MEDIA RELEASE. Subject: Australian Pavilion Venice Architecture Biennale 2006

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1 THE ROYAL AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS MEDIA RELEASE Subject: Australian Pavilion Venice Architecture Biennale 2006 Date: Monday 19 June 2006 The Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) today announced 12 outstanding Australian buildings to feature in the Australian Pavilion at the 10 th Venice Architecture Biennale from 10 September to 19 November From industrial woolsheds to shipwreck lookouts, from riverside apartments to rural art spaces, the buildings are of different scales, types and uses, said Melbourne-based architects and academics Shane Murray and Nigel Bertram, the Australian Pavilion s Creative Directors. They were selected to highlight eight different aspects of our contemporary urban landscape and demonstrate creative architectural responses to Australian conditions. Carey Lyon, RAIA National President, added: The 2006 exhibition, Micro-macro city, is only the third time Australia has been represented at the Venice Architecture Biennale. The RAIA is pleased to commit to showcase Australian architecture at the Architecture Biennale again in 2008 and Snapshots of the contemporary Australian urban condition will be exhibited through the following eight themes and 12 projects: 1. The reinvention and post-industrial diversification of rural towns is shown in the theme Shrinkage and the International Art Space Kellerberrin, in the wheat belt of Western Australia (Donaldson & Warn Architects). 2. Diversity amidst homogeneity in the suburbs is explored through the section Expansion together with three houses: Poll House (Gary Marinko Architects) and Wherehouse (Simon Anderson) both in Perth, Western Australia and D House in New Farm, Brisbane, QLD (Donovan Hill). 3. New industry, residential development and existing farms compete for the same space in the subject Interface presented together with Deepwater Woolshed, Wagga Wagga, NSW (Stutchbury & Pape). 4. The reoccupation of redundant industrial and commercial precincts with a mixture of uses and their subsequent interactions are explored in Overlap and the Kaurna Building, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA (John Wardle Architects + Hassell). 5. The Micro/Health Laboratory, University of Queensland Gatton Campus, Gatton, QLD (m3architecture) is an example of a new development targeting previously ignored spaces in the theme Absorption which considers

2 the growing role of regional centres. 6. The Marion Cultural Centre, Marion, SA (Ashton Raggatt McDougall + Phillips/Pilkington Architects) is presented with Exchange, which looks at the suburban shopping centre car-park as a location of social, communal and cultural exchange. 7. Two recent projects from Sydney Olympic Park NSW: Brickpit Ring (Durbach Block Architects) and Shipwreck Lookout (Neeson Murcutt Architects), are presented in the category Re-use. The Olympic site was an ex-industrial precinct, transformed as special event entertainment space and is currently undergoing a third wave of regeneration as a recreational precinct linked to the everyday life of Sydney. 8. In Oversupply success breeds success as one type of development attracts similar occupations resulting in an intense relationship as seen in the QV2 apartments, Melbourne, VIC (McBride Charles Ryan + NH Architecture) and Riparian Plaza, Brisbane, QLD (Harry Seidler and Associates). Our exhibition will focus on the specific attributes of the Australian urban environment, within the broader Biennale theme of Cities. Architecture and society, the Creative Directors said. We hope to generate a more sophisticated understanding of Australian architecture internationally and to offer an opportunity for Australians to appreciate the potential of our everyday urban environments. The Pavilion will feature specially commissioned photographs by Australian photographers Max Creasy, Paul Knight, Matthew Sleeth and Selina Ou, with videos of people interacting with their environments by Richard Raber, Naomi Bishops, Danius Kesminas, Ronnie van Hout and Anna Jeffries and sound-recordings by Nicholas Murray. Dr Shane Murray is a practising architect and Associate Professor at RMIT University. Nigel Bertram is a director of NMBW Architecture Studio and Senior Lecturer in Architecture at RMIT University. The Architecture Biennale was inaugurated in 1980 and is now held every two years. Thousands of the world s leading architects and media attend the professional preview and more than 115,000 people visit the three-month exhibition. Australia's attendance at the Venice Architecture Biennale is an initiative of the RAIA. The RAIA thanks the following sponsors - The Victorian Government, BASSETT, Zip Industries, RMIT University, Architecture Media, Architecture Australia, Café Di Stasio and gratefully acknowledges the large number of Australian practices sponsoring the event through Network Venice and the support of the Australia Council for the Arts for the use of the Pavilion for this exhibition. For interviews, images and media enquiries: Jane Silversmith, Publicist, , j.silversmith@ozco.gov.au The Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) is the peak body for the architectural profession, representing more than 9000 members across Australia and overseas. The RAIA actively works to improve the quality of our built environment by promoting quality, responsible and sustainable design.

