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Sydney, Australia: The sixth annual Sydney Architecture Festival today announced details of its program to be presented from 24 October until 4 November 2012 at locations across greater Sydney. For the first time in 2012, the Festival program has been curated under a central theme of ‘Beyond Boundaries’.
The Sydney Architecture Festival 2012 offers more than 80 events – many free of charge – including guided architectural tours, talks, open houses, workshops, exhibitions and panel discussions.
The program caters both to members of the architecture and design industry as well as actively involving the general public in discussions about the future of Sydney’s urban and built environment.
Kate Doyle, Registrar of the NSW Architects Registration Board, explains the thinking behind this theme: “Beyond Boundaries seeks to encourage the celebration, enjoyment and investigation of architecture in our city, in a way that is both outward focussed and collaborative. Now is the time to share knowledge, consider different points of view, assumptions, alternatives and challenges about our architectural surrounds.”
A major initiative that speaks to the 2012 theme of the Festival is the new keynote event SUPER Sydney. Launched during VIVID Sydney in June 2012, this ambitious project seeks to gather insights, inspirations and visions for the future of the metropolis of Sydney. A group of Sydney architects are working with 40 local councils to conduct and document a series of one-on-one interviews with residents of all ages, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds across greater Sydney.
SUPER Sydney (www.supersydney.org) culminates with the unveiling of the findings at an event on Wednesday 24 October. A film summarising the findings of the three-month interview process will be screened on the night and accompanied by a panel discussion.
Highlights of the festival include the popular Sydney Open weekend, presented by the Historic Houses Trust and hosted over the closing weekend of the Festival on 3 and 4 November 2012. Sydney Open offers rare public access to some of Sydney’s most acclaimed architectural buildings, this year including sustainable office tower 1 Bligh Street; the Sydney Masonic Centre and St James Church, the city’s oldest church.
An international exhibition called ‘Swiss Position – 33 takes on sustainable approaches to building’ will showcase architectural and engineering achievements of the past 20 years from the perspective of gifted photographers. The 33 photographs explore different angles of architecture, spanning construction, materials, ecology and protection of the environment. Presented by the Consulate General of Switzerland in Sydney at the Italian Institute of Culture, the free exhibition shows that architecture can be both inventive and visually arresting, whilst also complying with demanding environmental and economic constraints.
Carriageworks hosts ArchiKidz, a new architectural workshop for children aged 7 to 12 years. Archikidz was conceived in the Netherlands before expanding to Buenos Aires and Barcelona. This represents the first time that the event has been offered in Sydney and will be facilitated by practicing architects and architecture students who will give children the chance to talk about design and to create their own architectural masterpiece. The one-day only workshop will be held on Saturday 27 October from 12pm until 4pm at the Redfern-based arts institution. Look our for this space as the registration date will be supplied soon.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia hosts a panel discussion about the organisations’ redevelopment, unveiled in March this year. The discussion explores both the architectural design as well as how the building is being used by its audiences, ranging from curators, visitors, staff and artists. The MCA Creative Learning Centre will also host an Architecture in Schools event on Tuesday 30 October. Teachers, high school students and architects will come together to learn about architecture in schools. Presented in association with the NSW Architects Registration Board, the event will celebrate excellent examples of teaching architecture in schools and promote relevant teaching materials available in Australia and overseas.
CBD workers will again have access to a series of free lunchtime architecture talks hosted by the University of New South Wales for the duration of the festival. In 2012, the topics covered at these lunchtime talks will go beyond architecture to also touch on landscape architecture and interior architecture.
The UTS School of Architecture is running the Design Density Challenge from 25 October until 1 November 2012. This challenge provides a platform for UTS Masters Students to articulate issues surrounding density. Building on the successful events in 2011, the 2012 event has an emphasis on infrastructure and transport. Students will compete for the HASSELL Award for Architectural Advocacy by pitching their ideas to advocate for density. The event will be bookended by brief presentations from leaders drawn from the architectural and design community.
The Architecture on Show series of talks and events, hosted by the Australian Institute of Architects returns in 2012 with a program that spans 12 council areas from Parramatta to Bondi. Topics include: ‘how to make the most of space at your place’ at Parracity Library; ‘building the new North Bondi Surf Club’ at Bondi Pavilion; ‘the One Central Park project’ at UTS and ‘Carlingford Display Homes of the 1960s’ at Tusculum in Potts Point.
A guided tour of the Carlingford Homes display centre of the 1960s will also be hosted on 27 October, commemorating the 50th anniversary of this building development that for the first time in the 1960s put many domestic households within reach of owning an architect designed home. The houses featured on the tour were designed by respected architects such as Harry Seidler, Nino Sydney, Ken Woolley, Neville Gruzman and George Clarke.
The Festival will encourage people to engage with architects today through a one-day ‘meet with an architect’ event. Hosted by Archicentre, the event offers Sydneysiders the chance to have some face-to-face with time qualified architects to discuss their architectural queries.
Customs House hosts Open Agenda, a national competition and exhibition presented by the UTS School of Architecture. Dedicated to fostering new discussions on architecture in the public realm, Open Agenda offers three individuals or teams seed-funding for the development of an investigative research proposal and the opportunity to exhibit and present this work as an exhibition, public lecture and small print publication.
The Sydney University Architecture Faculty hosts The Creative Leadership Forum, a 90-minute hands-on workshop in which participants use clay to explore theories of creativity.
Tin Sheds Gallery presents ‘The Third Landscape’, an exhibition that explores new ways of thinking about future design. Bringing together urbanism, architecture, environmental concerns and creativity, the project presents ideas about positive urban change and new ideas about connecting the natural and built environment.
Further details about events and the most up-to-date Sydney Architecture Festival 2012 program is available at the official website www.sydneyarchitecturefestival.org. For the latest updates follow the Sydney Architecture Festival on Facebook or Twitter @SydArchFest
