Wollongong-based Ms Lindrum has been selected as one of just 25 people across the globe to participate in the Art and The City colloquium, part of London's Art 14 conference in Kensington.

Joining fellow urban planners from China, France, Latvia, India and more, Ms Lindrum said the conference was a chance for creative planners around the world to talk about how to create the "heart" of a city.

"It's about how we encourage developers to have a creative mindset, how we solve problems in a world where developers are only interested in a bottom line and not a place with a cultural heart," she said.

"There's not enough attention paid to people within cities and spaces, on how to create spaces people want to come back to."

Ms Lindrum, director of the Gateway Wollongong consortium that is developing the old Quattro site, calls herself a "property artist," identifying ways to make spaces and locations more creatively exciting and stimulating. She hopes to use Art 14 as a way of developing or sharing ideas about how to revitalise or kick-start a city's spirit.

"Places like New York or London, they have a great heart throb. It's exciting and vibrant, but it's a metaphysical thing you can't point at," she said.

"It's about creating that feel in other places, and bringing creative industries to the city will change that city."