A new suburban ambition Past Event
A design-led and aspirational dialogue about future suburban transformations. The events simply ask, “what do we want our suburbs to become?”.
Ideas, experiences and the form of Australia’s suburbs have changed markedly in responses to climate change and population growth. Covid19 has given us cause to re-think the suburbs again. The various lengths and intensities of lockdowns during the pandemic exposed deficiencies in contemporary suburban living, as well as unearthed new spatial potentials amplified by the ingenuity of suburban dwellers.
While many uncertainties persist around the ways we will live and work in future, the ongoing transformation of the suburbs is inevitable. Working with designers, urban historians, policy makers, developers and residents alike, “A New Suburban Ambition” will look backwards and forwards to interrogate issues of dwelling diversity and suburban built form quality in the context of other contemporary challenges, such as shifting work patterns, changing suburban industrial landscapes, ecological repair, infrastructure upgrades and circular economies and resources.
Public lecture: Opportunities to re-make the suburbs.
31 March 5.30pm, Building G Lecture Theatre
Join us as our two guest speakers canvass the emergence of the suburban idea in Australia, how it has changed over time, contemporary opportunities for re-making the suburbs and the modes of action and engagement required to realise those opportunities.
Exhibition: Housing alternatives
26 March – 5 April 2021, Building G Concourse
A collection of contemporary dwellings design proposal for Australia’s ‘missing middle’.
NSW Missing Middle Design Competition, Office of the Government Architect NSW
QLD Density and Diversity Done Well, Queensland Government + Urban Development Institute of Australia Queensland
VIC Future Homes, Office of the Victorian Government Architect + Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning.
WA Place Value Ashfield, The University of Western Australia School of Design
Exhibition + workshops: The past and future of Australian suburbs.
31 March – 5 April Building G Lecture Theatre
Multi-scalar design investigations undertaken through the PhD by Project program at Monash University. The work explores a range of design methods for engaging with the historical and future city. Share your insights into the lived qualities and future ambitions for suburban living and working at our either of our workshops.
Workshop 1: Looking backwards, 31 March, 2pm – 5pm
Workshop 2: Looking forwards, Thursday 1 April,10am – 1pm
See below for speakers and program
** Limited in-person attendance available due to social distancing requirements.
Online participation can be arranged. Please complete this booking form to help us coordinate. Monash Art Design & Architecture, Caulfield Campus Map
GRAEME DAVISON
Graeme is Australia’s best-known urban historian and a leading social historian. His prize-winning books include The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne, City Dreamers- The Urban Imagination in Australia and Car Wars- How the Car Won our Hearts and Conquered our Cities. He is a co-editor of the landmark Oxford Companion to Australian History and an emeritus professor at Monash University.
MEL DODD
Mel is Professor and Head of Architecture at Monash University. She has been a collaborator with muf architecture/art and is responsible for innovative projects in the public realm in both London and Melbourne, working with local government on social policy initiatives for public space, including Shared Ground for Southwark Council (1997-2001). Her pedagogical practice focuses on the relationship between academia and practice, specifically within contested urban regeneration contexts. This is explored in her books Live Projects: Designing with People and Spatial Practices: Modes of Action and Engagement with the City.
Exhibitors
PhD by projects research by Jacqui Alexander, Alysia Bennett, Gyöngyvér Engloner, Laura Harper, Lee-Anne Khor, Damian Madigan, Tom Morgan, Diego Ramirez-Lovering. Plus a range of entrants to housing ideas competitions and design initiatives.
Panelists
Workshop 1: Looking backwards, 31 March, 2pm – 5pm
- 2:00pm Panel 1 – What are the ‘good’ qualities of suburban living?
Assoc. Prof. Seamus O’Hanlon, SOPHIS Monash University
Dr. Lee-Anne Khor, Urban Lab, Monash University
Assoc. Prof. Lionel Frost, Monash Business School - 3.00pm Panel 2 – What lessons from the past will help our future decisions?
Dr Laura Harper, Lecturer, Monash University
Prof. Alan Pert, Director Melbourne School of Design; IBA Melbourne
Dr. Liz Taylor, Senior Lecturer, Monash University - 4.00pm Panel 3 – what was exposed during COVID?
Dr Michael Fotheringham, AHURI Managing Director.
Tanya Taylor, Assessment Services, Moreland City Council
Prof. Carl Grodach, Director Urban Planning and Design, Monash University
Workshop 2: Looking forwards, Thursday 1 April,10am – 1pm
- 10.00am Panel 1 – Future of work and resources: changing public–private realms.
Paulo Macchia, Office of Government Architect New South Wales
Gyöngyvér Engloner, PhD Monash, Realm Studio - 11.00 Panel 2 – The future of living: role of government and design.
Peter Nelson, Office of Government Architect, Queensland
Alicia Pozniak, Office of Government Architect New South Wales
Stefan Preuss, Associate Victorian Government Architect, VIC
Daniel Martin, UWA School of Design and organiser of Place Value Ashfield
Dr Alysia Bennett, Lecturer, Monash University
Dr Damian Madigan, Senior Lecturer in Architecture, UniSA Creative, winner of NSW Missing Middle Competition - 12.10pm Panel 3 – Future technologies & practitioners: how will they change the built environment?
Dr Rachel Couper, Future Building Initiative, Monash University
Prof. Peter Newton + Dr Stephen Glackin, Swinburne University
Leia Parascandalo + Hayden Brown: Masters of Architecture students, Monash University