The final days to purchase tickets to This Public Life festival are approaching.

The festival, which takes places in Melbourne, includes over 30 events in an 11-day citywide celebration of the built environment. The festival combines a conference and research summit, self-guided tours, design competitions, exhibitions, installations, screenings and talks, many of which are free and open to the public.

This Public Life brings together thinkers and practitioners from the arts and sciences, both nationally and internationally, to explore public life through the lenses Life + Death, Love + Longing and Participation + Spectacle. The line-up for the conference includes names such as David van der Leer, Natalie Jeremijenko and Jenny B. Osuldsen.

David van der Leer is the executive director of the Van Alen Institute – an organization that believes design can transform cities, landscapes and regions to improve people’s lives. Building on more than a century of experience, the institute develops cross-disciplinary research, provocative public programs and inventive design competitions.

Natalie Jeremijenko is an Australian artist and engineer based in New York. She directs the Environmnetal Health Clinic at New York University, which creates social experiments using a blend of art, environmentalism, engineering and biochemistry.

Jenny B. Osuldsen is a Partner at Snøhetta and Professor in Landscape Architecture. She joined Snøhetta in 1995 and has had a central position developing its landscape architecture department.

Other confirmed speakers include:

• Ana Abram, Amphibious Lab (London)
• Martí Franch Batllori, EMF (Barcelona)
• Carmen Fiol-Costa and Andreu Arriola-Madorell, ARRIOLA&FIOL (Barcelona)
• Sue Barnsley, Sue Barnsley Design (Sydney)
• Dr Jacky Bowring, Lincoln University (Christchurch)
• Emma Appleton, Office of the Victorian Government Architect (Melbourne)
• Sacha Coles, ASPECT Studios (Sydney)
• Cees van der Veeken, LOLA landscape architects (Rotterdam)
• Maj Plemenitas, LINKSCALE (London)
• David van der Leer, Van Alen Institute (New York)
• Nick Wood, How About Studio (London)

The festival seeks to engage with the complexity and opportunity of the city, from the Australasian student design competition This Public Space that draws upon the Van Alen Institute’s research into ‘hangouts’ and ideas of escape and the urban environment, to the Melbourne-based Chart Collective’s multi-site publishing project I Was Here, which invited the public to share private moments of joy, catastrophe and everything in between. The program also includes the launch of an interactive online map of Melbourne’s public realm projects The Journey, and the expansive full-body experience of Luke Jaaniste’s PORTAL project, among many others.

The festival program was designed by the creative directors of this year’s festival, Claire Martin, Ricky Ricardo and Cameron Bruhn.

“We hope the festival program allows the public to make new connections with their city, their environment and each other,” the directors said.

The dates for the Melbourne-based festival are from Saturday 10 October to Tuesday 20 October.

To find out more about the festival and book tickets, click here. Registration is required for all events.