Conceptions of our collective relationship to the Australian landscape have undergone transformative renovations in recent memory. The prioritisation of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in ecological discourse has raised an awareness to First Nations people’s connection to Country. Drawing on the contemplative lightscape by Jazz Money, a yarning circle took place that considers how we can preserve the ecological, socio-spatial, political, ceremonial, and cultural signific...
Mar 23, 2023•54 min
City Design and Aboriginal Melbourne invite you to tune into a First Nations-led conversation that explored ways of building relationships with Country in urban environments. Looking towards the future of our city environment in the face of climate change, individual care and custodianship is a must. The panel discussion explored the role of materiality and how this can enable living with, designing with and caring for Country for everyone. This conversation built on learnings from council’s Abo...
Mar 23, 2023•1 hr 15 min
What will the buildings of the future be made of? The construction industry is a material and energy hungry sector, accounting for a staggering forty percent of global CO2 emissions. Architects, designers and engineers are taking up the challenge to overhaul the materials economy. They are embracing new materials and processes, reducing our dependence on finite resources and minimising waste and redundancy. In this discussion, panelists from across the industry talked about how they adapted thei...
Mar 10, 2023•1 hr 20 min
What is the future of biodesign in Australia? How do we design conditions for co-existence? Tune in for an expert panel conversation exploring how we can use biodesign to help humanity transition toward a circular, bio-based, regenerative economy. Biodesign is an innovative approach to product design that uses biotechnology, materials science, and engineering to create products that are based on natural processes—reducing waste and minimizing the use of non-renewable resources. What are the ethi...
Mar 10, 2023•1 hr 3 min
Timber is an ageless material that has many uses and many lives; yet large volumes of it enter the waste stream every year. Thankfully, a dedicated group of processors and artisans tap into this resource to recreate, reuse and recycle new products. Listen in on a discussion on how timber enters the waste stream and how it is removed, recycled and repurposed for new uses—from garden mulch to high-end furniture. Starting with the pallet, we will explore how these humble items are collected, and th...
Mar 10, 2023•46 min
For thousands of years possum skins were used to make cloaks by First Nations people in the south-east of Australia. Often given to them at birth, a person’s possum skin cloak told their life story, growing with them and collecting more elaborate designs as the owner moved through life. Sadly, after European colonisation, the practice was lost, lying dormant, with only a handful of cloaks remaining in museum collections. In recent years, the cultural practice of the possum skin cloak has been re...
Mar 10, 2023•1 hr 2 min
The practice of painting on barks for ceremony, and for the transmission of stories, law and culture, are an important and enduring practice in Yolŋu communities around Arnhem Land and the Top End. Bark paintings today are appreciated around the world as a powerful expression of the beauty and strength of Yolŋu culture. However, the practice of harvesting, producing, painting and sharing a bark painting is also an important act of cultural conservation and preservation. This hands-on Indigenous-...
Mar 10, 2023•59 min
Material—by being composed of matter—is a tangible artifact. Materiality, on the other hand, is inclusive of tangible and intangible matter. Digital materiality is the state of representation of physical materials, whether they are tangible or not. Listen in to Gunditjmara, Djabwurrung artist Hayley Millar Baker and Burraguttumal Curator Sebastian Goldspink as they discussed the tangibility and the ephemeral in digital art making and self portraiture through a First Nation’s lens. This talk was ...
Mar 10, 2023•41 min
The City of Melbourne is committed to addressing the Climate Emergency through its Emissions Reduction Plan 2021-2026 and Climate Change Mitigation Strategy. Until now, much of the emphasis has rightly been on reducing operational emissions. The focus has now turned to embodied carbon which is present in all materials and products we use today. This talk sought to facilitate an interactive discussion on the solutions to deliver sustainable built environments by using low carbon and low embodied ...
Mar 10, 2023•50 min
The selection of materials for application in the built environment contributes to the commodification of Country. If we reframe our approach to design with an understanding that Country is not solely a material entity, but a living entity—with a past, a present and future—we can be better placed to design buildings that heal Country. Tune in for a discussion that explores how the materials we select shape our spaces, have the ability to embed culture and knowledge, and contribute to a regenerat...
