Architecture: What Matters?

Architecture talk panels can be stifling where four people sit around a table politely talking from well-rehearsed positions. Architecture: What Matters rethinks the panel format by using another tool for architecture debates, the pamphlet. Architectural pamphlets have a rich history as a device to lobby and advocate for change while being a direct, singular, clear platform for architectural provocation that can be disseminated with ease.

For Architecture: What Matters, twenty architects involved in activism, academia and practice formed a circle in Federation Court at the National Gallery of Victoria as part of the Melbourne Art Book Fair. Each participant had twenty-second each to respond to the question ‘What matters?’ with time left to debate the provocation. Each response was accompanied by an A4 pamphlet, materialised by Bec Ko, which were dispersed throughout the duration of the event and also available for download. In this twenty-first century update, pamphlets are delivered live, online and in print. The panel, combined with the pamphlet (and a t-shirt designed for the event), allowed for multiple voices and modes of dissemination for architectural ideas.

Participants included; Leandro Cappetto (Grupo TOMA), Simona Castricum (Simona Castricum), Dhiren Das (Relative Projects), Ben Edwards (Edwards Moore), Courtney Gibbs (Lyons), Cristina Goberna (Fake Industries Architectural Agonism), Joachim Holland (Fieldwork/Assemble Papers), Nikos Kalogeropoulos (Molonglo Group), Dongsei Kim (Axu Studio), Qianyi Lim (Sibling Architecture) Hannah Lewi (DOCOMOMO/University of Melbourne) Charity Edwards (Parlour), Timothy Moore (Sibling Architecture), Georgia Nowak (Room 11), Diego Ramirez-Lovering (Monash University), Jack Self (REAL) represented by Kate Finning, Felicity Scott (Columbia) represented by Hannah Robertson, Roland Snooks (RMIT University), Colby Vexler (Parallel For Thinking), Helen Walter (ARM).