Australian Institute of Architects National President Elect, David Karotkin has announced the creative team for the 2015 National Architecture Conference.
Announced on the final day of this year’s Perth conference, Making: 2014, the team consists of Donald Bates, Hamish Lyon and Andrew Mackenzie who will come together to explore the changing role of risk in architecture for the 2015 National Conference, to take place in Melbourne, 14-16 May.
The multidisciplinary team will focus their attention on four aspects of risk within the profession: risks related to cultural relevance, architectural pedagogy, professional practice and the discipline of architecture.
According to the team, no one wants to be a safe architect - conventional and predictable. However, one would have to consider whether the client would choose the risk of the unknown over the safety of the known.
The team will explore this troubled nexus between the professional necessity to take calculated and creative risks and a world incapacitated by risk minimisation.
Professor Donald Bates is a Director of LAB Architecture Studio in Melbourne and is Chair of Architectural Design at the University of Melbourne. The widely published architect has completed works in a variety of countries across Asia, the Middle East and Great Britain, in addition to local projects including Melbourne’s Federation Square precinct.
Principal of NH Architecture, Hamish Lyon leads the firm’s design thinking and direction. He is involved in projects of all scales within the office and has completed a wide range of architectural projects, urban initiatives and masterplans including Melbourne’s world class 6 Star Green Star Convention Centre on the Yarra River and the redevelopment of Myer’s flagship Bourke Street store in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD.
Andrew Mackenzie is Director of CityLab, a consultancy he founded in 2011. His clients include Major Projects Victoria, Monash University, Gold Coast City Council, Waterfront Auckland and Integrated Design Commission South Australia. He is also an independent publisher of architecture and design books under the imprint Uro, which publishes practice monographs as well as architectural history and theory. He is also an architecture writer for the Australian Financial Review and a Contributing Editor to Architecture Australia.