3 AUSTRALIAN PAVILION VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE 2006 MICRO-MACRO CITY : CURATORIAL OVERVIEW The inhabitation of Australia is often portrayed through romantic images of isolated dwellings located in its vast interior or at its spectacular beaches. In reality only 7% of Australia s enormous land area is arable and more than 85% of its population lives on the thin coastal fringes of the continent resulting in one of the most highly urbanised societies in the world. Conversely Australian cities demonstrate some of the lowest urban densities in the world and these conditions have led to very particular forms of urban settlement which elude many of the conventional categorisations of urban form. In this urban condition, a range of urban relationships and corresponding architectural responses have evolved. Within the broader Biennale theme of: Cities. Architecture and Society, our exhibition in the Australian Pavilion will look closely at the conditions of the Australian urban environment and focus on its specificity and differences. Our exhibition asks what unique attributes and possibilities are to be found in Australia s peculiar combinations of density, extreme spaciousness, cheap land, relative affluence and widespread access to technology? Our exhibition establishes a framework for seeing and understanding the contemporary Australian urban condition through case studies of precise moments within it. Micro-macro city presents the Australian urban condition as a matrix of interrelationships between urban cores, suburban sprawl, regional centres and rural hinterland. The concept of this field as a continuum of inhabitation across a range of densities and settlement types bypasses traditional distinctions between city and country, town and suburb, centre and periphery, metropolitan and non-metropolitan. Rather than separations, this idea of a dispersed urban continuum highlights connections and inter-relationships. The workings of complex economic, demographic, social, governmental, environmental and cultural forces are revealed at certain precise moments within this framework. It is through the close study of such distilled environments that useful applied knowledge about our cities can emerge. We present a series of eight case studies, called micro-systems, of particular urban environments from a wide range of contexts which together form a cumulative and comparative macro-representation of our cities. Each case study reveals and provokes latent potential within our broader urban situation. In parallel with this process, twelve significant works of architecture representing a range of scales, programmes and locations and which understand and engage their urban field are coupled with these micro-systems in a dynamic relationship. Our curation of the Pavilion comprises two approaches: one atmospheric and one specific.

4 The atmospheric is an environment that immerses the visitor in a range of experiences, providing a general understanding of the urban environments under consideration. These elements are not intended to be the subject of intense study; as an ensemble they evoke visually and aurally the qualities and differences of these specific environments. The specific consists of eight irregularly shaped tables distributed through the exhibition space. It is here that the details of each micro-system and its urbanarchitectural engagement are presented. Each table is dedicated to an urban microsystem and comprises representation of a particular aspect of that situation; drawings of the selected architectural work that demonstrates how its relationship to urban context is analogous to the chosen micro-system, and commissioned photographs and models depicting the building to foreground this particular relationship. Shane Murray & Nigel Bertram 2006

