Émigré: Speaker Series at Lynton Residence
Description
Émigré brings together art, design and architecture for one afternoon at Lynton Residence, a 1962 mid-century home by émigré designer Hubert van der Pennen. Two curated sessions ask who shapes a city, and from where: first through overlooked urban space, then through the practitioners who arrived from elsewhere.
Featuring Chloe Tanner, Dr Richard Le Messurier, Tom Borgas, Julia Townsend and Dr Catherine Howell, with Stuart Symons and Jet O'Rourke. Guests are welcome to explore Lynton Residence during the break, with drinks supplied by Alpha Box & Dice.
Tickets are strictly limited to 60, full afternoon pass only.
Sunday 18 October, 2pm to 5.30pm.
Sponsored by Alpha Box & Dice.
Lineup
Stuart Symons
Stuart Symons is the founder of Modernist Adelaide, one of Australia’s most sustained and successful independent public engagement programs in architecture and design. He is the author of Modernist Adelaide: 100 Buildings 1940s–1970s, an established reference on South Australia’s mid-century architecture, and has led more than 150 tours and events. Through his research, public engagement and advocacy, Stuart has built national and international recognition for Adelaide’s modernist heritage while changing how thousands of locals see, understand and value the architecture of their city.
Jet O'Rourke
Jet O'Rourke is a registered architect specialising in mid-century modern and heritage residential architecture across Adelaide and South Australia. With a particular focus on South Australian modernist houses from the 1950s to the 1970s, he works across restoration, sensitive extension, and new residential work that belongs to its place. His portfolio includes work on projects by renowned Adelaide architect John Chappel, as well as heritage projects by Robin Boyd and the influential Adelaide practice Dickson and Platten. Current research on designer Hubert van der Pennen's Lynton Residence demonstrates his commitment to preserving South Australia's mid-century architectural heritage. With extensive experience in nature-based tourism developments, Jet brings specialised knowledge to hospitality projects that require sensitive integration with landscape and heritage contexts. His tourism architecture expertise spans accommodation design, visitor facilities, and adaptive reuse projects that balance commercial viability with environmental and cultural sensitivity, particularly relevant for Adelaide Hills and regional South Australian destinations. Following completion of a Master of Architecture at the University of South Australia in 2013, Jet was awarded the Hodgkison Graduate Prize for excellence and the Architecture Practice Board of S.A.'s Travelling Prize in Architecture. After six years practising in Melbourne, he returned to Adelaide in 2020, focusing on residential projects and nature-based tourism developments that respond sensitively to the Adelaide Hills and South Australian landscape.
Chloe Tanner
Chloe Tanner is an independent contemporary art curator, who lives in nipaluna/Hobart, Tasmania. Her work is informed by her upbringing in the Amazon jungle, the ultimate abandoned environmental frontier. She works between Europe and Australia. Her thesis, ‘The Art of Abandonment’, explores the psychogeography of abandoned places.
Dr Richard Le Messurier
Dr Richard Le Messurier is an Adelaide-based design practitioner and lecturer who works across architecture, landscape architecture, and urbanism. Operating under the moniker MEDIUM, his design practice spans multiple scales—from residential additions to urban interventions—with a special interest in the social and behavioural impacts of form. This approach extends from his 'Design as Research' PhD, which examined the impacts of short-life, creative interventions in overlooked and interstitial urban spaces. This interest was informed by his time working with European collectives operating within abandoned public spaces, such as Exyzt Collectif and Guerilla Architects. Richard continues to explore these themes through self-built installations and academic work. Richard argues that untapped public value can be unlocked in Australian cities through the use of creative architectural tools. Yet such approaches have been minimally explored on this continent. His contribution to this issue was recognised when ‘Cultivating Quiet’—a project examining the unrealised Australian suburban front yard—was selected for inclusion in the Unsettling Queenstown ‘Open Archive’ at the Australian Pavilion for the 2023 Venice Biennale.
Tom Borgas
Tom Borgas is a visual artist and educator living and working on the traditional land of the Kaurna people in Adelaide, South Australia. His work explores the politics of images, objects and processes that sit at the intersection of art and architecture. Working predominantly with everyday materials his practice is an experiment in what happens when spaces, people and three-dimensional form come together. Tom has exhibited at shows and galleries around Australia including PICA (Perth), The Jam Factory (Adelaide), Artisan (Brisbane), Salamanca Arts Centre (Hobart), MARS gallery (Melbourne), Stockroom (Kyneton) and as part of the 2018 Kyneton Contemporary Art Triennial. Commissioning bodies and collaborators include: UAP, The City of Brisbane, Rockhampton City Council, Moreland City Council for Melbourne’s Level Crossing Removal Project, Splendour in the Grass, Hilton Hotel Adelaide, The Adelaide Festival Centre, The City of Adelaide, Illuminate, The District Council of Karoonda East Murray, Renewal SA and OSCA. Together with Amber Cronin, Tom is also one half of Fallow, a critical spatial practice that focuses on site-sensitive, immersive experiences that connect and build ecological communities through sculpture, installation, performance and education.
Julia Townsend
Julia Townsend is an Adelaide-based artist whose practice explores the relationship between abstraction, architecture and public space. Working across large-scale murals, painting and site-responsive projects, her work investigates how abstract forms can transform the experience of built environments and create new ways of engaging with place. Drawing inspiration from architecture, construction processes and urban landscapes, Townsend's work considers how visual interventions can activate spaces, encourage public interaction and contribute to the cultural identity of cities. Through both permanent and temporary works, she is interested in the capacity of art to reveal new possibilities within overlooked, transitional and underutilised environments. Her practice examines themes of transformation, adaptation and renewal, with a particular interest in the creative potential that emerges when spaces become undefined or exist between established uses. By introducing abstraction into architectural contexts, her work invites audiences to imagine alternative ways of experiencing the built environment and encourages a sense of curiosity, play and possibility within the city.
Dr Catherine Howell
Dr Catherine Howell is a heritage practitioner and historian. After obtaining her PhD at the University of Cambridge, Catherine worked in higher education in the UK and Australia for fifteen years, before returning to history and heritage. She currently works in the Assessment team at Heritage South Australia. She presented on Polish-born architect Ted Andrzejaczek at the SAHANZ conference, ‘Islands’, in 2024 and her book chapter on Alexandra Mokwinska will appear in a forthcoming volume published by Leuven University Press, edited by Christoph Schnoor and Stuart King.
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