UNSW Built Environment: Tom Loveday named a finalist in the annual Blake Prize

UNSW BE senior lecturer Tom Loveday has had his work ‘Yellow Memorial’ selected as a finalist in the 2011 Blake Prize.

Tom’s work will be included in the 60^th Blake Prize Exhibition. This will be running from 16 Sept – 15 Oct at the National Art School Gallery in Darlinghurst, and entry to the exhibition is free.

The Blake Prize was established in 1951. It is an open art prize that challenges artists to explore the themes of spirituality, religion and human justice. It is open to all faiths, artistic styles and media.

The official opening of the exhibition and the award announcements will be conducted at:

Time/Date: 6.00 – 8.00pm, 15 September, 2011

Venue: National Art School Gallery, Cnr Forbes & Burke St, Darlinghurst

We would like to congratulate Tom on this fantastic achievement.

Click here for more information on the Blake Prize exhibition.

UNSW Built Environment: Emergency Shelter Exhibition

‘Support Japan’ is an exhibition created by Australian and international architects who have taken action to highlight the need for emergency shelters in disaster zones and to bring awareness to the role of the design and construction industry in the aftermath of natural disasters.

The exhibition will take place from the 1^st to the 3^rd of September in and around Customs House in Circular Quay. A wide variety of Australian and international architects will be designing and building shelters for the exhibition. UNSW Architecture students have volunteered to assist with the construction and dis-assemble of the shelters and during the days of the exhibition. Our students’ involvement complements UNSW’s Built Environment’s sponsorship of the exhibition.

By donating to the Emergency Shelter Exhibition you will be supporting the design and construction industry and raising awareness and aid for the thousands of people who have been displaced by Japan’s natural disasters.

ACCOUNT NAME: EMERGENCY SHELTER EXHIBITION
BANK: NAB
BSB: 082 001 / A/C NO: 19 832 4405
REFERENCE: DONATE (YOURNAME)

Please click here for more information on this exhibition and how you can contribute to this worthwhile cause.

UNSW Built Environment: Q & A(rchitecture)

The next DARCH Q & A(rchitect) session will be held tomorrow night  11 August with the winner of the 2011 NSW Emerging Architect Prize Matt Chan and will be hosted by Janne Ryan, ideas curator and executive producer of TEDxSydney.

The NSW Emerging Architect Prize recognises overall excellence in practice, research or education, and involvement in the profession through leadership.  In 2011 it was recognised that with the opportunities Matt has created to develop thinking through teaching, research, discourse and speculative work, as well as collaborative practice, he has great potential to continue this contribution to the profession, well into his career.

Matt, who is a UNSW Built Environment Alumnus, will give a talk which will be followed by a question-and-answer session, where fellow emerging architects, students and graduates are free to ask the difficult questions, focusing on mentoring, teaching and career progression. In order to keep the session moving along, he only has one minute to answer each question.

The session will begin at 6.30pm Thursday 11 August at Surry Hills Library, 405 Crown Street. The event is free for members of the Australian Institute of Architects and City of Sydney Library and $10 for others, which can be paid at the door. Drinks and finger food will be available afterwards.

Please RSVP to darch@raia.com.au.

There will also be an exhibition of the entrants for the prize in the foyer of Surry Hills Library throughout August as part of Sydney Design 2011.

UNSW Built Environment: Utzon Lecture Series ‘Going Green: Risks and Opportunities’

The next instalment of the 2011 UNSW Built Environment Utzon Lecture Series will be held on Wednesday the 10th of August in the Keith Burrows Lecture Theatre at 7pm. The lecture is titled “Going Green: Risks and Opportunities” and will be given by Martin Loosemore, UNSW Built Environment Professor.

Date: Wednesday 10 August, 2011

Refreshments: 6.15pm – 6.45pm Red Centre, West Wing, Gallery

Lecture: 7.00pm – 8.00pm

Venue: Keith Burrows Lecture Theatre, UNSW Kensington Campus

Cost: Free

Download a UNSW campus map here.

This lecture addresses how consulting and contracting firms in the construction and engineering industry, both large and small, can innovate to translate sustainability into improved business performance. It seeks to untangle the rhetoric from the reality of the sustainability debate by exploring both its opportunities and risks. Drawing perspectives from the social and behavioural sciences, psychology, economics, politics and philosophy, the presentation argues that the key to a more sustainable built environment industry is a more balanced debate and an open and collaborative industry which draws from a more liberal knowledge-base and seeks new integrated business configurations through supply and demand chains.

