In November of 2023, the Retrofit Symposium brought together academic, government and industry experts to set the national research agenda to support the transformation of Australian cities.
Through a series of keynote lectures, panel discussions and site visits over two days, the symposium advocated for an increase in the scale of retrofitting in Australia.
Speakers including Indy Johar (Architecture 00 and Dark Matter Labs) and Nicky Drobis (Fender Kastilidis) explored how the built environment sector can best improve the performance of existing assets with retrofitting as it moves towards more sustainable standards.
The Symposium featured site visits at RMIT New Academic Street, Melbourne SkyFarm, 500 Bourke Street, 47 Easey Street and Lincoln Square. Each site highlighted unique aspects of retrofit best practice, sharing their experiences and exploring the barriers and opportunities encountered each retrofit project.
If you missed the day or would like to recap on key discussions, please view our keynote lectures and illustrations below.
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Retrofit Symposium Keynotes
Retrofit and Beyond
Working Through the Limits
In this lecture, Indy Johar, Co-Founder, Dark Matter Labs and 00 Architecture, and current Robert Garland Treseder Fellow, will explore the topic of retrofit. Indy is co-founder of Dark Matter Labs and of the RIBA award winning architecture and urban practice Architecture00.
He is also a founding director of Open Systems Lab, seeded WikiHouse (open source housing) and Open Desk (open source furniture company).
Indy is a non-executive international Director of the BloxHub, the Nordic Hub for sustainable urbanization. He is on the advisory board for the Future Observatory and is part of the committee for the London Festival of Architecture. He is also a fellow of the London Interdisciplinary School.
Indy was 2016-17 Graham Willis Visiting Professorship at Sheffield University. He was Studio Master at the Architectural Association - 2019-2020, UNDP Innovation Facility Advisory Board Member 2016-20 and RIBA Trustee 2017-20.
He has taught & lectured at various institutions from the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New School.
He was awarded the London Design Medal for Innovation in 2022 and an MBE for Services to Architecture in 2023.
Green Dreams:
Epic Retrofit Stories
Epic Retrofit Stories
This lecture by Nicky Drobis, Partner at Fender Katsalidis will delve into case studies featuring landmark buildings and refurbishments including Midtown Centre, 500 Bourke Street and 90 Collins Street.
Focused on exploring design resolutions that foster human connectivity and are eco-centric, Nicky is dedicated to creating buildings that contribute to the social fabric and enrich peoples’ lives.
Schooled in both architecture and architectural history, Nicky is focused on pushing design boundaries. Her ability to understand site context, and respond with interesting and sympathetic architectural solutions that balance client pragmatism with architectural vision, has been manifest from her earliest days with the practice.
Nicky thus commits wholeheartedly to designing great outcomes on every level— functional, economic, urban and environmental—and in doing so, achieving the goals of our clients, our firm and the cities our work continues to shape.
Graphic Illustrations
Graphic Recorder, Zahra Zanial, helped capture our thinking from select sessions throughout the day by creating a visual representation of the discussion.
Retrofit Site Visits
The Retrofit Symposium had a number of guided site visits of selected retrofits across Melbourne, where guests learnt about the opportunities, challenges each site experienced, decision making behind retrofit vs rebuild, economic and environmental savings, and unforeseen lessons. Thank you to Revival Projects, ISPT, RMIT, City of Melbourne, and Foodcube for hosting such compelling site visits.
