Clearance by Cappuccino: community workshop

Clearance by Cappuccino - a dialogue about affordable and diverse housing for everyone!

Architects for Peace and Free Theatre invite you to have your say on the meaning and value of diverse and affordable housing in Melbourne. The evening will involve dialogue, mapping and role play. It will offer creative opportunities to re-imagine alternative housing landscapes and identify affordability gaps, needs and opportunities.

Event details:

Wednesday 12th July

7.00pm - 9.30pm

Siteworks: 33 Saxon Street, Brunswick

This is a free event. Reservations are essential on Eventbrite 

Film screening and public discussion - Taskafa: Stories of the Street

Join us for a special screening of Taskafa: Stories of the Street, a film by London artist and documentary maker Andrea Luka Zimmerman.

The film is an artist’s essay about memory and the most necessary forms of belonging, both to a place and to history. It explores the relationship between Istanbul’s street dogs and the city's human populations.

For us, this film raises many important ideas about the right to the city, the value of non-human urban populations, community action/resilience and contested public spaces.

On the night, we will hear from guest speakers and invite discussion on the variety of urban narratives that create cities, neighbourhoods and streets.

Film screening and public discussion
Date: Thursday 30 May 2019
Time: 6.30pm - 9.00pm
Location: Bargoonga Nganjin Community Room
North Fitzroy Library - 182-186 St Georges Road

Register
Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/film-screening-taskafa-stories-of-the-street-tickets-61574182036

Light refreshments provided

This event is run by Architects for Peace and sponsored by the City of Yarra Council.

Building Democratic Cities

Architects for Peace 15 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Saturday 6th October 2018
The Red Stair Amphitheatre @ Queensbridge Square
10.30am - 4.30pm

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Curators:
Nicole Mechkaroff
Pauline Ng
Yang Bai
Lorenza Lazzati

Graphic Design:
Farah Rozhan

03.12.18

On 6th October 2018, Architects for Peace celebrated its 15th anniversary by hosting 'Building Democratic Cities' at the Queensbridge Square.

This day-long event provided us the opportunity to collaborate with other urban activists and practitioners and venture into the public space to meet and engage with the general public and built environment community. The free-to-public activities responded to the theme of Democratic Cities and we were privileged to be joined by other practices and experts who together offered a range of interactive activities throughout the day.

Munir Vahanvati from Giant Grass shared his vast knowledge on bamboo constructions and facilitated a bamboo installation.  With Munir’s guidance, the public was invited to freely contribute to the installation with AFP volunteers using the bamboo poles harvested by our volunteers during a fascinating trip arranged by Munir. Many people participated in this transforming sculpture.

Public Assembly's colourful van also attracted attention from people of all ages. Inside the specially fitted van, Lynda Roberts held thoughtful and creative conversations with visitors.  Outside, Ceri Hann encouraged everyone to add their creative strokes on the pavement using simply water and sponged sticks.

As an extension to our public talks and campaign against the Apple Store at the Federation Square, Tania Davidge and Shelley Freeman hosted a walking tour between Queensbridge Square and Federation Square.

Tania and Munir later joined Tanja Beer and Andrea Cooke as speakers at the public discussions. Each speaker provided lively and informative presentations on their projects designed to empower communities or to promote democratic discussions. This took place inside our display marquee, with an exhibition of posters curated by Nicole Mecharoff and Farah Rozhan from AFP which showcased the works of AFP, each of our participants mentioned above, as well as Visionary Design Development and STREAT.

To further encourage active public participations, volunteer Lara Brown led community rope jumps which was popular with with people of all ages and abilities.

Many volunteers dedicated countless hours to this successful event but special thanks must be given to Pauline, Nicole, Yang and Lorenza. 

- Pauline Ng, Architects for Peace volunteer

09.10.18

The Architects for Peace team would like to thank everyone who dropped by and supported Building Democratic Cities on October 6th. There were many familiar and new faces, curious of the playful and thought-provoking activities at the Red Stair Amphitheatre.

