The Super Urban Podcast Series Introduction - Urban Emulation

Welcome to SUP – The Super Urban Podcast – a discussion on cities from RMIT Architecture & Urban Design, in Narrm, Melbourne, Australia. Hosted by Ian Nazareth, Graham Crist and Christine Phillips.This podcast is made possible by the generous support of the Alastair Swayn Foundation and the RMIT University School of Architecture and Urban Design.Our first series, Urban Emulation, builds on a remarkable six-part urban history series delivered at RMIT University by Conrad Hamann, a legendary historian of Australian architecture and urbanism. Conrad is the author of Cities of Hope, a monograph on the work of Edmond and Corrigan in Melbourne.These episodes explore how cities are shaped over time through emulation —the act of copying and transplanting places elsewhere. We argue that urban processes inherently absorb emulation into their very code—whether through deliberate replication, subconscious borrowing, or systemic reproduction of spatial, economic, and cultural patterns.Each episode focuses on a key theme illustrating how these ideas have historically influenced urban spaces and continue to shape contemporary cities:- Cities as Order- Cities as Industry- Cities as Theatres- Cities as Arenas of Social Change- Cities as Fragmented and Divided- Endless and Multiple CitiesJoin us as we unpack these ideas and explore the ways cities evolve through imitation, adaptation, and transformation.The podcast is part of the ⁠⁠⁠Super Urban Lab⁠⁠⁠ at RMIT’s School of Architecture & Urban Design. We acknowledge the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups on whose unceded Country we are recording this podcast.