Speakers
Jan van Schaik
MVS Architects, Melbourne
Jan van Schaik will speak about the creative process behind the design of the public buildings of MvS Architects and how the financial, functional and physical constraints of making buildings and the expectations of clients and their communities can be meaningfully coordinated around compelling architectural language and narratives.
In particular, he will discuss the Edithvale Seaford Wetlands Discovery Centre, the Australian Wildlife Health Centre at Healesville Sanctuary, the Centre for Ideas at the Victorian College of the Arts and the Mildura Architecture Project.
Hedwig Heinsman
DUS Architects, the Netherlands
Hedwig Heinsman is one of the co-founders of Amsterdam based DUS Architects. The office builds 'Public Architecture': Architecture that influences the public domain. This social significance shows at all levels of DUS' work, ranging from large urban strategies to outdoor breakfast designs. DUS sees architecture as a craftsmanship and combines research and design with a 'hands on' approach and unique use of materials.
By practicing their credo 'DESIGN by DOING' DUS establishes a dialogue with the community, which results in valuable input for the design process, and brings developer, (future) inhabitants and municipality around one table. In this manner, DUS currently leads big urban projects; such as the design and transformation of 150 communal dwell units in Nieuwegein NL and in their role as supervisors of the transformation of 2000 homes in Almere Haven NL. In 2006 this approach, dubbed 'DUS-method', was awarded the RMNO-price by VROM (the Dutch advisory council for research on spatial planning, nature and the environment).
Recently the office won the prestigious Amsterdam Awards for the Arts 2011 and was nominated ‘best Dutch architecture practice’ in 2012. DUS is also a founding partner of the OPEN COOP 'a cooperative model for the knowledge based industries' and DO-tank that actively solves societal problems.
Constantin Petcou & Doina Petrescu
aaa, France
Constantin Petcou and Doina Petrescu are founding members of atelier d'architecture autogérée (aaa), an urban research collective platform established in 2001 in Paris. The collective involves specialists, artists, researchers, and institutional partners from universities, arts organizations, and local organizations. aaa has developed a practice of collective appropriation of urban spaces and their transformation into a series of self-managed facilities. This micro-political project has been carried out through different instances and locations: ECObox, Passage 56 in Paris and more recently R-Urban starting in the suburban town of Colombes. aaa has received a number of international prizes including the Zumtobel Prize for Sustainablity and Humanity 2012, Curry Stone Design Prize 2011, 2nd place at the Prix Grand Public des Architectures Contemporaines de la Métropole Parisienne 2010 and the special mention of the European Public Space Prize 2010. aaa has edited two books: Urban Act: A handbook for alternative practice (2007) and Trans-Local-Act: cultural practice within and across (2010).
Ian Athfield
Athfield Architects, New Zealand
Ian Athfield (Ath) is a prominent New Zealand architect who over his 40+ year career has contributed significantly to the built environment of New Zealand. He has a strong interest in urban design, landscape and the continuing craft of architecture with an emphasis on building off the existing physical environment.
While first establishing a reputation through innovative housing, Ath is renowned for his big picture thinking in both urban and rural environments. He has been involved in the creation of many of New Zealand’s most successful urban spaces, landscapes, and buildings. His work continues to stretch across all scales from furniture and public sculpture to architecture, landscape, and urban design; and across type from domestic to civic.
Ath’s contribution to architecture has received widespread recognition and not only earned his practice numerous design awards but earned him the 2004 NZIA Gold Medal, an honorary Doctorate in Literature from Victoria University and in 1996 the New Zealand Government made him a Companion to the New Zealand Order of Merit. Ath is currently serving as a member of both the Maori Heritage Council and The New Zealand Historic Places Trust Board.
w: athfieldarchitects.co.nz
Philippa Tumubweinee
Director, IZUBA INafrica design, South Africa
Senior Lecturer, University of the Free State, South Africa
Philippa is a senior lecturer at the Department of Architecture at the University of the Free State [UFS] South Africa, a co-founder and Director of IZUBA INafrica and a Doctoral student at the University of Pretoria [UP] South Africa.
