Architecture Bulletin | Vol 78 | No.1 | July 2021

ARCHITECTURE BULLETIN VOL 78 / No. 1 / JULY 2021

WHAT ARE WE DOING?

And what we should be doing in the practice and culture of architecture

2021 ARCHITECTURE AWARD WINNERS

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CELEBRATING 90 YEARS OF THE AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS

As we mark our 90th year, we’ll be looking back on how Australian architecture has shaped our cities and communities, recognising the rich history and bright future of the architectural profession.

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ARCHITECTURE BULLETIN VOL 78 / NO 1 / JULY 2021 Official journal of the NSW Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects since 1944.

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we live, work and meet across the state and pay our respects to the Elders past, present and emerging.

FOREWORD 02 Laura Cockburn 03 Kate Concannon

W H AT A R E W E DOING? 07 What are we doing?

Words: Kerwin Datu 08 Caring for Indigenous cultural philosophies: A new spatial justice and cultural right Words: Claire Mccaughan and Lucy Simpson 13 Unbuilt and speculative architecture: withdrawing Words: Michael Chapman and Timothy Burke 20 At home with your home Words: Guy Luscombe 24 How well are we working?

Interview: Sahibajot Kaur Words: Justine Clark

30 The role of architects: Recalling the work of Christopher Alexander Words: Alistair Henchman 32 Housing people, not cars Words: Fiona Hicks 36 Sustainability and heritage Words: Rena Czaplinska-Archer

2021 NSW ARCHITECTURE AWARDS 54 Named Awards winners and commendations

2021 NEWCASTLE ARCHITECTURE AWARDS

40 Sirius: architecture saved, heritage lost Words: Richard Francis-Jones

70 Award winners and commendations

44 Bushfire recovery, spirit and strength Words: Hugo Chan and Peter Lonergan

PROVOKE

47 Better placemaking: Proposal for a new planning system for NSW Words: John Mant and Michael Neustein 50 Champions of complacency Words: Kerwin Datu

75 Sculpture or architecture: the battle continues Words: Chris Johnson

FOREWORD / LAURA COCKBURN

This edition’s provocation is well timed.

In a year that challenged the way in which we live and work and connect with each other, have we taken pause to think about what is important to us, our practice and our family, friends, colleagues, employees and clients?

How did you pivot to maintain connection for your business and the health of your people?

How precious is human connection when it is limited or taken from you?

In conversations with practitioners and industry, appearances would suggest that we are busy, with most sectors receiving government spending and private investment.

Employment is buoyant after a period of retraction during 2020. This bodes well for 2021 and the immediate future, but what are the ongoing issues we face in a postCOVID world? What are the after-effects of isolation, separation, and does ‘busy’ translate into doing things better? Has this pandemic enabled faster adaptation of working from home and other flexible arrangements that provide a better work/life balance for some?

Has it come at the cost of culture, mentorship and learning opportunities, especially for less experienced staff?

Over the next couple of years our industry faces changes across state regulations, planning policy documents, AACA competencies and registration requirements –

MANAGING EDITOR Kate Concannon EDITOR Emma Adams DESIGNER Felicity McDonald EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Elise Honeyman (Co-Chair) Sarah Lawlor (Co-Chair) Arturo Camacho Jason Dibbs Ben Giles Tiffany Liew Phillip Nielsen Jenna Rowe David Welsh

With the support of many member volunteers the Institute has stood side by side with government bodies and industry peers to address these issues, using our skills, vast knowledge and strategic insights across policy, regulation, documentation, contracts, delivery and coordination to be part of the solution. The first of the regulatory changes with the Design and Building Practitioners Act took effect from 1 July 2021. We are uniquely placed as a profession to assist in transforming the construction industry to ensure that the conversation around quality in our built environment is key in bringing consumer confidence back to the residential market. But my hope is that these changes will be transformative across all classifications of building such that the emphasis on time and cost considerations only becomes a thing of the past.

I trust that you enjoy the new look online version of the Bulletin. Here again, the Institute has looked to provide a more sustainable version of this much-loved magazine and enabled a greater sharing of resources with access to other states’ online magazines – sharing knowledge across our vast country.

Laura Cockburn NSW Chapter President

ASSOCIATE CONTRIBUTORS Hugo Chan Jamileh Jahangiri Sahibajot Kaur PUBLISHER Australian Institute of Architects NSW Chapter 3 Manning Street Potts Point, Sydney NSW 2011 nsw@architecture.com.au PRINTER Printgraphics ADVERTISE WITH US Contact Amanda Jennings: amanda.jennings@architecture.com.au +61 2 9246 4055 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS nsw@architecture.com.au +61 2 9246 4055

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are we prepared to move forward in practice to address major faults in construction?

Are we prepared to be leaders in our field?

COVER IMAGE: Plastic Palace | Raffaello Rosselli Awarded the Robert Woodward Award for Small Project Architecture and a commendation in the Sustainable Architecture category. Photo: Ben Hosking REPLY Send feedback to bulletin@architecture. com.au. We also invite members to contribute articles and reviews. We reserve the right to edit responses and contributions.

ISSN 0729 08714 Architecture Bulletin is the official journal of the Australian Institute of Architects, NSW Chapter (ACN 000 023 012). © Copyright 2021. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher, unless for research or review. Copyright of text/images belong to their authors.

DISCLAIMER The views and opinions expressed in articles and letters published in Architecture Bulletin are the personal views and opinions of the authors of these writings and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the Institute and its staff. Material contained in this publication is general comment and is not intended as advice on any particular matter. No reader should act or fail to act on the basis of any material herein. Readers should consult professional advisers. The Australian Institute of Architects NSW Chapter, its staff, editors, editorial committee and authors expressly disclaim all liability to any persons in respect of acts or omissions by any such person in reliance on any of the contents of this publication.

F O R E W O R D / KAT E C O N C A N N O N

This edition of Architecture Bulletin comes at a time of major change for the profession and the design and construction industry in NSW more broadly as the Design and Building Practitioners Act and Regulation come into full effect.

inspiration and optimism for architecture in NSW than it did logistical challenges as we pivoted around shifting COVID-19 restrictions and major state-wide flooding to deliver the Institute’s uniquely robust, peer-reviewed program.

Staff and dedicated members of the Institute have worked phenomenally hard to see the interests of the profession and, critically, those of the general public and the built environment best considered in these reforms. We have not succeeded on every point, but the positive influence we have exerted by sheer, tireless effort and the wealth of expert input contributed by members have earned us many key wins.

The provocation for this issue was penned at a time of deep questioning piqued by the massive disruptions caused by COVID-19.

Back in the clutches of lockdown as this edition goes to print, the impetus to question and, importantly, devise answers that deliver bold solutions remains strong.

These wins for the profession and the wider community of which we are a part are unquestionably the legacy of Immediate Past Chapter President Kathlyn Loseby, to whom I offer the most deepfelt gratitude on behalf the membership who can only imagine the hours and energy Kathlyn volunteered for its benefit.

The baton rests now in the firm and capable grip of our incumbent Chapter President Laura Cockburn, who is working closely with Institute staff to continue this important work.

This edition also emerges at that exciting time of year that is awards announcements! It is with such awe and admiration that we receive each year’s entries and our 2021 bumper crop of nearly 300 presented even greater

Thinking outside, around, behind and beyond the square is the impulse of the architect. It is a most natural profession for left-field thinkers, for problem solvers who can incisively break a brief to reveal the crux of the real question in the solution they intuit and evolve.

I hope the articles drawn forth from this provocation are just the very beginning of a wider, active discourse about what we are to do and that from this emerge tangible directions, actions, and approaches true to the problem solving we collectively own to share.

Kate Concannon NSW State Manager

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Sirius | Designed by the NSW Housing Commission and led by Tao Gofers | The Rocks | NSW | Photos: licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial 4.0 HEADER

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WHAT ARE WE DOING?

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LOST OPPORTUNITIES

In any successful architect’s career there are instances where great visions are unable to be fulfilled.

Unrealised projects are a crucial and universal aspect of practice, and necessary for the development of important ideas.

Lost Opportunities will showcase international and domestic projects that were significant to their author but 6

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were never completed; projects that represent lost opportunities not just for the architect but the entire cultures in which they would have existed.

Join us as we peer into the window of these buildings and legacies that could have been.

Architecture.com.au/symposium

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What are we doing?

WORDS: KERWIN DATU

Architects propose buildings. That is our job.

And in an alarming number of contexts, it is becoming the wrong thing to do. Coastal homes falling into the sea. Bushfires consuming whole towns. Taps running dry inland.

In the cities, office towers for staff who won’t return. Road and rail projects for commuting patterns that have ended. Stadiums for crowds that have dispersed. Museums for tourists who aren’t coming. Built on heritage that cannot be replaced.

Even when we ought to build, we build with sand from fragile wetlands, water from shrinking dams, steel from noxious mines, energy from fossil fuels. To create boxes that expend more of the same, year after burning year.

And somehow fast tracking the construction industry is the thing that’s going to save us.

What are we doing?

And what should we be doing instead?

We first drafted this ‘rather portentous call for contributions’ in July 2020, when the world was beset with pessimism. Since then we have only accelerated back to full force, not having stopped to learn anything at all in the meantime.

Our call was not an invitation to even bleaker pessimism, but rather for positive assertions of where and how architects can break out of this

habit of building the wrong thing in the wrong place out of the wrong materials. The logical conclusion is that we should stop building entirely to do something more useful with our expertise. In the 1980s, Francis Duffy, founder of DEGW and pioneer of The New Office argued against architecture being understood as a craft in favour of being understood as knowledge work. Research, investigation, knowledge creation, demonstrated outcomes, justify what we do, not our intentions. Despite what we would rather be doing, perhaps it is as building consultants rather than as building designers that we will be more constructive, and potentially better paid. Setting out for governments and corporations how to think and act in relation to buildings, rather than what to build and where.

In this line of thinking, the most positive contribution we can make is to use our knowledge both as individual architects and as a profession to drive where building does and does not occur, preventing indefensible projects from ever happening, along with all their associated wastage and emissions. Where we must build, our purpose is not so much to shape each element as to make every element work much harder. The Dutch firm cepezed has for at least two decades promoted the idea of intelligence per kilogram as a metric for effective building. This is a good start to thinking about what kind of value we are adding in our work, and to ensuring that our often otherwise intuitive design choices are justified.

In the contributions that have responded to this call, we see architects seeking one way or another to reset the foundations of what we do. Knowledge is sought in quite varied arenas – Country, body, history, domesticity, reflexivity.

Some of it may not stand up. But that is partly the point. We know how little of what we do withstands real scrutiny, that most of what we attempt to stand up will get knocked down again. The task is to continue to search for real justification. We can justify but only if we know, and we can know but only if we stop to learn, but most importantly, if we stop. ■ _____ Kerwin Datu is a practising architect as well as a qualified urban and economic geographer, and the past chair of the NSW Chapter’s editorial committee.

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W H AT A R E W E D O I N G ?

Caring for Indigenous cultural philosophies: A new spatial justice and cultural right WORDS: CLAIRE MCCAUGHAN AND LUCY SIMPSON

Let’s consider that precursory to the NSW Architects Code of Professional Conduct, an architect could carry a duty of care to place; an obligation to be in tune with the longterm impacts of our profession, practice and production. Let’s also consider that this duty of care could be nurtured from an understanding and respect for Indigenous cultural philosophies.

It is this interwoven cultural philosophy and design approach that provides insight into how architects could strengthen our duty of care to place. Yuwaalaraay woman, artist and designer, Lucy Simpson’s consideration of contemporary cultural continuities and the needs of Country could galvanise architects to let go of site analysis, and truly care for culture and the interconnected systems of life.

