2015 Abedian School of Architecture Lecture Series

Rachel Neeson studied architecture at the University of Sydney, graduating with the University Medal in 1993, and completed a Masters of Architecture in Barcelona. She formed Neeson Murcutt Architects with her late partner Nicholas Murcutt in 2004. Based in Sydney, the practice deliberately pursues a balance of public projects and residential work, operating in urban, suburban, rural and outback settings across Australia. The work of Neeson Murcutt Architects has been recognised through publications, exhibitions and awards, including the 2014 AIA Walter Burley Griffin Award, Sulman Medal and Lloyd Rees Award for the Prince Alfred Park and Pool Upgrade.

Kerstin Thompson is Principal of Kerstin Thompson Architects, Professor of Design in Architecture at Victoria University Wellington and Adjunct Professor of Architecture at RMIT & Monash Universities. Located in Melbourne, Australia, KTA was started in 1994 and has established itself as a significant and innovative reference point in Australian architecture and urban design. Kerstin is a writer and lecturer with close links with schools of architecture and professional institutes in Australia and overseas. She plays an active role not only within the profession, but also in promoting quality design in the wider community through her role as Panel member on the Office of the Victorian Government Architect’s Design Review Panel. She was Creative Director for the 2005 RAIA National Conference and the 2008 Venice Biennale and a member of the Federal Government’s BEIIC. Kerstin has also been an elected National Councillor for the AIA and was elevated to Fellow by the Institute in 2013. The practice focus is on architecture as a civic endeavour with an emphasis on the users’ experience and enjoyment of place.

HUANG Wenjing, founding partner of OPEN Architecture. Huang received B. Arch. from Tsinghua University in Beijing in 1996, and M. Arch. from Princeton University in 1999. She is a registered architect of New York State and a member of AIA. Prior to OPEN, Huang was a senior designer and associate in New York based firm Pei Cobb Freed and Partners Architects (formerly I.M. Pei Architects). OPEN was recognized by many architectural awards for its progressing work, including World Architecture’s Chinese Architecture Award 2012 and 2014, China Architecture Media Awards 2012, Asia Pacific Interior Design Awards 2013, Re-thinking the Future Awards 2014, London Design Museum’s Designs of the Year 2015 Nomination, and most recently, Merit Award of 2015 AIANY Design Awards.

Professor Adrian Carter has more than 30 year’s experience, as an architect and academic, working in the Nordic countries and more widely internationally. He is recognised as an expert on the work of Sydney Opera House architect, Jørn Utzon; and was the founding director of the Utzon Research Center, established the International Utzon Symposiums and realised the building of the Utzon Center in Aalborg, Denmark, designed in collaboration with Jørn Utzon. He was also an advisor and contributor to the Australian Government in its nomination of the Sydney Opera House for inscription on the World Heritage List. Professor Carter has studied alongside some of the world's most recognised architectural theorists, including Professor Jan Gehl - known for his focus on pedestrianisation and the human scale in urban design - at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, Professor Geoffrey Broadbent at Portsmouth School of Architecture and renowned architectural historian Dalibor Vesely at the University of Cambridge. In professional practice Professor Carter has worked with significant international architects including Professor Reima and Raili Pietilä in Helsinki, Finland, Niels Torp in Oslo, Norway, Henning Larsen and Dissing+Weitling in Copenhagen, Denmark and Ancher, Mortlock and Woolley in Sydney on a broad array of architectural and urban design projects, as well as architectural design competitions, master-planning and civil-engineering projects; including the Finnish Embassy in New Delhi, Sief's Palace in Kuwait, Tampere Library in Finland, Aker Brygge harbour development in Oslo, housing proposals for Walsh Bay in Sydney, the Storebælt Suspension Bridge in Denmark and the European Embassies of the European Union in Abuja, Nigeria. Prior to becoming Head and Professor of Architecture at the Abedian School of Architecture, Bond University, Professor Carter was Associate Professor at Aalborg University in Denmark, and has taught at a number of respected architecture schools including Denmark’s Aarhus School of Architecture and, in a visiting capacity, at the University of Sydney, Portsmouth University and University of Tasmania.

Richard Leplastrier is a seminal figure in Australian architecture and architectural education. He eschews publicity and his built works are secret treasures to be discovered only by those privileged enough to be introduced to them. His sensitivity to issues of culture and place and his accumulated wisdom in the design and making of architecture is gently revealed though his tutorial sessions in the design studio. He received national recognition in 1999 through the award of the Gold Medal of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. Richard has received international recognition through receipt of the 2004 ‘Spirit of Nature Wood Architecture Award’. The award, established in Finland by the Wood in Culture Association, is granted every second year for architectural excellence. Other recipients of the Award include 2000 Renzo Piano, Kengo Kuma, Peter Zumthor, José Cruz Ovalle from Chile and in 2010 to Hermann Kaufmann. He has been awarded the Dreyer Foundation Prize of Honour 2009 in Denmark, the first time an architect from outside Denmark has received this prize.

Thomas Bailey is a founding member and Director of Room11 Architects. Room11 are a brutal, poetic, Occamist practice who’s work seeks to resonate with place. Room11's deftly conceived architecture has received national and international acclaim and has been published through highly acclaimed books, journals and alternative media streams. Bailey studied architecture in Tasmania and Sweden, where he learnt the gentle art of making refined buildings for a cool climate. The GASP! project is Thomas’ first foray into large scale public architecture. Maniacal blunt forms frame and command the superlative Tasmanian landscape. Thomas is interested in architecture at the intersection of stillness and revolution.

Winners of many awards, including the Wilkinson and Robin Boyd Residential Housing Awards (twice) … Durbach Block Jaggers have a series of tight, luminescent projects to their name. A small office of eight, they are a practice that tackles residential projects, toilet blocks and major public spaces with equal vigour. Indeed, every horizontal surface of their office in Sydney’s CBD is littered with half-finished, half-painted models; that could be a house on a cliff, an art gallery in Perth, or studies of glowing toilet blocks. These bending and arcing balsa models, painted shades of green and blue, are representative of their search for the elegant solution; the model or sketch that captures the idea of the project perfectly.