On the day there were opportunities to have creative discussions, connect with others and play games, skip, tour the city with someone you have never met, learn about another building tradition and laugh with friends.

We hope these experiences sparked new feelings of enjoyment, relaxation and inner peace!

- Nicole Mechkaroff, Architects for Peace volunteer

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Photo Journal

BUILDING DEMOCRATIC CITIES, October 6th 2018
Queensbridge Square, Melbourne

activities at Queensbridge Square

bamboo ties

Munir and Mittul Vahanvati teaching the team and curious public about lashing techniques

anniversary exhibition

community rope jump

community rope jump

"Party Lines" by Lynda Roberts and Ceri Hann

"Party Lines" by Lynda Roberts and Ceri Hann

public talks with Tanja Beer, Andrea Cook, Tania Davidge and Munir Vahanvati

public talks with Tanja Beer, Andrea Cook, Tania Davidge and Munir Vahanvati

Lorenza and Ran at the welcome pavilion!

lashing and tying

City tour with Shelley Freeman and Tania Davidge

City tour with Shelley Freeman and Tania Davidge

City mappings from Visionary Design Development and STREAT Melbourne

water games with Ceri Hann


Image credits
Farah Rozhan
Yang Bai
Pauline Ng
Nicole Mechkaroff
Saumya Kaushik
Bahar Zamani


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05.10.2018

"As architects, planners, urban designers, engineers, artists, landscape architects and citizens we all have the capacity and the responsibility to be agents of change for an equitable and environmentally sustainable society based on social justice, solidarity, respect and peace."

From the team at Architects for Peace

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04.10.2018

Event preparations are underway!

There are a few spots available for the city walking tour with Citizens for Melbourne (11.30am - 1.00pm)

Register on Eventbrite here: 
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/building-democratic-cities-city-tour-tickets-50720327866

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03.10.2018


"I see my role as one that facilitates re-connection and spurs contribution by creating moments of 'wonder', of 'awe-inspiring beauty' and potential' that reunites us with the natural world."
- Tanja Beer

Tanja will present for the public talk sessions between 1.30pm and 3.30pm.

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02.10.2018


"The street is our most immediate place of encounter and surprise, a place where complete strangers can share an experience and become neighbours, collaborators and friends"
- Andrea Cook

Andrea will present during the public talk sessions between 1.30pm and 3.30pm.

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01.10.2018


"200 hands is a democratic art project that will explore how people from different backgrounds come together to build something following simple rules"
- Munir and Mittul from Giant Grass

Munir and Mittul will teach public participants about bamboo lashing and tying techniques and make a bamboo sculpture as part of this event.

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30.09.2018


Event Program: 10.15am - 10.30am
Welcome and opening ALL DAY:
bamboo sculpture and community building workshop with Giant Grass ALL DAY
Interactive arts laboratories with Public Assembly ALL DAY
Community rope jumping activity with Architects for Peace ALL DAY
Exhibition - including Visionary Design Development and STREAT Melbourne 11.30am-1.00pm
City walking tour with Citizens for Melbourne Reserve your spot on eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/building-democratic-cities-city-tour-tickets-50720327866 1.30pm - 3.30pm
Public talk sessions with Tanja Beer, Andrea Cook, Munir Vahanvatni and Citizens for Melbourne


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27.09.2018

"Public space is the space in which democracy plays out - it is for all people"
- Tania and Shelley from Citizens for Melbourne

Tania and Shelley will run a city tour on the event day leaving from the Red Stair Amphitheatre at 11.30am and ending at Federation Square. Reservations are essential - please follow the link to Eventbrite:

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/building-democratic-cities-city-tour-tickets-50720327866


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26.09.2018

"Democracy is not consensus but the process of re-articulating difference through ongoing dialogue and sustained action"
- Lynda and Ceri from Public Assembly

Lynda and Ceri will run a number of interactive arts activities and laboratories as part of this event.

