Practice in
Research <> Research in Practice
Practice in Research <> Research in Practice was the second of a series of DAP_r events around Australia. The two-day symposium on creative practice research in July 2017 was hosted at the Abedian School of Architecture (Bond University, Gold Coast) and architecture studio m3architecture (Brisbane).
This event discussed and explored the nature of creative practice research, with a particular focus on the practitioner operating in the context of academic institutions and professional settings. National and international speakers from university and practice backgrounds convened to present their work and to explain the frameworks that allow for critical reflection of one’s practice.
The two-day symposia featured 17 speakers, including seven DAP_r partners. The first day, hosted at Abedian School of Architecture, focused on practice-based research within an institutional framework from a practitioner academic point of view. This day was moderated by Michael Keniger and featured panels on creative practice and creative practitioners in the university. The second day hosted at m3architecture had an emphasis on practitioners running research agendas through the practice space. Moderated by Martyn Hook, the day featured panels exploring ways of working for practitioners operating within a research-driven practice mode. International guest Bob Sheil, Director of the Bartlett School of Architecture, presented keynotes at the end of each day. Video and photographic documentation of the symposium is available below.
The Practice in a Box travelling exhibition formed a visual backbone to the two-day event, exhibited at both locations. A collection of archival A4 boxes displaying the work of architecture and design PhD candidates, first exhibited in six European cities before coming to Australia in 2017, was augmented by 16 new contributions from invited South East Queensland practitioners (emerging and established) for this event. Information about and images of this exhibition can be found here.
A review of the event prepared by Nick Skepper titled 'How do you do?': The value of practice-based research featured in Architecture AU. This review provides a useful overview of the key themes discussed at and emerging from the symposium.
Practice in Research <> Research in Practice was organised by DAP_r partners Bond University, QUT, and the University of Adelaide in collaboration with m3architecture.
DAY 1:
27 JULY, BOND UNIVERSITY ABEDIAN SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, GOLD COAST
Introduction to the Creative Practice HDR Model by Pia Ednie-Brown
Panel 1: Creative Practice in the University. Presentation by Laurene Vaughan
Panel 1: Creative Practice in the University. Presentation by Cecilia De Marinis
Panel 1 Discussion: Laurene Vaughan, Cecilia De Marinis & Marcelo Stamm with respondent Michael Keniger
Panel 2: Creative Practitioners in the University. Presentation by Zuzana Kovar
Panel 2: Creative Practitioners in the University. Presentation by Kim Baber
Panel 2 Discussion: Urs Bette, Zuzana Kovar & Kim Baber with respondent Michael Keniger
Keynote by Bob Sheil
Documentation
DAY 2:
28 JULY, M3ARCHITECTURE, BRISBANE
Introduction to the Creative Practice HDR Model by Pia Ednie-Brown
Panel 1: Practitioners with a Research-Driven Practice Mode: Presentation by Martyn Hook
Panel 1: Practitioners with a Research-Driven Practice Mode: Presentation by Michael Banney
Panel 1: Practitioners with a Research-Driven Practice Mode: Presentation by Stuart Vokes
Panel 1: Practitioners with a Research-Driven Practice Mode: Presentation by Aaron Peters
Panel 2: Practitioners with a Research-Driven Practice Mode: Presentation by Nigel Bertram
Panel 2: Practitioners with a Research-Driven Practice Mode: Presentation by Amy Muir
Panel 2: Practitioners with a Research-Driven Practice Mode: Presentation by Sam Kebbell
Panel 2: Practitioners with a Research-Driven Practice Mode: Presentation by Vivian Mitsogianni
Keynote by Bob Sheil
Keynote by Carey Lyon
Documentation
SPEAKERS
Amy Muir
MUIR Architecture
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Amy Muir is the director of the Melbourne-based architecture practice MUIR. Amy is a current Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Chapter Councillor, the Chair of the Victorian Chapter Awards Committee, and the recipient of the Australian Institute of Architects 2016 National Emerging Architect Prize.
Bob Sheil
Director of the Bartlett School of Architecture, London
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Bob Sheil is an Architect, Director of the Bartlett School of Architecture, Professor in Architecture and Design through Production, the School's Director of Technology, and a founding partner of sixteen *(makers). He is an educator, critic, researcher, collaborator and practitioner, as well as an experimental designer fascinated by transgression between making, craft and technology in architectural design practice. He is the founding co-chair of the internationally recognised FABRICATE conference first held in 2011.
Carey Lyon
Director, LYONS
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Carey Lyon is a founding director of Lyons Architecture and a Professor of Architecture at RMIT. In recognition of his design leadership work, in 2006 he was elected National President of the Australian Institute of Architects and was awarded the Presidential Medal from the American Institute of Architects. He has served as a Board Member of the Green Buildings Council of Australia since 2007.
Cecilia De Marinis
RMIT Postdoctoral Fellow
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Cecilia De Marinis is a postdoctoral research fellow within the DAP_r program at RMIT University. She is investigating the value and contribution doctoral training in creative practice research makes to professional practice and pedagogy. Prior to moving to Melbourne, Cecilia was a postdoctoral research fellow within the ADAPT-r ITN project at RMIT Europe in Barcelona. She gained her Master of Architecture and PhD in Urban Sustainable Design at Roma Tre University, Italy.
Kim Baber
Baber Studio and UQ Research Fellow
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Kim Baber has run a small practice since 2012, and was awarded the QLD 'Emerging Architect' Prize by the Australian Institute of Architects in 2015. He is a Fellow in Architecture and Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland. In 2016 Kim received the Gottstein Trust Fellowship to investigate alternative timer construction methods being developed in Europe and Japan.
