at once.

There’s a question you’ll be asking the speakers: ‘What is one coastal thing you wish existed, and what would have to change to make it possible?’ What’s your answer?

You will have to come to the Assembly to find out!

And finally, logistics — where is it, when, and how can people get tickets or more information?

Coastal Design Assembly 2026 takes place on Wednesday 26th August, 6–8 pm, in the Lecture Theatre at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 140 George Street, The Rocks. Tickets are $40, with student and hardship discounts available. Tickets and further details are available here.