Mar 06, 2023•1 hr 12 min
Tune in for a conversation championing new material explorations and research from the design industry. Find out about cutting-edge developments in bioplastics manufacturing, robotic fabrication and more, from panellists working across both commercial and institutional backgrounds. Many of these products feature biomimicry and advanced material science to create new technologies and materials. Working at the forefront of research and mass production, our panellists reveal the synergies and diffe...
Feb 10, 2023•1 hr 30 min
Sharing food unites people across different communities and gives us space to share and learn from one another. For those away from home, food acts as a point of connection, remembering and nostalgia; for those wanting to explore new cultures, food can often act as the first step. Melbourne is home to a diverse range of cultures, and this is reflected in the city’s culinary offerings. It is no surprise then, that the sharing of food, and its history, has allowed this city to take great strides t...
Feb 10, 2023•54 min
The most sustainable building is the one that lasts. In today’s state of accelerated social and technological change, can we design buildings that will last hundreds of years? We know materials are made of matter—with all the significant implications of lifecycle performance and embodied energy. Materials also matter, linking the physical environment and our embodied experience of the world. Reconciling this dual nature is key to creating sustainable communities. In their architectural practice,...
Feb 10, 2023•1 hr 9 min
Tune in to hear a conversation from filmmakers contributing to the Black Diasporas project, a showcase of 10 short films that document the experiences of individuals of African ancestry living in Naarm. Making a reference to African oral narrative cultural practices, the project is the result of seventy-five community members and creatives, collaborating to document topics like childbirth, daily life, and the effects of stereotyping. Telling stories is a political act. While no project can entir...
Feb 10, 2023•56 min
Tune in to hear Fieldwork, the architects behind Collingwood Yards, hosting a panel conversation looking at how to foster connection and collaboration through architecture. Using Collingwood Yards as their case study, this discussion explores how physical space, materials and design can foster communication and collaboration. From community consultations to approaches that focus on minimal intervention and mixed use, there are many ways architecture can play a role in creating and facilitating a...
Dec 22, 2022•47 min
As permanent visitors, working in professions that reshape Country, what if every person on a team shared the responsibility to look after Country by following a kinship to Country model? What would be the benefits and the potential pitfalls? Where would the line need to be drawn between appropriate and appropriation? MPavilion’s sixth annual BLAKitecture forum aims to centralise Indigenous voices in conversations about architecture, the representation of histories, and the present and future st...
Dec 22, 2022•54 min
This discussion celebrates innovative, cutting-edge design by Australia’s small architecture practices and hears from some of the winners of the 2022 ArchiTeam Awards. Learn more about the innovations behind this year’s winning designs, which rethink housing typologies, blur the edges between the indoors and the outdoors and facilitate new relationships with light and the space around us. Honouring the ingenious work of emerging, small and medium architecture practices, the ArchiTeam Awards are ...
Dec 22, 2022•1 hr 27 min
How can planners and developers design precincts that don’t just look good, but that truly make us feel like we belong somewhere? This stimulating panel, hosted by Six Degrees Architects, delves into the importance of connection and emotional well-being in place-making. They use different case studies to look at how to creatively transform a place—rather than destroying and rebuilding it—and at how this approach impacts our well-being and psychology. They also talk about what we can do to respec...
Dec 22, 2022•1 hr 22 min
The Parlour for the Summer Salon is a lively intergenerational conversation between Marika Neustupny and Suzanne Dance. Marika and Suzanne set the scene with a public conversation about life, architecture and everything in between.
Dec 22, 2022•50 min
Dan Hill curates a discussion with Mae-Ling Lokko, Xu Tiantian and Joseph Grima to discuss the commonalities between them and their work in more detail. After delving into the specifics of the highly-localised nature of Mae-Ling’s and Tiantian’s work,the panellists turn to a broader discussion around whether a local response can contribute to a global response. Questioning how we can factor externalities into the design process to ensure that the idea of stewardship is ingrained in projects, the...
Aug 25, 2022•35 min
Joseph Grima takes a step back, literally, to show us an image of the earth taken from the Apollo 17 space shuttle. This is the moment when we realise that we operate within a finite, closed ecosystem while coming to terms with the fact that our economies depend on exponential growth. Discussing the historical, entrenched views humans have towards the environment – notably dominated by our economic framework – Joseph unpacks the ways in which this world view was created, how it evolved, and why ...
