Will your house outlive you? What kind of ancestor do you want to be? These are some of the questions we’re asking in our film showing at Everyday, the twelfth edition of the International Architecture Biennale of São Paulo, which has just opened this week! The film is part of New Agency, our research project that looks towards the future of housing through the lens of an ageing population.

Everyday, proposes to professionals and the public to reflect on the everyday – the most trivial dimension of reality – to investigate architecture and the built environment of the 21st century. Everyday presents practices and projects ranging from construction to design, planning, photography, pedagogy, research, policy making and activism, crossing disciplines, scales and boundaries.

Sibling were invited to participate at this year’s FRONT Design in Sydney’s Barangaroo. Qianyi was part of a panel discussion ‘Zest for Life: Design Strategies for Ageing in Place’ alongside industry experts Lorraine Calder from Australian Unity, Diane Jones from PTW and Harold Smith from Keppel Capital.

The lively discussion was chaired by Fiona Young, Hayball, and touched on various future living scenarios for an ageing population; including co-living arrangements, multi-generational communities and how technology enables greater autonomy in later life.

Are you an attendee or an activist? We are honoured to be taking part in this year’s conference, bringing you a reboot of our New Agency Guided Visualisation.

Curated by Monique Woodward (WOWOWA) and Stephen Choi, Collective Agency reminds us that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and with unity comes an ability to affect an outcome. This year’s event will encourage reflection on today’s challenges, the articulation of more meaningful protocols, and most importantly, the willingness to act. Discussing what WAS (our shared understanding), what IS (our shared reality), and what COULD BE (our shared advocacy), Collective Agency is a dual state of doing and being.

See more about the conference and an outline of the full program here.

Earlier this month, Qianyi Lim of Sibling was invited to take part in Parlour’s Sydney Autumn Salon, with Fiona Young, Studio director of Hayball.

Qianyi and Fiona engaged in a public conversation on cultural heritage and how it impacts on practice, celebrating diversity in the workplace and the bamboo ceiling.

You can read more about the even here.

With roots in ancient Chinese history, China’s plaza or square dancing has been developed over thousands of years. Due to its ease of participation, social and health benefits, it is said to have over 100 million practitioners worldwide and is practiced daily in key public spaces around the world. The dancers encourage participation among young people to promote multi-generational activity.

As part of Sibling’s New Agency exhibition, come along and join in on the modern combination of dance and exercise that is a fun and visual spectacle for people of all ages. Find us on Tuesday 5 March from 10 – 11.30am on Eastern Avenue, the University of Sydney.

The popularity of multi-generational households in Australia re-emerged in the 1980s. How does this affect our ageing population, and what housing typologies best support multi-generational living arrangements? Come along to Sibling’s exhibition New Agency at Tin Sheds in Sydney on March 4 to hear from Dr Edgar Liu and Casey Bryant as they discuss a multi-generational future in Australia. Book here.

New Agency, Sibling’s exhibition which examines the futures of dwelling through the lens of an ageing population, will be reinstalled at the Sydney Design Festival during March.

How will you grow old? Can you live forever? What kind of ancestor do you want to be? Will your house outlive you? New Agency: Owning Your Future is a design research project that poses these questions. Taking the form of a public investigation, the audience is a participant in Sibling Architecture’s research within the gallery to examine and discuss the futures of dwelling through the lens of an ageing population. Visitors engage with a series of activities within Tin Sheds Gallery: exploring precedents on a spinning lazy Susan, a guided meditation, and sketching out their desires via a survey.

A series of events accompany the exhibition where ageing experts, architects and community members meet for conversations on the futures of housing and Australia’s ageing population. New Agency: How will you live in the future? For opening hours, please visit the Tin Sheds website here

What is the role of women in architecture? Join the Australian Institute of Architects on the 26 of November at Tusculum for Gill Matthewson’s presentation on new data analysis that reveals the role of women in architecture along with a discussion panel between practitioners for the need for the change with Andrew Nimmo, Jess Murphy, Leone Lorrimer and Sibling’s Qianyi Lim.

The city is occupied by diverse groups of people with a variety of needs, but does architecture always accommodate for the needs of its user? In this discussion at MPavilion on November 10, designers, architects, activists and professionals discuss how to create more inclusive environments. Speakers include Margherita Coppolino, Jax Jacki Brown, Celeste Carnegie, Anthony Clarke, Tania Davidge and Jane Caught of Sibling Architecture.

Thoughtful and clever design can make sure our urban streets and parks are safe and vibrant places. Through design, ordinary places can be made extraordinary. Gemma Savio (Savio Parsons Architects), Ela Glogowska (Perumal Pedavoli Architects/Studio [R]) and Qianyi Lim (Sibling Architecture) speak about past and present projects on November 7 at Sydney’s Inner West Council offering fresh thinking for the future.