Francis Kéré took us through a body of work that demonstrates the value of vernacular thinking in contemporary construction, Sarah Allan walked us through the work of reintroducing public good in English architecture and urbanism, and Ian Moore demonstrated the potential of adaptive reuse.

Kéré, the Pritzker Prize winner, opened the festival with the Futuna Lecture. He reminded us (via a foray into a curated selection of his works) that architecture can and does have a role to play in soothing societal ills. He is the inaugural recipient of the Murcutt Pin (which he sported on Sunday), awarded by the Murcutt Foundation to recognise architects creating positive change by working with communities. His buildings display a sense of care for their communities and a refreshing reminder of innovation.

He told us of his time in school — away from his home village of Gando, Burkina Faso, he remembers it as a building too dark and too hot to learn in. This recollection was the impetus of the Gando Primary School. Kéré adapted clay construction techniques (adding cement to create structurally sound bricks) and lifted the school’s ceiling to take advantage of the region’s stack-inducing heat. He recalls having to convince his community (who were expecting his German education to produce a “modern” building of glass and steel, and concrete) that the answers lay within vernacular materials and techniques. Gando’s people were involved in the construction of the building too: Kéré delightedly told us of the togetherness of the women who beat the floors of the School, young and old, strong and frail, working together, singing together to achieve the common goal. The outcome (his words): floors as smooth as a baby’s bottom.

Kéré does not imagine architects as living in some ivory tower: “we should not be arrogant… we must be humble and convince people.” He sees architects as communicators who create the best outcomes with their communities, as well as for them. His rigorous experimentation goes hand-in-hand with his appreciation for the psychological value of the building: “even in scarcity, I look to inspire… it should be beautiful.” He understands that there must be beauty, and that beauty begets itself. In this world, where design all too often falls by the wayside, Kéré’s words and works demonstrate that good design earns its own mandate.

The Fast Forward Lecture featured the UK Government’s Chief Architect (and Hood Fellowship Recipient) Sarah Allan.

Allan walked us through the tension of private interest and public good that characterises England’s built environment.

Resource management reforms and the density debate are shaping our disciplinary discourse today. We seem to be standing on a precipice not too dissimilar from one England was walking at the turn of the century: an overburdened planning profession, inadequate housing stock, poor urban environments, an over-reliance and overinvestment in car-centric infrastructure, all fed by an erosion of an institutional culture that prioritises the provision of design as a public good.
Allan’s lecture traversed the history of built-environment policy in the nation — the filthy conditions of the industrial revolution that drove the aspirations of the 20th century (Garden City-inspired settlements like Letchworth, New Towns like Milton Keynes) to the neoliberal turns of the 1980s that allowed the rise of extractive, monopoly-driven land-use models of today.  In one short hour, she took us through history, policy, case studies, good and bad, and made the case that the public sector holds the potential to lead the call to demand and deliver better. She wrapped up with three pillars to support that end:

1.     Setting standards to improve design quality (informed by international best practice and working across built environment disciplines).
2.   Developing an ecosystem of support (cross-sector engagement and leadership, and a willingness across levels of government).
3.   Building a culture of design (through engagement and agency: co-design, communal design, consultation).

Design holds the possibility of bridging gaps and solving issues in the built-environment world, and we know this has far-reaching social, cultural, economic and climactic implications. Allan makes the case that the Government Architect acts as a dedicated champion for design, a voice in the corner fighting for the public good, a critical thinker and a bridge-builder. There are lessons to be learned here as we grapple with the future of our own built environment — if the powers that be are willing to lend an ear and take a risk.

Last but not least, Ian Moore gave his Sir Ian Athfield Memorial lecture: The Past Needs a Future. For Moore (principal at award-winning firm Ian Moore Architects), the social history of a place is embedded in its buildings and removing them is tantamount to destroying that history. However, Moore is a pragmatist: he opened the lecture by recognising that we can’t keep everything, but we should keep what we can. After all, the most climate-friendly building is the one that is already there.

Moore’s lecture traversed seven buildings by the firm: case studies in adaptive re-use, largely in heritage-sensitive Sydney suburbs. The case studies are defined by bold moves rooted in an appreciation of legibility. Many of the projects apply a strong graphic language: a colour or material palette used to signify the difference between old and new (Moore’s own house, for example, contrasts the existing building in a startling white, with the new additions in seven shades of black). These design moves are not restricted to the interior, however: most interestingly, the firm applies this philosophy to the massing of its buildings, setting new additions back from original volumes in a tacit readability.

Moore’s approach highlights a design thinking that goes beyond the simple physical properties of materials, prioritising the cultural and social intricacies embedded in any aged building. There is an understanding of patina, there is the understanding that a good urban form is one defined by contrast — every building a little bit different, a little bit storied. In a time when our urban form is facing upheaval as we try and respond to a multiplicity of crises (economic upheaval, climate concerns, housing shortages), the philosophies embodied by Moore’s oeuvre of work are thrust into prominence and relevance. He believes we can have a city that is dense and that retains its stories, and that architects (given the resources) hold the skillset to make it so through design.

Kéré, Allan and Moore have different approaches to practice that build on different skillsets and contexts. Design forms the thread that links these approaches. In each lecture, each speaker speculates and recollects ways in which good design offers solutions to the issues they face. Kéré’s architecture fills gaps, innovates to defy and draw on its climate; Allan’s policy work and research tugs on (and creates) institutional levers to return public good to English urbanism; Moore’s sensitivity promises a future that respects its past. I finish this first week of the festival with a refreshed sense of optimism that our disciplines (and the mould-breaking thinkers within them) hold the potential to disrupt, to create, to bring to fruition a future for all.