Hacking: field notes for adaptive urban planning in uncertain times

Planning systems rely on an element of certainty and can sometimes be ill-equipped to creatively adapt to increasingly complex system trajectories. We analyse how designers and planners deal creatively with a statutory planning system that is increasingly being challenged by the progressive complexity of the broader social-ecological system in which it operates. Taking Sydney, Australia, as a case study and drawing from six interviews with senior planners and designers, we explore planning barriers and the strategies used to address these barriers. While many of the strategies are useful and appropriate, what seemed more significant were some of the creative methods employed to repurpose strategies in relatively modest but more adaptive ways. We propose to refer to this as ‘hacking’ and discuss how planners and designers might successfully hack the planning system within its current (legal) boundaries.