Translating Place: Architecture, Memory and Migrant Domesticity
Presented by Mr Veeral
DETAILS
Ticketed
Queen Victoria Women's Centre
210 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC, Australia
Translating Place: Architecture, Memory and Migrant Domesticity is a panel discussion exploring how migration shapes the way domestic spaces are inhabited, remembered and understood.
The discussion builds on ongoing conversations around migration and the built environment, positioning domestic space as a key site where cultural identity, memory and everyday life intersect.
For many migrant families, the home becomes a site of cultural continuity and adaptation. Everyday rituals, inherited spatial practices and personal histories often intersect with contemporary Australian architectural norms, producing domestic environments that are layered and deeply personal.
Bringing together voices from architecture, design, research and spatial observation, the discussion examines how ideas of home, belonging and identity are translated through space. The panel considers how lived experience, memory and everyday use inform domestic environments over time.
Attendees can expect a reflective conversation grounded in practice and lived experience, followed by an open discussion with the audience.
Participants
Sonia Sarangi
Sonia Sarangi is a director at andever and a registered architect with over eighteen years of local and international experience.Alongside practice, she teaches at the Melbourne School of Design and serves on a number of boards within and beyond the architecture and design sector.Sonia is the child of immigrants to the Middle East and has undertaken her own migration journeys, including living in Singapore before moving to Melbourne/Naarm as an international student. These experiences have informed her perspective on architecture, identity and the domestic environment.
Ilana Razbash
Ilana Razbash is a registered architect in Victoria and Director of Studio Razbash, with close to a decade of experience working across public, education, community and health projects.Alongside her practice, she is a Teaching Associate at Monash Art, Design and Architecture. Ilana is also the host of Radio Architecture, a weekly program on community radio station Radio Carrum that explores architecture and design through accessible public conversation.Her work is informed by an interest in sensory design, acoustics and the relationship between space, wellbeing and everyday use.
Belqis Youssofzay
Belqis Youssofzay is a director of Sydney-based architecture practice Youssofzay Hart.The practice works across a range of project typologies, guided by interests in civic generosity, accessibility and sustainability. Established in 2017 following a win in the Missing Middle housing design competition initiated by the NSW Government Architect and the Department of Planning, the practice has approached housing through the lenses of density, migration, equity and resource use.Belqis’s work spans housing and public projects for cultural institutions in Australia and internationally, including involvement in the Powerhouse Ultimo Renewal and Blacktown Arts and Cultural Centre, as well as large-scale installations for M+ in Hong Kong.
Mirjana Lozanovska
Mirjana Lozanovska is Professor of Architecture at Deakin University and Director of the Architecture Vacancy Research Lab.Her research examines the relationship between architecture, migration, identity and the city, with a focus on how domestic and urban environments mediate dignity, belonging and cultural memory. Mirjana has led and contributed to major national research projects and interdisciplinary collaborations addressing migration and the built environment.She is the author of Migrant Housing: Architecture, Dwelling, Migration and Ethno-Architecture and the Politics of Migration, and her work has informed public exhibitions, publications, and broadcast projects exploring immigrant contributions to Australian architecture and society.
Veeral Patel
Veeral Patel is a Melbourne/Naarm-based architectural photographer and filmmaker whose practice engages with the built environment through long-term observation, documentation and reflection.His work sits alongside architecture, focusing on how space is inhabited, altered and remembered over time. Working across photography and film, Veeral collaborates with architects, designers and developers to explore the relationship between form, duration and lived experience.His practice is informed by an ongoing interest in domestic space, migration and the ways cultural memory and everyday use shape architecture beyond its moment of completion.