Nature Within: Free Film Screening

Free Film Screening and Talk Event

Presented by Dr Raffaele Pernice

April 17, 2026

Join us for a special film screening and talk event, coinciding with our current exhibition Nature Within: The Architecture of Toyo Ito. Taking place on April 17, this screening of the documentary film Inside Architecture – A Challenge to Japanese Society (dir. Tomomi Ishiyama) will be followed by a talk by Dr Raffaele Pernice, Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Urbanism at UNSW, and Dr Peter Kohane, Senior Lecturer in the program of Architecture at UNSW.

Inside Architecture – A Challenge to Japanese Society (だれも知らない建築のはなし)

Dir Tomomi Ishiyama / 2015 / 73 mins / Japanese with English subtitles / Unclassified: All ages

April 17, 6-8pm

The island nation of Japan has historically been at peace with itself. Any sudden, violent shifts have always been the result of outside forces.

The biggest example of this is modernisation—where the country was forced to open its doors to the world in the face of pressure from the West. Naturally, sudden changes result in stress and strain. Although Japan’s momentum alone was enough to reach economic superpower status, the adverse effects of modernisation remain unchecked and unaddressed.

To the Japanese, the idea of an architect is a new, modern concept. Japanese architects have always wavered between illustrious international acclaim and a frustrating lack of awareness back home, where their role in society is still not widely recognised.

How do they look back on the years following the rapid internationalisation that took place in the 1970s? Where are they now, and where are they headed?

Dr Raffaele Pernice

Raffaele Pernice is a 2026 JSPS BRIDGE Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Urbanism at UNSW Sydney. Recipient of a Monbukagakusho Scholarship, a JSPS Postdoc Research Fellowship, and a JF Japanese Studies Fellowship, he holds a PhD in Architecture from Waseda University in Tokyo and a MArch from IUAV University of Venice. A licensed architect in Italy, he is editor of the books Waterfront Regeneration in a Time of Climate Change. Recent Japanese and International Experiences (Routledge, 2025) and The Urbanism of Metabolism. Visions, Scenarios and Models for the Mutant City of Tomorrow (Routledge, 2022).

Dr Peter Kohane

Dr Peter Kohane is a senior lecturer in the program of architecture at the University of New South Wales. He teaches and publishes on architectural design, theory and history, with an emphasis on developments in America, Britain and Australia during the 19th and 20th centuries.