Students of architecture and the built environment have two peak events coming up: don't be too silly, lazy, or busy to attend the Ohakune Comp and flux, the 2011 Student Congress.
As they generally have, do, and will, the architecture and design students of New Zealand and Australia have mobilised themselves to create two great events in June and July over the mid-year break.
The Student Architecture Network New Zealand (SANNZ) are reinvigorating the mid-island intensive workshop (formerly the infamous 'Mountain Trip') hosted at Ohakune this year from June 10th - 12th, so keep it free and ask your SANNZ rep for more info (hunt down the great poster below). This intensive trip has historically been a key moment in the students from our three schools meeting, with an opportunity to engage architects and a typically fiendish brief (resulting in equally fiendish responses - one year I hear a team of desperate students cooked up and fed the brief back to the Tutors, literally. I've been meaning to ask a certain CEO and MD what it tasted like)... Keep an eye out at the SANNZ webpage and facebook profile.
The second and penultimate student event is Student Congress. Hosted in Adelaide this year, FLUX [flux2011.com], the Australia + New Zealand Student Architecture Congress runs through July 6th to 9th, and will be kick-ass. The organisors, who I assure you are throwing every thing they have at this years Congress, have this to say:
"The congress theme will centre on the position of the architect in the face of societal and environmental change, and economic crisis. With a range of speakers drawn from diverse sectors of the profession, the content will explore the positive ways of responding to challenging circumstances, both within a local context and the broader one of humanitarian and post disaster relief."
Returning will be Congress favourites Nathaniel "Choice" Corum - Architect and Head of Education Outreach with Architecture for Humanity, and Andrew "emerging architect for a decade" Maynard of Melbourne, as well as international guests Dr. Ken Yeang (Llewelyn Davies Yeang), Charles Holland (Director of FAT) and plenty plenty more, check out the full list here.
Charles Holland (left) & Dr. Ken Yeang (right), international guests of Flux.
Andrew Maynard & Nathaniel Corum.
As everyone who has gone to a student Congress will tell you, these things are insane, and probably one of the most formative events in your education. That's a big call, but I think its pretty true. The amazing thing is that those that make the effort are the ones that are hungry for it, and when you get a large enough group of like-minded people, strange and important things happen.
Check out the full details for FLUX here, remember you've got two weeks (until June 6) to get up to 20% of with an Early Bird ticket.