Architecture in the spotlight
by Rebecca Gill
The interdisciplinary architectural talkfest of the year was held at UniSA in March, as part of the Adelaide Festival of Arts.
The Workings of Structure and Edifice symposium saw dozens of movers and shakers in the national architecture scene descend on City West campus, to tackle issues critical to the future of our cities.
Two linked events questioned what constitutes the best architectural ideas and practice in Australia – a visual art and design research group colloquium, Structure, and the joint Louis Laybourne Smith School of Architecture and Design and the Hawke Centre’s third Everycity Symposium, Edifice.
Participants from disciplines as diverse as philosophy, visual art, architecture, design, landscape, nanoscience, politics and governance, cultural studies and dance contributed to a day of robust academic debate.
Probing the intellectual core of modern architecture, Edifice focused on the issue of public space and what defines truly “human” architecture. Adelaide City councillor Judith Brine chaired the event, with key practitioners including Australian studies expert Nikos Papastergiadis and award-winning architects Kerstin Thompson and John Wardle contributing to the lively discussions.
Consensus on the day was that corporate architecture and ownership were threatening the notion of public city space. Participants stressed the importance of shared space in connecting people in meaningful ways and debated how this trend could be reversed in modern design.
There was also an excellent demonstration of the importance of landscape in new thinking, with the idea of “place” being put before ”edifice” in recent innovative Australian architecture projects.
A transcript of the Everycity Symposium is available on the Hawke Centre
website
www.hawkecentre.unisa.edu.au