NOW CONFERENCE – SEASON 1
1 JULY 2011 – 2 JULY 2011
The conference, previously known as DATUM:KL, remains the principal anchor event for the Festival, but shall from this year onwards be re-conceptualised as the NOW CONFERENCE. NOW implies an immediacy, a moment in the present to define new positions and potentials, an architectural status update! At a time when architecture seeks new directions and new beginnings, the debut conference will seek to examine and describe key trajectories of thinking and practice, and to underline the essential transformative aspects of architecture as a critical instrumentality to engage a continually changing world.
NOW CONFERENCE / SEASON 1 will feature a series of lectures by a selection of both established and emergent architects and designers with divergent range of approaches and interests from the region and internationally. In addition to introducing a new set of exceptional talent to the Datum community, this year we welcome back some of our original speakers who over the years has also risen in stature and profile alongside Datum. The new conference will also have a refreshed and updated format but will leave intact the things that have worked well.
SPEAKERS (in alphabetical order)
YB SENATOR DATO SRI’ IDRIS JALA PUTRAJAYA
ALFREDO BRILLEMBOURG CARACAS
PITUPONG CHAOWAKUL BANGKOK
FLORIAN IDENBURG & JING LIU NEW YORK/BEIJING
ZHANG LI BEIJING
LAURENCE LOH PENANG
JÜRGEN MAYER BERLIN
HIROSHI NAKAMURA TOKYO
OLE SCHEEREN HONG KONG/BEIJING
MARC SIMMONS NEW YORK
CAMERON SINCLAIR LONDON
ALAN TAY & SEETOH KUM LOON SINGAPORE
CAMERON SINCLAIR LONDON
ARCHITECTURE FOR HUMANITY www.architectureforhumanity.org
LECTURE TITLE: DESIGN FOR ALL
Implementing Cultural Acupuncture and Community-Led Development
As the Executive Director and co-founder of Architecture for Humanity, Cameron Sinclair is not only an architect, but an author, humanitarian and world-class visionary.
During his studies at the University of Westminster and at the Bartlett School of Architecture, Cameron developed a passion for social, cultural and humanitarian design. His resulting postgraduate thesis focused on providing shelter to New York City’s homeless through sustainable, transitional housing.
Collaborating with Kate Stohr in 1999, he co-founded Architecture for Humanity, a non-profit that helps architects apply their design skills to humanitarian efforts. AFH has since grown into an international hub for humanitarian design, offering innovative solutions to humanitarian crises in all corners of the globe. They operate sixty chapters in twenty-five countries with more than 4,650 volunteer design professionals.
For over ten years, Architecture for Humanity has made a difference by working on projects ranging from schools, health clinics, affordable housing and long term sustainable reconstruction. They have played a pivotal role in the rebuilding efforts in Southern Asia after the tsunami in 2004, on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and in Haiti after the earthquake in 2009.
Cameron Sinclair and AFH have been awarded many honors over the past decade. In 2004 Fortune Magazine named Cameron as one of the Aspen Seven, seven people changing the world for the better. He was named the RISD/Target Emerging Designer of the Year in 2005. In 2006 Cameron was the recipient of the TED prize for the development of the Open Architecture Network. In 2008 he was awarded the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for his work in elevating design in areas of need. Later in 2008 he was profiled alongside Cameron Diaz in the show ICONOCLASTS on the Sundance Channel. In 2009 Cameron and Kate received the Royal Society of Arts Bicentenary Medal. Most recently he was invited to speak at the 2010 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Cameron is also a contributor to The Huffington Post with over 7,500 followers on Twitter.
“My challenge is to encourage the design profession to respond to the 98% of the world that do not benefit from our services and to foster public appreciation for the many ways that architecture and design can improve lives.”
– Cameron Sinclair