5 THE VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE A HISTORY The International Architecture Venice Biennale is the most important event on the international contemporary architecture calendar. Thousands of the world s most influential architects, designers, urban planners, developers and critics visit the Biennale, with considerable discussion and commentary in the architectural press and general media as a direct result. The Architecture section of the Venice Biennale was established in 1980, although a few exhibitions had taken place since 1975 within the Art section. They have been irregular with only nine exhibitions since The Biennale comprises a curated show and national pavilion representations Metamorph, director: Kurt W. Forster Next director: Deyan Sudjic Less Aesthetics, More Ethics director: Massimiliano Fuksas 1996 Sensing the Future director: Hans Hollein Forty Architects for the 90s director: Francesco Dal Co Hendrik Petrus Berlage Drawings, director: Aldo Rossi Venice Project, international competition, director: Aldo Rossi Architecture in Islamic Countries, director: Paolo Portoghesi The presence of the Past, Paolo Portoghesi. The 2004 show Metamorph, directed by Kurt W. Forster, presented more than 200 projects and over 170 architecture studios as well as 43 national pavilions (36 in 2002). It attracted 115,000 people with a daily average of 2,000 visitors. Three Australian projects were included in the director's show in Amatruda Penthouse in Melbourne, designed by Tom Kovac, the BMW Plant in Leipzig, Germany, by Lab architecture studio, and the national swimming centre in Beijing by PTW Architects, which won a special award in the Atmosphere section. Australian architects represented in the 2002 curated show include: Wood Marsh Architecture Tower V Mirvac, Melbourne; Denton Corker Marshall, Stonehenge Visitor Centre, UK; Tom Kovac Architecture, Digital Design Gallery, RMIT University; Ashton Raggatt McDougal, Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance; Lab Architecture Studio, Federation Square Melbourne; City of Towers - Denton Corker Marshall; and Alessi Prototypes - Tom Kovac Architecture. THE 2006 BIENNALE The 10th International Architecture Exhibition will take place from 10 September to 19 November 2006, directed by Richard Burdett. Dedicated to Cities, architecture and society, this edition focuses on the key factors facing large-scale metropolitan areas around the world: from migration to mobility, from social integration to sustainable growth. In particular, it will examine the role of architects and architecture in the construction of democratic and sustainable urban communities, and their relationship to good urban governance and lasting social cohesion.

6 Two collateral sections, the Cities of Stone project in Venice, and City-Port in Palermo will complement and expand the theme of the international exhibition by exploring specific urban themes and conditions in southern Italy. Fifty countries will take part in the 10th International Architecture Exhibition. The City, in its many-sided aspects, is a key subject that each Country will deal with under a specific and original perspective. The Leoni d Oro awards for best city, best national pavilion and best urban project will be announced in November AUSTRALIA AT THE 2006 VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE Australia has launched a major presence at the Venice Architecture Biennale, with the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) committing significant funding and establishing a committee to coordinate and manage Australia s presence at the next three Biennales marks the beginning of a long-term six-year project with plans to grow and develop the nation s presence at each subsequent exhibition. Former Sydney lord mayor and businesswoman Lucy Turnbull is Australia s 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale Commissioner. Members of the RAIA Venice Biennale Committee are: Carey Lyon, Chair, RAIA National President Bob Nation, RAIA Immediate Past President, NT Government Architect John Denton, Denton Corker Marshall, VIC Government Architect Prof Michael Keniger, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Queensland Ross Clark, RAIA General Manager Operations Howard Tanner, RAIA National Councilor Penelope Seidler, Harry Seidler and Associates Bridget Smyth, Executive Director Design, City of Sydney Shane Murray and Nigel Bertram were appointed as Australia s Venice Architecture Biennale Creative Directors following an open tender and from a short-list of five contenders, all of whom presented curatorial proposals of exceptional quality. History of Australia s representation The Australian Pavilion was designed by Philip Cox and it opened in It is owned and managed by the Australia Council for the Arts. In 1991 an Australia exhibition was supported by the Commonwealth Departments of Foreign Affairs [Cultural Relations Branch] and Industry, Technology and Commerce. Eleven architects were shown by the Commissioner Professor Neville Quarry. In 2000 the Melbourne firm Lyons architects took over the Australian Pavilion for a City of Fiction display of brick-shaped removable postcards, with funding assistance from industry and local and state governments. The Commissioner was Professor Leon van Schaik and the exhibition had been shown at the MCA in Sydney. 31,000 people attended.