We would simply need to imbue First Nations culture in every aspect of our processes – we would need to commence a new spatial justice and cultural right.

Claire McCaughan (CM) Thank you for having me in your studio today and your generosity in sharing your lived experience. I would like to acknowledge the Gadigal, the Traditional Owners of the land and 8

pay my respect to Elders past, present and emerging. I recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the first sovereign nations of Australia and this sovereignty has never been ceded. Today, let’s consider together an urgent duty of care to Country.

Lucy Simpson (LS) It is true to say I feel a deep sense of responsibility. It stems from my belonging as a freshwater woman and comes at a moment of great global environmental and cultural crisis. I have seen first-hand, the trauma that our Country is in and the impact this is having on people.

Unfortunately, it is something that we are now experiencing in full effect worldwide. I have an opportunity to draw from my own cultural heritage and lived experience to create work that nurtures and heals.

CM: Can you tell us about the significance of your connection to the places you live and work?

LS: I am a Yuwaalaraay woman, freshwater woman, designer, mother and maker. I was born and have grown up in Sydney’s innerwest. I have strong ties to my home in Sydney through my mother and honour the unbroken connections to the rivers and lakes of our Ngurrambaa (family lands) inherited through my father in the north-west of NSW, the country to which I belong.

Our family is Biiwii / Dhinawan dhinggaa – sand goanna and emu (meat totems), Mirriyah burrah (people of the lignum bush), and many of our childhood memories were born from time spent on the banks of our rivers and lakes. Whether fishing or exploring, sharing stories or sitting around the fire – the relationships centred along the river form a central part of who I am. These connections are passed through my family and I have a responsibility to pass on these relationships, to keep them alive and strong.

Living in Marrickville, I have enjoyed the evolving relationship I also share with the Cooks River and the Gadigal and Wangal ecologies and I understand deeply the healing properties of

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water. The recent work revitalising and healing the mangroves of the Cooks River has had a profound effect on me. While there is still much work to be done, I find that being able to immerse myself in the energy of that landscape is so important in my own wellbeing.

These are the connections I strive to embody and share through my artistic practice. As we care and advocate for the natural environment, it in turn cares for us. Our life lessons exist within those systems.

CM: One of the first life lessons, Birralii, speaks of resilience and seems to be a source of Giidjuugiidjuu (that which is constant or ongoing) is that right?

LS: Yes, that’s right, its very transference ensures its continuity. Birralii (baby), refers to the first ceremony or song, and is a cultural practice that is built for that very reason, a lullaby to instil the pillars or very foundations of Yuwaalaraay philosophy and moral lore – kindness, generosity and strength – from first breath. We think about ceremony as a formal practice, but Birralii is essentially mother and grandmother singing to a new baby. People from every culture can relate to that. The beauty and the power of that song lies in its existence as a carrier of information, knowledge and transfer. We think of ritual and ceremony as being things that are sacred or deeply spiritual – if we look inside that we understand why, through the practical lessons of survival over generations.

CM: Exchange, connection and cultural continuities – Giidjuugiidjuu – envelopes all your lived experiences. Could you share with us how Giidjuugiidjuu manifests in your design process?

LS: One of the most recent projects that I’ve worked on is Gunghandi. It relates to one of our stories of Burruguu (time of creation). There are many levels of meaning and lessons held within Gunghandi, and one of them tells the creation stories of Dharriwaa (Narran Lakes) – our ngurrambaa (special place, ceremonial grounds), telling specifically of the first time humans broke lore and how these actions changed Country forever.

It is a well-known story for us and was one that I have thought a lot about recently. I had just come back to Sydney from Walgett and Lightning Ridge with my older sister Nardi, where we had seen the rivers dry for the first time. We went to a well-known spot where we had been many times and we walked the riverbed. It was completely dry. We went around the bend of the river, in what would’ve been the deepest part, it was littered with rubbish and waste: toys, cans, plastic. It was hard.

The biggest dhanggal river mussels you had ever seen, maybe 60 years old or more, intermittently dispersed through generations – and here they lay – dried and broken.

A little further down, partially submerged in the riverbank was an enormous wire fish trap.

The rope was severed, and it would have been at the bottom of the river for a long time.

I thought to myself, ‘I wonder how many fish died needlessly in here?’ At first, I was angry, my heart ached. I thought it was a black and white thing because we were always taught to only take what was needed, enough to feed the family. I thought about the repercussions of this greed. We were tripping over outstretched roots seeking water trying to hold the riverbank together, clinging to the ash that was once fertile black soil. I was starting to see the bare bones of Country, they were brittle, fragile.

At the same time I had been approached to create a work centred around women, water and weaving practices, and I reflected on what weaving and fibre practice represented for me, about knowledge and responsibility that surrounds that practice, about continuities and about seasons and story – all interwoven and interconnected. I thought about the wives of Baayami who were swallowed by Garriya the crocodile as punishment for their actions. I thought about the wire trap that was so big I myself could get stuck inside just like those ancient women.

Somewhere in this process, I found I was able to not only recognise, but process grief. I began grieving the loss of our beautiful freshwater rivers, our very being. The murky water that 9

W H AT A R E W E D O I N G ?

/ CARING FOR INDIGENOUS CULTURAL PHILOSOPHIES: A NEW SPATIAL JUSTICE AND CULTURAL RIGHT WORDS: CLAIRE MCCAUGHAN AND LUCY SIMPSON

Yuwaalaraay Country | Photos: Lucy Simpson

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holds so much of our identity was gone. I could see things that I wasn’t meant to see. I also saw the lessons of my unwell Country, lying exposed at the bottom of the river.

process, how do you negotiate these cultural philosophies with the almost contradictory design considerations of fabrication methods, budget, aesthetics and functionality?

On the drive back to Sydney, I watched as we passed enormous tangled bundles of wire fences, rusted and bulldozed into mounds to make room for new wire and more cleared land.

I was thinking about the memory held within place, and of needless waste and turned my hand to harvesting the wire. I got back to my studio and began to fashion a crocodile. The chicken wire was reminiscent of the looped and knotted weaving techniques of the area, and I had also collected old fishing lines from that trip so I began to experiment with these techniques to sculpt and bind the materials into that story, into the shape of old Garriya to hold the memory.

This later of course became my lesson and from it a reminder of my responsibility.

LS: It’s an interesting time for me in navigating intentional design. Everything we do from now on needs to undo what has become our convenient norm. Particularly as designers we can start to act to reverse the impact of terrible detrimental decisions. Understanding the power of our design decisions is a wonderful start.

Perhaps we can spend more time considering our work not as standalone projects that exist in this isolated notion of space and time, but as continuities, connecting one point of a story to another. Maybe in this way we can begin to untrain our minds and direct our thoughts towards what will benefit futures.

Working with the wire was painful. I was getting cut, I had scratches and experienced pain – all this kind of physical manifestation of those very strong emotional feelings. There is a need of these things in growth and transition and in healing I feel. It was also all unfurling during COVID-19 and lockdown. In that time of separation, where I was unable to go back to Country, I found a way, through cultural practice and story, to connect to place, to technique, and play my role in the ongoing transfer of knowledge and experience.

CM: The Yuwaalaraay word Baayangali describes the connected systems in nature and I presume, also gives a way to describe impact and responsibility. I can see how Giidjuugiidjuu and Baayangali interconnect. In your making

CM: A First Nations process of placemaking seems to describe Winangay – to understand, know, remember, think, love / Winangali – hear, listen – would you agree?

LS: First Nations peoples define, adapt, and sustain place through story, thinking and working almost as an extension of Country itself. We belong to place – we are of place.

I can think of an example of when we were kids and being noisy. When you’re on the river the sound carries and is just amplified, and at that time, and full of energy we weren’t really interested in the actual fishing, just exploring and yelling and fighting and laughing and making a lot of noise really as kids do. Dad would often just sing out down the river ‘You kids, be quiet, you’re going to scare all the fish away’ (our dinner). His words would slice through

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W H AT A R E W E D O I N G ?

/ CARING FOR INDIGENOUS CULTURAL PHILOSOPHIES: A NEW SPATIAL JUSTICE AND CULTURAL RIGHT WORDS: CLAIRE MCCAUGHAN AND LUCY SIMPSON

Country along the surface of the water, and in the quietness that followed, a whole other world would open itself up to us, our senses became heightened to what existed beyond ourselves and we were acutely aware of the impact of our actions. I think about Winangay, the connections between listening and understanding, of hearing, thinking and knowing. It’s something that takes time, it’s about observing, it’s about watching, it’s about being and responding. If you sit quietly in the bush long enough, you will start to recognise things and, in that observation, you’ll see how Country holds life. This is the way we understand our place within those systems rather than in dominance of them.

CM: In one part of your research you focus on placemaking and holding ground. Is holding ground a similar concept to holding life?

LS: One of the key features of Aboriginal design I feel is that nothing is meant to last forever – a way of thinking and doing that in contrast actually ensured everything would or could. It is highly functional, it carries a story, transfers experience, is of place and also a tool for survival. Essentially though it was always created to one day return to the earth so that the cycle could continue and lessons of experience flow on. You might think of a scar tree, or a seasonal camp. The impact was minimal yet incredibly vast. Country had a chance to regenerate and heal in your absence, the marks and scars left behind, as in the objects, carried those lessons, reminders of balance, and the importance of continuity and relationships. Recently I visited an old birthing site in Yuwaalaraay Country with my sisters.

And I think about that as a black fullas version of placemaking. There were practical reasons why this particular area of Country was for women to give birth – because there was a small clearing, it was next to water, on higher ground, the trees were suitable to give shade and cut guliman

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to carry the baby, and because it was far away enough for women to have privacy and to carry out ceremony, our special trees once grew in abundance there. By its very definition, Country nurtured and supported life.

I think of holding ground as a temporary thing or the actions that support conversation with and connections to place, to hold a moment of convergence, to exchange, to remember, and connect. There are things that you bring and things you take away, not things that are built and last forever, just the stories and lessons held and embedded within that. We contribute and continue to tell and pass on through our experience and action, the legacy of what was, is and can continue to be. ■ _____ Lucy Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay woman, artist and designer working across a range of mediums to communicate experiences of Country.

Simpson is the founder of Gaawaa Miyay (river daughter designs) and her artistic practice has been showcased at the Powerhouse Museum, Carriageworks and Museum of Contemporary Art. Recently Simpson has been developing large-scale placemaking projects which evoke the dhuwi (inner essence) of place alongside research which examines how cultural philosophies can inform a design approach.

Claire McCaughan is a registered architect, co-director of Archrival and director at Custom Mad. She is a highly motivated practitioner and practices architecture alongside an expansive portfolio of public art, exhibition design and architectural installation projects. Claire’s extensive portfolio was established with Sam Crawford Architects where she was an Associate from 2007 to 2013 and influenced again by her role as Head of Programs at the Australian Design Centre from 2014 to 2016, where she met Lucy Simpson.

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Unbuilt and speculative architecture: withdrawing WORDS: MICHAEL CHAPMAN AND TIMOTHY BURKE

Architectural practice, for better or worse, is at the mercy of the ebbs and flows of larger societal forces, whether that be the political, economic, or, as we find ourselves in now, a global health crisis. So too, architectural drawing, as a medium, and the architectural exhibition, as a site, have often occupied an indexical relationship to architectural practice, flourishing in the periods of disruption and dormancy. It was in the chaos of the French Revolution and its aftermath, that the utopian drawing practices of Etienne Louis Boullée, Claude Nicolas Ledoux and Jean Jacques Lequeu emerged as a counter narrative, when the architectural drawing became a framework for the exploration of fantastical architecture, compensating for the practical inability to build.

