MPavilion

Listen back to this discussion with Andy Fergus, Alexis Kalagas and Katherine Sundermann around the theme 'What is home'. This talk was presented as part of a 5-day long program exploring 'Who we are together, and what is home?', with talks and workshops supported by RACV.

Andy Fergus is an urban design critic, commentator and practitioner. Andy is a design advocate at City of Melbourne, co-director of Melbourne Architours and Studio Lead at Melbourne School of Design. Through these roles Andy is engaged with the community, government, design industry and students to advocate for more inclusive, ethical and high-quality environments. Andy’s multidisciplinary background encompasses urban design, planning and architecture, enabling Andy to act as a translator between these disciplines. Andy is also a Nightingale Housing collaborator, a City of Sydney Alternative Housing Ideas Finalist and works in the facilitation of a number of non-speculative urban development prototypes.

Alexis Kalagas is an urban strategist and writer. Previously a foreign policy advisor with the Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet, he spent four years at the interdisciplinary design practice Urban-Think Tank, working on housing and inclusive urban development projects in Europe, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa. Inspired by time living in Zürich and London, he has a particular interest in scalable alternative development models for affordable housing, including the role of digital innovation. He has explored these themes as a Harvard GSD Richard Rogers Fellow, a finalist in the City of Sydney’s Alternative Housing Ideas Challenge, and as a participant in the 2019 Seoul Biennale of Architecture & Urbanism (with TEN).

Katherine Sundermann is an Associate Director at MGS Architects, leading masterplan projects for universities, creative employment areas and housing precincts. Drawing on her experience working as an architect and urban designer in Australia, Germany and the Netherlands, Katherine is passionate about promoting ‘deliberative development’ models in Australia, to help create more diverse and inclusive neighbourhoods. Together with Andy Fergus and Alexis Kalagas, Katherine is a finalist of the City of Sydney’s Housing Ideas Challenge, with a housing model that brings Zurich-style cooperative housing to Australia.

Listen back on this keynote speech from the Royal College of Art's Tarsha Finney, on 'Domesticity: I am trapped'. This talk was presented as part of a 5-day long program exploring 'Who we are together, and what is home?', with talks and workshops supported by RACV.

Dr Tarsha Finney is an architectural urbanist, senior research tutor and program lead on the City Design MA, School of Architecture at the Royal College of Art. Previously she was visiting professor in the School of Architecture at the RCA, leading the Intergenerational Cities Research Cluster. Her work is focused on housing, the city and urban change. Her research interests cross several areas: domesticity, the housing project and the role of multi-residential housing in the constitution of the city since the nineteenth century; architectural typology and notions of architectural disciplinary specificity and autonomy; the architectural urbanism of innovation in cities; and the relationship between spatial performance, ownership and governance structures in urban resilience and transformation in cities, with particular reference to ideas of alternate housing and neighbourhood models.

In his recent documentary ‘2040’, speaking of the changes we’ll all need to make if we’re to save the planet, Damon Gameau says ‘transitions are awkward.’ If this is so, and we need to make a ton of them to survive, how do we help each other make them? What are the benefits of change? Why, and how, do we find it uncomfortable? How can we more openly approach it?

Look back on this MTalks session, with educator-artist Kate Ellis and a panel comprising artists yoga teacher Lucienne Shanti; writer and actor Candy Bowers, and Chunky Move teacher and independent dancer/choreographer Sarah Aiken.

Listen back to this talk from Global Gardens of Peace as they lead a highly engaging workshop of exploring perceptions, thoughts and attitudes. Can landscape design activate cultural and social transformation? Can we create landscapes that have profound positive impacts on people’s lives? Explore new landscapes and ideas that will open the way you think about the land around you.

Your health is not usually the first consideration when choosing a new postcode, however where you live is increasingly recognised as a key determinant for your health and wellbeing. While the connection between health outcomes, planning and design is increasingly acknowledged, the role of the planning system to implement public health policy remains largely unexplored. This raises the question: how can the planning system be used as a tool for public health policy?

Revisit this MTalks session, which brings together an expert panel of planners, academics and designers, exploring the role and responsibility of planning and design to promote positive health outcomes, and suggesting how the Victorian planning system may be reinvented as a tool for preventative health policy.

In February we welcomed the razor-sharp team from The Conversation for a very special MPavilion Book Club session. Listen back to this podcast to hear from Arts + Culture editor Suzy Freeman-Greene as she leads a discussion about the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, Richard Powers’ grand novel The Overstory, joined by Kathryn Williams, professor of environmental psychology at the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

The Conversation is an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the public. Its team of professional editors work with university, CSIRO and research institute experts to unlock their knowledge for use by the wider public.

Revisit this conversation with Ross Harding and Joost Bakker moderated by Tasmin O'Neill, as part of the Green Magazine weekend of programming on Saturday 1 Feb.

Ross Harding's organisation Finding Infinity is dedicated transforming our cities from consumers to producers, will discuss how Melbourne can transition to become self-sufficient by 2030 by connecting technology with culture.

Joost Bakker, an environmental activist and florist, who discusses the scourge of greenwashing and challenges listeners to reconsider the way we live and the waste we leave behind.

What are the challenges that face Melbourne’s night time creative economy?

Look back on this interdisciplinary panel discussion, reflecting on the macro and micro pressures that face Melbourne’s night time creative spaces. Hear from representatives from the environment, government, and academic sectors on the role of spatial planning in the life cycle of these spaces, and how design can mitigate the impacts of night time activity, while ensuring night spaces are safe and inclusive. The discussion also addresses how decision makers can engage with and promote the night time creative economy, and looks at what we can do to open up night time spaces to broader audiences, without losing their essential qualities.

When asked what needs to change in order for the process of architecture to be more meaningful and respectful of Indigenous peoples, a common answer is time. Time to undertake proper engagement processes. This forum will explore the concept of deep listening and what it means for the built environment.

MPavilion’s third annual BLAKitecture forum brings together Indigenous built environment practitioners on the Yaluk-ut Weelam land of the Boon Wurrung people. The forum aims to centralise Indigenous voices in conversations about architecture, the representation of histories, the present state and the future of our built environments. BLAKitecture 2019/20 is co-curated by MPavilion’s program consultant Sarah Lynn Rees and Jack Mitchell.

Join Sophie from Green Fleet, Kylie Lewis from Of Kin, Vanessa Petrie from Beyond Zero Emissions, Luke Taylor from the Sustainable Living Foundation to discuss what we can do in the face of the climate crisis.

Powered by bicycles, the Climate Emergency Cinema invites you to experience a series of outdoor films at MPavilion celebrating the urgent grassroots action around climate change. Co-curated by the Transitions Film Festival and the Little Projector Company, the curated program of short films and award-winning feature documentaries will be introduced by leading thinkers and activists leading the climate emergency campaign here in Melbourne.