A national competition designed to visualise Australia’s urban spaces in 40 years, and beyond, has fired the imagination of the nation’s architects, with 129 vastly different scenarios submitted revealing possible cities of the future.
Designs for Australia’s cities 2050+ was run by the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale creative directors, John Gollings and Ivan Rijavec, to source material for next year’s exhibition in the Australian Pavilion in Venice.
The team’s two-part ‘NOW + WHEN Australian Urbanism’ exhibition will highlight three of Australia’s most interesting urban regions as they are ‘now’, before dramatically representing futuristic urban environments as they may be ‘when’ we reach 2050 and beyond.
The competition was intended to liberate architects from current planning and design constraints, encouraging speculative, futuristic visions.
A shortlist from the 129 teams who submitted expressions of interest will be announced on December 18. Those teams will then present developed proposals in March next year, and a final group chosen for exhibition in Venice from late August.
John Gollings is one of Australia’s premier architectural photographers, who successfully applies a visionary ideology across all areas of his work. Ivan Rijavec is principal of Rijavec Architects, an innovative Australian architectural practice established in January 1979.
The 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale will be guided by leading Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima, who will be the first woman to hold the internationally sought-after position.
