Exposition

This studio explores architecture for cultural diplomacy with a focus on unorthodox consular buildings and spaces at Melbourne Airport. New global conditions have emerged as the result of geopolitical tensions, post pandemic recovery and ever increasing cyber benefits (and threats), the need for architecture for representation and dialogue has shifted from fortress style infrastructures to welcoming, inspiring civic spaces that positively symbolise the culture’s narrative... but what is this narrative? How can architecture reflect diversity and speak for all?

More-than-human theoretical positioning has informed a new type of consulate space that reimagines who and how it represents. By repositioning our tendency toward human-centeredness this architecture has become an armature to secure, promote and welcome all living creatures. Scenographic and interdisciplinary techniques are used to create an architecture that is not just bricks and mortar but one that is an agent - provocative, living, adapting, supportive for all kinds.

Key terms: More-than-human, geopolitical instability, interstitial space, extraterritoriality, borders, symbolic architecture & interiors, embassies, civic spaces and infrastructures.