A host of speakers from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America and Australia will come together at a conference in Melbourne this February to explore some of the less-charted terrains of architectural practice and consider the role of architecture as a positive force in uncertain times.
The two-day conference, titled Diversity and Community, runs from 10–12 February. It is hosted by the Architecture Foundation Australia and supported by the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) as part of the Victorian Design Program.
Invited speakers will discuss work from different geographic locations and of disparate scales that is open-minded, context specific and capable of empowering diversity and community.
The program of speakers includes 10 Murcutt Master Class alumni as well as international keynotes Marina Tabassum and Níall McLaughlin.
Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh by Marina Tabassum Architects.
Image: Rajesh Vora
Bangladesh-based Tabassum is the principal of Marina Tabassum Architects, which received a 2016 Aga Khan Award for the Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Read an interview with Marina Tabassum here.)
McLaughlin is the principal of London-based Níall McLaughlin Architects and the recipient of the 2016 RIBA Charles Jencks Award, presented in recognition of a major contribution made internationally to the theory and practice of architecture.
Other international speakers include Meredith Bowles (Mole Architects, England), Mpethi Morojele (MMA Studio, South Africa), Per Arnold Andersen (Daylight and Architecture magazine by Velux Group, Denmark), Wim Goes (Wim Goes Architectuur, Belgium), Mette Land (Mette Lange Architects, Denmark), Diego Montero Espina (Diego Montero Arquitecto M+, Uruquay and Argentina), Bijoy Ramachandran (Hundred Hands, India), Erik Sommerfeld (Colorado Building Workshop, USA), Piers Taylor (Invisible Studio, England) and Camilo Moraes Zambrano (Estudio Norte, Chile).
Australian speakers include Architecture Foundation Australia tutors Glenn Murcutt, Brit Andresen, Richard Leplastrier and Peter Stutchbury.
Diversity and Community is the first conference the foundation has hosted in Melbourne, and is billed as “an urban version” of the Deerubbin conferences that have been held on Milson Island in Hawkesbury River, New South Wales in 2014 and 2016. Like its predecessors, this conference is designed to establish a relaxed, inclusive social environment in which delegates meet and engage directly with conference speakers. The ticket price includes social events on Friday and Saturday evening, at the NGV and University of Melbourne Boat Club respectively.
The conference coincides with Glenn Murcutt: Architecture of Faith, an exhibition currently on display at the NGV exploring the people, process and implications of the Australian Islamic Centre in Newport, Victoria, designed by Glenn Murcutt and Elevli Plus Architects. A tour of the mosque at the Australian Islamic Centre led by Glenn Murcutt, collaborating architect Hakan Elevli and main contractor Mohammed Haddara is scheduled for Sunday morning (12 February) following the conference.
View the full program on the Architecture Foundation Australia website and purchase tickets via Eventbrite.
