For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, Country is the key to identity and spirituality. It is every living thing. In these yarns with local and visiting artists, we’ll explore the meaning of every living thing and its centrality to art practice for First Nations people. Join our esteemed lineup of cultural leaders and artists including host Leila Gurruwiwi, with panellists Paula Savage, Kim Ah Sam, and Luke Currie Richardson. The two talks continue MPavilion’s long-running partnershi...
May 27, 2025•54 min
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, Country is the key to identity and spirituality. It is every living thing. In these yarns with local and visiting artists, we’ll explore the meaning of every living thing and its centrality to art practice for First Nations people. Join our esteemed lineup of cultural leaders and artists including host Leila Gurruwiwi, with facilitator Mayatili Marika, and panellists Nina Fitzgerald and Shahn Stewart. The two talks continue MPavilion’s long-runn...
May 27, 2025•47 min
Explore the pitfalls and possibilities between tech, humans, and the planet with experts David Stringer (Bloomberg), Chris Speed (RMIT), Gemma Baxter (MAVlab), Joe Glesta (Climasens), Theodore Galanos (Aurecon; Infraredcity.ai), and Vanessa Toholka (Byte Into IT). Supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
May 16, 2025•45 min
Learn about the secret life of ants and the art of science communication in this discussion led by Museums Victoria Research Institute expert entomologists Dr Ken Walker and Simon Hinkley, with Melbourne Museum’s Antopia exhibition producer Jillian Clark.
May 16, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Tune in to BVN’s principal Bill Dowzer as he charts the evolution of their New York-born Re-ply project, followed by a discussion with Professor Kerstin Thompson (KTA), and Anna Jankovic (Simulaa), who explore how similarly responsive urban initiatives can produce tangible economic and social benefits here – and wherever cities value vibrant street life.
May 16, 2025•1 hr 6 min
Listen in on this brains trust with Urban Design Forum, the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, and VicHealth to help re-centre nature and improve neighbourhood health. Public health experts Jenny Veitch (Deakin), Georgina de Beaujeu (Deakin; Tract Consulting), and Professor Hannah Badland (RMIT) present their research ahead of a long-table workshop.
May 16, 2025•56 min
An interactive yarn exploring earth, sound, and touch through Indigenous design and knowledge systems. How do we engage with earth, sound, and touch to deepen our connection to the environment? In our second BLAKitecture forum, audiences gathered around Bradley Kerr (Windsor Kerr), Clarence Slockee (Gardening Australia), Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO, and Kaylie Salvatori (Country Oriented Landscape Architecture) for an interactive yarn exploring sensory engagement and design grounded in Indigeno...
Mar 06, 2025•1 hr 8 min
Zoom into the multifaceted roles of microbes with help from a mycologist. It’s easy to forget that billions of microbial lifeforms are living beyond sight, helping ecosystems thrive and communicate. Danish Australian artists Rhoda Ting and Mikkel Bojesen give these tiny lifeforms some overdue time in the spotlight. Their collaborative sculptural installation 'Microbial Dwellings' invited us to explore these hidden helpers around the pavilion. In this talk, mycologist Tom May from the Royal Botan...
Mar 06, 2025•58 min
Find pressure-free ways into mindful living and life-goal kicking with Chris Cheers. What even is mindfulness? How can we find space for it in our day, rather than feel like it’s another thing we aren’t doing? This short, interactive workshop is about redefining mindfulness so it tools up your composure, rather than feeling like something you have to add. Led by Chris Cheers, a psychologist, educator and author of the best-selling book 'The New Rulebook: Notes from a psychologist to help redefin...
Mar 06, 2025•36 min
Get beneath the surface of Reef Design Lab’s ecological habitats. For Every Living Thing, Reef Design Lab took to the pond to install one of their Modular Artificial Reef Structures—a tower of cascading nodules that’s designed to encourage the restoration of marine life. Tune in and hear from Alex Goad of Reef Design Lab and marine ecologist Dr Brendan Lanham as they discuss approaches to designing ecological habitats for biodiversity. Moderated by neighbourhood wildlife scientist Dr Kylie Soane...
