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Diversity + Community conference ’17

Diversity + Community conference ’17

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Above: Candevish House by Mole Architects, who is part of Diversity + Community ’17. Photo by David Butler, Siobhan Doran. 

Drawing speakers from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America and Australia, Diversity + Community is a two-day conference which provides a range of talks revealing the shifting priorities and emerging opportunities for responsive, culturally and socially engaged architecture.

Meredith Bowles, Mole Architects, Balancing Barn, Suffolk, England in collaboration with MVRDV, part of Alain de Botton ‘Living Architecture’ program.

Meredith Bowles, Mole Architects, Balancing Barn, Suffolk, England in collaboration with MVRDV, part of Alain de Botton ‘Living Architecture’ program.

Speakers at the conference include:

– Marina Tabassum (Bangladesh), who has just received a 2016 Aga Khan Award for her Bait Ur Rouf Mosque in Dhaka,
– Níall McLoughlin (Ireland/UK), who has just been awarded the 2016 RIBA Charles Jencks Award for ‘an architect who has recently made a major contribution internationally to both the theory and practice of architecture’,
– Per Arnold Andersen (Denmark), member of the editorial ‘troika’ of the provocative journal D/A,
– Meredith Bowles (UK), of Mole Architects, and executive architect of Alain de Bouton ‘Living Architecture’ program,
– Mphethi Morojele (South Africa) principal of MMA Studio, a leading indigenous practice,
– Diego Montero Espina (Uruguay) from Diego Montero Arquitectura,
– Erik Sommerfeld (US), director of the Design and Build program at the University of Colorado,
– Mette Lange (Denmark), who works in Iceland, Iran and on moveable schools in India,
– Bijoy Ramachandran (India), partner in practice Hundredhands and film maker
– Camillo Moraes Zambrano (Chile), practioner involved in emergency housing and projects in wild terrain, and
– Piers Taylor (England), award-winning architect, leader of AA Design and Build program and TV presenter.

. Camilo Moraes Zambrano, Minga Valpo voluntary emergency housing, after the 2014 fires, Valparaíso, Chile. Photo by Sergio Levet: Felix Po.

. Camilo Moraes Zambrano, Minga Valpo voluntary emergency housing, after the 2014 fires, Valparaíso, Chile. Photo by Sergio Levet: Felix Po.

The conference also provides a relaxed social environment for delegates to meet and engage directly with speakers and each other.

The event is developed in partnership with the NGV Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture and is stimulated by the current exhibition Architecture of Faith – which explores the people, process and implications of Glenn Murcutt’s Australian Islamic Centre in Newport, Victoria.

Piers Taylor, Invisible Studio, Big Shed, Hooke Park, Dorset, design and build program with AA Students. Photo by Valerie Bennett.

Piers Taylor, Invisible Studio, Big Shed, Hooke Park, Dorset, design and build program with AA Students. Photo by Valerie Bennett.

Day three of the conference offers delegates the opportunity to tour the Australian Islamic Centre, guided by Murcutt and Hakan Elevli of Elevli Plus.

A closing party has been arranged at the University of Melbourne Boat Club overlooking the Yarra River.

Diversity + Community will take part at the National Gallery of Victoria on Feb 10-12, 2017. For more information, click here.

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