While in the 1950s, Emil Kaufman termed these practices ‘revolutionary’, it was less in the sense of political revolution and more in the sense of an escapism through the discipline of drawing. Indeed, for Lequeu, who served as a government draughtsman for some of this time, it was an escape from the political pressures of post-revolutionary power structures. On the back of his drawing The Gate of Parisis (1794), he scrawled: ‘a drawing to save me from the guillotine’.

Similarly, the immediate aftermath of World War I coincided with a period of enormous architectural ambition, and incredibly limited opportunities to build. This saw the flourishing of a range of avant-garde practices and movements, including the Futurists, the

Expressionists, and de Stijl who all used drawing as a framework to critique the present and propose models of the future. Le Corbusier’s Plan Voisin (1925), Mies van der Rohe’s Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Project in Berlin Mitte (1921), or Eileen Gray’s painted or drawn rug studies (c.1910-1930), are as iconic as any of the built works of modernism, as a result of the polemical impact of the imagery and its ability to be disseminated through an emerging publication industry to a diverse and sometimes disconnected audience. When combined with the inability to realise architecture for a generation of highly talented individuals, drawing offered an alternative mode of engagement, but also a freedom from the economic and political realities that underpin so much architectural production in the real world.

While the aftermath of World War II saw an explosion of opportunities to build, and an architectural profession grappling with the scale and scope of this reconstruction project, by the 1970s, things had slowed considerably and drawing again emerged as a mode of expression or engagement. In this period, architectural drawing emerged as a medium in itself, and was no longer seen as merely a representation of future built architecture, but a standalone mode of expression and, in some cases, commodification. As Kaufmann argues, in its most extreme form, buildings were reframed as the mere representation of architectural drawings, rather than the other way around (Kauffman, 1970-1990).

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Saw This and Thought of You (2020) by Chris Tucker

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Rockbottom (2020) by Michael Chapman

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W H AT A R E W E D O I N G ? / UNBUILT AND SPECULATIVE ARCHITECTURE: WITHDRAWING WORDS: MICHAEL CHAPMAN AND TIMOTHY BURKE

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Drawing, whether as an act of catharsis, as documentation, as provocation, or as emancipation, provides a means of understanding the world, and architecture, and our relationship to it.

“ This period saw the architectural exhibition also emerge as a space of critique, escape and even disenfranchisement, in the work of Archigram in the UK, Hans Hollein, Walter Pichler and Raimund Abraham in Vienna, and a host of emerging drawing practices in New York (John Hejduk, Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves and many more) that supported a vibrant but exclusive gallery scene where architectural drawings were both shown and sold as commodities in their own right. The artistic drawing practices of Rosalind Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, and conceptual artists such as Sol Le Witt or Hanne Darboven, also played a role in the same period in repositioning drawing not as an adjunct or precursor to creative practice, but as the practice itself. (Stout, 2014: 14).

The foundation of The Drawing Centre in New York in 1977, seemed to formally acknowledge this emergence of drawing as an autonomous medium of cultural production in its own right. It was on the back of this expansion of architectural drawing, and its increased cultural presence through the exhibition globally, that the iconic architectural drawing practices of the 1980s, from Shin Takamatsu in Japan, to Lebbeus Woods, Daniel Libeskind and Neil Denari in the US, and Zaha Hadid, Marion Vriesendorp and Coop Himmelblau in Europe emerged and, in many cases, became a

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springboard for future success and recognition in the profession. Simultaneously, new discourses around architectural drawing and exhibition began to emerge (Betsky, 1990 and Kipnis, 2001). As a cultural paradigm, drawing offered a mode of engagement outside of the conventional forms of architecture and beyond its social, economic and political obligations.

At the same time, it offered a platform for recognition and exposure within that same professional context through its reproducibility in publication and accessibility in the gallery.

Perhaps what we learn from these extraordinary drawings is the extraordinary context they were born from. There is little doubt that we find ourselves today at a similarly extraordinary moment in time. Drawing, whether as an act of catharsis, as documentation, as provocation, or as emancipation, provides a means of understanding the world, and architecture, and our relationship to it. It is at moments such as this, that perhaps what architects do best is draw, and the drawing is still the most effective litmus test that our profession has available to it.

In this sense, the architectural drawing is more than just a proposition. It is the ultimate act of optimism. It creates a site for critique, discourse, politics and escape. But it also creates a space

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of connectivity and exchange, exploration and collaboration. With the shift to working arrangements, the restructuring of practice and the general uncertainty around the future, the role of architectural drawing, as both an adjunct to practice but a mode of critique is once again pertinent. As human interaction has been distanced through COVID-19, drawing provides an immediacy to ideas, thoughts, debates and critique that supplements the conversations that are happening at a broader cultural level. As we rethink the nature of our profession, and the relationship this profession has to the broader planet, drawing provides a mode of dialogue that can reshape these questions.

By withdrawing from physical contact, at least in the short term, drawing enables us to both step back and to step into new narratives that are forming around us. To withdraw is to escape an overwhelming situation and return to safe ground, occupying a more defendable position.

In a way, for architecture, that space is drawing.

It allows us to reassess before entering back into the fray. One thing that is especially clear, is that in times of chaos, panic or uncertainty, there is as much power in picking up a pencil, as there is in driving a bulldozer. Withdrawal is a powerful act. ■

_____ Michael Chapman is Professor at the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle.

His research explores architectural drawing and its theory and scholarship, specifically in relationship to politics, industrialisation and modernism.

Dr Timothy Burke is a lecturer of architecture in the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle. He has been researching and teaching at Newcastle since 2015 and currently leads the final year Master of Architecture studio.

The COALFACE (23 September to 16 October 2020) and Counternarratives ( 5 to 28 January 2021) exhibitions explored notions of work, architecture, geology and industry in the context of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley | Watt Space Gallery | Newcastle | Photos: Peter Fisher

NOTES Betsky, Aaron. Violated Perfection: Architecture and the Fragmentation of the Modern (New York: Rizzolli, 1990) Kauffman, Jordan. Drawing on Architecture: The Object of Lines, 19701990 (Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press, 2018) Kipnis, Jeffrey. Perfect Acts of Architecture (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001) Stout, Katharine. Contemporary Drawing: From the 1960s to Now (London: Tate Publishing, 2014)

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Worker (2020) by Michael Chapman

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Fantasy Constructions: Coal Crawler (2020) by Timothy Burke

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At home with your home

Mermaid Multihouse Partners Hill with Hogg & Lamb QLD Photo: Shantanu Starick

WORDS: GUY LUSCOMBE

Our concept of living has dramatically shifted in the last 15 months. With the need to stay put, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced everyone to consider how and where they live.

For most, life has become spatially smaller, and the place of living – the home – is more important than ever.

Far from under-appreciating our homes and looking elsewhere for meaning – as philosopher Alain de Botton suggested pre-COVID-19 – this prolonged time in our homes has led many of us to reconnect and develop a deeper relationship with them. It is not hard to imagine someone saying to their home: “Hi, thanks for being here, I really need you at the moment,” and it replying, “You are welcome, it’s good to see more of you.

Don’t worry, stay in and I will look after you.”

It puts a new spin on the idea of the smart home.

If this was the case, what form would this ‘looking after’ take? What makes a home our place? What do we really need? What is most important? Is it the detached three-bedroom brick house with pool and gazebo and the two-car garage? Or is it something else, are we missing something?

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One group who necessarily spend more time in their homes – older people – can give us some hints. They’ve been there. A study of innovative housing for older people in Europe, The NANA Project, found a number of common but simple features that foster comfort, calm and security.

For example, it made the overwhelming observation that older people really liked large windows. Seems simple right? But it wasn’t just the natural light, sun and outlook – the functional aspects. It was what windows represented – connection to the outdoors, observation of life, not feeling isolated. Rooms with large windows were seen as happy places. In an isolation sense, would something as simple as a large window bring more joy than a large, rambling house?

The same study made other observations – access to the outdoors, flexible and adaptable spaces, the familiarity and comfort of small things, and, significantly, activity or something to do as important features of homes for older people.

These are also desirable features in a lockdown situation.

These design features are elements that celebrate living and make it more enjoyable.

They are all simple to achieve and not

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“Home is a place of security within an insecure world, a place of certainty within doubt, a familiar place in a strange world, a sacred place in a profane world.

It is a place of autonomy and power in an increasingly heteronomous world where others make the rules.”

AT HOME WITH YOUR HOME WORDS: GUY LUSCOMBE

Kim Dovey (1985)

necessarily spatially dependent. To be clear, this is not advocating tiny houses but rather, being smarter (and more caring!) with our use of space to get the most out of it.

But what else has the pandemic highlighted about the places we live? Lockdown and the consequent isolation haunted many people, prompting renewed discussion about multigenerational living. Multi-generational housing, where three generations live together but separately in the one building or allotment, has become an increasingly popular form of living. With current concerns around housing affordability for younger people and the needs and treatment of older people, this form of housing has many self-evident advantages: cost savings; reciprocal forms of care; and, community and sustainability just for starters.

In a lockdown situation, it is even more ideal, maintaining isolation while providing connection that isolation otherwise prevents.

Forward thinking families have already bought into existing four-unit apartment blocks, for example, but this form of living can be readily facilitated by the new Low Rise Housing Diversity Code. Will COVID-19 make this type of housing more popular?

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a disaster, but it has highlighted the importance of the places and spaces we call home – whatever and wherever that means – with things to do in

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places we know and the people we love around us. This will be different for everyone. It is one reason houses are so interesting and occupy a central and dominant part in architecture; it is where our personal day-to-day lives meet architecture.

As architect and academic Kim Dovey (1985) once put it: “Home is a place of security within an insecure world, a place of certainty within doubt, a familiar place in a strange world, a sacred place in a profane world. It is a place of autonomy and power in an increasingly heteronomous world where others make the rules.”

Whatever a person’s idea of home heaven is, a home that can be there for them and respond to a person’s real (as opposed to imposed and perceived) needs is likely to be a true friend, whatever life throws at us. ■ _____ Guy Luscombe is the Sydney Director of System Architects, a New York-based architectural practice.

NOTES De Botton, Alain. (2011) ‘The idea of home,’ in The Independent Dovey, Kim (1985) ‘Home and Homelessness: Introduction’, in Altman, Irwin and Carol M. Werner eds. Home Environments. Human Behavior and Environment: Advances in Theory and Research. Vol 8. New York: Plenum Press

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Mermaid Multihouse | Partners Hill with Hogg & Lamb | QLD | Photo: Alex Chromicz

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How well are we working?

INTERVIEW: SAHIBAJOT KAUR WORDS: JUSTINE CLARK

Sahibajot Kaur chatted with Justine Clark – researcher, writer, co-founder and director of Parlour – to discuss the impacts of the pandemic on the ways in which we are working – and should be working. Zooming in from her bookclad home office in Melbourne, Justine provides insights into the preliminary results of the Parlour 2020 survey collaboration: Work & wellbeing – Australian architecture & the COVID-19 pandemic. She shares her story, observations and experiences below.

Justine Clark: I trained in architecture, but I’m a writer and editor now, doing a variety of projectspecific work around the built environment. I run Parlour and also work with the Association of Consulting Architects.

Parlour has been very busy lately. The website began in 2012 as part of a large research project and became an organisation in 2015. With the arrival of the pandemic, we had to think about how to support the Parlour community in navigating this new challenge. So, we set up The light at the end of the tunnel – a Friday-lunchtime series. They’re very conversational sessions around all kinds of topics to do with work, workplace and culture, and how we might create whatever is at the ‘end of the tunnel’ of this pandemic. They’re about building community and having a sort of touchstone, as much as they are about imparting information.

