Vokes and Peters + Sergison Bates | We Need to Talk
Join us for Volume 1 of the Department of Architecture Online Lecture Series: We Need To Talk.
We Need To Talk is an online ongoing architecture and urban design lecture series that takes time to unpack a theme from multiple points of view. The annual series will be curated around a theme.
This year the theme is: What Are You Looking At?
We don’t talk much anymore about design in terms of what we see: influences, the cannon, theory, concepts, formal and planimetric resolution, proportions and so on. Instead, in the context of planetary emergency we work from the bottom up and discuss the social agenda, ecological relationships, material flows and indigeneity, economic models and regulatory frameworks. All for the better. Except, buildings and places must be formed and materialised. How do we decide if it’s this shape or that shape when function trumps form? And how can we teach without addressing what it is we are physically making? In a moment where design is consumed and reapplied through images isolated from the place, program, plan, or who made them, we ask, ‘What are you looking at?’ and invite guests to unpack the image.
Architects have been paired, one local and one international, to discuss this question
Vokes and Peters/Sergison Bates
Aaron Peters is a director of Vokes and Peters, a Brisbane-based architecture studio. He graduated from Queensland University of Technology in 2006 and has lived and worked in London and Singapore before returning to Australia in 2011 to resume his collaboration with Stuart Vokes. Aaron has taught at the Abedian School of Architecture at Bond University and is currently a course coordinator and Industry Fellow at the University of Queensland.
Jonathan Sergison is an architect and professor of architecture. He graduated from the Architectural Association in 1989 and established Sergison Bates architects with Stephen Bates in 1996. In 2010 the practice opened a second studio in Zurich which he leads. Sergison Bates architects has realised many buildings throughout Europe and won numerous competitions and awards. He has taught at the Architectural Association and was Visiting Professor at ETH Zurich, EPF Lausanne, and the GSD Harvard amongst other schools. Since 2008, he has been a Professor at the Accademia di architettura in Mendrisio, Switzerland, where is also director of the Institute of Urban and Landscape Studies. Jonathan Sergison has written and contributed to numerous books and publications including Papers, Papers 2 and Papers 3 (all with Stephen Bates) as well as Teaching Practice and is currently working on Teaching Writings.
Event Details
- Date:
- 13 August 2026 at 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
- Venue:
- Online
- Categories:
- Architecture; Current Students; Industry / Alumni
Description
Join us for Volume 1 of the Department of Architecture Online Lecture Series: We Need To Talk.
We Need To Talk is an online ongoing architecture and urban design lecture series that takes time to unpack a theme from multiple points of view. The annual series will be curated around a theme.
This year the theme is: What Are You Looking At?
We don’t talk much anymore about design in terms of what we see: influences, the cannon, theory, concepts, formal and planimetric resolution, proportions and so on. Instead, in the context of planetary emergency we work from the bottom up and discuss the social agenda, ecological relationships, material flows and indigeneity, economic models and regulatory frameworks. All for the better. Except, buildings and places must be formed and materialised. How do we decide if it’s this shape or that shape when function trumps form? And how can we teach without addressing what it is we are physically making? In a moment where design is consumed and reapplied through images isolated from the place, program, plan, or who made them, we ask, ‘What are you looking at?’ and invite guests to unpack the image.
Architects have been paired, one local and one international, to discuss this question
Vokes and Peters/Sergison Bates
Aaron Peters is a director of Vokes and Peters, a Brisbane-based architecture studio. He graduated from Queensland University of Technology in 2006 and has lived and worked in London and Singapore before returning to Australia in 2011 to resume his collaboration with Stuart Vokes. Aaron has taught at the Abedian School of Architecture at Bond University and is currently a course coordinator and Industry Fellow at the University of Queensland.
Jonathan Sergison is an architect and professor of architecture. He graduated from the Architectural Association in 1989 and established Sergison Bates architects with Stephen Bates in 1996. In 2010 the practice opened a second studio in Zurich which he leads. Sergison Bates architects has realised many buildings throughout Europe and won numerous competitions and awards. He has taught at the Architectural Association and was Visiting Professor at ETH Zurich, EPF Lausanne, and the GSD Harvard amongst other schools. Since 2008, he has been a Professor at the Accademia di architettura in Mendrisio, Switzerland, where is also director of the Institute of Urban and Landscape Studies. Jonathan Sergison has written and contributed to numerous books and publications including Papers, Papers 2 and Papers 3 (all with Stephen Bates) as well as Teaching Practice and is currently working on Teaching Writings.