Sydney Architecture Festival 2013

Overview

Calling all building enthusiasts, constructionophiles and design devotees — the seventh annual Sydney Architecture Festival is set to erect itself in the Harbour City from November 1 through to November 10. The ten days of celebration will be curated around the theme 'Your City, Your Community', allowing Sydney residents and festivalgoers to "actively engage and interact with their local architecture and built environment," says NSW Architects Registrations Board registrar Kate Doyle.

Launching this engagement on Friday, November 1, is an outdoor party hosted in and around Temperance Lane's hidden watering hole Grasshopper celebrating Sydney's burgeoning laneway culture, where a specially commissioned light installation designed by Steensen Varming will be unveiled outside the bar.

Other program highlights include the continuation of 2012 festival initiative Super Sydney, which invites Sydneysiders to submit ideas for places that could transform their community's identity. The 40 most original and thought-provoking entries will be displayed as a digital exhibition symposium at Sydney's most iconic building the Sydney Opera House on November 9 as part of the building's 40th anniversary.

Art will also play its part throughout the festival. The Powerhouse Museum will host a Beaux Arts Ball on November 7, a Parisian neo-classical architecture inspired ball featuring food, drinks and live entertainment. The Museum of Contemporary Art will also host the annual Lloyd Rees Memorial Lecture and a re-enactment of the 1976 artwork Man with Mirror (by Guy Sherwin) as (Wo)man with Mirror. The ever-popular Rocks Pop Up Space will host the Expanded Architecture artworks exhibition and Michael Holt will be presenting an experimental play outside the traditional theatre space, as the audience follows the action on foot.

The festival will also branch out of the city with a hub at Parramatta hosting talks, tours and exhibitions on Saturday November 2. The popular Archkids event also returns this year for its Parramatta debut, offering children the chance to reimagine their city 37 years in the future. There will also be plenty of chance to explore Sydney's construction highlights, with a host of architectural tours populating the program. You can visit and learn about Sydney's CBD, Cockatoo Island, Granville and Neutral Bay.

There are plenty more events and you can find out more information and a full listing at www.sydneyarchitecturefestival.org. So get out and explore the beautiful building work in Sydney.

Image: The Generator, raumlaborberlin, 2010, part of the User Generated Architecture exhibition at Tin Sheds Gallery.