Parlour has had an extraordinarily busy 18 months. We have now sat down and put it all together in our latest Parlour in Action report – a bumper edition, covering Parlour activity over the period May 2019–December 2020. Thanks to everyone who joined us on the adventure. We’ll see you for more this year.
Parlour in Action – 2019 2020 starts with the successes of the latter part of 2019, which paved the way for the decisive action and burgeoning event and editorial program of 2020 as Parlour rallied in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The second half of 2019 was an exciting time – we expanded our core team, our extensive record of work and action was recognised through the Paula Whitman Prize for Gender Equity, the WikiD film was on display at the London Design Museum, we gave a keynote address at Fielding Architecture in the UK, and we finished the year with Transformations: Action on Equity, a two-day symposium with the University of Melbourne that brought speakers from around the world.
Then came the pandemic. As the harsh realities of COVID-19 became clearer, we introduced an extensive editorial and online event program to assist our communities to navigate the new challenges and set up new futures.
We launched three new event series – Light at the End of the Tunnel, Midday Monday and Parlour LAB – and moved the Parlour Salons online. These provided venues for camaraderie and connection, information and story telling, insight and reflection.
We also launched Parlour Live!, our online repository of video and audio content. This is a great way to provide ongoing access a broad range of events and discussions, and also means people can catch up on their CPD through the Light at the End of the Tunnel recordings. In addition to the full event recordings Susie Ashworth and Molly Farrer are making short video snippets for sharing moments of clarity and insight across social media. This is a new and evolving area of Parlour activity and is possible thanks to the support of our Parlour Partner, AWS.
Parlour’s editorial program focused on understanding the ever-changing situation, what it meant and how to navigate it. In addition to one-off articles we developed two new series – Home/Work and The Path Ahead. Contributors were universally generous with their advice, wisdom and tips for coping through difficult times.
The Work & Wellbeing survey gathered an extensive body of data to understand the impact on Australian architecture and to explore and effect possible new futures.
In all of this, we used our substantial reach to broaden the conversation and help make space for a wider range of voices.
Parlour is a small, lean non-profit organisation that has a big impact. We thank all those who support our work, and the many organisations and individuals who collaborate with us.
We are particularly grateful that our Parlour Partners are standing by us through these challenging economic times. Their continuing financial and moral support has enabled Parlour to respond quickly and effectively to the challenges of the pandemic.
Thanks to everyone who joined us on the adventure. Please take time to look at the report, and we look forward to doing many more things together in 2021.
Previous reports
Read our earlier activity reports below:
