ABP's Chair of Architecture, Philip Goad, is part of the winning creative team behind Australia's contribution to the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Announced by the Australian Institute of Architects at a gala event on July 18, felix._Giles_Anderson+Goad's winning exhibition entitled 'Augmented Australia'  met the challenge of designing an exhibition without a pavilion.

In line with Rem Koolhaas’s focus on historical importance and national identity, the creative team will bring 21 unrealised Australian projects to life using three-dimensional augmented models, images, voiceovers and animations; ten historical designs, ten unbuilt public buildings by contemporary architects and the new Australian Pavilion by Denton Corker Marshall.

The Venice exhibition will be constructed around augmented reality which can be activated with an app for smart devices. Visitors will be able to point their smart phone at  trigger images to access a catalogue of virtual material allowing them to visualise and walk through each unique project.

The University of Melbourne's Festival of Ideas kicks off on Tuesday 1 October bringing together thought provoking presentations, discussions, debates and special events around the theme, the art and science of wellbeing.

Together with Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute (MSSI), ABP is running Environments Day on 2 October as part of the 2013 Festival of Ideas Programme. The action packed day is divided into three distinct sessions looking at; sustainable, post-carbon future, liveability, and country, place and wellbeing. Lively and progressive debate is guaranteed with a range of experts across diverse fields.

Students are afforded a unique opportunity to get involved with two student competitions, culminating in an exhibition and prize giving at Environments day. The first, managed by MSSI, calls for proposals for a healthy, just and sustainable post carbon society and ABP's competition asks students to produce a visionary film for the 20-minute city.

More details for environments day will be available over the coming months.

Visits the Festival of Ideas website.

Carrillo Gantner Theatre, Sidney Myer Asia Centre
6 August @ 7pm

Alan Greenberger, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Director of Commerce, Philadelphia, joins us for the third Dean's Lecture of 2013.

In his lecture, Cities, Growth and Design: Perfect Together, Alan will discuss the inherent interplay between place, ambition and character, and how successful cities balance these sometimes competing objectives.  The talk will also focus attention on the common major drivers of city growth - government, institutions and businesses - and explore how these drivers can best produce a better quality of life for city dwellers.

Find out more            Register now

Gallery Two, Craft, 31 Flinders Lane
2 - 30 August

CDE Maters studio 15, led by Paul Loh and David Leggett, will host Machining Aesthetics, an exhibition of student work from Friday 2 August at Craft Victoria, as part of their annual festival, Craft Cubed 2013.

Machining Aesthetics examines architectural design as material and craft production. The spatial and material prototypes presented in this exhibition explore the interface between material, effects and digital technology. The exhibition will feature models and drawings; each project delivering a vision for a new home for Craft.

The exhibition is curated by Joe Pascoe and supported by Melbourne School of Design and Power to Make.

Wunderlich @757 Swanston Street
9 September - 4 October, 9am - 5pm

SIBLING Nation will present On/Off, a dynamic exhibition as part of the ABP Alumni Survey Series, this September in the Wunderlich @757. On/Off will explore the spatial implications of connectivity - an issue the eight directors of this young practice consider vital to the future of society.

Through their alumni survey exhibition, SIBLING ask; Can architecture facilitate an 'other' impulse: to switch off, to disconnect, disengage, disassociate? The act of disconnection can be liberating. It can be a personal moment of silence, recharge, refuge, privacy and escape. On the other hand, it can also be the ultimate act of connection - to meet with others in physical space.

This exhibition will see the Wunderlich @757 transformed into a space of social investigation and experimentation. Join us as we explore the range of socio-spatial opportunities between the state of "on" and "off".

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By sowing more roads, we only harvest more traffic

That is the informed opinion of John Stone, Lecturer in Urban Planning at ABP. John believes that the proposed East West Link will create more problems than it could hope to solve. Infrastructure, environment and budgetary issues will ensue from what John describes as "a mad scheme that should never have reached its current planning phase."

We spoke to John about his views relating to this controversial government decision for Melbourne. Read interview

Playtime in Melbourne

David O’Brien, Senior Lecturer in Architecture

I have always been taken by the superb examples of Modernism in Melbourne. From the austerity of the former BHP headquarters on the corner of Bourke and William to the sublime Heide II in Bulleen, these buildings heralded a new age of optimism, respect for industrialized materials and understated beauty.

Today, sitting in the foyer of the ICI building (now Orica) at the corner of Nicholson and Albert, I am reminded why I remain so excited by this trailblazing architecture and its predecessors worldwide. From the aluminum window frames, large panes of glass, breeze blocks, marble, timber slatted ceilings, to the use of sculpture and the transparency that allows light and landscaped gardens inside - we see that God is in the details. The scene might only be enhanced with the tap-tapping of footsteps on polished floors, pneumatic seats, reflections of the 'old' Melbourne in the glazing and a bewildered M. Hulot.