Philippa taught at the dept. of Architecture, UP as an assistant Studio Master from where she progressed on to join the dept. of Architecture, University of Johannesburg UJ South Africa. She taught at this dept. of Architecture from the beginning of 2007 to the middle of 2012 working as the first year coordinator and was involved in the re-curriculation process and programme development of the department, while co-founding the design and architecture firm IZUBA INafrica alongside Architect Denver Hendricks in 2010.
In 2012 Philippa served on the National Judging Panel for the SAIA Awards of Merit and Excellence and presented a paper on one of her projects the Esquared House at the ARCH THEO’12 conference in Istanbul. She was also the co-Master of Ceremonies at the second AZA 2012 Architectural Conference in Cape Town. She is an avid and active presence in the design and architectural industry in South Africa with a crippling weakness for shoes.
w: inafricadesign.co.za
Marcus Westbury
Renew Australia, Melbourne
Marcus Westbury’s background is as a broadcaster, writer, media maker and festival director who has been responsible for some of Australia’s more innovative, unconventional and successful cultural projects and events.
In 2008 Marcus founded Renew Newcastle with his own funds and energy. It’s a low budget, not for profit, DIY urban renewal scheme that has brokered access to more than 40 empty buildings for more than 80 creative enterprises, artists and cultural projects in Newcastle.
Marcus is now working with companies and communities across Australia and around the world through Renew Australia.
Rory Hyde
Rory Hyde Projects, Amsterdam
Rory Hyde is a practicing architect working across design, research, broadcasting and building. He studied architecture at RMIT University in Melbourne, where he also completed a PhD on emerging models of practice enabled by new technologies. He is contributing editor of Architecture Australia, and co-host of The Architects, a weekly radio show on architecture, which is presented in the Australian pavilion at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. Based in Amsterdam since 2009, Rory has worked with Volume magazine, Al Manakh (Archis / AMO), MVRDV, the NAi, Viktor & Rolf and Mediamatic.
His first book Future Practice: Conversations from the Edge of Architecture is out now from Routledge.
Richard Francis-Jones
Design Director, fjmt
Visiting Professor, UNSW
BSc Arch BArch MS Arch FRAIA, RIBA, NZIA , FAIA(Hon)
Richard Francis-Jones is a renowned and leading contemporary Australian architect. Richard is the Design Director of fjmt and has been responsible for the design of some of Australia’s most highly acclaimed buildings. The firm is noted
for its commitment to the public domain and innovation in sustainable design.
Projects designed by Richard have received Australia’s highest architectural awards including the Sir Zelman Cowan, Sulman, Lloyd Rees and Greenway Awards. Recent international architecture awards include the World Architecture
Festival, RIBA International Architecture Award, New Zealand Institute of Architects Medal and International Architecture Awards from the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design.
fjmt’s recent projects include Darling Quarter, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, The Concourse Chatswood, Newcastle Museum, Tyree Energies Technology Building and St Barnabas Church.
Richard has taught and lectured in architecture, design and theory in Australia and abroad since 1987. He was Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture at Columbia University and is currently Visiting Professor at the University of New
South Wales. Richard is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects and Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
Ingrid Richards & Adrian Spence
Richards & Spence Pty Ltd, Queensland
Richards & Spence was established in 2008 by co-directors Ingrid Richards and Adrian Spence with the aim to provide a viable alternative to large practice for commercial projects in their home town of Brisbane.
Richards & Spence launched their independent practice committed to the creation of built infrastructure as a catalyst for civic interaction. The realisation of this goal reveals itself in a variety of ways:
- Precedent informs the work triggering a collective cultural memory as a legacy to the city’s history.
- Commitment to authentic materials guarantees an enduring building fabric and long term integration.
- Organizational flexibility facilitates ongoing functionality allowing sustained tenure beyond the original brief/ use.
Richards and Spence are intent on making public spaces out of private commissions and operate predominantly in an urban context. They prioritise reduction over adornment and integration as opposed to self conscious, object based solutions. Richards & Spence projects range from bespoke furniture commissions, houses and restaurants to larger scale retail, commercial, multi residential and mixed use developments with a primary focus on urban infill retail / commercial projects.