We’ve also done a lot of editorial content, which is personal and reflective. An example of this, is a series that people have written about their

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own work-from-home spaces. We’re also very aware that the younger generation of architects doesn’t necessarily have any experience or understanding of how to navigate an economic downturn, so we’ve got the Path Ahead series, too. We try to use Parlour as a vehicle to share knowledge – particularly across generations.

And, of course, we ran the Work and Wellbeing survey, for which we are currently analysing the 2000 plus responses. We’ve got a really fabulous research assistant, Anwyn Hocking, working with us, and my colleague, Gill Matthewson, does most of the data-crunching.

The survey was a result of discussions about smaller, practice-based surveys with Architects Champions of Change, which inspired us to conduct a broader, profession-wide survey. We wanted to get a picture of the profession prior to the pandemic, get an understanding of people’s experiences during the pandemic, and most importantly, understand what people wanted on the other side and how they imagined things might change.

I would define wellbeing at work as a feeling of confidence, enjoyment, achievement and learning, and a level of control over your work patterns. Interestingly, 97% of respondents said that they thought there were opportunities to improve work culture and wellbeing, based on the experiences they gained during the pandemic. I think it’s remarkable that only 3% of people want to go back to how things were.

Many of the wellbeing-focused questions were developed by Naomi Stead and Maryam Gusheh,

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“Rather than working from home being ‘better’ than working from the office, it is about the ability to make that choice for oneself. It is about flexibility.”

who recently commenced a large research project, about mental wellbeing and architecture.

The types of things respondents suggested, were enhanced communication, enabling flexible work arrangements, more support, the improvement of work culture, greater fee and salary equity, more effective management, trust and greater gender equity.

We wanted to use the survey as a vehicle to push practices to use this opportunity to change things, because there is a great deal of inertia, and as such, a tendency to just snap back to the way things have always been done. It is clear that people would like things to change, but the profession is incredibly uneven and diverse in terms of how workplaces operate. There are some very command-and-control style practices, and on the other hand, some that already have great systems around things like flexibility – and these are the practices that managed the pandemic much better.

Three quarters of respondents indicated they were working at practices that were already supporting diverse modes of working – not just in name, but in their daily operation. Such practices are also using their robustness to pick up more work, by demonstrating that they can work in any climate – so it really does also make for a better business case, too, in addition to a more inclusive and ethical one! The argument against flexible work has largely dissolved because people have experienced it and worked out that they can still produce things.

Working from the office at Plus Architecture | Photo: Rose Sorkeh

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The more shocking end of our results indicated that for some people, working from home provided a sense of safety, which is something that precedes wellbeing – a basic right. Parlour’s work was sparked by the realisation that women were being pushed out of the profession, and harassment in the workplace definitely plays a large role in this phenomenon.

Harassment is still not talked about or is talked about very quietly. When we started the research project in 2011, we thought that overt sexism was not so much of a problem – that unconscious bias as subtle forms of discrimination were the bigger problem. One of the surprises has been how present blunt sexism still is, and the very disturbing reports of direct harassment.

This can range from people feeling a little uncomfortable, to something that can warrant a lawsuit. So, we’re aware that we need to produce a Parlour Guide on Harassment, because architecture is a really small industry, and there is a vast amount of evidence that shows that the women who complain, are the ones who bear the cost. The Australia-wide Champions of Change group have just produced an excellent report aimed at changing this culture. The key argument of this report is that it’s not a workplace issue; it’s a culture issue.

It’s an issue for leadership.

On the flipside, there are those who indicated home is not a safe place. There is also a cohort of people who just find working from home very lonely. There is also concern around how

younger staff – those who are still learning – are coping with remote work. When asked what they are most looking forward to, about going back to the office, most respondents referred to workplace culture and incidental encounters.

Rather than working from home being better than working from the office, it is about the ability to make that choice. It is about flexibility.

Factors like the stage of a project, the stage of people’s lives, commuting times and people’s personal ways of working all play a part in this. There is now quite an awareness of travel distances – particularly in Sydney – and the more progressive practices are conscious of providing flexibility to reduce this.

Almost half of the survey’s respondents were men. In looking at the differences in responses between genders, the largest one presents itself as the presence of career breaks. Unsurprisingly, most women have said that career breaks have impacted their careers slightly negatively, while most men have indicated that career breaks have impacted their careers slightly positively.

And where career breaks have been for the purpose of looking after young children, both genders have been negatively affected. Men, in particular, are seen as not being ambitious enough, if choosing to take parental leave.

This reinforces what we already knew and reinforces the need for modes of working that accommodate careers in the long term; not just hours in the short term. I’m interested in the idea of careers that are flexible – how we engage in a profession over 30, 40, 50 years? Not all careers are linear. How can we accommodate

Above – Working from home | WFH EMAGN Competition | Photo: Ryan Wazir Below – Home studio | Photo: Sahibajot Kaur

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W H AT A R E W E D O I N G ? / HOW WELL ARE WE WORKING? INTERVIEW: SAHIBAJOT KAUR WORDS: JUSTINE CLARK

“ Not all careers are linear.

How can we accommodate different degrees of engagement, different kinds of engagement and different levels of intensity?

“ different degrees of engagement, different kinds of engagement and different levels of intensity, without those career breaks being seen as career breakers?

I told a past employer I was pregnant, the day after they had promoted me to a new role. They were very supportive – I worked from home a lot – and while I didn’t get another pay rise, that workplace went from not having anyone working flexibly or part time, to lots of people doing it now. I also travelled a lot and took the kids everywhere with me. I think I was known as ‘the woman who had babies with her all the time’.

And no one told me I couldn’t do it – so I just kept doing it!

The lack of flexibility in the workplace is also a significant contributor to the underrepresentation of women in working in architecture in Australia – despite approximately even numbers of men and women graduating from architecture degrees for some decades.

Having said that, the proportion of registered architects who are women has skyrocketed since we started tracking it and talking about it in 2012, which has shown the power of statistics.

Simply being presented facts which may not be apparent until they are quantified, can, and does lead us into action.

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Many employees face resistance in the workplace, in terms of concerns about efficiency and productivity associated with working from home. The pandemic has certainly combated a lot of this resistance. I think there is the potential for significant change, but this will require work. However, we can see that a robustness in modes of working is already starting to gain importance. For example, I understand that the Victorian government is now asking tenderers for some services to demonstrate capacity to deliver should there be another wave of the pandemic. There are always going to be disruptions, and disruptions may become more frequent, so it is something that businesses need to consider for the long term.

It’s a business-case argument about future proofing, having a more flexible and adaptive workforce and having a culture of trust. I think the arguments have to be made in order for sustained change to happen. There needs to be a strong motive to encourage systemic change and providing more diverse workplaces which allow for diversity in employees and, in turn, allow for engagement with wider clientele and the wider community.

Many respondents also indicated that they are more conscious and considerate in their

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communication with colleagues, as a result of remote working, and that employers are being more proactive in checking in on how their employees are going (perhaps too much, sometimes!) and more mindful of their management, and that’s quite a good thing.

Parlour’s aim is to continue to lead by example, as a way of making change and advocating for wellbeing at work, and a lot of that is arming people with increased skills, arming people with knowledge, arming people with evidence and lobbying for better policy. Wouldn’t it be great if the procuring of buildings required the demonstration of a commitment to equity? We can achieve a certain level of change through individuals, but we need systemic change for real impact, and systemic change comes through organisations. The unions, the people, organisations and businesses all need to work together. ■

An honorary Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Justine was awarded the Australian Institute of Architects 2015 Marion Mahony Griffin Prize in recognition of her significant contribution to the profession.

Sahibajot Kaur grew up on the land of the Darug people in Western Sydney and is of Punjabi descent. Working as an architect at McGregor Westlake Architecture, Sahibajot is also a spoken-word artist and community organiser. She was the University of Newcastle’s Graduate of the Year in 2019 (M.Arch), having completed her thesis project on the slums of her hometown, Chandigarh. The project received the Australian Institute of Architects Architectural Communications Award and the Commissioner KG Hoffman Prize in Urban Design.

_____ Justine Clark is an independent architectural editor, writer and critic. She is a director and cofounder of Parlour and was a chief investigator on the research project Equity and Diversity in the Australian Architecture Profession: Women, Work and Leadership, which led to Parlour.

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The role of architects: Recalling the work of Christopher Alexander

Alexander and his team addressed the issues of environment, society, and economy as relevant to the built (and indeed the natural) environment in a comprehensive way which focused on the process and values of the design and construction industry. There has been much debate about whether Alexander’s work really has the universal and cross-cultural application that he asserted, however, irrespective of this there is no doubt he developed a compelling proposal to shift the design paradigm.

This thinking has had a great influence on architectural theory since that time.

WORDS: ALISTAIR HENCHMAN

The central goal of Alexander’s work was to change the paradigm of creating the built environment, and he set out the elements of this in The Timeless Way of Building. Here he discusses the patterns of events that give each place its own particular character and quality.

He shows how this quality has been generated in different societies for generations but has broken down in modern times because of the specialisation and commercialisation of the design and building process.

When considering what we are doing in the architectural and built environment space to address our pandemic and climate-impacted world, I reflected on my architectural education and recalled the work of Christopher Alexander and his team at the Center for Environmental Structure at Berkeley in the 1970s. I also considered Einstein’s truism that we can’t solve problems using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

I won’t pretend to be particularly knowledgeable about Alexander or his work, which I first discovered back in 1980 as a recent graduate from what was arguably the most progressive Australian architecture school at the time – the School of Environmental Design, at what was then the Canberra College of Advanced Education. Once I had absorbed The Timeless Way of Building (Alexander, 1979) and A Pattern Language (Alexander, 1977) I was curious and upset that there had been barely a mention of this inspiring work during my architectural education and the faculty seemed more interested in the emerging post-modernism that often looked to me as a superficial parody of Alexander’s work.

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Alexander proposes a new way of building through consciously using a pattern language to help to re-establish the creative process of evolving buildings, neighbourhoods and towns. Fundamental to this is the involvement by individuals and the community in creating a built environment which reflects their needs and is not only sensitive to the environment but a natural part of it.

A Pattern Language provides detailed guidance from the regional scale to the decoration of individual spaces, encompassing towns, neighbourhoods and buildings along the way.

I have utilised this framework for many projects and it is a useful and fascinating tool for decision making through the design process.

But Alexander also tackled the challenge of the design and building process. He emphasised that a knowledge of the patterns relevant to a culture and place, and participation in the design and building process had traditionally ensured a natural evolution of the built environment. He asserted that this had been lost in the industrial world where individuals have specialised roles and were divorced from this creative process and often from the control of their immediate environment.

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Alexander continued to develop his theories through further volumes and in The Role of the Architect in the Third Millennium details his thoughts on the future of architecture. He proposed a role for architects in what he saw as the transition from the modern ‘procurement’ process back to a more organic way of repairing and adapting the built environment over time in response to evolving needs.

Using an estimate of the number of architects (500,000 in 2002) he calculated that if they were distributed evenly across the world, each architect would be responsible for 8-square miles of the built environment, including around 60 buildings that would need to be renewed or built from scratch each year.

Recognising that this was an impossible task, Alexander proposes a new role for architects to guide, help and steer the work of communities to evolve the built environment — while also taking on a more artistic role to guide the actual making of the elements of that environment.

He summarises this role as Making, Designing, Building, and Helping. Working with their local community they could develop and adapt patterns appropriate to their unique context.