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24.09.2018

BUILDING DEMOCRATIC CITIES is a day long event marking the 15 year Anniversary of Architects for Peace. It aims to explore the ways in which we all - as citizens and builders of cities, heritage and history - can come together and exercise a collective power to reshape processes for sustainable urbanisation, one based upon solidarity, respect and peace.

On the 6th October 2018 we invite all members of public, as well as, architects, planners, urban designers, landscape architects, engineers, environmentalists and artists to join us at the Red Stair Amphitheatre at Queensbridge Square, Melbourne, for a day of celebration, conversation and collaboration.

We would like to express our most sincere thanks to our sponsors: FytoGreen, Genton, Architectus, and Dimase Architects, as well as, our supporters: Cast RMIT and Giant Grass for making this event possible.

Saturday 6th October 2018

"Red Stair Amphitheatre" at Queensbridge Square

10am - 4.30pm

Free public activities, talks and exhibitions will include:
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Exhibition and community rope jumping activity with Architects for Peace
Interactive public art activities with Public Assembly
Bamboo sculpture with Giant Grass
City tour with Citizens for Melbourne
Public talk with Tanja Beer
Public talk with Andrea Cook
Exhibition - city map by Visionary Design Development
Exhibition - city map by Streat Melbourne
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Hope to see you there!

From the team at Architects for Peace.

Space for Dissent | Panel discussion | Thursday 3 October 2013

Date: Thursday 3 October, 2013 
Time: 7.00pm 
Venue: Elisabeth Murdoch Building, Victorian College of the Arts, 234 St Kilda Road, Melbourne

The recent Australian federal election was undeniably won in large part on a cynical appeal to economic self-interest, underpinned by the success of the major media outlets and other wealthy pressure groups in advancing their own interests. We have seen human rights violations packaged by both sides of politics as 'tough but fair' policy, and either ignored or actively supported by the wider public. The health of our democracy is in question, and with it, the welfare of our society as a whole.

The majority has spoken. What now? With the right to vote exposed as an impotent weapon against social injustice, how might we create new directions and spaces for dissent?

Join us for a panel discussion, chaired by 3RRR radio presenter Jacinta Parsons, with:

Alison Caddick, editor of Arena magazine
Jennifer Podesta, independent candidate (Federal election, seat of Indi)
Guy Abrahams, climate activist/lawyer/gallerist, co-founder of CLIMARTE
David Vakalis, legal observer for the Occupy Melbourne legal support team in 2011 and teaching associate in criminology and sociology.

Refreshments provided / gold coin donations welcome. This is a free event, but you can register here to ensure a spot.

About the panel:

Guy Abrahams is co-founder and CEO of arts activism organisation CLIMARTE. Guy was a lawyer prior to becoming Director of Christine Abrahams Gallery, a position he held for 22 years. He has held various arts positions including President Australian Commercial Galleries Association, and Board Member Melbourne Art Fair and the National Gallery of Victoria Art Foundation. In 2009 Guy received training from US Vice President Al Gore and completed a Master of Environment at the University of Melbourne. He is on the Board of the Australian Tapestry Workshop and Chair of the City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection Advisory Panel.

http://climarte.org/

Alison Caddick is co-editor of Arena Magazine and has been a member of the Arena group for nearly 30 years.

http://arena.org.au/

Jacinta Parsons began broadcasting with Triple R on the Australian music show, Local and/or General in 2006. She has since hosted Dynamite and currently hosts Detour on Wednesday morning. As well as broadcasting at Triple R, Jacinta works at the station in the music department as the live-to air coordinator and assists with music related programming.

Based in Wodonga, Jennifer Podesta is a small business owner who with her husband operates a full-time vocational dance school and regionally based contemporary dance company. Returning to study as a mature age student, she completed a BA Honours at Latrobe. She is now doing a PhD in Sociology at the University of Melbourne focusing on the role of welfare and social policy in the reproduction of disadvantage across the life course. She recently stood as an Independent candidate in the Seat of Indi, running on a platform of social issues including youth unemployment, disengagement, and homelessness in regional areas.

