The SA Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) have released the program for the inaugural Adelaide Festival of Architecture and Design (FAD) and it includes design debates, films and guided architectural tours.

The festival’s focus will be ‘The Hub’, which will be located at the Published Arthouse on 11 Cannon Street, Adelaide and will be the meeting place for many of the events to be held across morning, lunchtime, and evening from Friday until Tuesday, 10-14 October.

The AIA says the festival will deliver a fun, vibrant and educational program of architecture and design talks, panel discussions, installations and films, children’s activities, open day events and guided architectural tours on foot and bicycle.

It will have a central focus on Adelaide’s architecture and design culture, and the importance of integrated design to shape the city today and in the future.

FAD Creative Leaders Anthony Balsamo, Walter Brooke, and Dino Vrynios, Grieve Gillett Dimitty Andersen Architects, explain that this focus will capitalise on a heightened public awareness about the benefit of good architecture.

“The Festival is an opportunity for the community to discover more broadly the benefits of good design and architecture; and how this can positively enrich the way we feel and move through our homes, cities, and our public buildings and spaces,” they said.

“New additions to the Adelaide skyline, such as the SAHMRI and the Adelaide Oval Redevelopment, have heightened the public’s awareness of the benefits of good design. We anticipate FAD will allow us all to share these stories & others to further reinforce the role architects & designers are playing in making South Australia one of the world’s most livable places.”

A program highlight is the ‘The Soapbox: Design will save our suburbs’ debate featuring Brian Hayes QC, former SA Government CEO Rod Hook and SA Chapter President’s Medallist Susan Phillips. The discussion will focus on the current and future state of Adelaide’s suburbs, and they will be up against architect & PhD candidate Damien Madigan, Festivals Adelaide Christie Anthoney and Marcus Rolfe, Managing Director of URPS.

“This debate promises to shed new light on this contentious and emotive issue. I’m sure our debaters will attack and defend with alacrity, wit and appropriate irreverence,” SA Chapter President Steve Grieve said.

Click on the below program to enlarge.

Other festival highlights include:

Shoot the Architect: a photography competition open to all which aims to capture the unseen side of the architects.
Archi-tours (Small Bars, Big City): a guided walking tour with travelling musicians. Circulate the city, stopping in a variety of Adelaide’s recently opened small bar venues.
Upcycled Architecture: one of Adelaide’s favourite laneways will be transformed overnight by a group of young architects, who are set to reimagine Adelaide’s cardboard waste as a material for artistic expression.
Ask an Architect: will provide the public with a free one on one 20 minute consultation with an experienced architect for valuable advice on your ideas and plans
One:On: is a fun, fast-paced design and build collaboration between architectural professionals and students, with the aim of forging relationships and forming creative discourse.
Archi-tours (Tour de North Adelaide): join Adelaide’s legendary broadcaster Keith Conlon on a leisurely, slow paced bicycle tour of architectural and sculpture sites around North Adelaide and the Parklands.
ArchFilm: in collaboration with the Robin Boyd Foundation’s DADo Film Society in Melbourne, enjoy a screening of two short films and the feature film Utopia London, followed by an informal discussion from guest speakers, who will share their own unique perspectives on the film subjects to kick off the conversation.
Architects INPROFILE: Design Conversations: After a sell-out event in partnership with The Adelaide Review for the 2014 SA Architecture Awards Exhibition earlier this year, hear from some of South Australia’s leading residential architects about the process and benefits of working with an architect and gain an insight into how architecture and design can contribute and enhance our quality of life.
Archi-tours (The Jeffrey Smart Learning Centre Building): A guided tour by John Wardle Architects and Adelaide practice Phillips / Pilkington Architects of the University of South Australia’s new Jeffery Smart Learning Centre Building, in Adelaide’s revitalised West End.

The official launch party held on Saturday 11 October at the Hub, opened by SA Government Architect Ben Hewett, will also celebrate Adelaide’s own Phil Harris and Adrian Welke, co-founders of Troppo as they present their Gold Medal Talk as part of a national tour.

SA Chapter President Steve Grieve encourages everyone to get involved in the annual event, which commences both as a lead into, and then a legacy of, the 2016 National Architecture Conference in Adelaide, an event not seen in South Australia for 20 years.

Visit www.fad.org.au for the full program and more information.

Nathan Johnson

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