“Just as doctors, as members of their profession, take responsibility for the care of illness and disease… it seems to me only natural that the life of buildings and the built environment… must be taken most seriously of all by those of us in the profession devoted to the love of buildings, who see buildings as our task and our passion, and who – in principle – know more than other people about the nature of these buildings” (Alexander, 2002: 555).

Today much effort goes into development and building ‘control’ – an adversarial process based on the premise that a proponent seeks to maximise their opportunities and the public are left to defend community and environmental values. This process is funded by applicants and taxpayers, often also requiring significant volunteer effort.

Alexander has proposed a model for our millennium where architects could be funded to work proactively and locally with communities to provide better outcomes at the neighbourhood and community scale.

This diversion of effort from control to preemptive solutions is reminiscent of the current social and political movement to ‘defund’ police forces and put effort into crime prevention, rehabilitation, and social outreach. Arguably, taking a preventative approach in creating built environment and managing public spaces would also be financially more efficient, improve social and health outcomes and reduce conflict in communities.

Applying an approach like this would allow places to adapt as the needs of their communities evolved over time — all while being sensitive to local values and environmental context — allowing the pattern of spaces to reflect the pattern of events.

I recall volunteering at the Fitzroy Housing Repair Advisory Service in the 1980s to assist homeowners work their way through the design, approval and restoration of their heritage housing stock. This was an example of a community-focused effort by architects to improve outcomes in the built environment at a time of architectural activism and community empowerment.

The challenge of reforming the way our built environment is created remains unresolved some 50 years after the issues were understood by science (and social science) and solutions such as Alexander’s were comprehensively articulated.

“And we, the architects of the world, are uniquely placed by inclination and tradition to take on the job of safeguarding and creating the living structure on the Earth’s surface” (Alexander, 2002: 561). ■ _____ Alistair Henchman is an architect and registered planner who spent much of his career working in protected area management and was a senior executive in the NSW Government.

Alistair has designed a number of homes using Alexander’s pattern language methodology.

Alistair now consults with community, industry and governments throughout the Asia Pacific advising on sustainable ways for people to access and enjoy sensitive natural and cultural places.

NOTES Alexander, Christopher. et al.

(1977) A Pattern Language, Oxford University Press Alexander, Christopher. (1979) The Timeless Way of Building, Oxford University Press Alexander, Christopher. (2002) The Process of Creating Life, Berkeley, The Center for Environmental Structure

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Housing people, not cars WORDS: FIONA HICKS

Australia has long prioritised the movement and shelter of cars over the movement and shelter of people – and this has impacted the liveability of our cities and the health and wellbeing of residents.

It contributes to the current housing affordability crisis, with an ever-increasing inequity between those who need a car to visit the shops and those who can afford to live in the middle ring suburbs well serviced by public transport and walkable established villages.

Perhaps the significant and ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic could offer a new perspective on an old problem.

Prior to 2020 changes in car use and ownership were technological – car sharing, car ride apps and hybrid/electric cars. Despite hype and wide uptake, these developments have not slowed the rate of Australian car ownership per household or significantly altered our streetscapes. The potential for autonomous cars to revolutionise private car ownership to the benefit of our cities is exciting – but Australia trails well behind forward thinking countries such as Singapore and the Netherlands, when it comes to policy, legislation or trials.

At first glance the immediate impacts of the pandemic would appear to be more bad news: public transport usage dropped for health safety reasons and private car trips and luxury car sales have increased above pre-lockdown levels.

However, longer term there is reason for hope.

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WORKING FROM HOME Businesses pivoting and workers quickly adapting to working from home has challenged the traditional belief that CBD office space and supervision are required for productivity. The general success of this forced social experiment suggests it will give rise to more flexible hours, permissive attitudes to working from home and pre-COVID-19 commuting patterns that will not be wholly reinstated,reducing the congestion of peak-hour traffic and pressure on public transport.

Local councils face a future where more inhabitants stay closer to home for part of the week. Quieter streets and walkable solutions improve the liveability of smaller town centres, strengthening community and improving the health and engagement of residents. This aligns with Greater Sydney Commission’s strategic vision for a polycentric Sydney of three 30-minute cities.

GOVERNMENT POLICY AND INVESTMENT DURING RECESSION Investment in infrastructure as a path out of recession is to be expected but Australia could follow international examples of Paris and Vienna and invest in projects that support pedestrian and bike spaces. Local governments in Melbourne and Sydney have added pop-up cycleways and committed to developing more.

E-bike and bike sales experienced a boom in 2020 with cycling offering exercise, mental

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health benefits and a COVID-safe method of transport. State governments should take their cues from this and avoid the political temptation to invest in new roads – car-centric, no reduction in congestion – instead investing in maintaining existing roads and rail – to the benefit of bike and public transport users.

Another opportunity is the unbundling of garage and apartment ownership. As of February 2021, more than 80,000 Australians are still deferring their home loans and the risk of a mortgage default spike looms. Perhaps these homeowners have an asset that they could sell [their garage] to the benefit of their local area. In a 2018 study

by RMIT research fellow Dr Elizabeth Taylor found 25% to 41% of garages in the Melbourne CBD were vacant and a discussion followed on the impact of this waste on the city.

Unbundling allows homeowners to sell an unused asset and reduces wasted space. In the CBD, garages can be repurposed to improve flexible parking options which in turn offers the potential for the CBD to expand space dedicated to pedestrians, cycling, public transport and outdoor recreation. In the middle-ring suburbs, it offers the potential for converting street-facing garages to housing in specific contexts.

GARAGE CONVERSIONS AS AFFORDABLE HOUSING Transport shapes housing. Older suburbs hold the memories of horse-drawn transport with stables long since converted into housing.

Unused private garages offer the same potential.

Garages in middle-ring suburbs offer scope to increase density by stealth. Selling a freestanding garage is currently not possible because of subdivision pattern requirements.

Revisiting this position to allow small parcels of land in established suburbs to be repurposed would ideally incentivise build-to-rent affordable housing. Street-facing garage conversions

are inherently affordable as they are limited in size, have existing fabric to retain and reuse and generally offer excellent amenity being directly connected to a streetscape at ground level.

Suburbs would enjoy street and laneway activation and this alternative housing type could bolster the limited affordable housing offerings in middle-ring suburbs. These concepts might be uniquely palatable to a community of city dwellers who have had the recent shared experience of working from home, walking and riding more and re-engaging with local community on quieter streets. ■ _____ Fiona Hicks is a graduate of architecture, working as a building designer at Commonplace.

Commonplace is currently working on a smallscale affordable housing pilot.

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Sustainability and heritage WORDS: RENA CZAPLINSKA-ARCHER

The pandemic, recent bushfires, drought and flooding which caused massive destruction of human and natural habitat make us dramatically aware that our lives and wellbeing are not separate from the environment we live in.

Hippocrates warned us 2000 years ago that we cannot ignore nature, dominate it or control it. He told us to listen to changing patterns in nature, respect them and work with them.

Traditionally there has always been respect for ancestral wisdom and respect for the land. Yet we live in times when new is valued more. Traditional colonial attitudes seem to disconnect us from the land, and its stories.

Our architectural education and practice do not recognise that our relationship with the environment is more complex, layered and dynamic. US architect Frank Lloyd Wright was aware of it and encouraged developing feeling and listening skills: “Whether people are fully conscious of this or not, they actually derive countenance and sustenance from the ‘atmosphere’ of the things they live in or with. They are rooted in them just like a plant is in the soil in which it is planted” (Wright, 1954: 121).

Indigenous history reaching 40,000 to 80,000 years is theoretically also considered heritage but in practice we don’t know much about it.

Years of colonial suppression and neglect have silenced these stories and voices. We don’t know the local stories, the names of rivers, mountains and trees.

Many Australians are immigrants with their own cultural heritage which they cherish and a sense of disconnection from the country of their ancestors which they miss. On becoming Australian everyone has to pledge allegiance to Australia, its culture, language and value system which are traditionally based on colonial attitudes. How do we develop a sense of belonging, caring for the land and the adopted country we call home? How do we feel at home here?

There is rising awareness of the fundamental difference between Indigenous and Western understandings of heritage. For Westerners, artefacts are carefully displayed in museums or heritage-listed sites. When I asked an Indigenous Elder to show me their heritage sacred sites, ‘you are standing on it’ was the answer. For Aboriginal people earth is sacred and demands respect. Everywhere.

HERITAGE AND PLACE Heritage in Australia is commonly understood as referring to colonial history of the last 200 years with its buildings, objects and places.

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The commitment to sustainability and ecological design focuses on nurturing and supporting life, on maintaining an ecological balance so

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The Sea Ranch coastline Photo: Rena Czaplinska-Archer

that society’s quality of life does not decrease with each generation. An ecological approach recognises that we are all inter-connected and our wellbeing depends on the wellbeing of the three pillars supporting life on earth: environment, economy and society. When one of the pillars is damaged and suffers the other pillars suffer too, when one dies (ie the environment), the others die. However, when the three pillars are well balanced and equally considered, they create stable, self-maintaining and resilient communities. This is what design for wellbeing is all about. Some examples of such communities built over the last 100 years still exist and are exciting and inspiring places to visit. Both Castlecrag in Sydney and Sea Ranch in California are great examples.

CASTLECRAG ESTATE, SYDNEY The Castlecrag Estate was developed in the early 1920s on the rugged North Shore peninsula as a progressive suburban community designed in harmony with nature by Walter and Marion Griffin and a group of progressive supporters.

Together they formed the Greater Sydney Development Association, becoming developers and designers of Castlecrag Estate to help them avoid difficulties they experienced with their Canberra Plan.

The Castlecrag development was based on idealistic planning and landscape design ideas intending to support the growth of a democratic

cooperative and progressive society creating an affordable neighbourhood with a shared community spirit. This resulted in developing a relatively stable self-managing and resilient community which even today, 100 years later, retains a progressive feel, with no fences, with common gardens, an open theatre, communal areas, and the community-based Griffin Society taking care of the neighbourhood.

Integral to the Griffins’ plan was the reestablishment and preservation of the indigenous flora.

The Griffins urged that land be “accorded the respect due to a highly developed and perfected living organism not to be exterminated or treated as dead material, or as a mere section of the map” (Watson, 1998:100). The project included rehabilitation work and conservation of the natural environment with housing and built features designed in sympathy with the environment following the natural contours, and using locally found materials, form and colours.

THE SEA RANCH, CALIFORNIA Sea Ranch is a famous Northern Californian ecological design icon, established in the early 1960s along a 10-mile strip overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Sonoma County. It was designed by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin in collaboration with a group of

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Sea Ranch Hedgerow houses built behind the windbreaks on the edge of open meadows | Photo and drawing: Rena Czaplinska-Archer

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progressive Bay Area architects Moore Lyndon Turnbull Whitaker and a visionary developer and architect Al Boeke. It is celebrated as one of the best collections of modernist architecture on the West Coast combined with environmental stewardship and a unique community drawn together by a shared vision and respect for its concept.

Lawrence Halprin advocated an ecological and collaborative design approach to inspire collective creativity and develop an engaged and progressive community, ideas which were inspired by his studies with Gropius at Harvard. Halprin had good support from the developer Al Boeke, a former employee of the architect Richard Neutra, whose ambition was to create an affordable neighbourhood, rich in architectural contemporary design and a strong community spirit based on progressive ideas of new towns.

With his wife, a choreographer, Anna Halprin and dance and architecture students and their teachers, including Charles Moore and others, Halprin developed a series of experiential learning workshops investigating the relationship between the body, movement, arts and environment. They explored the land and its features, from the windswept ragged coast to meadows and forested hills, and the major highway running through it. They were interested in design that was responsive to the history of the land – to the stories of the Indigenous Pomo who occupied this site previously.

