This site is largely archived. My latest writing is available at Medium—but all writing will return here, edited and polished, someday.
Biography for Dan Hill
British. Born Zürich, 1970. Based in Melbourne, AU (previously, SE, UK, IT, FI, AU, UK.)
Dan Hill is a designer, urbanist, educator and experienced leader at the intersection of design, technology and cities. He is the Director of Melbourne School of Design and Professor in Built Environment at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. Dan was previously the position of Director of Strategic Design for the Swedish Government’s innovation and research agency, Vinnova.
His previous leadership positions have produced innovative, influential teams and projects, ranging across built environment and architecture (Arup, Future Cities Catapult), education and research (Fabrica, AHO, UCL), government and social innovation (SITRA, Vinnova), and media (BBC, Monocle). Dan has lived and worked in UK, Australia, Finland, Italy, and Sweden.
Dan has lived and worked in UK, Australia, Finland, Italy, and Sweden, and developed and delivered city strategy and urban development projects for city governments in Amsterdam, Melbourne, Stockholm, Manchester, Sydney and London, as well as for Alphabet, Lendlease, Punkt and Ericsson. He has devised and delivered place-based approaches to Swedish and Finnish national innovation strategies. Dan has particular expertise in designing social and cultural infrastructures, in urban contexts such as Melbourne Innovation District, Manchester’s Northern Quarter, Google’s global campuses, and the University of Melbourne campus, and on buildings such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, British Library, UAE Museum of the Future, State Library of Queensland, ACMI, Collingwood Yards, and central library strategies for Melbourne and Sheffield.
Dan is also a Visiting Professor at UCL’s Institute for Innovation and Public Practice, where he also sits on the advisory board, and he is a founder member of the Council on Urban Initiatives, a joint venture between UN HABITAT, LSE and UCL. Dan was one of the inaugural Design Advocates for the Mayor of London and a Trustee of Participatory City Foundation. Dan has held roles as Professor at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design and Visiting Professor at Design Academy Eindhoven. He has taught studios and courses at other colleges all over the world. Amidst much published work in academic journals, books and media, Dan authored the influential books “Dark Matter & Trojan Horses: A Strategic Design Vocabulary” (Strelka Press, 2012) and ‘Designing Missions’ (Vinnova, 2022)