7 AUSTRALIAN PAVILION TEAM CREATIVE DIRECTORS Dr Shane Murray is a practicing architect and Associate Professor of Design in the Architecture Program at RMIT University. Nigel Bertram is a director of NMBW Architecture Studio and Senior Lecturer in the Architecture Program at RMIT University. As a team Shane Murray and Nigel Bertram have extensive experience in the interrogation of the Australian urban condition: through architectural and urban design, through teaching, research and analysis, publication and exhibition. In 2002, they established the Urban Architecture Laboratory (UAL) at RMIT University, a research unit devoted to a direct engagement with contemporary urbanism and an ongoing inquiry into the diversity of forces which shape the contemporary metropolis. This work and its subsequent dissemination has been a leading voice in the articulation of models for applied architectural and urban design research. The UAL focuses on the relationships between architecture and the detailed urban conditions in which it takes place, and interrogates the links between research and design practice. Murray and Bertram have an extensive publication record and research experience, including completed ARC grants linked with industry partners, and a strong relationship with the architectural profession as independent active practitioners. Their own architectural work has been recognised through RAIA design awards and published in leading national and international journals. SHANE MURRAY Associate Professor of Architectural Design BArch (Melb.), MArch (RMIT), PhD (RMIT), FRAIA Registered Architect Shane Murray is a practicing architect and academic. His buildings and theoretical projects have been published in more than 30 international and national architectural journals. He has participated in numerous architectural exhibitions and forums, and has been invited to lecture about his work nationally and internationally. Shane writes on issues of urbanism and contemporary design for various architectural journals and is member of the editorial board for the journal Architecture Design Research. In 2002 he was appointed Director with Nigel Bertram of the Urban Architecture Laboratory (UAL) at RMIT University in Melbourne. UAL is a specialist research unit that investigates contemporary urbanism through an architectural focus. Shane s research interests include architectural design and contemporary housing. He has recently concluded an Australian Government-funded research project on housing for an ageing demographic. NIGEL BERTRAM BArch (Melb.), MArch (RMIT), RAIA Registered Architect

8 Nigel Bertram is a director of NMBW Architecture Studio in Melbourne and teaches in architectural design and contemporary urban research. In 2002 he established the Urban Architecture Laboratory postgraduate program at RMIT University with Shane Murray. Nigel s work with NMBW Architecture Studio is a collaboration with Marika Neustupny and Lucinda McLean. NMBW s work ranges in location from inner city Melbourne to remote rural towns. Their buildings have received professional and industry design awards and have been published in leading national and international journals. The practice involves built work together with ongoing research into the local physical environment. Recently published books include the award-winning Division and Multiplication: Building and Inhabitation in Inner Melbourne (Nigel Bertram and Kim Halik, 2002), and By-Product-Tokyo (Nigel Bertram, Shane Murray and Marika Neustupny, 2003). AUSTRALIAN COMMISSIONER Lucy Hughes Turnbull is an investor and company director with interests in the information technology and financial services sectors. She chairs ASX listed WebCentral Limited, Australia s largest web hosting and managed internet services company, as well as Centric Wealth Limited, a large non aligned financial management and wealth advisory business and Pengana Holdings Limited, a funds management company with $1000 million under management. Lucy is an Administrator of the Tweed Shire Council, a board member of the Redfern Waterloo Authority, and Deputy Chair of the Committee for Sydney. From she was Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney, having served as Deputy Lord Mayor from Before that, she worked as a solicitor and in investment banking. In 1999 she published a book Sydney - Biography of a City (Random House). Lucy is a member of the boards of the Museum of Contemporary Art and the National Portrait Gallery. She is also a board member of the Sydney Cancer Centre Foundation and Woolcock Research Institute for Medical Research. SPONSORS Australia's attendance at the Venice Architecture Biennale is an initiative of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. The RAIA would like to thank the following sponsors - The Victorian Government, BASSETT, Zip Industries, RMIT University, Architecture Media, Architecture Australia, Di Stasio. We would also like to acknowledge the large number of Australian practices sponsoring the event through Network Venice. The Royal Australian Institute of Architects gratefully acknowledges the support of the Australia Council for the Arts for the use of the Pavilion for this exhibition.