pre:fab conference: [Detecting] the Darchive

This year’s pre:fab conference, [Detecting] the Darchive, will explore the concept of the Darchive – the dark matter* of architectural practice: the undeclared, undiscussed, unacknowledged, uninspected, or otherwise hidden people, objects, spaces, events and ideas that have had an enduring effect on our individual or collective imagination, and through that, our creative practices and built environment. The things that make alternative practice alternative.

The conference, to be held in Auckland on 18 November, will be free and open to anyone to attend and it will attempt to reveal the ‘Darchive’ through a combination of quickfire presentations, participatory workshops and shared conversation over a potluck lunch.

Register here to attend the Darchive

• Date: 18 November 2023
• Time: 9:30am and 4:30pm
• Location: Brightside AUT, 31–33 Symonds Street, Auckland
• Notes: Bring a plate. Up to 60 CPD points for Registered Architects

Open call: Submit your darkefact idea by 4 November 2023

Organisers are asking for one physical representation of something from your personal ‘darchive’ (no bigger than A3 cubed), and an abstract that elaborates on it (max. 400 words).

Examples of individual ‘darkefacts’ could include:

• Objects, spaces, events, stories, relationships or responsibilities etc. that have had a profound influence on your worldview and how you approach architecture; secret, deeply personal or otherwise unseen
• Your own undisclosed recipes, rituals, processes or techniques that support your creative practices and how you understand and/or theorise them
• Someone else’s existing practice that has an ongoing effect on your understanding of architecture in Aotearoa now
• An experience or insight gained from someone else’s practice in the past that has had an enduring effect on your own practice and/or architecture/the built environment in Aotearoa generally.

The call is for sincere, idiosyncratic, subjective and diverse ‘darkefacts’, and to encourage presenters to focus on expressing the effect their chosen dark matter has had on them with others.

Speaker presentations

In addition to the open call, pre:fab is inviting 24 speakers to give a three-minute presentation sharing a personal ‘darkefact’ – alongside a physical representation and written description.

Notes from the organiser:

pre:fab is all about sharing – knowledge, resources, ideas, love and food! Plates, cutlery, tea, coffee and water will be supplied and some plant-based basics for lunch. We ask that attendees bring a contribution to this shared meal.

^{*Architectural Dark Matter: that parallel universe of unofficial, off-narrative, ineffable, banal, idiosyncratic, subjective, irrational, nonsensical and/or otherwise private, personal, secret, hidden, concealed, unacceptable, inglorious etc. material that ultimately determines the qualities, discourse, outcomes, qualia and aggregate effects of individual and collective creative practice – our actions and interactions – yet, somehow, remains outside of it… Unobserved, Undiscussed, Undocumented, Underneath, AND all around us.}