Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2024 i Architecture Australia

Kamil Muhammad is an alum of the Melbourne School of Design, obtaining his Master of Architecture from the University of Melbourne in 2014. Now a Jakarta-based architect, Kamil is the director of the design and research studio pppooolll, co-founder of Architecture Sans Frontières Indonesia and part of the team behind Housing Rights in Jakarta. This advocacy group was awarded the 2024 World Habitat Awards Gold Medal for their work to save settlements, known as kampungs, from developers. By working with residents, Housing Rights in Jakarta has successfully halted the evictions of 256 people across three riverbank kampungs, and helped 400 families, who had already been evicted, return to their neighbourhood to live in new apartments. Climate change, rapid urbanisation and the impacts of community displacement, mean that architecture advocacy work…

A collaboration between Antarctica Architects and Architecture Associates, the Boronggook Library is a warm and inviting new civic project nestled into the heart of the small regional community of Drysdale on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula. Like many contemporary Australian libraries, it works hard to not only fulfil the role of a traditional library, but also to provide spaces that cater to the needs of a contemporary community. There are spaces for children, educational activities, meetings and craft, as well as multipurpose rooms and public-facing council services. Delivered under the City of Greater Geelong’s Drysdale Urban Design Framework, the library anchors the town’s newly revitalised Town Square park. Neatly tucked into a depression in the landscape where the Town Square’s grassy contours fall away from the street, the building is set back…

How (or why) has IPH centred on the concept of social value or social impact? Our interest in this type of work has its origins in our education during the late eighties, in the erratic boom-bust cycle of Perth’s economy and the political circumstances of that era. After studying architecture at Curtin University, Adrian (Iredale) moved to Germany to study at the Städelschule in Frankfurt and immerse himself in the projects of Hans Scharoun; Finn (Pedersen) was employed by Western Australia’s first Aboriginal-owned architectural consultancy, NBC Aboriginal Corporation, in Broome, WA; and Martyn (Hook) studied with Archigram hero Peter Cook at the Bartlett in London. These experiences informed our “spatial intelligence” and the values that our studio is founded upon. When Adrian and Martyn returned to Australia, we shared a…

Design is largely about process. However, for a long time, the process for community-based design has played out in a one-dimensional way that workshops a concept to form an idea, but then drops off. This process may have started with good intentions but is too often viewed by all participants (including, sometimes, the designers) as a tick-box exercise, with minimal inputs, agency or accountability to carry the voices of community members through to a project’s completion. An effective design process is layered, sustained and multifaceted, with meaningful involvement by the people who will inhabit the spaces. Looped or circular, it goes through constant iterations to gain feedback on how the design is evolving and the relationship is developing. The community-led, long-term partnership called Yuwaya Ngarra-li (“vision”) between the Dharriwaa Elders…

(NOTE) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers should be aware that the following pages may contain images or names of deceased persons. Wherever you are right now is probably a long way from Murrin Bridge. You are likely somewhere along the coast of the continent, and somewhere close to a large city. Murrin Bridge is nowhere near those places; it sits at the edges of Australia’s population distribution pattern. However, the small community and its new preschool is, for a select group of Australians, the centre, not the edge. The Murrin Bridge Preschool Community Hub – with its aim of expanding the capacity of the existing preschool and creating a facility for other community services – has had a long journey to its recent opening. It began with an academic…

How (or why) has SDA centred on the concept of social value or social impact? SDA started in 2000 without any stated values or guiding principles. Rather, our staff have brought their own values to the work. This has developed into a broad agenda of fostering regional identity/architecture based on the climate and culture of Central Australia, and providing particular support to projects for Aboriginal clients or end-users. We aim to provide social and economic “added value” over and above the expected core services and value. This value is project-specific and includes initiatives such as enhancing the client’s decision-making capacity, incorporating Aboriginal and/or local employment into construction stages, contributing to the local economy, incorporating art into projects, and linking clients to other services and opportunities. The specifics of seeking out…

At the beginning of 2023, I started working in the design of social services. After a path through interior design, a PhD, and then commercial research, I wanted to see what it would feel like to understand and design for social impact without the “sell” of the built environment. The logic of service design is that services (including individual touchpoints, social interactions and emotional journeys) are something that can be deliberately designed in the same way that a product or building can be. It emerged from user-centred approaches to banking in the 1980s but now has an enormous breadth of application across disciplines and sectors. Ultimately, it is hinged on the premise that design thinking can be applied to services. I felt some professional whiplash while transitioning from the material…

