City Talks: Dr Gill Matthewson – Vajrasana and the quest for non-heroic architecture

Get along to City Gallery Wellington on Monday 11 September at 6pm, for City Talks: Dr Gill Matthewson — Vajrasana and the quest for non-heroic architecture.

Gill Matthewson is an architect and academic committed to understanding the ways that gender contributes to the shaping of architects and architecture. Gill has extensive experience both as a practising architect and as an academic. Throughout her career she has returned again and again to the issue of women and architecture.

She is a strong advocate of addressing gender discrimination in the discipline and contributes regular commentary and analysis on contemporary issues in architecture to Parlour, an organisation devoted to advocating for gender equity in architecture, and other professional publications, including commentary on the use and misuse of statistics.

Along with presenting some of her research findings, Gill will discuss her evolving thoughts on how gender might be manifest in architectural projects. Using the Vajrasana Buddhist Retreat Centre in Suffolk, United Kingdom as an example, Gill will discuss its collaborative process and non-heroic architecture. The Retreat Centre is by Walters and Cohen Architects and the first new building in the UK designed specifically around Buddhist practice.

The project is notable for its engaged and creative client team – including an architect, artist, poet and psychiatrist who helped formulate the spaces – and Gill will discuss how this collaborative team and their efforts impacted on the resulting building.

Free event, starts at 6pm.