What does sustainable house design mean to you?

The Least House Necessary™ is a sustainable design workshop which challenges participants to think about low energy design and what is really needed to live comfortably in Queensland.

Teachers, designers, renovators and design enthusiasts are invited to attend this hands-on workshop which considers housing sustainability from environmental, social and economic perspectives.

Image: Participants in The Least House Necessary™ workshop. Photo by People Oriented Design.

In this world-first preview, Australian architectural photographer John Gollings has curated a selection of awe-inspiring images of abandoned cities as part of his new exhibition The Dead Cities of the Asia Pacific.

John has recorded the progress of modern architecture in Australia and throughout the world for 40 years. He is considered one of Australia’s leading architectural photographers.

Join us in the Design Lounge for a special artist talk with John on 25 March (free, bookings required).

Part of the Asia Pacific Architecture Forum 2017.

Image: Watchtower. Photo by John Gollings.

It’s back! Our popular annual lecture series, in partnership with UQ Architecture, starts on 21 March with Singapore-based architect Wenhui Lim.

Tickets for the first two lectures are already booked out, so add your name to the waitlist or bookmark our live stream page to watch from wherever you are.

Mark your diaries now — we will release tickets for future lectures two weeks prior to each event. Tickets for the third lecture with Jeremy McLeod (Breathe Architecture) will be available from 22 March.

Image: Moon Hoon at UQ Architecture lecture in 2016. Photo by Dianna Snape.

Read our Q&A with Wenhui Lim of SPARK and Melissa Liando of Csutoras & Liando, who will speak at the first two UQ Architecture lectures as part of APAF 2017.

Design Minds regional amabassador, Dr Ally Lankester provides us with a perceptive glimpse into design thinking and community-led innovation in the regions.

Entries for the prestigious 2017 Peter Doherty STEM awards are now open. Find out how to enter and be in the running.

Image: Wenhui Lim of SPARK.

In our series examining designers and their interaction with SLQ, we speak to Brisbane visual communicator Jennifer Marchant about her experience navigating SLQ’s collections. Read more about the objects she discovered and her creative response inspired by the collections.

We also speak to Dr Kelly Greenop, curator of this year’s UQ Architecture lecture series. Check out her Q&A and list of her favourite design books.

Plus, find out how you can win tickets to the ArchitectureAP Symposium!

Image: Jennifer Marchant presenting her design finds.

We’re gearing up for APAF and the UQ Architecture lecture series with a vibrant selection of architecture related titles. Some of the books we’re enjoying this month are:

• 5: A Documentation of the Work from Design Studio by Edwards Moore
• Twenty Over Eighty: Conversations on a Lifetime in Architecture and Design by Aileen Kwun and Bryn Smith
• Takaharu + Yui Tezuka Architecture Catalogue
• Studio Futures: Changing Trajectories in Architectural Education edited by Donald Bates, Vivian Mitsogianni and Diego Ramirez-Lovering
• Architectural Guide: Japan by Botond Bognar.

Don’t miss our free artists’ talks this month.

Next Friday hear from Indigenous artist Fiona Foley in a Q&A session about her life and work, including her Black Opium installation in the SLQ South Bank building.

Then, on Sunday 26 March come to free lectures delivered by internationally renowned artist’s book maker Dr Helen Douglas and Siganto Foundation Artists’ Books Research Fellow Dr Lyn Ashby, as part of the Siganto Foundation artists’ books series 2017.

Image: In the beginning far off in the dreamtime, 1993, Helen Malone, Australian Library of Art, SLQ.

Scenes of our City presents urban scenes inspired by Brisbane’s architectural history through works by 21 artists including Vida Lahey, Noel McKenna and Margaret Olley. These artists have observed the life of the city with fascination and inadvertently captured its physical changes.

The selection of artworks, taken from the Museum of Brisbane’s collection, reveals the emergence of Brisbane as a confident new world city and honours the buildings and settings that have shaped it.  

Part of the Asia Pacific Architecture Forum 2017.

Image: Painting by Vida Lahey.