Wangaratta District Specialist School by Sibling Architecture (JURY CITATION) Wangaratta District Specialist School caters to students who have clinically diagnosed physical and intellectual disabilities. The designer’s empathy and a rigorous examination of the brief were leveraged to ensure that, through the project’s joyous interior and exterior spaces, the students’ neurodivergent needs are met, and their independence and enjoyment of learning are enhanced. A variety of clever design moves has created a “building as experience” – with spaces that range from active and engaged to calming and restful, with bespoke lighting and material choices to reduce sensory stimulation. The formal planning and material articulation is bold and direct, suiting the budgetary constraints while providing a positive, scalable design response. The project offers a model for engagement with a diverse user cohort…

From our bird’s-eye view of Australian architecture, a growing social and environmental conscience is clearly evident. Architecture Media’s initiation of the ArchitectureAU Award for Social Impact aims to recognise this work across the industry and beyond. The (joint) winner of the inaugural award, in 2023, was The Fulcrum Agency for its work alongside the Anindilyakwa community on the Groote Archipelago Housing Programme. So, when we decided to theme an issue of Architecture Australia on the many ways that architects can have social impact, we invited The Fulcrum Agency co-founders, Emma Williamson and Kieran Wong, to be our guest editors. We wanted to explore architecture’s role in projects that create a ripple effect that is felt beyond the built form. But coming up with a definition of “social impact” proved difficult.…

Towards where? In thinking about the society in which architecture workers in Australia find themselves living, creating and working, there’s much I could say. But, in a few hundred words, it’s doubtful I could capture the multitude of messy contexts from which we all join the profession. Instead, I offer a series of queries, alongside some reflections of my own to invite further exploration of the challenges and opportunities we face. Now, fill in the blanks. Before architecture, I am … … a sister, friend and fretful list-maker. I am a white, fifth-generation settler on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong peoples. Both my parents are doctors, of a sort. Like the 19,337 people who work within architecture in Australia, I bring my own experiences, biases and…

Most architects I know are motivated to improve the quality of the built environment. For many, this goes beyond the physical to the societal – considering the ability of architecture to affect the wider community, including the most vulnerable people in our society. Within the housing sector, there is a lot of great work being done with new housing models and award-winning social and affordable housing projects. Many architects are now taking on roles that move beyond the traditional arrangement, to make an impact beyond that which an individual project/client can deliver. In their roles as academics, developers, housing bureaucrats, board members and politicians, they are asking what more can be done to address complex housing issues. The Brisbane Housing Company (BHC), for example, was born out of a collaboration…

How (or why) has POD centred on the concept of social value or social impact? Social justice in architecture has always been a core concern for POD. As students and graduates, we were influenced by the discrimination we saw and experienced against First Nations peoples, women, LGBTQIA+, people from other cultures and people with disabilities. We have also witnessed the disparity of wealth and opportunity in Australia over our many years of work in regional and remote settings. Things that are taken for granted in urban areas just aren’t available in some remote areas. These experiences have shaped us and the values we embed in our practice. As our name suggests, valuing people and relationships are key priorities in the work we undertake. POD currently has a partnership structure, but…

If it weren’t for the GPS telling me I had arrived, I would have driven right past. At first sight, the new Booboop Narrkwarren Nagarra-jarra-noun, designed by Kerstin Thompson Architects (KTA) and BLOXAS, is understated: a white, single-storey brick wall, stepping in and out, with a shallow, pitched roof sloping toward the street. It is deliberately restrained, with nothing superfluous or willful. Just a building, with everything else stripped away. It serves a serious purpose. Booboop Narrkwarren Nagarrajarra-noun (Family Healing Centre in the Woi-wurrung language of the Wurundjeri people) is a mental health facility to support children between 0 and 12 years of age suffering from trauma. It contains three independent living units, allowing whole families to move in for a period of weeks or months while the patients receive…

To say that social impact is moving up the agenda of responsible UK built-environment professionals would be a bit of an understatement. And this is despite the fact that, until recently, it has been such a difficult quality to define and measure. Given that chartered status with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) requires a practice to “consistently promote and protect the public interest and social purpose,”1 positive social impact should be written into the DNA of every architecture practice – from the way it works with its staff, to the way it designs buildings, the way these buildings sit within their surroundings, and of course the lifestyles made possible by the buildings and places it designs. If only this was the case. As I argue in my book…