Forming part of the AMPS Housing-Critical Futures 1 Program - a series of international events and publications on housing - thisconference is centered on housing in the Asia Pacific region. It is ageographical context in which design professionals work across nationalboundaries and an issue that increasingly requires a cross disciplinaryperspective. As a result, this conference is open to all nations and multipledisciplines: architecture, interiors, planning, sociology, cultural, mediastudies and more.

Keynotes:

  • Prof. Esther Charlesworth. Founding Director of Architects without Frontiers (Australia).
  • Dr. Tom Alves. Award winning architect and researcher on housing and community. Office of the Victorian Government Architect.

Context:

For the Asia Pacific region there is a complex and at times contradictory set of issues affecting life in cities. Some countries are experiencing rapid growth and unprecedented urbanisation, others are dealing with an ageing population immigration and shrinking cities. While some authorities are struggling with the environmental implications of these changes others are employing technologically advanced initiatives. Reflecting this paradoxical context, examples of planning, urban and architectural design across the region vary greatly. The neo-liberal models largely employed in Australian cities differ radically from those in China which, in turn, differ from those in Thailand and Singapore. Similarly, building adaption, evident in some places, is simply not an option elsewhere – where tabla-rasa scenarios are presented as the ideal model of development.

What results from all of this are inconsistencies in the way the cities of the Asia Pacific Rim move forward. Nowhere is this more evident than in housing. As changing living requirements develop, new demographic patterns emerge, and economic and political imperatives morph, the ways in which planners, politicians, economists, developers, architects and designers respond inevitably contrasts. What represents re-development of neighbourhoods in one country can be seen as the destruction of communities  in the next. The refurbishment of old houses in one place is seen as the erasure of heritage in another, and government intervention in one city can be interpreted as state control elsewhere. The issue is complex and the problem titanic.

Theme:

In the palimpsest context of the Asia Pacific region in which all design professionals work across national boundaries, this conference brings together diverse people around the issue of housing. It aims to understand the complexity and variety of the issues at play, to explore specific examples of best and worst practice, and facilitate the sharing of ideas essential in this multi-layered present and future. It is our belief that issues from one country are pertinent in another, and that the lessons of past developments are useful today.

The conference welcomes consideration of the plethora of issues at play: the economic models of the construction industry; finance models for housing projects; urban regeneration; affordable housing in newly affluent areas; and the need for passive design in global cities. It is interested in government policy, private development, architectural design, community management, spatial planning, living density, building adaptation, housing in new towns…. and much more.

Format:

The conference welcomes case studies; design proposals, research projects, investigative papers and theoretical considerations in various formats:

  • Conference Presentations (20 minutes)
  • Written Papers (3,000 words) *
  • Alternative Proposals Pecha Kucha; short films; photo essays etc.
  • In-person and virtual presentations (via Skype, etc.) are welcome.

Delegates are given the option to present their work at conference either with or without an accompanying full written paper.

Publications:

* 3,000 word papers will be published online. Subject to review, selected authors will be invited to develop longer versions of their papers for Special Issues of the Architecture_MPS journal2 (UCL Press); the Housing-Critical Futures print book3 series (UCL Press); or the Housing the Future4 print book series (LIbri Publishing)

All abstracts and papers are fully double blind peer reviewed.

Forms and Registration:

  • For more details: [email protected]
  • Download Submission Form: Future Housing_Global Cities_Regional Problems_Abstract5
  • Registration Fee: 375 $ AUD   (80 $ AUD: students)                          

This event is organised by the interdisciplinary research group AMPS (Architecture, Media, Politics, Society); its academic journal Architecture_MPS; and Swinburne University of Technology.  It forms part of the AMPS program of events, Housing – Critical Futures.

  • 1. http://architecturemps.com/housing-critical-futures/
  • 2. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/uclpress/amps
  • 3. http://architecturemps.com/publications/
  • 4. http://www.libripublishing.co.uk/products/housing-the-future
  • 5. http://architecturemps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Future-Housing_Global-Cities_Regional-Problems_Abstract.docx