The Festival of Architecture and Design is a bi-annual series of events organised by the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) to celebrate the future of South Australian architecture.

This year's theme is 'Ideas of Home' - what makes a home, what this means to us as designers and how this translates to value for residents and the broader community. The festival will be held at Nexus Arts, North Terrace from 18-21 July.

Events will focus on issues relevant to design in South Australia. For example, the Anniversary Trio will showcase SA practices Woods Bagot (celebrating 150 years) and Swanbury Penglase and tectvs (both 30). These practices have all delivered housing projects over an extended period and within specialist contexts - aged care, assisted housing, multi-residential and mixed-use.

A strong focus on indigenous perspectives is a key theme with Kevin O’Brien discussing 'Finding Home'. A descendent of the Kaurereg and Meriam people of Far North Queensland, he joined BVN as a principal in 2018. Kevin will be joined by Michael Pilkington (Phillips Pilkington Architects – Tika Tirka indigenous Student Housing Project Gilbert St) and Rebecca Wessells (Ochre Dawn Creative Industries).

Tours, in particular a guided tour through a City Cottage renovation by Davis and Davis Architects, will encourage participants to consider housing from varying perspectives and to consider how we approach particular housing models within an Adelaide context.

Stephen Hicks, associate at David Barr Architects, will also address housing affordability, diversity and suburbia through case studies from recent single and multi-residential projects. The talk will discuss how the practice's work experiments with type, construction and ownership to create affordable homes. The presentation will also look at the challenge of sympathetically increasing density within Australian suburbs, using the practice’s ‘Gen Y Demonstration Housing’ as a built example of medium density housing that demonstrates ‘stealth density’ and an alternate vision for affordable, flexible infill housing.

Pictured: Gen Y Demonstration Housing. Photography by Rob Firth

Architecture News & Editorial Desk

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