Aug 25, 2022•54 min
Introducing us to the concept of ‘architectural acupuncture’ Xu Tiantian presents four projects in rural China, where small projects have created big opportunities for revitalising rural villages. Each project is vastly different, an outcome of the highly-localised approach to design using traditional materials and building techniques. In this way, materials and their production are a cultural expression and each of Xu Tiantian’s projects seeks to restore cultural heritage, preserving tradition ...
Aug 25, 2022•29 min
How can dealing with waste become less of a punishment and more of an opportunity? Sharing her work in Ghana, Mae-Ling Lokko explores three key material flows, involving the land, the plate and the building. Using coconut husks and mycelium – a type of fungus used to compost food waste – as examples of alternative building products, Mae-Ling demonstrates a transformational pathway in which agricultural and food waste materials can present new opportunities within a bio-economy. Through her explo...
Aug 25, 2022•42 min
In this summative discussion, Mel Dodds is joined by Dave Wandin, Indy Johar, Jane Mah Hutton and Vo Trong Nghia, as together they crystalise the common themes throughout the morning’s presentations. Emphasising our need to examine our relationship to materials, panellists discussed how to re-orient our focus from ideas of ownership towards ideas of material stewardship and responsibility towards the land. Although the scale of both the projects and the ideas presented differed greatly between s...
Aug 25, 2022•51 min
Vo Trong Nghia’s approach to architecture embodies mindfulness towards materials which demonstrates the possibilities of thoughtful, considered designs. Join Vo Trong Nghia as he presents a series of projects created by his practice – each one a powerful testament to his belief that we need more greenery in our cities for the health of our urban environments, as well as our own. Building predominantly in Vietnam, Vo Trong uses familiar materials such as stone and bamboo in his designs, to create...
Aug 25, 2022•43 min
Have you ever paused to consider where all the materials around us come from, and what will happen to them? Walking us through her recent book – Reciprocal Landscapes – Jane Mah Hutton shares her research tracing the origins, labour practices and regimes required to bring five key materials to the streets of Manhattan. Guano fertilizer, granite, steel, trees and wood provide examples of how material flows can be disrupted by humans, and how we have become alienated from our materials, the places...
Aug 25, 2022•25 min
Climate change is a symptom of the failure of our systems: systems in which humans have constructed a theory of dominion and viewed the planet as an infinite resource to be exploited. In a fast-paced and provocative talk, Indy Johar presents a worrying overview of the climate crisis and global systems which have resulted in a fundamental transition in the way we relate to the world around us. But don’t be alarmed, Indy presents a range of opportunities and provocations to help create a ‘planetar...
Aug 25, 2022•51 min
If we can re-conceptualise material flows as flows of energy – from the land, during use, and back to Country – we open the door to a conscientious stewardship of materials by acknowledging that energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. After welcoming us to Country, Uncle Dave Wandin discusses how the financial cost of material acquisition ignores the ecological costs of material consumption. Following a discussion of circular ecology – an alternative method for valuing our globa...
Aug 25, 2022•25 min
Mae-ling Lokko is an educator, architectural scientist and biomaterials technology researcher from Ghana and the Philippines whose work centres on the upcycling of agrowaste and biopolymer materials. Her research integrates a broad range of criteria that questions contemporary material-value systems to evolve life cycle design to meet generative justice criteria. Chris Bourke, the Melbourne bureau chief for Bloomberg News, spoke with Mae-ling ahead of the Living Cities Forum 2022, which centres ...
Aug 11, 2022•44 min
The Melbourne Awards Alumni Breakfast Panel Discussion. A panel conversation exploring the topic of redefining leadership in turbulent times, featuring Lord Mayor Sally Capp, Peggy O’Neal AO (President of the Richmond Football Club and Chancellor of RMIT University), Dr Linny Phuong (Founder of The Water Well Project) and Daniel Manly (Brand Director, Arbory Bar & Eatery/Arbory Afloat/HER Bar/BKK.
Jun 09, 2022•33 min