Mar 06, 2025•1 hr 1 min
An interactive yarn with the creative team behind 'Home' as they prepare for the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. Celebrate the opportunities of understanding and shared perspectives on what ‘home’ means with Bradley Kerr and the 2025 Creative Directors of the Venice Architecture Biennale's Australian Pavilion as they share insights on their exhibition HOME. HOME will present an immersive, culturally rich experience grounded in Indigenous Knowledge systems and architectural innovation. “HOME i...
Jan 31, 2025•15 min
A diverse, inquisitive panel of experts across design, anthropology and education asks how design can reimagine home for our aging population. Between now and 2050, Australia's elderly population is predicted to more than double, with the population over 85 set to quadruple. As we age, our requisites of the home evolve. While our need for belonging, comfort and connection is continuous, as our physical needs change, the site of our most fundamental necessities becomes more concentrated. How can ...
Jan 31, 2025•1 hr 14 min
A thought-provoking talk that sees heritage from new, open-ended angles. Questions of heritage can be fraught. This event takes a wide-ranging, laser-mapped view, led by Belgrade-born architect, researcher and curator Milica Božić. This talk focuses on the intertwined First Nations, colonial, and natural heritage embedded in Queen Victoria Gardens. The discussion features heritage experts from different backgrounds, bringing together Western and Indigenous architectural and cultural perspectives...
Jan 31, 2025•58 min
A pond-side podcast about biracial belonging in the arts, recorded live. Maria Birch-Morunga is a Māori/Pakehā facilitator and craft queen. Kate Robinson is an Iranian/Australian family violence lawyer and artist. Together, they’re two biracial women who are endlessly fascinated by the juggling of cultures, identities, and family gossip that can come with being mixed-race. Their podcast Being Biracial is filled with heartfelt and funny interviews with guests discussing the dualities of living ac...
Jan 31, 2025•1 hr 31 min
Country holds embedded memory and narrative of place; landscapes hold knowledge, and we know that there is an interconnectedness of Country (Sky, Land, Water, Below). This architecture of Country is how we understand place. First Peoples in the industry share a commonality in appreciating and understanding that we are always on somebody else’s Country, and the work that we do primarily revolves around shaping places. So, how do we understand and respect the Country that we’re shaping? How has th...
Oct 03, 2024•1 hr 9 min
Our everyday lives are touched by the places that surround us, affecting how we understand, interact with and feel about our cities. This session in the City of Melbourne's Excellent City Series explores how conscious design practice can facilitate connection and a sense of belonging with the built environment, in turn creating culturally safe spaces. With Emily McDaniel, Jennifer Tran, Fatuma Ndenzako and Aretha Brown
May 27, 2024•1 hr 27 min
Melbourne’s water story has been irrevocably shaped by progress and the impacts of our changing climate. This session from the City of Melbourne’s Excellent City Series explores how original, creative approaches and traditional knowledge are delivering innovative outcomes for improving our urban water environment. With Kirsten Bauer, Jefa Greenaway, Luke Cunningham and Sara Lloyd
May 27, 2024•1 hr 7 min
From storage to scissors, egg cups to sake cups – good design is everywhere in Japan. Sori Yanagi, Riki Watanabe, and Masahiro Mori led the postwar design boom – renowned for their technical skill, application of materials, and simple design aesthetics. They created iconic household objects for everyone’s – everyday use. Recorded live at MPavilion 10 by Tadao Ando in partnership with the Robin Boyd Foundation, this talk is hosted by Japanese guide book author Michelle Mackintosh and features Jan...
May 17, 2024•1 hr 3 min
Polyglot Theatre and guests come together for a panel discussion on the joys of engaging children and families in arts experiences that connect to nature and natural environments. From its large-scale touring theatre works to small playful interventions, Polyglot has increased its focus on the way nature and sustainability feed into the organisation and its members’ arts practice. Exploring the intersection of this mindset and the built environment allows for creative adaptations and site-specif...
Mar 27, 2024•47 min
Scent is often overlooked, yet it is an incredibly powerful tool in the context of design. In this informal discussion, our panellists discuss the science of olfaction and how it can influence our experience of space. Together, they explore some wonderful historical uses of scent, and examine how the emergence of cities created malodours that have shaped our modern-day built environments. Examining the different ways that scents can be deliberately incorporated into buildings, whether emanating ...