Please RSVP for this event to fbeevents@unsw.edu.au.

UNSW Built Environment: Riding the Design Wave

Chris Fox’s first-hand experience of the risks associated with water sports led him to design a self-inflating life jacket, which has just won a coveted James Dyson award.

The ‘9th Life’ wetsuit jacket monitors oxygen levels and automatically inflates when the user is at risk of drowning, bringing them into a safe upright position and signally for help via GPS, explains Chris, 23, who graduated last year with a Bachelor of Industrial Design with first-class honours.

It was the drowning tragedy of fellow Queenscliff surf club member Saxon Bird, who was knocked unconscious in a surf-ski accident on the Gold Coast, that highlighted the need for such a design, Chris said.

“My personal experience is through kiteboarding kilometres off shore in windy conditions – I realised that I’m vulnerable if knocked unconscious with no help close by.”

“9th Life is unlike any other life jackets on the market today. It provides users with a high level of safety without restricting their mobility and fits in with the sporting style and beach culture,” Chris told The Sun Herald.
Chris’s innovation won the silver prize in the student awards, presented recently in Melbourne as part of the 2011 Australian Design Awards.

“I like the challenge of solving problems and looking for solutions that are different and that will make a difference to people’s lives. I also enjoy the hands on experience of designing, testing and building products.”

Chris was one of four finalists from UNSW’s Faculty of Built Environment vying for the Dyson Awards.

Dr Miles Park, Director of the Industrial Design Program, said, “This year’s entries continued a very strong run of student design work – the innovative thinking and attention to detail has been outstanding.”

It follows the outstanding success of Samuel Adeloju, who last year won the international James Dyson Award for his Longreach flotation device launcher

Other UNSW design alumni to be recognised in the Australian Design Awards were Craig Burke who won the Housing and Building category for his recently launched product, Klinch tool tether, which allows the user to carry and use multiple tools safely without the risk of being dropped from heights.

“The significance of Craig’s win is that it demonstrates how a design that he first worked on as a student can be successfully commercialised and be award-winning,” said Dr Park.

UNSW Built Environment: “Building Values” by Peter Singer now on UNSWTV and You Tube

The fifth instalment of the 2011 Utzon Lecture Series “Building Values” by Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics, University Centre for Human Values, Princeton University, USA is now available for viewing on UNSWTV and You Tube.

The lecture can be viewed by clicking the icon below.

UNSW Built Environment: 2011 NSW Architecture Awards Ceremony

 

Earlier this month, the 2011 NSW Architecture Awards Ceremony was held at the Sydney Hilton. The Awards celebrate and honour NSW Architects who have worked on public and private projects across Australia which have demonstrated design excellence and innovation. From this talented group many represented UNSW Built Environment as staff and/or alumni.

A total of 41 awards, prizes and commendations across 15 categories were awarded from 191 submissions. Awarded projects are eligible for a national award to be assessed late this year.

This year the UNSW Built Environment community was strongly represented at the awards ceremony. Esteemed UNSW Built Environment Professor and alumnus Glenn Murcutt received the Award for Enduring Architecture for his iconic design of ‘Magney House’ Bingie Bingie on the NSW south coast which was completed in 1984.

The President’s Prize recognises an individual who has made a meaningful contribution to the industry. The 2011 honour was presented to UNSW Built Environment Visiting Professor and NSW Government Architect Peter Mould. NSW President Matthew Pullinger commented that “Peter Mould is a quiet achiever. In his role as Government Architect, he has been a tireless advocate for design excellence. He promotes design quality purely for the benefit of society and the profession.”

UNSW BE graduate Matt Chan (BArch 1996) from Scale Architecture was awarded the Emerging Architect Prize for his hard work and diligence within the industry.  Matt has been creating and working in a variety of facets within the industry developing thinking through teaching, research, discourse and speculative work, as well as collaborative practice.

This year’s top honour the Sulman Award was presented to Bligh Voller Nield (BVN) Architecture for their innovative design of the ‘Brain and Mind Research Institute (BRMI) – Youth Mental Health Building’. BVN received an additional triumph when they were awarded the John Verger Award in Interior Architecture for the ‘BVN Sydney Studio’. Visiting UNSW Professor James Grose was a project principle in both of these winning projects.