David Vakalis is a teaching associate at Monash University’s Department of Criminology and Victoria University’s Department of Sociology. Currently, he is completing his Masters thesis at Monash University, on the social reaction concept of moral panic and South Australian 2008 “anti-bikie” laws. Previously, he completed Honours at Victoria University on transnational social movements and protest policing at international economic summits. David is a human rights activist, and was a Legal Observer for the Occupy Melbourne Legal Support Team. His most recent work, on torture, with Professor Jude McCulloch, is soon to be published in an edited collection called Spooked: The Truth About Intelligence in Australia.

Creative Resistance: conflict, occupation and contemporary artistic expression in the Middle East - Thursday 1 August 2013

Date: Thursday 1 August, 2013 
Time: 7.00pm 
Venue: Elisabeth Murdoch Building, Victorian College of the Arts (Southbank campus), 234 St Kilda Road, Melbourne

The complexity and volatility of spatial relations in the Middle East have been brought into sharp relief in recent times. Delineation of space in these highly contested territories – whether physical or systemic – has been known to play a key part in manifestations of injustice, where authorities have sought to limit freedoms, control movement and enact human rights abuses. Yet, conversely, spatial practices can be used to challenge these same mechanisms of oppression.

The 2011 protests in Syria, part of the wider Arab Spring movement, initially contributed to a renewed faith in the power civic protest in the public realm to enact positive, long term political change. Widely perceived as heralding a new age of citizen-led liberation and empowerment, such demonstrations of resistance have captivated the Western world and inspired similar actions elsewhere. Sadly though, the initial post-revolt euphoria has given way to months of seemingly intractable warfare and displacement of citizens. Nearby, the ongoing annexation of Palestinian territories and corresponding infringement of human rights at the hands of Israeli authorities continues in a more covert manner, receiving relatively little media attention. Both regions face dramatically different conditions and challenges, yet share a common history of acts of resistance, in defiance of human rights abuses.

Join us for a critical look at creative resistance across disciplinary and territorial borders, with Palestinian artist Sary Zananiri; journalist/activist Firas Massouh; architecture student Nora Massouh and Rachel Busbridge, Research Fellow at the Centre for Dialogue, La Trobe University.

Refreshments provided/gold coin donations welcome!

Image: “Il giardino occupato”, by Palestinian artist Basjir Makhoul. Installation in the Palestinian pavilion, Venice Biennale, July 2013

Asylum seekers and representation with film-maker Steve Thomas - Thursday 6 June 2013

Date: Thursday 6 June, 2013 
Time: 7.00pm
Venue: Hub Building Seminar Room, Victorian College of the Arts (Southbank campus), 234 St Kilda Road, Melbourne

Mis-representations of so-called 'boat people' as 'illegal' and 'queue jumpers' continue to abound in Australian populist politics today, with both major parties appealing to misplaced fears and repeatedly advancing policies that have been denounced as flagrant violations of human rights. Australian Mental health researcher Pat McGorrie described the Howard-era detention centres of the 1990's as 'factories of mental illness'. With the recent government policy move to allow asylum seekers to live in the community on a benefit below the poverty line, and no rights to work, have we really made much progress?

Please join us for a discussion with film-maker Steve Thomas and some of his collaborators on Steve's current project 'Freedom Stories', along with a special preview screening of the film's trailer. The film explores the lives of Australians who have spent time in detention, as former asylum seekers.

Steve's previous film, 'Hope', documented the story of Amal, a survivor of the SIEV X disaster in 2001. Steve has been making documentaries as an independent writer, director and producer for many years. He has won numerous awards including an AFI Award for Best TV Documentary (The Hillmen – A Soccer Fable) and several ATOM Awards for Best Documentary, Social & Issues (most recently for Hope).

