Celebrating Illawarra’s best in Architecture & Design
A WEEKEND OF EVENTS
CHOOSE ONE OR ATTEND THEM ALL
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Celebrating Illawarra’s best in Architecture & Design
A WEEKEND OF EVENTS
CHOOSE ONE OR ATTEND THEM ALL
A family-friendly weekend to explore
regional architecture and design innovation.
Choose your experience
Four events to excite, enthral, and entertain. Choose one or attend them all. From a cycling tour, house tour, studio tours and even a jazz garden concert. Delve deeper into our region’s architectural homes and their creators.
We invite you to a day of panel discussions from 10.30am - 5pm. Come and go as you please. Young kids will be entertained with games and a dedicated childcare professional, while you can sit back and relax over a bevy or nibbles for sale at the Festival.
Is your home uniquely Illawarra? An architectural home worth of acclaim? Enter The Illawarra Festival of Architecture & Design Award for 2024 by Sunday 8 September to celebrate the professionals behind this achievement.
All profits from the JAzz GARDEN CONCERT are to be donated to Supported Accommodation & Homelessness Services Shoalhaven Illawarra (SAHSSI).
Our cycling tour is the perfect blend of adventure, culture and exercise, where people can discover our hidden architectural gems through charming seaside towns, and ocean bridges along the coal coast.
Led by festival Co-Founder, Ben Wollen and the Bike Mayor of Wollongong, Edward Birt, you’ll gain fascinating insights into the design behind each architectural gem you encounter, with the odd quirky abode too.
Learn some things about the architects who shaped them as well as what makes them particularly special. Setting off from Stanwell Park Village and meandering our way South passing over 15 homes the tour will end in Austinmer.
For a Grand Designs-esque tour of three homes, enjoy a leisurely afternoon in the northern Illawarra. Owners have been gracious enough to open their doors to our community for a behind-the-scenes exclusive tour from three local architects and builders behind these exceptional projects.
These reflect so much of the innovation in our local architecture and design industry. The Festival has handpicked these three homes, one in Mt Pleasant, then in Bulli and Austinmer.
It’s a short drive between them, or you might prefer to cycle. Their locations are under wraps for now, revealed to ticket holders. Trust, though, you’ll enjoy the sneak peek behind the curtains of these remarkable residences, and meet the brilliant minds who brought them to life. Prepare to be inspired by the fusion of form and function.
Are you planning to build or renovate? Are you a building material supplier or involved in real estate and want to meet with some of the Illawarra’s best in architecture & design and see where they work? Maybe you’re a local professional too, keen to extend your network?
We introduce you to our local experts, take you to their studios where you can enjoy chatting over tea, coffee and finger food. We‘re hosting two bespoke meet and greets in three locations at the same time.
Furniture Forward: In Thirroul, join 2024’s Indesign magazine and Vogue Living’s Australian Product Designer of the Year, Trent Jansen, as he welcome you into his furniture design studio and shares the inspiration behind his art.
Interior Showcase: In Wollongong city, the HIA’s 2024 Kitchen and Bathroom Designer of the year, Gavin Hepper, welcomes guests to his studio to enjoy a talk alongside furniture artisans and 2024 Paris Design Award winners, Hegi Design House, with Australia’s premier recycled timber window and door crafters, AHJ, whose work features on across the Illawarra’s finest architectural homes.
Looking for an evening with a difference? Do you like live Jazz? One of the friends of the Illawarra Festival of Architecture & Design will be opening her beautiful architecturally designed Wombarra home for other architecture enthusiasts.
In partnership with Inspire Music Australia, we invite you to this one-time only home opening for a relaxed evening to listen to Highland FM’s favourite jazz duo and emerging young Wollongong talent – Headlands. There’s no better way to finish a busy day than over a drink, some great music in a beautiful and expansive garden under the escarpment. Mingle and relax with like-minded design lovers.
320 TICKETS AVAILABLE
From the local masters, learn about how they are designing resilience into their projects.
