About this Event
The event will commence with lectures by two of the visiting exhibitors: Professor Hiroto Kobayashi, and Dr Rafael Luna followed by the official opening of Loose Fit in the Design Gallery by Professor Alan Pert, Interim Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning (ABP) and the curatorial team; Nancy Ji, Dijia Chen and Alex Seo.
Exhibition Opening Event
Thursday, 24 September 2026
Lectures by Professor Hiroto Kobayashi and Dr Rafael Luna
5:00pm - 6:00pm
Malaysian Theatre
(speaker details below)
Exhibition Launch
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Design Gallery
Registrations are essential.
Loose Fit: Provisional and Participatory Practices from East Asia presents a curated selection of contemporary projects that respond to urgent socio-economic and environmental realities of the present. Rejecting the conventional figure of the “master architect,” these works bring together professional and non-professional designers and builders. They reveal how architecture can be shaped through collective participation, sensitivity to local contexts, and a resourceful approach to materials and labour.
Featuring both emerging and established practices from across East Asia, the exhibition offers valuable insights into how our regional neighbours are rethinking the role of architecture.
By foregrounding alternative and flexible approaches, Loose Fit: Provisional and Participatory Practices from East Asia addresses pressing global concerns such as rural revitalisation, decarbonisation, resource scarcity, restoration and reuse.
Through drawings, video media, and installations, visitors are invited to engage in an open conversation about process over product, adaptability, and the evolving role of the architect. Ultimately, the exhibition invites us to reimagine architecture as a shared and provisional endeavour for the post-growth era.
The exhibition is on display until Friday 11 December 2026
Lecture synopses
Professor Hiroto Kobayashi Lecture
Title: Empathic Design for Participatory Architecture
Kobayashi explores a "Do-It-Anyway" approach, working alongside communities to create new environments through communication-based social design and fostering an adaptable attitude for an unpredictable future. He will introduce projects by Veneer House, which began as a student initiative in his research laboratory at Keio University following the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.
Drawing on projects across diverse cultural settings in Japan and abroad, Kobayashi reflects on lessons learned through practice and examines their social impacts, including how they respond to challenges such as climate change, disaster recovery and community needs. These projects reveal how mutual understanding develops not only among community members but also between local residents and project teams. By utilising local materials and building techniques, the projects help bridge different cultural backgrounds, creating a deep sense of empathy that extends beyond any single culture, time or place.
Dr Rafael Luna Lecture
Title: From Seoul to Sydney: Architecture as a Productive System
Luna examines how lessons from Seoul's productive urbanism have informed his architectural work in Sydney. The lecture begins in Seongsu, a semi-industrial neighbourhood where manufacturing, commerce, culture and everyday life coexist, within a dense and walkable urban environment.
In Seongsu, tenants modify modernist building shells using borrowed industrial components: vents, gantries, loading platforms, scaffolds and other devices that allow buildings to accommodate changing forms of production. These components are described as "productive elements", a concept developed through research published in the Production Urbanism issue of Architectural Design, which Luna co-edited.
After moving to Sydney, Luna began translating these observations into an architectural language. In his projects, ordinary urban phenomena are transformed into systems that generate new environmental and spatial conditions. His projects ask how architecture can support more adaptable, productive and environmentally responsive cities.
Image credit: Photo courtesy of Team Atelier 3.
Caption: Local residents and members of the architectural team lifting a structure as part of the Yangliu Village project, led by Team Atelier 3 (Hsieh Ying-Chun), Sichuan, China, 2009.
Event venue & nearby stays
Malaysian Theatre, Glyn Davis Building (MSD), Masson Road, Parkville, Australia
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