Michelle Cramer: Designing Cities That Work for Future Generations

In this episode of The Century of Cities, we are joined by Michelle Cramer, Principal and Practice Lead Sustainable Communities at Frazer-Nash Consultancy and former Future Communities Leader at GHD. Michelle takes us back to 1980s Canberra, her hometown and one of the world's few planned capitals, where she grew up surrounded by fresh suburbs and bold infrastructure. That experience shaped her conviction that cities aren't just built environments, they're social experiments that shape who we become. Drawing on insights from GHD's global Crossroads report, which surveyed over 10,000 people across ten countries, Michelle explains what different generations want from their cities and how the built environment must evolve to meet those needs. From housing affordability to climate resilience and transport equity, shared priorities emerge, but so do generational divides on technology, sustainability, and optimism. Michelle calls for a rebalancing of power, where younger voices are embedded early, and infrastructure delivers not just utility, but equity.