Architects get set for non-conformist internationals

A line up of international guests in the habit of turning convention on its head is confirmed for Australia’s 2010 architecture conference.

The list of confirmed international speakers for Creative Director Melanie Dodd’s provocative conference program, extra/ordinary, include:

Alejandro Aravena (Elemental S.A.) – Chile
Tom Bloxham (Urban Splash) – UK
Teddy Cruz (Estudio Teddy Cruz) – USA
Jeremy Edmiston (SYSTEMarchitects) – USA
Liza Fior (muf architecture/art) – UK
Sean Griffiths (FAT: fashion, architecture, taste) – UK
Francis Diebedo Kéré (Kéré Architecture) – Germany

Ms Dodd says that a key theme guiding the shape of her program and guest list is the idea that constraints provide opportunity.

“Several of the practices represented on the international guest list emerged during the mid-’90s recession, at a time when other established firms were cutting back. This is no coincidence; firms like muf and FAT work collaboratively in a socially engaged art practice, and neither has been afraid to be irreverent and to experiment,” said Ms Dodd.

The inventive creation and use of space or place as a solution to social and political problems is another of Dodd’s conference themes. Urban Splash is a British company of property developers, not architects, who regenerate decaying industrial sites into modern housing and sustainable communities.

Architecture professionals rising to challenges and resolving ordinary problems in extraordinary ways is Dodd’s promise to conference-goers.

“Architects are rejecting the detached gaze, rolling their sleeves up and fighting back. Innovative, groundbreaking and profoundly useful solutions are resulting from enforcing or stimulating collaborations with others,” said Ms Dodd.

Ms Dodd has secured guests who are inventing their own projects and systems of operating: they don’t wait for conventional clients, commissions or budget but instead see opportunity or necessity as their client. A complementary list of Australian architects speaking at the conference will be released shortly.

The extra/ordinary national architecture conference will be presented by the Australian Institute of Architects in Sydney, 22-24 April 2010.

Media Backgrounder (International Guests) follows:

MEDIA BACKGROUNDER: International guests

extra/ordinary 2010 National Architecture Conference | April 22-24, Sydney

Alejandro Aravena, Elemental S.A. (Chile) – elementalchile.cl

Honoured with the Silver Lion for a Promising Young Architect at the 2008 Venice Biennale of Architecture, Elemental is renowned for its “expert architectural intelligence applied to the context of low cost housing”.

Tom Bloxham MBE, Urban Splash (Manchester) – urbansplash.co.uk

Bloxham co-founded Urban Splash in 1993, which initially converted redundant properties, mainly formerly industrial buildings, in the north-west England into affordable city centre residential loft apartments. The company has established a reputation for taking on difficult sites and projects that other developers will not touch. Urban Splash has won in excess of 100 awards for design, architecture and urban renewal.

Teddy Cruz, Estudio Teddy Cruz (San Diego) – politicalequator.org

Cruz is a Californian architect who won the 2004-2005 James Stirling prize for Border Postcard: chronicles from the edge, a project exploring new urban strategies for the international border zone spanning San Diego and Tijuana. He has designed new mixed-use developments that reuse and adapt existing structures and recycled materials. Estudio’s projects primarily engage the micro scale of neighbourhoods, transforming them into the urban laboratory of the 21st century.

Jeremy Edmiston, SYSTEMarchitects (New York) – systemarchitects.net

Originally from Sydney, Edmiston moved to the US after winning the Fulbright, Harkness and Byera Hadley scholarships all in the same year. His practice is based in re-evaluating the relationship between the built and natural environments. Edmiston’s newest project is BURST*, a kit home which establishes a whole new paradigm for environmental residential building.

Liza Fior, muf architecture/art (London) – muf.co.uk

The outspoken Fior is one of three directors of muf, an all-female collaborative of artists, architects and urban designers committed to public realm projects. Muf’s practice philosophy is driven by an ambition to realise the potential pleasures that exist at the intersection between the lived and the built.

Sean Griffiths, FAT: fashion, architecture, taste (London) – fashionarchitecturetaste.com

Fat is a London-based an art-architecture collaborative practice established by Griffiths with Charles Holland and Sam Jacob in 1995. Theirs is an architecture that is progressive, radical, and, most importantly, liked. FAT has developed a reputation for making buildings that are memorable, engaging, and responsive to contemporary culture, and which challenge notions of acceptable taste.

Francis Diebedo Kéré, Kéré Architecture (Berlin) – kere-architecture.com

Kéré is an inspiring architect from Burkina Faso based in Berlin. As a student in Germany he founded the Schulbausteine für Gando association, creating buildings that meet climatic demands and support Burkina Faso’s inhabitants in their development. His first building, a village school in his home town, was honoured with the 2004 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
Australian Institute of Architects