The result of months of workshops was the Sea Ranch concept and its unique community covenant protecting the natural environment and committing to ‘live lightly on the land’. The respect for the land was the guiding principle and resulted in a long, narrow development along the coast providing housing for about 5000 people in a way which did not compromise the quality of the environment, leaving 50% of the land as open meadow communal spaces, allowing open views to the ocean and lining small barn-style inspired homes along the hedges and in the wooded hills above. Since then the development has attracted nearly

200 architectural awards for individual houses and a 20th century heritage award for the first condominium block, shaped to mimic the nearby ocean cliffs. The project successfully revived the land after decades of abuse and neglect from overgrazing and erosion creating an iconic modern architecture environment and one of the best examples of well-managed, sustainable communities, a place well worth a visit on the Coast Highway two hours north of San Francisco.

Climate change and the environmental emergency it is creating is shaping our changing attitudes to building and design.

Some of the best examples of ecological design demonstrate that we can meet our needs without destroying our life support system.

They offer pathways which integrate environmental, climate, social, heritage and aesthetic values and result in creating resilient neighbourhoods and communities built with respect for the environment and its heritage context. ■ _____ Rena Czaplinska‐Archer PhD is an ecological and heritage architect, artist, somatic practitioner, writer and former lecturer in architecture at the University of Sydney. This article is based on a talk presented at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery on 26 February 2020.

NOTES Wright, F.L. (1954), The Natural House, Horizon Press Watson (1998), Walter and Marion Griffin cited in The Journal of the Wildlife Preservation Society of Australia

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W H AT A R E W E D O I N G ?

Sirius: architecture saved, heritage lost WORDS: RICHARD FRANCIS-JONES

At Sydney-Open, a livestream panel discussion chaired by Adam Haddow on new heritage asked what buildings saved from demolition have changed the city for the better. Panelist Richard Francis-Jones put forward the Sirius building but also suggested that while the building was saved something more important has been lost.

The Sirius Social Housing Project cannot be considered or properly valued outside the incredible history and narrative of its making. It is perhaps a greater social and cultural project than it is architectural. Its heritage is as much about meaning and use as the skilful composition of brutalist precast concrete frames.

Sirius was raised out of the demolished public housing terraces of the Rocks, a new home for a displaced community and a monument of social atonement and equity. Ironically this architecture of compensation and repair broke the delicate urban form and scale of the Rocks in pursuit of an only slightly adjusted modernist paradigm of urban renewal that was the cause of the original damage.

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also embodies the noble project of modernity directed towards social emancipation and equity.

But now emptied of its community, of its social purpose, of its life, and true significance, it has become a mere shell. What have we preserved and what have we lost? Does it actually matter if any future repurposing of this monument of social atonement is a good or bad work of architectural adaptation if the soul of the building has already left?

The story of Sirius began in the late 1960s when the historic Rocks with its tight-knit terraces and narrow streets, was planned to undergo an ambitious urban regeneration that would epitomise the modernist post-war paradigm of healthy, equitable living. Residential towers and gardens with light, view, and fresh air, were to represent a modern 20th century ideal at the edge of our Harbour. This new urban vision was perhaps best expressed, in the proposal of 1963

by Sydney’s greatest exponent of modernism Harry Seidler.

It is a remarkable project and a remarkably poetic story.

The problem, however, was not the quality of the architecture, but the social and cultural cost of such over-simplified modernist paradigms that were fracturing communities and historic urban form in cities throughout the world.

It embodies the community and political struggle of the Green Bans, the urban struggle between modernist renewal and the historic city, and

At the Rocks, demolition had already begun and local residents were displaced from the terraces on George, Playfair, and Atherden Streets.

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Sirius | Designed by the NSW Housing Commission and led by Tao Gofers | The Rocks | NSW | Photos: licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution – Non Commercial 4.0

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W H AT A R E W E D O I N G ?

Sirius | Designed by the NSW Housing Commission and led by Tao Gofers | The Rocks | NSW | Photo: licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial 4.0

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“Sirius embodied a great and important story, in its scale, form, geometry and material, but most of all in its life and content.”

However, this social displacement and urban transformation was dramatically halted through public protests, union action and, Green Bans championed by the NSW Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) leader and environmentalist Jack Mundey, who passed away in May last year.

privileged parts of our cities were inevitably claimed by the socially privileged. But in January 2018 when Myra Demetriou, the last resident of Sirius left and the building sold, something essential to the heart and meaning of the project also left.

Following the success of this community action, the Sirius project was to rise from the rubble, mend the damage and heal the wounds, by providing new accommodation for the displaced residents. Designed by the NSW Housing Commission and led by Tao Gofers, Sirius was a great contrast to the terrace house typology of the Rocks. Vertically stacked up, open, precast concrete boxes of individual apartments offering views, natural light and roof gardens.

Paradoxically, it was a late 1970s variation on the form of the 1960s modernist urban regeneration that had caused the destruction in the first place.

Architecture is not separate from the aspirations of its making and the life and values it embodies. These are integral to its cultural worth and heritage, this is particularly the case with Sirius which bears witness to such an important social urban narrative, played out dramatically at centre stage in our city but also occurring in our peripheral vision all over New South Wales.

Part of its success perhaps, is its exceptionalism in this tight-knit historic urban form and community, which lets us appreciate the contrast and complement of the urban-social visions.

But its cultural significance is in giving witness to the great social urban drama that was played out on the front stage of our City at Circular Quay. An architectural monument of social atonement giving pride of place and the best views of Harbour and Opera House to vulnerable members of our community displaced by haste and ignorance of modern ‘progress’.

Perhaps this was never going to last as values and political priorities changed and the most

Sirius embodied a great and important story, in its scale, form, geometry and material, but most of all in its life and content. Surely no amount of carefully considered contemporary interpretation and skillful design adaptation can compensate for a loss, fatal to the meaning, purpose and essence of the architecture.

Emptied of its social meaning, of its soul, does it actually matter what we now do to the shell? ■ _____ Richard Francis-Jones studied and taught architecture in Australia and United States, he is Design Director of fjmtstudio, former NSW chapter president, former creative director of the Australian Institute of Architects National Architecture Conference, a Life Fellow and an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

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Bushfire recovery, spirit and strength WORDS: HUGO CHAN AND PETER LONERGAN

I could quote the statistics – 18,600,000 hectares burned, 5,900 buildings destroyed, 34 lives lost, 1,000,000,000 animals killed. I could tell you about better building practices – strengthened BAL40 guidelines, a revised National Construction Code, new and improved fire attenuation materials. But when I began interviewing architect Peter Lonergan as he recounted six months of helping his brother, Sean Lonergan, a local farmer and Captain of the Bilpin Fire Brigade for the NSW Rural Fire Service overcoming the devastating fires and rebuilding, ultimately, I felt this was a story I could only reproduce – unvarnished, unaltered and raw.

“…a scene of indescribable devastation. We were accompanied by another builder friend, Peter Lucas, who had arrived early and was cutting fallen trees to clear the roads, most of which were still on fire. Julie carried buckets of water from the dam to put out burning trees or roots while my brother and I installed new generators, pumps, power leads, lighting and running hot and cold water – got the house powered and got power to the sheds to begin coordinating the effort to rebuild. Mark, Ellen, Tom and Tina along with the locals set to work.

We got the pumps and pipes with some of the salvaged pumps to begin reticulating water to the house and shed.”

The Lonergans are no strangers to the bushfire season. Knowing that Christmas would bring about a week of 40-degree-plus temperatures and with all forecasted scenarios looking grim, they set to work in mid-December:

“All of this was occurring while Sean stayed on 24-hour fire duty, as he had been for the previous six weeks. It was clear that the locals, our friends and the brigade members were all in a post-traumatic state of stunned relief for the preservation of life, but the devastating loss of some of the most pristine landscapes in New South Wales, all the while massive trees crashed to the ground as the fire finished burning the last structures that held them up.”

“On 17 December, one of our builders, Esteban and I met on site and we designed an active fire protection plan, supplementing the land clearing we had already completed around the built assets – Sean’s home and the farm sheds.

Using any available 25-metre hose fittings and sprinklers still in stock in town, we laid these out around the buildings. The sprinklers installed around the perimeter of the house and the roof of the packing shed were connected to a diesel driven pump to divert the farm’s irrigation to protect the home. Sean ran the sprinklers continuously over four days, keeping his house and farm sheds as wet as possible before the inevitable firestorm came to pass.”

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On the eve of Christmas, the fires arrived in Bilpin. In the space of only half an hour, Sean watched as the fires consumed his acreage of cherry and apple trees. Sean rang Peter to tell him that the fire had swept straight through the land clearing, as though it was non-existent.

Mercifully, the small additions Peter and Sean had laid out only a few days before – the hose fittings and sprinklers, saved both the house as well as one of the two supply warehouses. The buildings had stayed just wet enough to give enough time for the RFS to arrive and rescue Sean’s home and extinguish the small spot fires.

Peter and Julie went to Bilpin the day after the fires and on arriving, recalled,

There was to be no rest for the team. No time to truly assess the damage that had been inflicted as the call to arms for rebuilding had to be answered, so that Sean’s farming business could return to some kind of rebuilding from the postapocalyptic landscape as quickly as possible.

Peter reflects that the aim throughout this stage was not so much about starting afresh or wiping the slate clean but was consistently centred on reuse and recycling:

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Farmland in Bilpin (2020) Lonergan rebuild NSW Photos: Peter Lonergan

“We reconstructed the damaged buildings, reusing as much as we could and buying as little as was needed. Over the course of the week, we filled a 28-cubic-metre skip with burnt steel, which had ultimately cooled down sufficiently.

We sorted the steel for recycling, with our mind on not worsening the situation by adding to the landfill waste generated by the fire. Tom, my nephew, cut out crumpled purlins to release torquein the steel frame and welded cleats for new timber purlins. Peter, Nick and I installed purlins and re-roofed and added new gutters to the machinery shed. To make it usable to some degree, we had to remove all of the floor as the content of the shed had melted into the substrate.”

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W H AT A R E W E D O I N G ? / BUSHFIRE RECOVERY, SPIRIT AND STRENGTH WORDS: HUGO CHAN AND PETER LONERGAN

“Tom, Gordon and Kevin, another team of builders came on most Saturdays between March to June, where we laid a new hard floor and driveway, painted the shed, ran 4 to 5 kilometres of new fencing around the site and installed a new tank for drainage. New agi lines were installed to deal with a massive expected increase in runoff now that the natural vegetation had been burned and no longer protected the land. We had lost thousands of fruit trees, hundreds of Eucalyptus Melaleuca and Acacias that Sean had planted over the last forty years. Some have been wood chipped for reuse as moisture retention on the land.”

The Lonergan family’s story has been more fortunate than most. In the space of a few months, one thousand new stone fruit trees and shrubs had begun to repopulate the once desolate landscape, and life was beginning to return to the small farm in Bilpin. Reflecting on what was for him a surreal summer, Peter reflects poignantly how: “an architect has the ability to oversee, project and predict, but most importantly to bring things together. The design experience is broadly applicable and if it is able to be broadly applied most things can happen. It is essential to support the human spirit and find strength to keep going, these are the best things that architects can do…”

The skills Peter applied to save his brother’s home – architectural acts of problem solving and resource coordination, is something intrinsic to our role, yet undoubtedly perceived as being less glamorous than what our profession is often seen to be – the individualistic, creative genius (with no thanks to Ayn Rand). To draw and to build can be very powerful tools in the architect’s skillset but we become so absorbed, so engaged in the problem solving of architecture that we often lose track of the most fundamental question of who we build for.

