Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 167 i Architectural Review Asia Pacific

There’s a contagious courage that comes from a chat with TheFulcrumAgency. It’s the courage to start something fresh. In this issue we again explore those creating a new mould. Hames Sharley talks about stretching the industry’s established paid parental leave policy. ClarkeHopkinsClarke Architects works with Aboriginal Housing Victoria to create a new paradigm for Indigenous social housing. BVN adopts a ‘cultural add’ rather than ‘cultural fit’ framework for hiring practices. Through these stories, I am also reminded that it can be lonely at the vanguard. There’s a type of innovation that’s only created through allyship, from the power of two in an ongoing dialogue with one another. Isla Sutherland introduces us to young, Brisbane studio Lineburg Wang where camaraderie is innate to their business model. TheFulcrum.Agency founders Emma Williamson and…

THE TESTS ASSESS COLOUR AND GLOSS DURABILITY, AS WELL AS CORROSION RESISTANCE, IN VARIOUS BUILDING APPLICATIONS. The COLORBOND steel studio is an intuitive online resource that invites specifiers, architects and designers to pinpoint exactly the right colours and products for their projects all from the one location. The steel Studio makes it possible to match a colour using RGB or HEX colour values, or by matching or specifying Dulux or RAL colour names. It’s also possible to discover the four nearest matches to a colour by uploading an image to the portal. The colours on the site come with their details of their closest matches, specifications as to their CYMK, RGB and HEX values, and the nominal thermal values for solar absorption and solar reflectance index, plus all the necessary…

“WE DON’T WANT OUR STAFF TO CHOOSE BETWEEN HAVING A FAMILY OR A CAREER – WE WANT TO ENABLE THEM TO DO BOTH.” – HAMES SHARLEY MANAGING DIRECTOR, CAILLIN HOWARD Architecture and interior design industries have a reputation for long hours and competitive pace. This places a practical constraint on prospective parents in the industry, who sometimes feel they need to choose between a career and parenthood. While the issue is not exclusive to mothers, this culture does have a disproportionate impact on women. Low pay, long hours and difficulty reconciling professional and family life are problems that impact all parents in the profession, but they invariably affect women in different and compounded ways. “Regrettably, major life changes like kids can shift that working relationship for the worse,” says Hames…

KERSTIN THOMPSON ARCHITECTS: ENCOMPASSING PEOPLE AND PLACE Leon van Schaik (edited by Fleur Watson) For over 25 years, Kerstin Thompson has pursued enduring architecture with a sensitivity to landscape, generosity to community and an aesthetic leanness that has come to be associated with her eponymous Melbourne studio, Kerstin Thompson Architects (KTA). “There is a tendency to think things need to be overtly visible to be successful. And sometimes an expectation that architecture can do the living for you, stand in for people,” says Thompson of the studio’s pared back approach in the book’s introductory interview with journalist Virginia Trioli. Core to this close study is an exploration of KTA’s journey from a sole-practitioner studio to the collaborative output of a team of over 30. KTA colleagues Kelley Mackay and Tobias…

“WE DON’T DESIGN FOR DESIGNERS. OUR COMMUNITIES ARE WONDERFULLY DIVERSE AND WE NEED TO HAVE DESIGNERS AROUND THE TABLE THAT UNDERSTAND, THAT CAN BE EMPATHETIC TO THE DIFFERENT WAYS IN WHICH PEOPLE SEE AND EXPERIENCE LIFE.” – BRIAN CLOHESSY, HEAD OF PEOPLE AND CHARACTER AT BVN It all starts with a question: how might this person add to the practice or studio for which they are interviewing? Simple enough. But within this question, there is a conscious decision to avoid something of which we are all guilty – unconscious bias. “We’re more comfortable with people who are like us,” explains Dr Katie Spearritt, CEO of Diversity Partners. “It’s natural. We gravitate towards people at social events with whom we have a connection. It may be someone who has a similar…

Architecture is thought of as the slowest of creative pursuits. But TheFulcrum.Agency is advocating for it to become even slower when working for Indigenous communities. It’s a pace that the Fremantle and Sydney-based practice set six years ago when first commissioned by the Anindilyakwa Housing Aboriginal Land Council (AHAC) to address the housing crisis in Groote Eylandt, part of East Arnhem Land. The initial brief from AHAC was to build 100 houses as quickly as possible. After intense community consultation,TheFulcrum.Agency advised no more than six to 10 houses per year and designed in such a way that local contractors could do the work. It’s been this slowing down and the building of meaningful connections within the community that principals Kieran Wong and Emma Williamson cite as the project’s greatest achievements.…

Australia’s largest registered Aboriginal housing agency, Aboriginal Housing Victoria (AHV) has teamed up with ClarkeHopkinsClarke Architects and Indigenous landscape designer Charles Solomon to transform ageing units on a 1000-square metre site in suburban Dandenong as part of the first moves into a multi-residential apartment development. Funded as part of the Victoria Government’s $2.7 billion Building Works package and recently fast-tracked through planning, the project creates 10 much-needed one- and two-bedroom homes for diverse tenants and reimagines the connection to culture and Country possible in urban social housing settings. AHV currently manages more than 1500 rental properties for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in Victoria – mostly larger villas and houses, for which singles, couples and younger people often don’t qualify. “There’s a severe shortage of one- and two-bedroom…

Beck Street is a compromised site, impeded on two fronts by flood from one direction and overland flow from the other. This double threat emerges from the rising Brisbane River from below, while overland flow comes from the hills around Paddington above. “There’s a sewer main running through the site too,” practice co-founder Michael Lineburg explains, “and it has three significant trees on the property, which are great constraints to work with, but they’re still constraints.” The project is a balance of contrasts, initiated by the conditions below and above the flood plain. This delineation is made between the lightweight upper construction of the house and masonry lower construction. The delivery for the project then became all about the flood and how to carry out a successful project given the…

Knowing where your practice stands financially is fundamental to effective decision-making. Where are the numbers today and where should they be in the future? How do you drive your practice to succeed and deliver the outcomes that you are seeking? Accessing accurate and timely information is not always easy. There is the income, expenses, profit margin, cash position, project performance etc, and once you have all this information, you then need to interpret and understand it. So, what are the fundamental financial structures, behaviours and understandings that need to be in place for your practice to be successful? PROFITABILITY AND CASH FLOW Profit and cash are different. Profit is the practice’s earnings (revenue) minus the expenses (which are the costs that the business incurs to generate the revenue). Profit is…