CITY TALKS: Sean Godsell

Recent projects

City Gallery Wellington, Civic Square

Monday 30 May, 6pm

Free entry

“Our dreams are the only important reality there is, imagining a better way to live, to inhabit space, this is what architects do — we dream. Dream of a better world then build it”

— Sean Godsell

Uncompromising Melbourne-based architect Sean Godsell invites a Wellington audience to his open mic conversation where he will present recent projects to be selected by the audience. Godsell’s projects have been characterised as rich, yet unprepossessing, remarkable for their clarity and determination. His work ranges in scale from a park bench that doubles as a shelter for the homeless to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) Design Hub building.

This will be a unique opportunity to discover more about his small but productive practice. Godsell has been described as displaying a mental toughness from his days as an elite Australian Rules football player which has infused his professional character. Wallpaper magazine listed him as one of ten people destined to ‘change the way we live’ — he was the only Australian and the only Architect in the group. Time Magazine named him in the ‘Who’s Who — The New Contemporaries’ section of their Style and Design supplement.

City Talks is an ongoing series initiated by the New Zealand Institute of Architects Wellington Branch and presented in partnership with City Gallery Wellington. Its purpose is to foster discussion about architecture for a broader audience in a city that cares about urbanity.

Sean Godsell was born in Melbourne the son of an architect, David Godsell. He graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1984 and worked in the London office of eminent British brutalist architect Sir Denys Lasdun from 1986 to 1988. Godsell established his own practice in 1994, and his work has been published in the world’s leading Architectural journals. In July 2003 he received a Citation from the President of the American Institute of Architects for his work for the homeless. In 2010 the prototype of the RMIT Design Hub façade was exhibited in Gallery MA in Tokyo before being transported in 2011 to its permanent home at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 2012 he was shortlisted to design the new Australian Pavilion in Venice. In 2013 he received the RAIA Victorian Medal and William Wardell Awards for the RMIT Design Hub.

Sean Godsell’s visit to New Zealand is supported by the New Zealand Institute of Architects Southern Branch as part of their Ted McCoy Lecture Series. For more information on Sean Godsell please visit:

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