For the term of your natural life

Overview

In the last few years, Australia has directly encountered the varied effects of catastrophic climate change. 

During the summer of 2019-20, millions of people were subject to toxic smoke and more than a billion animals were killed when violent bushfires burned widely across the east of the country. In 2022, much of the same region experienced widespread and devastating flooding during what became the wettest year on record, with Sydney receiving more than 2 metres of rain by the end of August.

The For the term of your natural life programme is offered by Architectural Association.

AAVS Sydney will be an intensive two-week studio, taught in partnership with the University of Sydney SSADP, that challenges students to examine the specific forces that drive these events and their repercussions for architecture and urbanism. 

Working from the University of Sydney’s Darlington campus on the traditional and unceded lands of the Gadi people, students will engage with Aboriginal Australian knowledge holders and professionals, visit exemplary architectural sites, and engage with the work of architecture in professional practice, government, and the field. Students will also spend several nights in a temperate rainforest in the Illawarra region, south of Sydney, to better understand the complex natural environment surrounding the city.