Sir Ian Athfield Memorial Lecture 2022

Te Kāhui Whaihanga is honoured to welcome Melbourne-based architect John Wardle to present the Resene Sir Ian Athfield Memorial Lecture.

John Wardle is an outstanding Australian architect who maintains an exemplary practice. His work builds upon ideas that evolve from a site’s topography, landscape, history and context.

As founder of John Wardle Architects, which has studios in Sydney and Melbourne,

John understands the importance of detail - it is through the detail that the nature of material, the fit to function, and the experience of occupation is expressed.

John speaks regularly at national and international conferences, most recently as

keynote at the 2018 World Architecture Festival.

In 2018, JWA’s Somewhere Other was the first Australian work to be presented

in the Arsenale at La Biennale di Venezia.

The practice has received over 175 industry awards. Most recently they were awarded the AIA Victorian Chapter 2022 Award for Commercial Architecture, for the Ballarat GovHub. A workplace for over 1000 employees.

In 2020 John received the Royal Australian Institute of Architects most prestigious honour, the Gold Medal. On receiving the award, he was described by the jury as “an architect’s architect, whose works celebrate both individual craft and the broader production processes of making a building, and re-positions the role of the architect as chief designer in that activity.”

The annual Sir Ian Athfield lecture series is a free public lecture, proudly supported by Resene. The lecture series honours the late Sir Ian Athfield – fondly known as ‘Ath’ – a singular and much-loved figure in New Zealand architecture.

Join us at one of our three locations to hear John's remarkable 40-year journey as a world class and inspiring architect.

Dates/venues of event are:

Free public lecture in:

Auckland 18 October – Sky City Theatre

Wellington 19 October – Embassy Theatre

Christchurch 20 October – James Hay Theatre, Christchurch Town Hall

Doors open 5pm, lecture from 5.30-7.00pm.

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