Clare Cousins
Clare Cousins Architecture (CCA), Melbourne
Clare Cousins founded her Melbourne practice, Clare Cousins Architecture (CCA), in 2005 and has since established a significant body of work that has won a number of industry awards and been widely published. Most recently, Clare has been awarded the AIA National Emerging Architect of 2013, an acknowledgement of her proactive industry involvement, as well as recognition of her architectural excellence.
At CCA, Clare leads a youthful and energetic design team in which ideas are debated and developed, resulting in innovative yet pragmatic design outcomes. The studio undertakes projects ranging from bespoke houses to multi-residential housing, retail design, mixed-use developments and commercial master-planning. Each project evolves from a considered response to site, context, program, affordability and sustainability.
Maintaining a balanced professional profile, Clare is actively involved in the broader design community as a mentor, educator, public speaker, committee member and industry representative. She has also been proactive in providing substantial pro-bono services in response to the Victorian Black Saturday bushfires.
Cassandra Stronach
Graduate - Group D, Newcastle
Novocastrian Cassie Stronach founded Group D in May 2012 when she embarked on her first public art project. The project was a light sculpture for VIVID Sydney called Follow the Current… which consisted of giant glowing anglerfish built over the top of tricycles. These were hugely popular and the success of this project gave Cassie the taste for working on projects she could direct and was truly passionate about. Hence Group D was formed with a unique agenda; to form collaborative teams of complementary skilled people to deliver projects across the disciplines of Architecture, Interiors and Art. She works from her Newcastle Studio on local projects and also in Sydney and interstate. These projects range from place-making art installations to interior & building design projects. Cassie will recount her very recent experience of starting her own business, whist going through the registration process and adapting to the changing times doing things that are not quite architecture.
Timothy Moore
SIBLING, Melbourne
Timothy Moore is a partner in design collective SIBLING, which makes everything from books to buildings. Since officially registering as an architecture practice just under a year ago, SIBLING has a diverse set of projects underway: a children’s pavilion in Amsterdam (with artist Melanie Bonajo), two lots of townhouses in Melbourne, and an upcoming residency in South Korea to research the impact of new technologies on the public realm. Despite the divergent projects and geographical locations, SIBLING is primarily concerned with the social nature of architecture to collect diverse people together in space.
Timothy Moore also currently works as a project director for Right Angle Studio, where he is overseeing place-making projects across Australia. Prior to these positions, Timothy Moore has also worked in architecture studios in Amsterdam, Berlin and Melbourne, as well as in architecture publishing where he has been managing editor at Volume magazine and editor of Architecture Australia.
Stuart Harrison
'The Architects' radio show, Melbourne
Stuart Harrison is an architect and communicator. He is a writer on design, architecture and urbanism, and has taught in design and history for over 10 years. He is director of the award-winning architectural practice HAW, based in Melbourne. He consults nationally as a design review expert and procurement advisor.
He founded and co-hosts 'The Architects' radio show on Melbourne 3RRR and has interviewed architects and designers from around the world. The radio show was exhibited in the 2012 Venice Biennale as part the Australian Pavilion.
His recent book, Forty-six square metres of land doesn't normally become a house, for Thames & Hudson, promotes sustainable, compact and innovative housing in Australia and New Zealand. He has also written for Architecture Australia, Monument and Lonely Planet, and is a regular correspondent for Australian Design Review / Architectural Review Asia Pacific; and features on ABC-TV's Art Nation and ABC Radio National (RN).
Lindsay & Kerry Clare
Clare Design, Sydney
Professors, University of Newcastle
Lindsay + Kerry Clare are a husband and wife team who have produced architectural projects for more than 30 years including a diverse range of housing and major urban and public buildings. Their work has been consistently acknowledged for design excellence and environmental performance. Haig Beck and Jackie Cooper write, “The Clares’ ideas about experiencing natural light and ventilation are merged with their ideas about typology. They fuse ideas about type and climate into building form”. Their buildings allow occupants to engage with architecture and the world outside, reinforcing the essential connection with place. Lindsay + Kerry were jointly awarded the RAIA Gold Medal in 2010. Clare Design was established in 1979 on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia and continues to work from Sydney on selected projects across Australia’s eastern seaboard. Alongside practice Kerry + Lindsay continue their roles in teaching and are Professors at the School of Architecture + Built Environment, University of Newcastle.
