Sydney Architecture Festival announces 2016 program highlights
The 10th annual Sydney Architecture Festival returns in 2016 with an action-packed four-day program of talks, events, tours and architecture installations presented from Friday 30 September until Monday 3 October 2016.
The Festival will be headlined by a global address delivered on World Architecture Day on Monday 3 October by Indy Johar, UK based architect and co-founder of Architecture 00. An expert in socially driven sustainability, Johar will speak exclusively in Australia at the Festival about WikiHouse – of which he is a Director – an open source project for designing and building sustainable, resource-light and cost effective dwellings.
This year, the Festival partners with Central Park Sydney, the inner Sydney precinct representing the highest standard of architectural and urban design, with events and activities taking place around the former Carlton United Breweries site and surrounding Chippendale region.
The four-day Festival aims to connect people to place and to transform their experience of architecture and design, with a program that includes free and ticketed events presented from morning until late evening.
Centring on Chippendale and Central Park Sydney, the 2016 Festival offers tours to discover the area, with Walking and Talking Chippendale tours running from Saturday 1 October until Monday 3 October, exploring the creative precinct and revealing little-known stories about its architecture.
Chippendale’s history is explored further with Swamp, Squat, Skol, an audio-documentary created by ABC Radio National exclusively for this year’s Festival, that tracks the colourful history of the site over the past century.
Two architectural installations will be unveiled on Saturday 1 October, ‘Pod Life’ and ‘The Global 1:1’, created by local architects seeking to challenge ideas of living, by radically rethinking housing and considering what personal and public space mean in different places around the globe.
Also on Saturday 1 October, Quick Chat and Insight Interviews provide a glimpse into the thought process and practice behind what architects create in both short and in-depth discussions.
Day three of the Festival on Sunday 2 October offers a workshop to Meet an Architect where participants can discover unique insights into design and building in Sydney. Also on offer is kid’s workshop Supermodels – architects of tomorrow, encouraging kids to get in touch with their inner architect.
Special event The (sh)ArchTank, presented in partnership with Urbanistas and BKA Architecture, presents an evening full of potential DIY solutions pitched by change-makers and an opportunity to hear about past projects that show the power of ‘architecture in the cracks’.
This year’s Festival also includes a number of conferences and forums exploring the current architecture landscape. On Friday 30 September and Saturday 1 October, the 9th Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia (AASA) Conference in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney looks at the future of education and research in architecture.
Five Festival Ambassadors have been announced as representatives for the Festival in 2016: Australian radio and television presenter Fenella Kernebone; architect and host of Seven’s House Rules Joe Snell; NSW Government Architect Peter Poulet; Architect Penelope Seidler and Urban Strategist Michelle Tabet.
“Everyone experiences architecture whether they think of it as such or not. It is our duty as architects and professionals in this arena to engage the wider public in a discussion about spaces and places that they can relate to, thus embedding architecture into our daily live,” commented Festival ambassador Michelle Tabet.
Architect and Festival Ambassador Penelope Seidler added: “We all experience design and architecture every day, I encourage everyone to find out why some buildings and objects are superior to others!”
The Festival concludes on World Architecture Day on Monday 3 October with the 2016 Sydney Architecture Festival global oration and panel discussion with Indy Johar, UK based architect and co-founder of Architecture 00.
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