PRS Asia Opening Event

Join us from 6.00pm for drinks and finger food to celebrate the opening of PRS Asia September 2024, with a welcome from PRS Asia Chair, A/Prof Jess Wilkinson. This will then be followed by a joint keynote address by Dr Andy Stiff and Pro Derek Hoeferlin, chaired by Dr Katrina Simon. 

Living with/in Rivers

Rivers are a crucial part of planetary and human life and health. Their courses and catchments influence the formation of settlements and cities, but their vitality and complexity are often overlooked as cities expand and become denser and hungrier for land.

Two design-researchers present their work on rivers, deploying creative and analytical approaches to engage with different dimensions of rivers at vast and intimate scales, reflecting on how these modes of engagement might create new insights and opportunities for living with rivers.
Andrew Stiff details the impact of an exploration of his film practice conducted through the PRS, and more recent work conducted through RMIT Vietnam’s collaboration in the River Cities Network project, and the role of ‘dorsality’, which emerged from his PhD and has influenced his work since.

Derek Hoeferlin will introduce his book Way beyond Bigness: The Need for a Watershed Architecture, which explores infrastructural transformation of three vast catchments of the Mekong, Rhine and Mississippi rivers and proposes a simple, adaptive framework that utilizes a three-part, integrative methodology.

These presentations will be followed by a discussion moderated by Katrina Simon, Associate Dean of Landscape Architecture at RMIT University, who researches ways of drawing that engage productively with the mutability and ambiguity of landscape conditions.

Andy Stiff - My filmmaking practice is centered on a filmed exploration of urban spaces. I am currently residing in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and have developed a body of work focused on the many alleyways [hems in Vietnamese] that form the majority of the urban fabric of the city. My current practice is exploring the Te Canal and its environments. This has allowed me to explore beyond the built environment to consider the intricate relations between man made and natural environments.

The films construct a set of lenses that mediate a specific experiences I have encountered into a visual reconstructions, using post production as a tool to express what what is seen beyond the lens of the camera. Using densely packed images, relying on colour, pattern and movement as the triggers to recognition, the films narratives emerge through durational single shots. This allows the environments to develop a voice, not just my filmmaking process. I use moving image, still image and augmented reality as a set of interconnected tools that allow for the reconstitution of the urban experience.

I am engaged in the River Cities Network, and the Planetary Civics Initiative, alongside RMIT’s innovation projects. I currently supervise HDR candidates in Architecture and Urbanism and the design school.

Derek Hoeferlien is an architect and leads [dhd] derek hoeferlin design, an award-winning architecture, landscape, and urban design practice based in St. Louis, USA. He is a tenured professor and chair of the landscape architecture program at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Hoeferlin is principal investigator of Way Beyond Bigness: The Need for a Watershed Architecture, which is the title of his book (Applied Research + Design Publishing, 2023), where he collaboratively researches integrated water-based design strategies across the Mississippi, Mekong, and Rhine River basins.

Hoeferlin lectures on his work internationally, and his designs, photography, teachings and writings have been published and exhibited widely, including in Chasing the City, New Orleans Under Reconstruction, Designing Suburban Futures, Journal of Architectural Education, The Anthropocene Review, Dwell, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Wallpaper, Metropolis, ‘scape, Scenario Journal, Archinect, Places Journal, Exhibit Columbus, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Hoeferlin has led or co-led award-winning projects and jury recognized design competitions, including Designing Resilience International Open Competition (first prize), Chouteau Greenway Competition (finalist), Rising Tides Competition (first prize), Dry Futures Competition (honorable mention), and Build a Better Burb Competition (finalist).

Hoeferlin recevied BArch and MArch degrees from Tulane University and a post-professional MArch degree from Yale University.

Dr Katrin Simon is a Associate Dean of Landscape Architecture in the School of Architecture and Urban Design, RMIT University