Together x Tomorrow

A one-day series of public talks on creative practice in relation to our living world.

Landscape Architecture X Architecture X Art X Design

Delivered in partnership between Amber Cronin, Arts Curator Nature Festival and Athanasios Lazarou, University of Adelaide

Saturday October 12, 10.30 - 3pm

Radford Auditorium, Art Gallery of South Australia.

Together X Tomorrow explores architecture and landscape architecture across intersections of nature, art and design. Just as these creative practices lie at the centre of our social contract, they also have the power to interconnect us in contract with nature. We are not only part of nature, but part of the many processes which shape our relationship to nature; such questions of existence are both ethical and ecological. The enormous complexity of life and landscape on the earth’s surface requires us to construct an analogous world that we can visualise. As Root-Berstein writes, “this ability to imagine new realities is correlate with what are traditionally through to be non-scientific skills - skills such as playing, modelling, abstracting, idealising, harmonising, analogising, pattern forming, approximating, extrapolating and imagining the yet unseen…”1 So, can we use our professional modalities to better explore these relationships and imagine new realities? Can they lead us to a better relationship with the living world?

1. Root Bernstein, Prospecta Magazine

The Day will be divided into two parts: Ecologies + Practices. Join for a full day of discussion and perspectives on practice at the intersection of nature x art x architecture.

Ecologies

10:30am: Alison page

Alison Page is an award-winning creative at the forefront of contemporary Australian Aboriginal design and storytelling.

A New Australian Design: There is a new awakening fuelled by ecological necessity to redesign our future and the relationship that we as people have with nature and each other. We can design our built environments to be a part of the managed landscapes that formed the basis of First Nations ecology since time immemorial. This New Australian Design, which started over 65,000 years ago will improve the wellbeing of people and create places that ultimately mean more to all of us.

11:30am: Elizabeth Farrelly

(Founder & CEO The Better Cities Initiative Columnist, essayist, broadcaster, author and Presenter THE SYDNEYIST 89.7FM)

CITY AS SURVIVAL DEVICE: the dance between nature and culture: Cities are often regarded as antithetical to nature but all cities are fashioned from nature to protect us against her, and the best cities do this in a way that also renders nature more resilient.

Practices

1:30pm Sam Spurr

(architectural educator and critical spatial practitioner. Associate Professor for Architecture at the University of Newcastle, NSW.Sam is a co-founder of Global Extraction Observatory (GEO) with Eduardo Kairuz, with award winning exhibitions and installations such as ‘Fossil Fables’ at the Tin Sheds Gallery in 2024.)

Her current research on Mining Ideology and Coal Capitalism, examines the agency of architecture to make legible the complex forces at play in the age of the Anthropocene. Through her research and teaching Sam is exploring feminist theories of care and spatial justice, ecological systems and indigenous cosmologies in the Australian context of Country.

1:50 Mladen Zujic

(Architect and a director of Architects Ink.)

With over 30 years of experience of practicing architecture, in both large and small firms, Mladen Zujic has provided opportunities to design major projects both nationally and internationally. His skills and attention to every detail whilst being able to conceive the big picture are his strengths. His work and travels have covered five continents and thirty-four countries. The exposure to different cultures and cities has fuelled his passion for architecture and urbanism, whilst expanding his ability to envisage alternate solutions through association with these experiences.

2:10. Kiri Bowmer

(JPE, Kiri blends expertise in built and natural environments, with a Master’s level education and over a decade of experience in both architecture and landscape architecture.)

Kiri believes in her profession as a tool for advocacy to drive social, cultural, and environmental change for the collective. Central to her approach is always people, place, and purpose, designing places that are generous and improve our daily lives. She believes it is a privilege to be a part of a profession with the capacity to make meaningful change, and thrives when collaborating with a diverse range of people across different sectors. She advocates for local craftsmanship and materiality where possible, favouring local materials that evolve and tell a story of 'place' over time. She is actively involved in mentoring with AILA and teaching at University level across both disciplines, and was a 2023 George Alexander Fellow, where she researched working dye gardens in Mexico and Indonesia, and how these spaces can influence the social design and health of our cities, presenting her findings at the 2023 National Landscape Conference.

2:30 Panel Discussion (Moderated by Athanasios Lazarou, University of Adelaide)

This event is supported by Nature Festival, University of Adelaide and Mallee & Myrtle.