Talk: Leon van Schaik

SALT Galata, Workshop II-III

Procuring Innovative Architecture

RMIT University of Technology and Design has pioneered a way of procuring innovative architecture that both houses its research and learning activities and expresses the diversity of those activities. This approach is one of several documented in the book Procuring Innovative Architecture (2010), which contains a number of case studies from Europe, Asia and the US. RMIT focuses on building local cultures of architecture via research and design practices, into the intrinsic dynamics of procurement in Melbourne Australia.

Leon van Schaik AO, B.Arch. Studies (Ncle), AADip (SADG), M.Arch (UCT), PhD (CNAA), RIBA, LFAIA, LFAA, is Professor of Architecture with an Innovation Chair in Design Practice Research at RMIT University. A writer and academic with research interests focusing on spatial thinking, the poetics of architecture, urban design and the processes involved in procuring innovative architecture, Professor van Schaik has been responsible for promoting a dynamic culture of architectural innovation through design practice-based research to support local and international architectural culture. His leadership contributed significantly to the procurement of exemplary architecture through his role at RMIT, resulting in some of Melbourne’s most distinguished contemporary buildings which have had a profound impact on architectural discourse and practice in the city over the past two decades.

The talk by Leon van Schaik will start with an introduction by ITU Architecture Design professor Ayşe Şentürer.

The talk will be held in English.


This talk is programmed within the scope of SALT’s primary interests in methodolgies of research and discussion around the built environment, with advice from ITU Graduate School of Science Engineering and Technology, Architectural Design Program. The series will continue with a talk by Helen Castle, editor of Architectural Design, on May 29.