DesignEx and the annual Australian Institute of Architecture's National Conference kicked off a winter of design-related events in Melbourne last weekend.

Nader Tehrani, one half of the architectural team behind our new building design, was an international guest at the AIA Conference. Nader also spent a week with ABP staff, students and stakeholders sharing his design expertise and teaching developments from MIT and across Europe. During Nader's visit in the faculty, some fortunate students and donors had the opportunity to inspect the construction activity 'up close' with both Nader and John Wardle. You can stay across this exciting project by accessing timelapse videos and images  and project updates on the new building blog.

Gender equality in the contemporary architecture industry was the focus of the Transform symposium held in Melbourne on 31 May. Over 200 people attended the event which provoked debate about access, agency and remaking the architectural profession. ABP sponsored the event which is linked to the ARC-funded research project Equity and diversity in the Australian architecture profession: women, work and leadership, led by Naomi Stead of the University of Queensland and ABP's Karen Burns, Julie Willis and Justine Clark.

As winter closes in we invite you to come inside and check out Denton Corker Marshall's 'Land Art' show in the Wunderlich Gallery before it closes on 14 June. Or, take a unique peek inside one of DCM's stunning houses open to the public this month as part of the Robin Boyd Foundation's Open House Program.

Parallel Fields and One:One
8-14 June, Soldier Sailor Space, 49 Argyle St, Fitzroy

These Master of Architecture Design Studios will present an assortment of student works at a special exhibition in Fitzroy for one week only.

Inspired by chefs such as Ferran Adria, Heston Bloomenthal and Rene Redzepi, Parallel Fields takes strong references from culinary and gastronomy arts for their multi-sensorial qualities, often haptic experiences, and most of all, their novel approaches to their medium.

Preoccupied with how architecture can trigger the senses, One:One is founded on a mindful and tactile engagement with space.  Read More

MSD Director Alan Pert and team members from NORD (Glasgow) and Atelier 10 (UK and USA) recently won second prize in the Lodge on the Lake Design Ideas Competition. 

The competition, a Centenary of Canberra initiative by the Gallery of Australian Design and the University of Canberra, attracted 242 entries who each proposed a design for a new home for the Prime Minister at Attunga Point on Lake Burley Griffin.

The competition brief asked that the designs take account of ceremonial, private and security functions of a PM’s residence, and include a private home and study, function spaces and support services, as well as a landscape design for the 6.8-hectare site, incorporating a jetty, swimming pool and areas for garden parties.

The NORD/Aterlier 10 design responded to the competition brief by proposing a building inspired by the specific topography of its
site: a building which took ideas beyond pure abstraction to deal 'head on' with its deeper, emotive responsibilities.

The finalists' projects will be exhibited at the Gallery of Australian Design from 15 August to 19 October.  You can view all the winning designs online.

How public transport expansion gained bipartisan support in Perth: the lessons for Melbourne

Alannah MacTiernan was the ALP Minister for Planning & Infrastructure in Western Australia from 2001 to 2008.

As the Victorian Liberals propose more inner-city roads and mothball plans for extensions of our rail system, Alannah considers the lessons from Perth in building bipartisan political support for rail expansion?

RSVP: Hayley Shaw abp-research@unimelb.edu.au by Tuesday 11 June.

We launched the ABP Agenda series this year as a platform to profile the people and practices transforming our modern world. In March we saw experts in architecture and construction come together to discuss new processes and new technologies across the industry, with a particular focus on pre-fabrication.

The roundtable discussion was chaired by Professor Donald Bates. It was organised to coincide with Gregg Pasquarelli's Australian visit to speak at the Dean's Lecture Series about the work of his progressive US firm SHoP.

Gregg Pasquarelli engaged an auditorium full of students, researchers, teachers and industry professionals with the success story of his firm SHoP in the second ABP Dean's Lecture of 2013.

Warwick Mihaly discusses the lecture in detail on his blog, Panfilocastaldi, where he also elaborates on the roundtable discussion at Federation Square.

Gregg left us with an important message, verbally at the roundtable and in essence through his lecture, - Architects are the guardians of culture - "no pressure then" tweeted one of our students.

Gregg's lecture as part of the Dean's Lecture Series is available here.

Material was the theme of this year's Australian Institute of Architecture's Annual Conference, with a number of fringe events programmed around the main two day conference at Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre on Friday 31 May and Saturday 1 June. From considerations on the future of architecture at Tranform to thought provoking speakers and lively panel debate on the key material issues concerning our built environment, the conference succeeded in answering some questions and proposing even more.

Read more

"Few architects, over more than two hundred years, have deployed architecture and the Australian landscape as elements of equal artistic weight, or considered the land as an open field, as a vast aesthetic canvas that might be imbued with a sense of transcendence– except, of course, Denton Corker Marshall."

Philip Goad, Chair of Architecture, talks about Denton Corker Marshall's exhibition in ABP's Wunderlich Gallery. Read essay.

This exhibition, Denton Corker Marshall Land Art | Nine Small Buildings, the first ABP Alumni Suvery show to be held in the new Wunderlich Gallery @ 757 Swanston Street, is a portfolio of compositions that fuse architecture and landscape.  View the exhibition before it closes on 14 June.

Jingyi Tan, Photographer
Exhibition of Australian and New Zealand Back Country
SOUTH

Jingyi Tan graduated from ABP with a Bachelor of Planning and Design (Architecture) in 2007 and  Master of Architecture in 2010. He currently works in the family construction business. Jingyi has also pursued another passion, which he has found he has an innate talent for; photography.

He began his journey capturing the urban environment on film but found his flair lay in landscape photography. South displays images of his travels through Australia and New Zealand.

Read on

Adam Pustola, Space

Adam is a winner of the Dulux Study Tour Prize 2013, which saw him travel with four other emerging architects to Shanghai, London and Barcelona. Adam told us about his favourite space in Melbourne.

The forecourt of the State Library of Victoria is a place that best describes Melbourne. It's closely tied to the city's political history, contemporary urban culture and our iconic Hoddle Grid. It was never 'designed' for how it's used now, but the sloped terraces, generous stairs and bluestone copings attract citizens and new events. The place doesn't need to be 'activated' by retail or hospitality and it's the prototype for the Federation Square plaza. And it's surrounded by major public institutions, a shopping centre and apartments, demonstrating the diversity that our urban environment can sustain.

Adam is profiled in Melbourne University Magazine (MUM) this September and the full article will be available on our website thereafter.