Politics and Utopia in Architecture is a conversation series facilitated and moderated by Associate Professors’ Dr Rochus Hinkel and Dr Peter Raisbeck, supported by the NGV and the Melbourne School of Design at The University of Melbourne.

The series ‘Politics and Utopia’ acknowledges that architecture and architectural practice and thinking needs to be – and has always been – deeply political. Are we able to develop creative and utopian proposals that address the numerous challenges we face? Challenges that range from the loss of biodiversity and the extinction of indigenous species to industrial food production and the climate crisis, to name a few.

In 2021 our series of panels discussed a diversity of topics, including ‘Indigenous Knowledge Systems’, ‘Knowing the Anthoropocene’ and ‘Shaping Future Societies’. In 2022 we focus on two new topics.

In 2022 we will investigate whether we can and how we could decolonize architectural education and the specific culture in the design studio and in the second panel discussion focus once again on the Anthropocene and wonder whether the pandemic has enabled us humans to see more clearly our own hubris and enable us to speak and act for the future of the earth?

Dr Rochus Hinkel is Associate Professor for Architecture and Design at the Melbourne School of Design (MSD) and co-director of the Advanced Digital Design + Fabrication (ADD+F) research hub at the ABP Faculty at the University of Melbourne. Rochus’s current research and practice focuses on digital and analogue realities (AR/VR/XR) which he explores through artistic experimentations, spatial installations and immersive environments for cultural storytelling, exhibitions and museums, archives and heritage.

Dr Peter Raisbeck is an Architect, Design Teacher and Researcher. He teaches Design, Design Activism and Architectural Practice at the Melbourne School of Design. His work explores architecture’s intersection with global finance, new technologies, procurement, design activism, politics, and architectural history.

For 2021 Politics and Utopia in Architecture Series:

Politics and Utopia in Architecture: Shaping Future Societies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AduphfCu-z0&t=10s

Politics and Utopia in Architecture: Knowing the Anthropocene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eINJ9_NlxwE&t=1s

Politics and Utopia in Architecture: Indigenous Knowledge Systems: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCo__CZG_y4