Massive Action Sydney

A collaboration between Massive Change Network and UNSW Sydney

Keynote presentation
ADA2051: Through creativity, collaboration and inclusion we seek and solve problems to improve life on earth.

Across September, staff and students from the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture (ADA) formed five Renaissance Teams to collaborate on ways to create Massive Action within the areas of Power, Health, and Climate and Massive Action through new approaches to Acceleration and Translation.

These teams have worked to collectivise their expertise and experience from across the diverse knowledges represented by ADA and channel these immense resources into the formation of project proposals designed for significant societal impact.

The Massive Action Sydney – Open Studio Showcase is an opportunity for you to engage with the concepts being proposed, and an invitation for you to join this ongoing Massive Action Sydney conversation. These concepts presented are not intended as completed proposals, but rather serve as provocations and initial frameworks for the ambition, scale and pace of work that could be done if we collaborated in more brave and audacious ways to address the challenges of our time.

The official Massive Action Showcase is on display via apointment at Paddington Campus. If you would like to partner with us, support the work ongoing, or champion these ideas and ADA’s vision to improve life on earth please contact the ADA Innovation Hub.

Massive Action Sydney projects

Throughout the month of September, ADA staff and students have been collaborating with designers Bruce Mau and Aiyemobisi (Bisi) Williams and their Massive Change Network on Massive Action Sydney.

In his recent book MAU MC24 (Massive Change Principles) Bruce Mau has distilled 30 years of experience as a designer to present 24 principles on how we can change our lives, work and world through radically new approaches.

The goal of the Massive Action Sydney collaboration has been to translate the MC24 principles into tangible and achievable actions. The project focuses on three key themes: Power, Health and Climate and achieving Massive Action through new approaches to Acceleration and Translation, while working cohesively with the ADA2051 Strategy commitments. 

Facts, figures & events

All the action from Massive Action Sydney

Bruce Mau is a brilliantly creative optimist whose love of thorny problems led him to create a methodology for life-centred design. Across forty years of design practice, he’s collaborated with global brands, academic institutions, leading cultural organisations, heads of state, renowned architects, and fellow optimists on a broad spectrum of projects. Bruce was recently in residence with UNSW for the month of September with his work and life partner, Bisi Williams, to launch Massive Action Sydney, their latest project, in collaboration with ADA’s Innovation Hub

Held: Sep 3, 2022. 

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In this presentation you will meet Bruce and Bisi as they introduce us to the Massive Change Network methodology for life-centered design. They will also discuss their vision for this exciting collaboration with the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture – Massive Action Sydney.

Held: Sept 5, 2022.

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In response to Bruce Mau’s MC24 Principle “New wicked problems demand new wicked teams” (24 Principles for Designing Massive Change in your life and work), The Wicked Collective for Climate Change and Sustainable Development was established in 2021 by five committed academics from the School of Art and Design. We believe that artists, designers, academics, and students need to work together across disciplinary boundaries to effectively respond to the wicked problems confronting us.

The Wicked Collective invited students and staff from the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture (ADA) to submit creative responses and interventions to the wicked problem of Climate Change. The selected works all relate to one or more of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and were created since the formation of ADA in 2020.

Open: From 12 September to 18 November 2022.

Find out more

The multi-awarded Canadian designer believes that everything is design… if you hit a moment with a particular outcome in mind, then you are a designer.

It is an ethos that has been applied to Mau's design work at varying scales… from redesigning Netflix, the public library, to the Holy City of Mecca.

Recently in Australia for Massive Action Sydney he tells ABC Radio National's Blueprint For Living hosted by Jonathan Green how design can elevate the world around us.

Broadcast: Sep 17, 2022.

Listen to intervew

Read what the world needs according to Bruce Mau as he talks to the Australian Financial Review's Design Editor, Stephen Todd.

*Subscription to the Australian Financial Review required to access article.

Published: Aug 30, 2022.

Read article

Directed and narrated by Bruce Mau, international designer and thought-leader, Design for all the Senses explores the power of design when we experience it through all of our sensory organs. The production, held onstage at UNSW’s Roundhouse Theatre, was designed to enliven the body’s five senses to evoke creativity, sparking positive thoughts and action.

Held: Sep 28, 2022.


Showcase 2022

To see what Massive Action Sydney has accomplished in 2022 watch the project's onstage presentation from the ADA Innovation Hub Showcase 2022.

Project gallery

A project of ADA’s Innovation Hub

​​​The Innovation Hub is an interdisciplinary problem-solving initiative at the heart of UNSW’s most diverse faculty, the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA). Established in 2021, the ADA Innovation Hub brings together our unique mix of expert knowledge from across six schools, six research centres, and multiple other labs, studios and galleries to solve problems, respond to opportunities, and facilitate positive change. 

Each year the Innovation Hub undertakes a selection of projects proposed by our students, staff, industry, or community partners, and is led by Dr Carly Vickers. Through carefully curated interdisciplinary teams of ADA staff and students we work inclusively and collaboratively to find creative solutions to the diverse and complex issues of our time.