Here we celebrate the design and designers in the Illawarra that have charted a new course toward building resilience into their approach.
William Smart is the Founder and Principal of Smart Design. Over the past 25 years he has delivered projects ranging from large-scale master planning, cultural buildings, offices, workplaces. He was recently awarded a spot in the 2024 Vogue Living Top 50 Australian architects, among the 50 awards he’s won in his career. Join William to talk about regional resilience in architecture.
How can design facilitate a deeper connection and understanding of our cultural past and help direct future decision making? Join our discussion with Festival Co-Curator Dr Trent Jansen is both Vogue Living’s and Indesign magazine's 2024 Product Designer of the Year and Lecturer at the University of NSW Art & Design.
How can designers understand how to better incorporate electrification into projects? Join to discuss with MC and Festival Co-Curator Davin Turner, Principal of Studio Weave, an established architecture firm driven to innovate in environmentally conscious design with an impressive residential portfolio.
This discussion led by Keinton Butler, Powerhouse Senior Curator and Creative Director of Sydney Design Week, will investigate the impact of sustainable materials on the built and natural environment. The panel will consider opportunities afforded by the circular economy and the significance of materials in social and environmental resilience.
Are trends within the design industry promoting a throw away culture? How can buildings, furniture and more be designed with longevity in mind? Join MC Penny Keogh, Co-founder of the Illawarra Festival of Architecture & Design, to discuss if design is anchored to place, will it offer owners a stronger connection to their homes and objects?
In between panel discussions, meet with local suppliers that feature in some of the Illawarra’s finest architectural projects.
Bring the kids along too. We’ve a trained child care professional so they’ll have fun too, while you enjoy some grown-up time.
You can sit back and relax over a bevy or nibbles for sale at the Festival.
Join IFAD Co-Founder, Penny Keogh alongside respected Illawarra architect, Michael Clarke, in conversation with Festival panellists and supporters who share what it takes to be a leader in the architecture and design industry.
The Illawarra Festival of Architecture & Design Award for 2024 recognises homes that represent the best of the Illawarra. Those homes that reflect the innovative spirit of the Illawarra, while respecting the environmental demands of our region, bound by the ocean and towering bushland escarpment.
We’d like to offer two awards – Home and Renovation – to be shared between the 2-3 project leads including architect or designer and builder, alongside interior designer and/or landscape designer. Homes must be completed after December 2020.
Voting closes SUNDAY 20 OCTOBER at midnight
We thank those who have invested in this community with their support for the Illawarra Festival of Architecture & Design.
The Creative Directors and engine behind the Illawarra Festival of Architecture & Design
Large performing-arts venue with old-school charm
Anita’s Theatre,
264-270 Lawrence Hargrave Dr. Thirroul NSW 2515
IFAD will be held at Anita’s Theatre, in Thirroul. Enter from the front of Lawrence Hargrave Drive, drive round the back for parking. We’ll set aside a dedicated family-friendly space for the kids to play while you enjoy your afternoon.
Please note, all our events on the weekend of October 26th and 27th have limited capacity, and we expect them to sell out. Don’t miss out!
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Our Co-Directors are all Illawarra locals, drawing from varied industries which all support our building industry. Each of our Directors have spent their careers working to help us forge greater connections with the homes and buildings in which we spend time. It’s no wonder our Directors wanted to unite others with this passion in our community.
With so little opportunities in the Illawarra to encourage this curiosity among architecture and design enthusiasts, the answer proved obvious. And so, the Illawarra Festival of Architecture & Design was imagined, and with it we hope to bring together a new insight into the meaningful ways to build in the Illawarra.
Please note, all our events on the weekend of October 26th and 27th have limited capacity, and we expect them to sell out. Don’t miss out!
Please enter your details, then make your selection from both drop-down fields.
IFAD Panel Discussion Day tickets to go on sale on Monday 19 August via Ticketmaster. Register your interest to attend and we’ll notify you when tickets go on sale.
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