Extra/Ordinary

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: In making sense of the city and its inhabitants, architectural practitioners increasingly operate within an interdisciplinary terrain, collaborating with artists, engineers, policy-makers, and activists to produce a range of outcomes which expand the definition of architectural practice toward an extended idea of agency. Architectural collaborations with diverse players including the opportunistic practices of the urban slum dweller or the savvy developer open new ways to tackle old and intractable problems. The small scale, everyday and adaptive occupational practices of the inventive city dweller, the extraordinarily ordinary, now increasingly inspire architects to create reflexive and responsive infrastructure. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: Extra/Ordinary gathered together a collection of national and international practitioners and researchers working in new ways on old problems, ways characterised by lateral thinking, direct action approaches, and a bottom-up approach. It was organised around four themes, those of extra/ordinary people, things, living, and cities. Complementary themes explored the need for fluid and collaborative relationships between education research and practice; the under-representation of women at the highest levels in architecture despite their active presence; and current humanitarian architectural practices and agencies in Australia. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: International participants from Chile, Germany, Netherlands, the US and UK were joined by leading Australian architectural researchers including Peter Corrigan, Richard Goodwin, Geoffrey London, Kerstin Thompson and Richard Weller. It received widespread coverage in national and international architectural media.