DEAN’S WELCOME Robyn Dowling

The Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning sits proudly on Gadigal land, where Aboriginal people have taught, learnt and nurtured since time immemorial. As the 2021 academic year began, the School welcomed new students with activities on the site now known as Gadigal Green, once a popular Gadigal fishing spot in Blackwattle Creek. It also welcomed students joining us from dozens of countries across the world, studying remotely for the 1st or 2nd year. By late June, the Wilkinson Building – the material fabric that anchors our vibrant and diverse community that is welcoming of all – fell silent. Stairwells emptied, homebases sparsely occupied, public lectures stopped. As I write this, Wilkinson remains in hibernation.

Teaching, learning and nurturing continued however beyond Wilkinson. Staff and students spread across Australia and the world - Kamilaroi, Dharug, Melbourne, Beijing, Mexico to name a few. In tardis-like fashion, the teaching and learning spaces of the Wilkinson Building expanded. The School had a physical presence across all continents (perhaps not the Antarctic). Dining tables became fabrication spaces. Bedrooms became sites to design creative interfaces. Local parks presented design challenges to solve. Communities of students and teachers were built across time zones and vast distances.

Through the disruptions of 2021 the School’s commitment to educate students to contribute to inclusive and sustainable futures remained undiminished, fostering imaginative, compassionate and unconventional approaches. Academic staff across the disciplines asked students and each other to learn new ways of working and to develop creative responses to the challenges of a global pandemic. Our newly appointed Professors of Practice supported graduation cohorts across our degrees and, especially relevant to this catalogue, in curating our first hybrid – virtual and in-person – graduate exhibition. And in making sense of our place, the School returns to the Wilkinson Building and Gadigal land as our graduating students move beyond these concrete walls and laptop screens, all the richer for the expanded spaces in which the School now dwells.