Discussion

Coinciding with this year’s Houses Awards, The Architecture Symposium: Reset took place at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on 28 July 2023.

Elizabeth Farrelly pitches in on the housing affordability debate, following the recent release of a national housing plan.

Director of Büro Two Architecture Justin Twohill reviews Lismore Encore exhibition, which was displayed at the Lismore Regional Gallery from 20 July until 19 August 2023.

Tendering processes have become so onerous and convoluted that the costs of tendering in relation to the potential gains may now be reducing rather than enhancing competition, writes Geoff Hanmer.

Fundamentally, civic architecture expresses the way we want to live. This exhibition highlights five projects that challenge traditional approaches to our cities’ civic centres, transforming communities as they do so.

If we come to Country and culture with the right intentions and actions, there’s a place for all of us to belong.

Leave space for Country to do its thing in the design. Practise nudge stewardship.

For First Nations cultures, stories are a teaching mechanism. From them, we learn what is important about a place and how to design there.

We could easily end sprawl altogether, doubling and quadrupling our density while still creating lively, walkable streets and habitable dwellings. Why do we fail?

Around half of the new dwellings for the Victorian Commonwealth Games were to be prefabricated. So is cancellation of the games a blow for prefab construction in Australia?

Resist the urge to straighten, flatten, organize.

This may mean slowing down architectural processes so that the community can be meaningfully involved.

While “enoughness” may be an Indigenous economic theory, it can also be considered in ecological and architectural projects as a response to sustainability.

Learn what these terms mean, and how you can increase cultural safety and reduce cultural load in your work.

Understand where you sit in the circle. Learn community protocols and ethics before you approach representatives to work with you.

People often ask how to start getting to know First Nations people. Our answer is, “Turn up” – to events, rallies, marches, talks, festivals. Turn up and take part while actively, deeply, genuinely listening.

Justin Mallia considers the winners of the Gold Lion Awards at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale against the themes of race, politics, decolonization and decarbonization.

From being mindful when specifying materials to incorporating whole-of-life processes, we can reduce the extent to which our industry harms Country.

Many of the issues we face as a result of climate change have arisen because humans have taken from nature more than we need, polluting the environment in the process.

Value the uniqueness of place and your relationship to it, taking only what you need.

Elizabeth Farrelly considers an under-acknowledged modernist ally – grass – and how the lazy overuse of synthetic substitutes is leading to overheating, increased toxicity and degradation of the natural and urban environments.

We may not be the ones making major decisions or spending big money on projects – but we all have core values, and there’s no reason to stop living those in our work.

… And don’t only start with Country. Keep returning to it. Pass everything through a filter of caring for the health and wellbeing of Country.

This question is on the minds of many non-Indigenous architects wanting to learn how to design with Country. Budawang/Yuin woman and spatial designer Danièle Hromek has gathered together a group of individuals to answer it.

The Architecture Symposium, Brisbane, part of the Asia-Pacific Architecture Festival, delved into the broader relationships between architecture and the physical and social environments.

This exhibition, at the newly opened expansion to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, features a collection of works in which artists explore their dreams of home.

Public sector roles for architects are neither highly visible in Australia nor accessed by defined pathways from education. Monash University lecturers highlight the diverse opportunities for graduates.

We are stuck in the very public game of housing affordability “Whac-A-Mole,” says Mathew Aitchison. To meet our housing targets, we need to find new ways of building more with less.

Nicole Kalms reviews the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale exhibition,The Laboratory of the Future, curated by Ghanaian-Scottish architect Lesley Lokko.

In Part 1 of a two-part series, senior associates at Warren and Mahoney, Michael Leng and Te Ari Prendergast, consider the advent of AI and how people choose to either adjust, adapt or adopt as it rolls out around us.

Donald Bates reviews the Australia Pavilion exhibition for the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale and confronts a “lingering dissatisfaction” with the way architects exhibit their work.

Rising sea levels will challenge all of our current systems, including property-based capitalism. Elizabeth Farrelly asks how we can plan towns and cities to suit the changing landscape and human needs.

Maddison Miller and Matt Novacevski take us on a walk through Melbourne’s Docklands, on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, to explore what might happen if we engage with Country as a living entity, even in the built-up heart of the city.

Artichoke’s acting editor Amy Woodroffe reflects on the significance of Melbourne Design Week and considers how its “daring, diverse” program fits within the international scene.

Architeam Conference 2023 explored the many ways of working in small practice, celebrating the architects who are sailing their own way.

Architecture theorist Albena Yaneva introduces his book Architecture After COVID, the first full-length work to explore the pandemic’s impact on the profession.

An Adelaide exhibition spotlights the emergence of the modern beach house along South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, recalling an era of glamour, aspiration and a nascent leisure culture.

In 2018, Kerstin Thompson Architects designed Albury House for Jane and Vic Carroll. A written exchange between Kerstin and Jane delves into common questions about the architect–client relationship.

Design authorship is sometimes misrepresented or contested among members of a multidisciplinary project. Former Landscape Architecture Australia editor Ricky Ray Ricardo explores why this happens.

Architect Peter Elliott joined forces with journalist Gideon Haigh to produce a “captivating chronicle” of the intriguing (and ongoing) development of Victoria’s Parliament House.