Laurene Vaughan
Deputy Dean and Professor of Media & Communications, RMIT
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Professor Laurene Vaughan PhD is Deputy Dean Design, Games and Interaction in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. She supervises practice-based research degrees at RMIT, and has supervised over 40 students to completion. Laurene's design research practice embraces both speculative and applied research investigation, often within interdisciplinary teams. Her most recent publication is Practice Based Design Research (Bloomsbury, 2017). Laurene is a DAP_r partner.
Marcelo Stamm
Australian Research Innovation Centre, RMIT
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PhD Dr phil. habil Marcelo Stamm brings three decades of work in the area of philosophical constellation research and topological research to the contemporary study of creativity. Marcelo was Head of the School of Philosophy (UTAS) 2004-2009, and Director of the 'Creativity Research Project' at the AIRC 2010-11. As Deputy Deam since 2014 he heads the Research & Innovation portfolio at the RMIT School of Architecture and Design and since 2013 he has acted as the Director of RMIT's European Practice Research Symposium (PRS). Marcelo is a DAP_r partner.
Martyn Hook
Dean, School of Architecture & Design, RMIT;
Director iredale pedersen hook
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Professor Martyn Hook is Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor Partnerships in the College of Design and Social Context at RMIT University and holds the position of Dean of the School of Architecture and Design alongside his role as Professor of Architecture. In addition to his work at RMIT Martyn is a director of multi-award winning iredale pedersen hook architects, a studio practice based in Melbourne and Perth dedicated to appropriate design of effective sustainable buildings with a responsible environmental and social agenda.
Michael Banney
m3architecture
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Michael Banney is a founding director of m3architecture with 30 years' practice experience, focusing on ideas and their delivery. m3architecture projects have been awarded the highest architecture prize in Australia for Public Buildings, Heritage and Small Projects, as well as the highest State prize in seven categories. He is a graduate of both QUT (B.Arch) and RMIT (M.Arch, PhD).
Michael Keniger
Bond University
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Michael Keniger is a Professor of Architecture at Bond University, a former head of the School of Architecture at the University of Queensland, and a former Queensland Government Architect. He chairs the Development and Design Integrity panel of the Brisbane Airport Corporation and is a Contributing Editor of Architecture Australia. He has long promoted the need for architectural designs and creative works to be recognised as a valid contribution to knowledge and as equating to conventional research practices.
Nigel Bertram
NMBW
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Nigel Bertram is a Director of NMBW Architecture Studio in Melbourne and Practice Professor of Architecture at Monash University, where his current research projects address processes for suburban transformation and increasing urban resilience, working with interdisciplinary and industry partners. NMBW's architectural work has been published and awarded across multiple categories including urban design, housing, small public works, adaptive re-use of existing buildings, and peripheral urban design strategies. Nigel is a DAP_r partner.
Pia Ednie-Brown
Chair of Practice Research Symposium Australia, RMIT
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Pia Ednie-Brown is an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University, where she Chairs the Australian Practice Research Symposium and coordinates the University's Creative Practice Research Strategies course. Her creative practice, Onomatopoeia, works across small architectural projects, art works, and writing. She has edited two books, Plastic Green: designing for environmental transformation (RMIT Press, 2009), and an issue of AD: The Innovation Imperative: Architectures of Vitality (Wiley, 2013). Pia is a DAP_r partner.
Sam Kebbell
KebbellDaish and Victoria University
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Dr Sam Kebbell is the Director of KebbellDaish Architects and a Senior Lecturer at the School of Architecture, Victoria University of Wellington. Sam completed his PhD at RMIT in 2016. His research revealed the creative potential of a tension between rarefied international ideas and common local practices. In 2015, he was an ADAPT-r Research Fellow at the University of Westminster. He completed his MDes in History and Theory at Harvard, and worked in Boston, New York and Amsterdam before starting KebbellDaish in 2002.
Stuart Vokes and Aaron Peters
Vokes and Peters
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Vokes and Peters is a boutique design practice based in South Brisbane. The practice is best know for its small-scale residential work, but has also undertaken a number of veterinary projects and is currently working on a range of cultural and commercial projects including a private gallery for contemporary art. As well as sessional teaching at both the University of Queensland and Abedian School of Architecture at Bond University, Vokes and Peters host a talk series titled Garden Variety.
Urs Bette
University of Adelaide
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Dr Urs Bette is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide and Director of Urs Bette : Design. He holds a Masters in Architecture from the University of Applied Arts, Vienna and a PhD from RMIT University. His research investigates the role of 'the unreasonable' in the design process, revealing strategies that facilitate the poetics of architecture within a professional discourse dominated by expectations of quantifiable performance. He leads practice-based research at the School of Architecture and Built Environment, and is a DAP_r partner.
Vivian Mitsogianni
Deputy Dean and Head of School, RMIT
M@ Studio
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Professor Vivian Mitsogianni is Deputy Dean and Head of Architecture and Urban Design at RMIT University, and is a partner in the research-led collaborative practice M@ STUDIO Architects which recently completed the 2016 NGV Architecture Commission. She undertakes practice-based research with a focus on process-based design and is often called as an expert internationally on architectural design research methodologies. Her own design projects, commentary and studios have been widely published and exhibited. Vivian is a DAP_r partner.
Zuzana Kovar
Griffith University and zuzana&nicholas
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Zuzana Kovar is a lecturer at Griffith University and a partner in zuzana&nicholas architects. Her practice spans writing, exhibition work and commissioned architectural projects. She holds a PhD from RMIT in the area of architecture and philosophy with a specific focus on Julia Kristeva's notion of abjection. Her first monograph titled Architecture in Abject(ion): Bodies, Spaces and their Relations is due to be published with I.B Tauris.
All images: Paul Dielemans
All videos: Chris Hindley