Mar 13, 2024•1 hr 1 min
The way we dress is central to how we express our identity. Perhaps more than other settings, the workplace has been a site of radical cultural shifts, played out through changing dress codes. Part of the Paypal Melbourne Fashion Festival’s Independent Programme, Office Wear is a panel discussion that explores the impact, interpretation and subversion of workplace fashion standards, from power dressing, to the sartorial pragmatism of Silicon Valley and the loose bounds of post-pandemic workwear....
Mar 13, 2024•1 hr 4 min
Explore the experiences, challenges, and stories of migrant female built environment practitioners working in Australia. Through discussing the challenges they have faced and overcome, this panel fosters a deeper understanding of the obstacles that female migrant designers encounter in their professional lives as well as how it plays into their interests in the chosen field. The discussion delves into the complex interplay between design, culture, identity, and migration, considering the diverse...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 33 min
Country is not just a physical place, but also a spiritual and cultural one. It is the land, the water, the air, and the creatures that inhabit it. It is the place where Indigenous people have lived for thousands of years, and it is the source of their identity and connection to the world. Come hear from Indigenous architects and non-Indigenous architects who collaborate with Traditional Owners on their projects as they demonstrate how architects can incorporate Indigenous concepts and materials...
Jan 25, 2024•1 hr 23 min
Place as Protagonist explores memories and place in the city through two modes of storytelling: online map-based community engagement platform CrowdSpot, and a storytelling event that brings a mix of voices together with a prompt to share a story about a time when the city made them laugh or cry. Come along to the event and hear a mix of storytellers share their stories through a medium that speaks to them, whether that’s spoken word, song, sound or dance.
Jan 25, 2024•53 min
BLAKitecture for MPavilion 10 will focus on the custodial relationship to Country as a means of furthering the conversation around First Peoples rights and perspectives around the impact we have to the built environment. Waterways are living ecosystems, with rights and agency. There are existing architectural vernaculars that relate to material, climate, sun, wind, seasonality etc and the Architecture of Country is embedded with memory, with traditional knowledge and fundamentally based on Care.
Jan 25, 2024•50 min
The Younghusband Woolstore Redevelopment reimagines a 122-year-old redbrick wool store and adjoining network of industrial early 20th-century buildings as a new mixed-use community precinct. Hear from speakers who have worked across all angles of the project, from the architects to the art consultant, as they discuss what will be Melbourne’s largest net-zero carbon, adaptive-reuse precinct.
Jan 19, 2024•50 min
Join us for a panel talk, which sees international guest speakers Nashin Mahtani and Keller Easterling come together with local urban designer Bree Trevena to discuss rethinking the future of AI, for a more equitable, inclusive and sustainable society.
Dec 22, 2023•52 min
First Nations speakers across the fields of architecture, planning and design from Australia and around the world will contemplate the good, the bad and the ugly of the built environment in an intimate yarning circle format spearheaded by BLAKitecture founder and ex-Curator Sarah Lynn Rees.
Dec 22, 2023•1 hr 20 min
As Australia’s housing crisis deepens, higher-density living will be a crucial part of any effective solution. Building upwards rather than outwards can be more economically and socially beneficial: it makes use of existing services and infrastructure, and helps people live closer to jobs, schools and loved ones. From the people behind Nightingale Housing, learn more about the merits and pitfalls of increasing density in urban areas, often characterised as the ‘Yes-In-My-Backyard’ (YIMBY) or ‘No...
Dec 22, 2023•1 hr 33 min
Join MPavilion founder and commissioner Naomi Milgrom AC to discuss the process of building the structure with esteemed Australian architect Sean Godsell – Principal of Sean Godsell Architects and Executive Architect of MPavilion 10 in Australia – and the thinkers behind the construction of the pavilion, Project Manager Harry Wynn Pope and Technical Director of AECOM, Nigel Burdon. Hosted by Australian architect and presenter of Grand Designs Australia, Peter Maddison, the talk will explore the ...
Dec 22, 2023•1 hr 2 min
