Founder and artistic director of the Sherman Centre for Culture and Ideas (SCCI), Dr Gene Sherman has announced the SCCI Architecture Hub 2019, October 10-19, bringing to Sydney the world’s most impactful, practitioners shaping architecture, design and urban environments.

“Welcoming some fifty local speakers, eight international leaders in their field, and four international headliners, the Hub brings together architects, landscape designers, writers, academics, theoreticians, psychologists, judges, prosecutors, investors, hoteliers, visionary developers and other professionals.

In short, SCCI Architecture Hub 2019 looks to dive deeper into the architectural conversation, expanding on previously foregrounded topics whilst looking to the future. We look forward to welcoming both professionals and the wider public to ten days of stimulating and transformative discussion,” says Dr Sherman.

Distinguished international keynote speakers for 2019 will include Japanese architects Sou Fujimoto (Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2013, L’Arbre Blanc Montpellier 2017) and Jun’ya Ishigami (Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2019, and Kenzo Tange Design Critic at Harvard University).

Joining them is award-winning French architect, urban planner and educator Odile Decq (Phantom L’Opéra Restaurant, Opéra Garnier Paris 2011, Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome extension 2010, and founder of Confluence Institute for Innovation and Creative Strategies in Architecture).

From the Middle East, Professor Ido Bruno, director of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, will present aspects of the encyclopaedic institution’s collections from antiquity to the present day. Iranian-Kurdish author, poet, film producer and human-rights defender, Behrouz Boochani (No Friend But The Mountains: Writing From Manus Prison), presents a keynote via live video link from Manus Island, where he has been detained by the Australian government since 2013. 

SCCI Architecture Hub 2019 thematic events include:

Architecture of Justice investigates the role of architecture and design in Australia’s court system and beyond will be explored, particularly the criminal court system and its bearing on jury outcomes. Guest speakers include Diane Jones (PTW Architects), justice Melissa Perry QC (judge of the Federal Court of Australia), professor David Tait (University of Western Sydney) and former senior crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi AM QC (Wardell Chambers).

The panel will be followed by Behrouz Boochani’s address via AV Link.

Brutally Sydney looks at Sydney’s international significance as a Brutalist city, the way this architectural aesthetic still shapes Sydney’s social, political, economic and heritage debates. Speakers include councillor Philip Thalis (City of Sydney), Phillip Arnold (Plus Minus Design), Simon Rochowski (studioplusthree) and Glenn Harper (PTW Architects and author of Sydney Brutalism: Lost and Legacy Projects), moderated by Rebecca Hawcroft (curator, ‘The Moderns’, Sydney Living Museums). 

Ar(t)chitecture explores the intersection of art and architecture. Moderated by Alison Kubler, editor of VAULT Magazine, guests include one of Australia’s pioneering street artists, Anthony Lister, who is joined by Italian-born, USA-based architect Antonio Pio Saracino, and founding director of Public Programs at New York’s High Line, Danya Sherman. 

Architecture Book Club discusses the relationship between architecture and literature, bringing Gene Sherman together in conversation with cultural leader, author and SCCI Global Emissary, Dolla Merrillees.

Bricks and Budgets: The Architecture of Investment gathers Dr Stanley Quek (Greencliff), Nikos Kalogeropoulos (The Molonglo Group) and Jason Twill (Urban Apostles) to investigate the interdependence of architecture and commerce in development and urban design.

Architecture and Memory examines the role of architecture and design in memorialisation, including commemorative sites, debates surrounding official government-appointed memorials, and more. Guests speakers include Joe Agius (COX Architecture), David Neustein (Other Architects), and Professor Ido Bruno (Director, Israel Museum).

Form and Formative Years addresses ways in which children shape architectural practice – which in turn, shapes children’s earliest and enduring engagements with the built world. This panel looks specifically at architecture’s impact on children's formative years – including kindergartens, schools, youth centres, nurseries, playgrounds and childcare facilities.

Dr Kate Bishop (UNSW) is joined by Sue Barnsley (Sue Barnsley Design Landscape Architects), Andrew Burns (Andrew Burns Architecture), Professor Linda Corkery (UNSW) and Camilla Block (Durbach Block Jaggers).

The Architecture of Human Happiness explores the role of architecture and design in producing the psychological conditions for happiness and mental wellbeing. Professor Cameron Bruhn (University of Queensland) leads Adam Haddow (SJB), George Livissianis (2019 Interior Design Awards Winner) and evidence-based colour expert, Dr Zena O’Connor, in a discussion ranging from the built environment to psychological thinking. 

Architecture: The Picture of Health further explores the relationship between architecture and the wellness of the human body, with particular emphasis on the neuroaesthetic, medical, therapeutic and salutary concerns of contemporary architectural practice.

This panel surveys wellbeing in all its forms, examining how architecture impacts the incidence, distribution and control of disease. Guests include William Feuerman (UTS and Office Feuerman) and Luke Baxby (Deloitte) in conversation with Dolla Merrillees.

SCCI Architecture Film Commission: Each year via a competitive process, SCCI commissions students from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) to produce a short film exploring a set theme in our Fashion and Architecture Hubs. For 2019, this theme is ‘Accessing Architecture’.

The winning documentary – The Caretakers – explores spiritual architectural spaces via spoken and visual interventions from three caretakers serving in an Islamic mosque, a Jewish synagogue and Buddhist temple. The core AFTRS team behind The Caretakers includes Kate Vinen (director), Petra Leslie (cinematographer) and Jayden Rathsam Hüa (Producer).

SCCI Architecture Hub 2019 venues include SCCI, The Museum of Sydney, Justice and Police Museum and The Eternity Playhouse.

Tickets for the SCCI Architecture Hub 2019 are available now via phone 02 8376 0850 or online  at scci.org.au