Peter Stutchbury
Peter Stutchbury Architecture, Sydney
Professor, University of Newcastle
Sydney based architect Peter Stutchbury graduated from Newcastle University in 1978 where he is now a Professor receiving the universities convocation medal in 2004. He held professional chairs in South Africa, USA and South America, awarded the Luis Barragan Diploma Catedra in 2008 and the Diploma de Architecture Chile 2010 & Diploma de Department of Landscape Architecture Taiwan 2011. Peter is a founder and teacher of in the Glenn Murcutt International Masterclass since 2001. In 2008 his firm won the International Living Steel Award in Russia (over 1200 submissions) and since 1995 Peter Stutchbury Architecture has won 46 AIA (14 Nationally) including both of the nations major awards in 2003 & 2005. In 2012 Peter was made an AIA life fellow..
Chloe Beevers
Local Government NSW Project Manager Arts & Culture
As the Project Manager Arts & Culture for Local Government NSW, Chloe advises the 152 NSW councils. She represents their arts & cultural policy interests to peak bodies & government. She manages the state’s Local Government Arts and Cultural Development Program including forums and a conference. The Local Government Arts and Culture Awards recognise best practice in place making, public art, new and improved cultural facilities, among other categories. An accord between Local and State Government is implemented through the program, with an objective to identify needs and approaches for arts and cultural infrastructure. The program is supported supported by the NSW Government through Arts NSW.
As Port Stephens Council’s Community Planner Cultural Development, Chloe identified local cultural priorities and integrated them across Council policy, planning & decision making frameworks. She established the Culture Port Stephens Network, partnering with community, business & Government. She converted the under-utilised mezzanine of the Council's Administration Building into a community art gallery, with monthly exhibitions and associated programming.
As Great Lakes Council's Integrated Planning Coordinator, Chloe delivered a community and stakeholder engagement process to identify local priorities including facilitating a series of community workshops and community priorities survey. She analysed and published the results in a Community Priorities Report to inform policies and plans. As GLC's Community Development Coordinator Chloe established Councils Cultural Development Team and Community Grants Program.
w: lgnsw.org.au
Lindsay Johnston
Professor, University of Newcastle
Lindsay Johnston grew up in Ireland and studied architecture in Scotland. After 20 years in research and practice in Ireland he emigrated to Australia and entered academic life. He has been Head of School and Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Design at the University of Newcastle. He has continued architectural practice and has been awarded for his houses and for research on and practice of environmentally sensitive strategies. His house ‘Four Horizons’ and the associated tourist lodges in the Watagans National Park, west of Newcastle, have been published internationally. He was winner in 2003 of a limited competition for the design of a World Heritage Area Visitor Centre in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney (eventually unbuilt). He has been Chair of the Australian Institute of Architects National Education Committee and National Environment Committee. He was awarded the 2002 Australian Institute of Architects National Education Prize for his contribution to architectural education. He continues as Visiting Professor at the University of Newcastle where he tutors and runs design studios for students in the Masters degree programs. He is convener of the Architecture Foundation Australia and principle organiser of the Glenn Murcutt International Architecture Master Class and other educational events.
Peter Tonkin
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer, Sydney
CANBERRA: AUSTRALIA’S FRONT YA RD?