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What the 2019/2020 bushfire season should teach us above anything else is the importance for architects to listen. To listen sensitively to the communities torn apart as we help rebuild their homes after a life-changing season of fires.

We cannot forget that the statistics used to reinforce some quantitative sense of urgency and seriousness have dehumanised the issue and do not even begin to scratch the surface of stories of personal loss, trauma and recovery.

The call for architects to be involved in rebuilding is not just about better, stronger, innovative or more resilient buildings. The call, if anything, is for us to practice architecture with compassion and empathy. ■ _____ Peter Lonergan is director of Cracknell & Lonergan Architects and a Fellow of the Institute.

Hugo Chan is director and architect of the research-based practice, Studio HC, and is architect and associate – operations of Cracknell & Lonergan Architects.

Peter Lonergan, Julie Cracknell and Sean Lonergan would like to thank their family and friends, Tom Lonergan, Nick Lonergan, Mark Shipley, Ellen Lonergan, Tina Lonergan, Paul Smith, David Byrne, Fion Cracknell, Peter Lucas, Esteban Carterro and many others in the community for their tireless support and help in protecting and rebuilding the family’s Bilpin farm. They would also like to extend their thanks and gratitude to all the firefighters of the Rural Fire Service who worked so tirelessly to protect the communities both in NSW and across the nation during the terrible bushfire season.

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Better placemaking: Proposal for a new planning system for NSW WORDS: JOHN MANT AND MICHAEL NEUSTEIN

John Mant, lawyer and urban planner, and Michael Neustein, architect and urban planner, propose a radical change in the development approval process for NSW. In late 2019, our and our colleagues’ frustration with everyday planning practice issues was the starting point for a reflection on why the NSW Environmental Planning & Assessment (EP&A) Act is failing to deliver good place outcomes.

The EP&A Act has failed in terms of: • Focusing on development approvals for individual projects while overlooking the place of which the DA is part • Increasing complexity and ambiguity resulting in a blow out of approval times and the inability of non-planners to understand the system • Lacking democratic mechanisms which include communities in the planning of their places for the future • Failing to take advantage of the digital revolution to make planning systems simpler and easier to navigate.

We have framed our proposal in terms of a NSW Better Places Act, which combines four major objectives essential for achieving good place outcomes in NSW in the 21st century: • Focus the planning system on achieving better places.

• Restore community trust and involvement in the NSW planning system • Make the planning system more efficient, understandable and transparent by adopting the latest digital technology

• Make the planning system more agile so it can respond to issues such as climate change and technological advances.

BETTER PLACEMAKING In the past three years, the NSW Government Architect’s office has published recommendations for improved placemaking by design. The office is currently refining a SEPP to encourage better place design.

Rather than adding yet another layer to the already over-complex planning laws in NSW, we must create a system which, at its heart, has high quality places defined in terms of the desired future character that the community and government seek. Digital land parcel records, available by simple enquiry, will incorporate the desired future character of each allotment within its designated place. The development will be assessed on the basis of meeting the desired future character of a whole place, not just on the impact on its immediate surroundings.

All four major reforms are brought together in our Better Places Act proposal, which responds to the NSW Smart Infrastructure Policy, and to the calls for change voiced by our professional colleagues in all areas of planning and architecture.

COMMUNITY TRUST AND INVOLVEMENT Community trust and involvement in the planning system will be increased only by making the system more transparent, responsive and easily understood. As part of our focus on creating better places, community engagement will be essential in defining the future character for designated places.

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W H AT A R E W E D O I N G ? / BETTER PLACEMAKING: PROPOSAL FOR A NEW PLANNING SYSTEM FOR NSW WORDS: JOHN MANT AND MICHAEL NEUSTEIN

A system in which only highly qualified experts can interpret limits on land uses and planning controls must clearly be simplified. Members of the public should be able to readily understand the basis for approvals by referring to comprehensible legislation.

To increase trust and ensure the integrity of the planning system, we propose accepting the advice of the NSW ICAC, which has called for third-party appeals to be implemented.

Under third-party appeals, approvals which are not regarded as justified, can be examined/ questioned and possibly reversed in response to appeals lodged by members of the public.

In addition, third-party appeals are a trade-off for the greater flexibility available to developers and applicants under our proposed Better Places Act. ADOPTING THE LATEST DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY Planning systems in many states, including NSW, are still based on the separation of land uses by zones coloured on paper maps. Merely replacing paper maps with digital images of paper maps on the current NSW Planning Portal shows minimal digital progress. We propose a much more comprehensive digital transformation responding to the relevant design principles of the NSW Smart Infrastructure Policy (released 22 July 2020) as follows: • Customer centred and inclusive infrastructure – create a land parcel record based on the NSW cadastral database (land parcels defined by title), incorporating in a single document, all the planning controls relevant to each allotment. Fully implement digital lodgement of all applications under the Better Places Act. • Open and accessible – replace the EP&A Act with its overly complex layering of controls (SEPPs, REPs and LEPs), with a Better Places Act based on a single land parcel record for each allotment. All planning controls applying to a land parcel would be in this single document (which might be up to possibly 50 or more pages).

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• Resilience and sustainability – focus on improved planning assessments and approvals under a Better Places Act. Utilise advances in 3D modelling (now more than 40 years old!), intelligent checking of compliance with planning controls (similar software for use in building design has been available for over 20 years), comprehensive public engagement, and provision of planning information to support the development approvals system we propose.

For a more comprehensive review of our proposal, go to betterplacesact.com/ our-vision/ ■ _____ John Mant was educated as a lawyer with a planning degree. Early in his career, he gravitated to work at the then Department of Urban and Regional Development. So began a lifetime interest in placemaking and good planning. He was lured to South Australia to become director general of Housing, Urban and Regional Affairs. John espoused the mantra that “form follows organisation” and his career then moved to advising state and local governments on planning organisation and legislation. He was co-author of the plain English NSW Local Government Act 1993 and later a councillor of the City of Sydney. He turned his retirement into a campaign for a better planning system for NSW. He died after a long illness on 10 July 2021.

Michael Neustein is an architect, urban planner and designer who has spent a large part of his career helping applicants and local government over the hurdles created by an increasingly complex and incomprehensible planning system.

He is a Life Member of the Australian Institute of Architects.

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Champions of complacency WORDS: KERWIN DATU

From 2014 to 2020, the gender pay gap in Australia’s architectural services worsened slightly, from men being paid on average 28.7% over average women’s salaries in 2014, to men being paid 29.4% over in 2020, according to figures compiled by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), meaning that on average women working in architecture must all be given a 29.4% pay rise across the board to achieve pay equality (WGEA, 2020). Over the same period, the average pay rise required to bring women up to equality with men in the adjacent class of engineering design and engineering consulting services went from 41.2% to 29.2%. In our shared umbrella division of professional, scientific and technical services industries overall it went from 38.7% to 28.2%, a relative improvement but still making it the third-worst of all such divisions. By comparison the national average pay rise required across all divisions in the WGEA dataset has fallen from 32.8% to 25.2%. Architects might once have been ahead of the curve on gender equality among our fellow professionals, but starting out at 28.7% that was never saying much. Evidently, we are a complacent lot, and have probably been deluding ourselves thinking that whitecollar environments such as ours were ever leading the charge in general.

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Data on pay gaps for minority genders and sexualities are much harder to come by, let alone disaggregated by profession. But in Australia we do know from a 2015 analysis of household income data that the average pay rise required to bring gay men up to equality with straight men lies between 8.7% and 22.0%, though straight women would actually require a pay rise between 0% and 14.9% to reach equality with lesbians, perhaps indicating something about the nature of gender biases in Australian workplace culture (La Nauze, 2015). A survey in the US in 2017 found a somewhat different picture, where gay men would require pay rises of 46.6% to reach equality with straight men, and lesbians would require 12.8% pay rises to reach equality with straight women (Prudential, 2017). A 2019 UK survey found LGBT+ workers overall required on average 19.0% pay rises to reach equality with their straight colleagues, and was also able to identify that transgender workers require 16.3% pay rises to reach equality with their cisgender counterparts (Chapman, 2019).

Australian architects might like to think that our industry does better than these sorts of national average LGBT+ pay gaps, but our stagnant performance on gender pay gaps suggests this may be simply more delusional thinking. To put it in perspective, indications are that professional workplaces remain toxic for both women and LGBT+ workers. The Australian Human Rights Commission’s 2020 inquiry into sexual harassment in Australian workplaces found that 25% of women surveyed within our division of professional, scientific and technical services had been the subject of sexual harassment in the previous five years, and that 87% of subjects in this division are unlikely to report or complain, this latter figure the second worst of all divisions (AHRC, 2020). A 2017 study by PwC found that 55% of surveyed workers in our division had observed homophobia in the workplace in the previous 12 months. The fact that 93% of LGBT+ workers are generally ‘out’ in these industries evidently does not correspond to a lack of homophobia in them (PwC, 2017).

Coming out in the architecture profession is arguably to expose oneself to trauma, discrimination and loss of income, despite what we might tell ourselves.

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The gender pay-gap figures published by WGEA are compiled from salary data submitted by all companies in each industry with over 100 employees. Submissions must be formally signed off by the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The WGEA does not refer precisely to the term CEO in its gender representation analyses, but it does tell us that women make up only 23.2% of the directors of architectural practices and only 2.6% of the chairs. I can find no relevant statistics for LGBT+ corporate leadership. The nature of the reporting process indicates that the overwhelmingly male (and presumably overwhelmingly straight and cis) directors are well aware of the pay gaps in their practices and have the organisational capacity to reduce them to 0% where they belong. Which makes the persistence of these pay gaps, in the words of Hannah Gadsby, “a decision”. A decision made by these directors to allow the pay gaps to sit on the books for years on end, and in many cases watch them worsen.

Since after so many years of producing such reports, inaction is now tantamount to a choice – to choose to neglect, to choose to discriminate, to choose to affirm the economic supremacy of cis straight male architects.

Australian company directors are shielded from real accountability for their pay gaps by a decision made by Australia’s legislators, which in their Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 deliberately prohibited each employer’s gender pay-gap figures from being printed in the public versions of the individual company reports published by the WGEA. Contrast this with the UK where the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 require employers to publish their gender pay gap figures on Gov. UK. Type the name of your favourite large UK practice into gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/ to see for yourself.

Many of the Australian directors protected by these decisions sit on the architecture industry’s Champions of Change Coalition panel, seemingly busy trying everything but the direct step of immediate pay rises for their female and LGBT+ staff. Their well-meaning statements would look a little more like leadership if they weren’t demonstrably behind their UK counterparts

even on coming clean about their pay gaps.

If Australia’s architectural champions can’t offer immediate pay rises, they should at least voluntarily match the UK standard and publish their own companies’ gender pay gap figures each year. Given how many LGBT+ staff are out in our industry, it would be possible for some to estimate their LGBT+ pay gap figures as well.

If the point of leadership is to drive the pace of change, then Australian architecture is still looking for leaders who will take their foot off the brakes and accelerate us in the right direction. The most expedient way to address our profession’s stagnant pay gap performance is immediately to give all female employees the 29.4% pay rises they are entitled to, with something similar for all LGBT+ employees.

That way, Australian architecture CEOs will be able to report confidently in 2021 that they are zero pay-gap employers. ■ _____ Kerwin Datu is an architect as well as a qualified social scientist with a doctorate in economic geography and is a previous editorial committee chair of Architecture Bulletin.

NOTES Workplace Gender Equality Agency, data.wgea.gov.au/industries/340 .

All pay gap percentages in this article are expressed in terms of the pay rise required to bring the average woman or LGBT+ worker’s salary in line with their male / straight / cis counterparts, the inverse of how pay gaps are normally reported, but better reflective of how any correction to salaries would ultimately be expressed to individual workers.

