14-15 November 2019
The second ABP Symposium brought together international and Australian speakers– researchers, professionals and activists – who are transforming the way we think about gender in the built environment professions, and are actively creating new futures for these professions and the communities they serve.
Together they explored how we are already creating more equitable environments, and catalyse further action. How is gender equity reshaping and reinvigorating our professions and disciplines? What action is underway? What demands are being made? How do we each find agency? What are the effects of transforming practice and the professions? How is equity becoming more complicated? What areas do we need to better understand?
The program is organised as a series of discussions investigating key modes of action – organising at the grassroots, leadership through policy, reshaping the workplace, and rewriting history. This is an opportunity to reflect on recent action, and to grapple with the work still required.
The 2019 ABP Symposium was presented in partnership with Parlour and was programmed as part of the University of Melbourne's BE—150 program.
Parlour and MSD
In 2012 Parlour and the Melbourne School of Design collaborated on Transform: Altering the Future of Architecture. This one-day symposium asked, “If architecture was more inclusive would it also be in a stronger position?” It speculated about how we might generate a more equitable, effective and robust profession and what such a might discipline look like.
Transform was a significant step in creating a robust, newly active community advocating for gender equity, which crosses between and among practice, academia and allied fields. This community went on to activate the research and discussion within and beyond Australia. It helped create new knowledge and put that knowledge to work.
An extraordinary amount of work and action on gender equity in the built environment has occurred in the intervening six years – which builds on decades of earlier work. In 2019, much has changed, but there is still a great deal of work to do.
MSD and Parlour have a longstanding and productive partnership. MSD was one of the research partners on the ARC-funded Linkage project that generated Parlour, and has been a Parlour Institutional Partner since 2016.