Please take note of the shift in location - we're in a different room at the VCA this time, not the usual Elisabeth Murdoch Building.

Public lecture:. 2 October 2008:. The SIEV X Memorial

When: Thursday 2 October 2008, 7pm
Where: RMIT building 50, Orr St (off Victoria St) Carlton

The SIEV X Memorial Project remembers those who drowned in the 2001 sinking of a ‘Suspect Illegal Entry Vessel’ when 353 refugees lost their lives. It seeks to raise awareness of the urgent ongoing humanitarian crisis of refugee rights around the world, as well as the personal tragedy of those involved in this single instance. The project was initiated in 2002 by Steve Biddulph, a psychologist and parenting author, Rob Horsfeld, a uniting Church Minister, and Beth Gibbings, an artist and project manager. In late 2002 they asked Dr. Sue Anne Ware to join them as their landscape architect.















The memorial project involved a range of people and age groups from communities throughout Australia. For Sue Anne, it meant operating outside of the typical range of skills and assistance for which landscape architects are recognised, as well as reinforcing the direct relevance of such assistance to the successful physical construction of environments. The resulting sculptural memorial in the public realm can be seen as a physical catalyst for social change.

Sue Anne is an associate professor and co-ordinates postgraduate studies in landscape architecture at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. Her research and design work explores how contemporary memorial design can reflect ephemeral conditions of site and memory while maintaining their importance in the public landscape, both locally and overseas. She has published widely with regard to concepts engaging in anti-memorials and received various awards in recognition of her design work from the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects.

















Entry by gold coin donation. Refreshments provided.

Download a PDF flyer for the event here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/6229755/081002SIEV-X

Special: Paul Pholeros - Nov. 30th, 2007

Paul Pholeros
Architect and Director of Healthabitat
Its hard to imagine how any individual can be at peace when their health is poor, their children are regularly sick and their general living environment miserable.
To make any positive change in this cycle is difficult but essential.

The presentation and discussion will include:
- Indigenous Australians - linking housing and health 1985-2007
- the current status of the living environment
- making immediate change
- details of the work from around Australia
- a change of pace in China
- current work in Nepal

For a background to the work …..go to www.healthabitat.com

6pm Friday, November 30
RMIT BUILDING 50
(Orr Street, off Victoria Street)
Gold coin donation
http://www.architectsforpeace.org/

click on image to download poster >>

Indigenous Community Volunteers

1st November 2007
7pm. RMIT Building 50, Orr St. Carlton, off Victoria St

Indigenous Community Volunteers
Indigenous Community Volunteers (ICV) is an award-winning NGO that specialises in linking skilled volunteers with Indigenous communities and organisations in Australia. ICV’s skills-transfer projects operate across the country, from Melbourne to Monkey Mia, and always at the invitation of communities.

Join ICV Volunteers Daniel Khong, Alison Lee and Ray Davies and hear about their stories and their challenges, achievements and experiences around designing and building in Aboriginal communities in WA and NT. You can also gather information about the opportunities available to you to share your skills.

About the presenters:

Daniel Khong is a registered architect employed as Senior Urban Designer at VicUrban. He is currently managing the design process for the new master planned communities at Aurora and Officer.

Alison Lee is a town planner employed as transport planner with the City of Melbourne. She is currently involved in sustainable transport policy including projects encouraging commuter walking and cycling and limiting private car use.

Ray Davies is bricklayer and carpenter and an experienced trainer and manager who has a range of volunteer experience. Ray recently completed a volunteer placement in the Tiwi Island transfering skills in building and property maintenance.

I had to take my skills and think from the ground upwards. I had to drop all my assumptions and learn about the culture before I could begin. I would never have to do that when working in Melbourne. It was a great professional refresher. Daniel Khong, Architect & ICV Volunteer

To find out more about Indigenous Community Volunteers call 1800 819 542 or go to www.icv.com.au