Vanessa Walker

Vanessa is founding director of cultural placemaking consultancy Big Space. She has been helping to shape and activate successful destinations around Australia for over 20 years.

Vanessa is passionate about the potential of urban environments to improve the quality of life and visitor experience in our cities. Throughout her career she has helped shape urban transformations that have been embraced by their communities and by visitors, from immersive public artworks and bespoke playgrounds, to premier cultural venues and civic spaces, to health and education campuses.

A highly regarded strategist and facilitator, Vanessa brings to projects a valuable mix of expertise in urban design & planning as well as management, specifically heritage planning and interpretation, precinct masterplanning, community and cultural engagement, art curation and commissioning, event programming and communications.

Vanessa is deeply committed to collaborative, cultural approaches to placemaking, and she has been facilitating First Nations involvement in placemaking for many years.

Vanessa and her team work in a range of contexts – from new cultural venues, education campuses and tourist destinations to main streets, transport hubs, outer metropolitan activity centres and remote townships. Recent projects include place strategies and design facilitation for Geelong Civic Centre and Geelong Arts Centre, Dandenong Creative Industries Space, Darwin Education and Community Precinct, North Hobart Retail Precinct, Fed Square and Nhulunbuy township.

Vanessa’s commitment to placemaking has grown from her training in architecture and urban policy, and from 25 years working in the arts, heritage and urban development.

Vanessa established her own art and design consultancy (4D Arts) early in her career, and her practice has evolved to now focus on strategic cultural and creative placemaking (Big Space).

In addition to leading her own practice, Vanessa has also worked in senior leadership roles in other placemaking firms and for extended periods in the Victorian public sector – at Fed Square, where she established the inaugural arts & events program and venues; and for the Victorian Government’s development agency, where she led cultural and community infrastructure development in renewal projects around Victoria.

Vanessa has been an independent advisor to various cultural and government organisations including Museums Victoria, Zoos Victoria, local governments and universities. She is a member of the Victorian Design Review Panel, Australia ICOMOS, IAP2 Australasia and Urban Design Forum Australia and she is a regular contributor to public discussions and education on cultural and creative placemaking.