Other prizes which were won by members of the UNSW BE community include an Architecture Award in Residential Architecture – Housing to Chenchow Little Architects (BArch 2003/2004 respectively) for their ‘Skylight House’, and an Architecture Award in Commercial Architecture for the ‘ERA’ project to Stanisic Associates Architects, who includes current UNSW studio master Frank Stanisic.

Dean of UNSW Built Environment, Professor Alec Tzannes said “the awards night produced a fantastic result for the Faculty and the University, with recognition going to UNSW Built Environment professors, lecturers and alumnus. These successes help to reinforce this faculty’s position as a highly successful and innovative educational facility who continues to produce individuals who are highly sought after within our industry.”

Professor Tzannes is also Director of Tzannes Associates.  His firm received an Architecture Award in Public Architecture for the ‘Hillingdon Ascham School’ in addition to three Commendations in Residential Housing, Residential Multiple Housing and Commercial Architecture.

We would like to congratulate all winners at the 2011 NSW Architecture Awards.

Click here to view a full list of this years winners.

UNSW Built Environment: Carolyn Steel – Hungry City Lecture

The British Council in association with UNSW Built Environment will be hosting architect Carolyn Steel who will speak to a Sydney audience in an exclusive lecture titled ‘Hungry City – How Food Shapes Our Lives’.

Carolyn Steel is an architect, lecturer and author exploring how cities are shaped by food. Her work has focused on developing a lateral approach to urban design that looks at the everyday routines that shape cities and the way we inhabit them. Her book, Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives follows food’s journey from land to city, through market and supermarket, kitchen and table, waste-dump and back again, to show how food affects all our lives, and impacts on the planet.

We hope that you can join us for this interesting presentation.

Date: Tuesday 19 July, 2011

Time: 6.30pm – 8.00pm

Venue: Robert Webster Building, Webster Theatre A,

Anzac Parade, UNSW Kensington Campus

Cost: Free

Download a UNSW campus map here.

RSVP: Email – amrit.gill@britishcouncil.org.au or call – 02 9362 6725

UNSW Built Environment: Professor Peter Singer to present “Building Values”

The next instalment of the 2011 UNSW Built Environment Utzon Lecture Series will be held on Wednesday the 13th of July in the Faculty of Law Lecture Theatre G04 at 7pm. The lecture is titled “Building Values” and will be given by world renowned philosopher Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics, University Centre for Human Values, Princeton University, USA.

Date: Wednesday 13 July, 2011

Refreshments: 6.15pm – 6.45pm Red Centre, West Wing, Gallery

Lecture: 7.00pm – 8.00pm

Venue: Faculty of Law Lecture Theatre G04, UNSW Kensington Campus

Cost: Free

Download a UNSW campus map here.

This lecture will discuss the way in which our decisions about the kind of built environment we choose to create, and to live in, should take into account the interests of others, whether present or future, human or nonhuman.

Please note RSVP to this event is essential as places are limited and can be made through fbeevents@unsw.edu.au

UNSW Built Environment: Eric Chau

 

Hi my names Eric Chau and I’m currently studying industrial design in my fourth year at UNSW. Entrepreneurship has always been lingering in the back of my mind but I have never had enough confidence to pursue it at this stage of life, however things have changed since I entered the TIE Clash of the titans youth pitching competition. It all started when I enrolled into the entrepreneurial course and was notified of a pitching competition and its prize – A trip to Silicon Valley to attend the TIECON 2011 with expenses paid.

Entering the TIE Clash of the titans youth pitching competition has been an experience which has been life changing ever since. The whole process from the preparation of the pitch to meeting successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley has enabled me to learn so much in a short amount of time. Everything has happened so quickly, from having 1 week to organize my trip to the USA and having up to 6 assignments due when I was to arrive back in Australia. This has taught me the value of time management.

The whole trip to the TIECON in the valley entailed so many highlights. The whole conference was packed with a variety of like minded people which ranged from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists all gathering around pitching business ideas and networking. I loved the atmosphere, environment and the drive everyone at the conference had, I also took advantage of this and networked with people from all over the world who attended this conference. The other main highlight attending this conference was the amount of information I have absorbed in from the various keynote speakers and guest panel speakers. All of the speakers were very inspiring in giving talks on their insights to the highs and lows of becoming an entrepreneur.