As part of an international seminar on three of the designed capitals of the 19th and 20th century - Washington, Brasilia and Canberra, this is a personal reflection on my own long-standing love-hate relationship with Australia’s ‘City Beautiful’. After 100 years, the city seems to encapsulate many of our own national qualities, from excessive rule making to ‘sweeping plains’, from visionary imagination to petty squabbles.
w: tzg.com.au
Annabelle Pegrum
Pegrum Judd, Canberra
Annabelle Pegrum is a Director of Pegrum Judd – a consultancy for strategic policy, planning and design. She is an Adjunct Professor of the University of Canberra and from 2009 – 2013 was the University Architect. She was the Chief Executive of the National Capital Authority from 1998-2008, the Commonwealth agency responsible for the planning and development of Canberra as the National Capital. Prior to that she held senior executive roles in the ACT Government, including Chief Executive of the Department of Business, Arts, Sport and Tourism. In 2012 she was appointed as a casual member of the NSW Planning Assessment Commission. Annabelle was the 1998 Telstra ACT Business Woman of the Year, received a Centenary Medal in 2001, is a Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects, a former President of the ACT Chapter, and in 2007 was appointed as a Member in the Order of Australia.
Marcel Acosta
National Capital Planning Commission, U.S.A
WASHINGTON: SYMBOL AND CITY
Charles Dickens once called Washington, D.C. a city of magnificent intentions. Today, Washington has fulfilled many goals envisioned in its original city plan. As a purpose-built national capital, its public realm, memorials, and buildings together create a highly iconic and symbolic image. The permanence of its civic institutions and their prominence within the skyline creates a sense of national identity for many Americans. The local city is now thriving and diversifying, ushering a new era of vibrant city life and asserting its own distinctive urban character. As we move into the city’s third century, the need to balance the national narrative and emerging local identity present new challenges. This presentation will examine these tensions through three lenses: urban form, memorials, and city development.
w: ncpc.gov
David Gordon
Queen's University School of Urban & Regional Planning, Canada
THREE NATIONS, ONE CAPITAL: DESIGNING OTTAWA -GATINEAU AS CANADA ’S FEDERAL CAPITAL
How should the capital city of a multi-cultural, federal country be designed? Canada’s capital was a shabby place at the end of World War II. And its condition was a national embarrassment. Its transformation was the principal Canadian achievement of the new profession of urban planning in the mid-twentieth century. As the century drew to a close, the National Capital Commission’s mandate was expanded to interpret the capital to all Canadians, not an easy task in an increasingly multi-cultural society. It adopted new urban design strategies that focused on the symbolic core of the capital region, siting new national institutions on a Confederation Boulevard that connects both sides of the Ottawa River in a loop around Parliament Hill.
Rafael Carlos de Oliveira
Government of the Federal District, Brazil
Brasília existed as an idea infused with mobilizing symbols for almost two centuries before its inauguration in 1960. Since its conception Brasilia has been a nation-building and nation-occupying project. By the time of its foundation it had also become a symbol of modernization, of order and progress, of rationality and of the future, attracting migrants from all over the country. However, the city is affected by many of Brazil’s human development limitations. Six and a half decades of rapid urban growth have led to unequal distribution of wealth and disorderly urban sprawl, particularly in the satellite cities of the Federal District. The current local government is striving to transform the Brazilian capital into a symbol of equal opportunities for all. The “Live Well” (Morar Bem) program, which aims to deliver 100,000 housing units by the end of 2014, and the policy to secure land tenure “Regularize It, Have It” (Regularizou É Seu) are among the key strategies employed to change the city’s socioeconomic and symbolic structures.
w: df.gov.br
Melonie Bayl-Smith
Bijl Architecture, Sydney
Adjunct Professor, UTS
Melonie Bayl-Smith is the Director of Bijl Architecture and Adjunct Professor at the UTS School of Architecture. A University of Newcastle alumnus, Melonie has run her award-winning practice for over ten years, driving design innovation, academic research and best practice management. A highly collaborative person, Melonie believes in the potential of architecture to influence and change how people live. This belief underscores not only her practice approach but her extensive involvement in architectural education, spanning design-build masterclasses, professional practice and the design studio.
In 2009/10 Melonie won two prestigious scholarships for the Buildability research project which gathered significant international acclaim for its critique and vision of the future of construction education in architecture schools. On the strength of this research, Melonie has presented at several international conferences and been guest critic and lecturer at TU Berlin, ETH Zurich and at the Universities of Michigan (USA), Cambridge (UK) and Bath (UK).
