Standing in the foyers of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre seemed to suit this year’s AIA conference, Parallax; in-between halls, sessions, ideas and eras. Two of the big names in Melbourne for the event were Slovenian ‘rock star’ philosopher Slavoj Žižek and super-curator Aaron Betsky, themselves in-between disciplines (psychoanalysis/philosophy and architecture/curation respectively). Betsky critiqued these kind of contemporary well-designed foyer spaces – his own youthful vision of a future with good contemporary architecture has been realised, but for him it’s not enough. Betsky seemed to be getting at a lack of radicalness in architecture; he said we need to be weirder, and ‘to crack things apart’. Žižek spoke of the space in-between walls, the third space of servicing. I remembered the film Brazil, with its densely filled cavities of cables. I asked Žižek about this film, he loved it and recommend the DVD three-edition set. His favourite American film is The Fountainhead, announced in one session much to the alarm of Betsky.

For the first time, and hopefully in a model that will continue, the conference fell under the direction of a practice rather than an individual. This is reflective of both a maturing in the conference outlook as well as an increase in its ambition. At the helm this year were Tasmania- and Sydney-based practice Terroir, its directors Gerard Reinmuth, Scott Balmforth and Richard Blythe sharing in the difficult task of hosting, commentating and successfully promoting the conference in an industry downturn. At the outset, the creative directors stated that they hoped “the event inspires, irritates and challenges.” Like some before it, this conference attempted to foster debate in its sessions, particularly between the speakers. Did this happen? To some extent, yes – politeness and agreeing to disagree did come through, however. There were moments of conjecture, and this made the conference an engaging event; and architects need a complex and challenging dialogue.

It was internationally focused in terms of its speakers, with broad and theoretical concerns.
The conference was structured into six themed sessions of ‘Studio’, ‘Media’, ‘Politics’, ‘Young Guns’, ‘Collaboration’, and ‘The Cosmopolitan’. Each session had two speakers presenting, after which a third guest speaker, acting as agent, would develop a discussion. The crowd was then encouraged to participate, through SMS questions, which were curated and relayed via one of the creative directors who joined the panel on the couch. Of these sessions, Media and Politics, perhaps as a product of being early on in the proceedings, seemed to set a tone for the event, and demonstrated an engagement with the wider world beyond building.

The Politics session featured Alejandro Zaera-Polo, director of London-based Foreign Office Architects (FOA), and Veronika Valk of ZiZi & YoYo , based in Estonia. Slavoj Žižek was the agent for discussion after the presentations. The young Valk has become a facilitator of space and events in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Both an architect and advisor, she showed a series of projects of light, activity, fashion, industrial design and building that have re-engaged her city with itself and its new reclaimed waterfront. Her ‘grounds-up’ work was set up in opposition to the high-end and very authored work of FOA. The interaction between Žižek and Zaera-Polo in the session encapsulated some key concerns around production and global economic systems. Zaera-Polo’s critique of capital saw merit in brands such as EasyJet, Apple and Zara that have brought mobility and design to the mass population. The recent work of FOA was then presented in this light; Zaera-Polo has brought his own ‘high-architecture’ of the Yokohama International Port Terminal to a wider audience in two shopping centre projects that were presented. Meydan shopping square in Istanbul was, by Zaera-Polo’s own admission, badly built, but this ”didn’t matter” – the important thing being that it was built, and it had created a successful public space and a new type of horizontal building. The conversation between Zaera-Polo and Žižek represented two views in relation to capitalism – Žižek is a Lacanian Marxist who questions our acceptance of global capital while Zaera-Polo a post-capitalist who seeks to make the most of this global system.

The Media session saw Aaron Betsky give a powerhouse, showman-like performance of his work as architectural curator, building particularly on his work on the Venice Architecture Biennale last year where he was creative director. His co-speaker, Geoff Manaugh, started and runs BLDG BLOG, which has emerged from amongst the world’s millions of blogs as a key commentary on design, architecture and building. Manaugh positioned the blog and electronic publication as a means of re-energising architectural criticism, a counter to the more established architectural voices and the traditional role of the canon. Manaugh suggested that in some respects the film Ghostbusters might have had more influence on the way architecture is understood and appreciated than Le Corbusier. It is a worldview that recognises the potency of popular culture and that everyone now has both the right and the ability to comment and contribute to architectural discourse. He showed key examples of architectural ideas being proposed outside of the discipline, the most memorable of which being a recent computer game, Fracture, which features ‘terrain deformation grenades’ – weapons that re-configure the ground plane when used. Manaugh brought home how important the internet is now, and how it has change the cultural paradigm we all find ourselves standing in.