The only dedicated trade show to bring together Australia’s built environment community, DesignBUILD, is returning for its 32nd year for three days of unrivalled networking and inspiration.
Hosted from Wednesday 2 to Friday 4 May, with a central theme of ‘it’s all in the detail’, DesignBUILD 2018 features a trade exhibition that will showcase leading service providers such as PowerHouse prefabricated homes, Wattyl Paint and Swiss Krono Group.
Alongside the trade exhibition are two paid speaker and education programs, curated to cover the themes of industry compliance, sustainability and innovation. This includes panel discussions on topics such as build to rent, property resale and commercial buildings of the future.
The DesignBUILD speaker program provides access to leading industry professionals who will discuss new products, policy and applications needed to keep ahead of the game.
Keynote speakers Michael McCormack (Milieu Property Group), Robert Simeoni (Robert Simeoni Architects) and Simon Knott (BKK Architects) will be joining the town planners and design panel to discuss how the growth of Melbourne as an international city depends on a successful working relationship between developers, architects and town planners.
Alongside the speaker program, DesignBUILD’s ‘Incubator’ is a creative pavilion at the trade show that champions innovative thinkers and gives them a proven, commercial platform to launch their inventions. The five most innovative entries are judged by an industry advisory panel against a set of criteria covering: innovation, creative, sustainability and proposed impact on industry.
In another project, DesignBUILD’s RAW allows university students from architecture and design disciplines to experience the full tender and construction process as they compete to have their designs built as key feature areas on the show floor.
Conference director Pia Argiratos says this year’s event will be empowering and relevant, and will include three panels led by respected architecture and design journalist Stephen Crafti. The discussions will be focused on: whether property speculation is compromising design outcomes; innovations in multi-level development; and how architects and town planners can collaborate rather than clash, for mutual benefit.
“DesignBUILD is about bringing together people who are talking about the big topics that the industry is starting to deal with. It’s bringing together industry leaders to be able to lead discussions on this,” says Argiratos.
“I’m really pleased we are able to bring in a number of important topics that people need to know about. DesignBUILD is an opportunity for people to come together and not only learn about the latest products and innovation, but also to paus and reflect where the industry could do better.”
Find out more about what is happening at this year’s DesignBUILD, view the speaker program and register to attend.