La Nauze, A. (2015) ‘Sexual orientation-based wage gaps in Australia: The potential role of discrimination and personality’ The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 26(1). The ranges express the spread of findings of different analytical models explored by the author.

Prudential (2017) The LGBT Financial Experience, 2016-2017, corporate. prudential.com/media/managed/PrudentialLGBT2016-2017.pdf Chapman, B. (11 July 2019) ‘LGBT+ workers paid £6,700 per year less than straight workers, survey suggests’, Independent, independent. co.uk/news/business/news/lgbt-workers-pay-gap-paid-less-straightlinkedin-pride-a8983181.html Australian Human Rights Commission (2020) Respect@Work: National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces, humanrights. gov.au/our-work/sex-discrimination/publications/respectwork-sexualharassment-national-inquiry-report-2020 PwC (2017) Perspectives on LGBTI+ inclusion in the workplace, pwc. com.au/publications/pdf/pwc-workplace-inclusion-report-sep17.pdf

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The Hat Factory | Welsh + Major | Photo: Anthony Basheer W H AT A R E W E D O I N G ?

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2021 NSW ARCHITECTURE AWARDS

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2021 NSW AWARD WINNERS

NSW ARCHITECTURE MEDALLION AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM PROJECT DISCOVER NEESON MURCUTT AND NEILLE, COX ARCHITECTURE, AND ORWELL AND PETER PHILLIPS Photo: Brett Boardman

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COMMERCIAL ARCHITECTURE THE SIR ARTHUR G STEPHENSON AWARD SMART DESIGN STUDIO | SMART DESIGN STUDIO Photo: Romello Pereira

AWARDS LITTLE NATIONAL HOTEL | BATES SMART WORKSHOP, 21 HARRIS STREET | BATES SMART COMMENDATIONS BMW + MINI | SJB STONE AND WOOD BREWERY | HARLEY GRAHAM ARCHITECTS

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2021 NSW AWARD WINNERS

EDUCATIONAL ARCHITECTURE

AWARDS AINSWORTH BUILDING, FACULTY OF MEDICINE & HEALTH SCIENCES, MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY | ARCHITECTUS THE ATHENAEUM WENONA | TONKIN ZULAIKHA GREER ARCHITECTS

THE WILLIAM E KEMP AWARD BARKER COLLEGE ROSEWOOD CENTRE | NEESON MURCUTT AND NEILLE Photo: Rory Gardiner

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COMMENDATION THE WOMEN’S COLLEGE SYBIL CENTRE SYDNEY UNI | M3 ARCHITECTURE

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HERITAGE

AWARDS SUB BASE PLATYPUS | URBAN DESIGN REID HOUSE | HECTOR ABRAHAMS ARCHITECTS

THE GREENWAY AWARD AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM PROJECT DISCOVER | COX ARCHITECTURE WITH NEESON MURCUTT + NEILLE Photo: Brett Boardman

COMMENDATIONS JUDITH NEILSON INSTITUTE FOR JOURNALISM AND IDEAS | TZANNES THE LOWY BUILDING | HECTOR ABRAHAMS ARCHITECTS 58 CARR STREET | MCGREGOR WESTLAKE ARCHITECTURE SRG HOUSE | FOX JOHNSTON

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2021 NSW AWARD WINNERS

PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE THE SULMAN MEDAL SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY | HASSELL STUDIO Photo: Brett Boardman

AWARDS GUNYAMA PARK AQUATIC AND RECREATION CENTRE | ANDREW BURGES ARCHITECTS AND GRIMSHAW WITH TCL IN COLLABORATION WITH THE CITY OF SYDNEY MAITLAND ATHLETICS COMPLEX | MAITLAND CITY COUNCIL WITH STUDIO DOT COMMENDATION ROCKY HILL MEMORIAL MUSEUM | CRONE WITH URBIS

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URBAN DESIGN THE LLOYD REES AWARD SUB BASE PLATYPUS | LAHZNIMMON ARCHITECTS AND ASPECT STUDIOS Photo: Florian Groehn

AWARD HARBORD DIGGERS CLUB REDEVELOPMENT | ARCHITECTUS + CHROFI + JMD DESIGN COMMENDATIONS TARONGA ZOO AFRICAN SAVANNAH | TONKIN ZULAIKHA GREER ARCHITECTS PUTNEY HILL MASTER PLAN AND RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT COX ARCHITECTURE

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2021 NSW AWARD WINNERS

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – HOUSES (NEW)

AWARDS BUNKEREN | JAMES STOCKWELL ARCHITECT NIGHT SKY | PETER STUTCHBURY ARCHITECTURE FEDERAL HOUSE | EDITION OFFICE COMMENDATIONS

THE WILKINSON AWARD PEARL BEACH HOUSE | POLLY HARBISON DESIGN Photo: Brett Boardman

OFF GRID FZ HOUSE | ANDERSON ARCHITECTURE MYSTERY BAY HOUSE | JACK HAWKINS ARCHITECT WITH ROB HAWKINS COBARGO SANTA PROJECT | BREATHE HOUSE NGAIO PALM BEACH | DURBACH BLOCK JAGGERS ARCHITECTS CONTEMPLATION HOUSE | VIRGINIA KERRIDGE ARCHITECT

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ARCHITECTURE BULLETIN

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – HOUSES (ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS) THE HUGH AND EVA BUHRICH AWARD

AWARDS BIRCHGROVE HOUSE | TONKIN ZULAIKHA GREER ARCHITECTS SRG HOUSE | FOX JOHNSON RILEY’S TERRACE | ADELE MCNAB ARCHITECT LENA | SMART DESIGN STUDIO COMMENDATIONS SMASH REPAIR HOUSE | MATT ELKAN

HAT FACTORY | WELSH & MAJOR

VILLA VILLEKULLA | VIRGINIA KERRIAGE ARCHITECT

Photo: Anthony Basheer

HOUSE FIT | PANOV SCOTT

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2021 NSW AWARD WINNERS

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – MULTIPLE HOUSING

AWARDS

THE AARON BOLOT AWARD

COMMENDATIONS

NEWMARKET EASTERN PRECINCT | BATES SMART AND SMART DESIGN STUDIO Photo: Martin Siegner

ARKADIA | DKO ARCHITECTURE WITH BREATHE ARCHITECTURE AND OCULUS HARBORD DIGGERS CLUB REDEVELOPMENT | ARCHITECTUS + CHROFI + JMD DESIGN

249 DARLINGHURST ROAD | SJB FOAMCREST APARTMENTS | RICHARD COLE ARCHITECTURE TERACOTA | BENNETT MURADA ARCHITECTS LLANDAFF ST APARTMENTS | HILL THALIS ARCHITECTURE + URBAN PROJECTS WITH MCGREGOR WESTLAKE ARCHITECTS

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ARCHITECTURE BULLETIN

INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE

AWARDS SMART DESIGN STUDIO | SMART DESIGN STUDIO CARPE DIEM COMPANIONWAY | COLLINS AND TURNER WITH GEYER

THE JOHN VERGE AWARD AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM PROJECT DISCOVER | COX ARCHITECTURE WITH NEESON MURCUTT + NEILLE Photo: Brett Boardman

COMMENDATIONS BARKER COLLEGE ROSEWOOD CENTRE | NEESON MURCUTT + NEILLE YALLMUNDI ROOMS | TONKIN ZULAIKHA GREER ARCHITECTS ARBUTUS | SMART DESIGN STUDIO POROUS HOUSE | POSSIBLE STUDIO CONTEMPLATION HOUSE | VIRGINIA KERRIDGE ARCHITECT 63

2021 NSW AWARD WINNERS

SMALL PROJECT ARCHITECTURE

AWARD BROKEN CAMP | ATELIER LUKE COMMENDATIONS CHAU CHAK WING GALLERY | STUDIOPLUSTHREE

THE ROBERT WOODWARD AWARD PLASTIC PALACE | RAFFAELLO ROSSELLI Photo: Ben Hosking

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WATTAMOLLA AMENTIES | CONNYBEAR MORRISON

ARCHITECTURE BULLETIN

SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE

AWARDS COBARGO SANTA PROJECT | BREATHE ARCHITECTURE NIGHT SKY | PETER STUTCHBURY ARCHITECTURE COMMENDATIONS

THE MILO DUNPHY AWARD

PLASTIC PALACE | RAFFAELLO ROSSELLI

SMART DESIGN STUDIO | SMART DESIGN STUDIO

FERN PASSIVHAUS APARTMENTS | STEELE ASSOCIATES ARCITECTS

Photo: Romello Pereira

POROUS HOUSE | POSSIBLE STUDIO MINIMA | TRIAS COURTYARD HOUSE | CHROFI

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2021 NSW AWARD WINNERS

COLORBOND® AWARD FOR STEEL ARCHITECTURE MAITLAND REGIONAL ATHLETICS COMPLEX MAITLAND CITY COUNCIL WITH STUDIO DOT Photo: Murray Wood

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ARCHITECTURE BULLETIN

ENDURING ARCHITECTURE AWARD MLC BUILDING NORTH SYDNEY BATES SMART & MCCUTCHEON Photo: Peter Miller

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2021 NSW AWARD WINNERS

LORD MAYOR’S PRIZE

LORD MAYOR’S PRIZE

GUNYAMA PARK AQUATIC AND RECREATION CENTRE

WATERFALL

ANDREW BURGES ARCHITECTS AND GRIMSHAW WITH TCL IN COLLABORATION WITH THE CITY OF SYDNEY

SJB

Photo: Peter Bennetts

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Photo: Martin Mischkulnig

ARCHITECTURE BULLETIN

EMERGING ARCHITECT PRIZE ALEXANDER SYMES | ALEXANDER SYMES ARCHITECT Alexander Symes of Alexander Symes Architect was awarded this year’s NSW Emerging Architect Prize with the jury noting how his practice has provided him with opportunities to “demonstrate best-practise sustainable design, while also advance sustainable architecture.” The jury also commended Alex for his strong contribution to the Institute, where he has shared “his passion for sustainability through lectures, committees, and panels including working with other industry leaders on the Section J 2019 technical review.

By participating in these activations and reviews, he not only advocates for the strengthening of sustainability but shares his wealth of knowledge with future generations to come.”

BLACKET PRIZE ROCKY HILL MEMORIAL MUSEUM CRONE WITH URBIS Photo: Sally Hsu

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2021 NEWCASTLE AWARD WINNERS

NEWCASTLE ARCHITECTURE MEDAL HOUSE AT PRETTY BEACH LAHZNIMMO ARCHITECTS Photo: Brett Boardman

EDUCATIONAL ARCHITECTURE COMMENDATION THE BIG TREE HOUSE CURIOUS PRACTICE Photo: Curious Practice

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ARCHITECTURE BULLETIN

HERITAGE ARCHITECTURE AWARD NEWCASTLE VISITOR INFORMATION CENTRE EJE ARCHITECTURE Photo: Nathan Davies

INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE AWARD FRONTE OCEANO ANTHONY ST JOHN PARSONS Photo: Kien Situ

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2021 NEWCASTLE AWARD WINNERS

PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE MAITLAND REGIONAL ATHLETICS COMPLEX MAITLAND CITY COUNCIL WITH STUDIO DOT Photo: Murray Wood COMMENDATION PORT STEPHENS HEALTHONE SHAC

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – HOUSES (ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS) AWARD VALENCIA STREET CURIOUS PRACTICE Photo: Katherine Lu COMMENDATION CLIFF COTTAGE DIANNA THOMAS ARCHITECT COMMENDATION HATHERLY HOUSE SDA

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ARCHITECTURE BULLETIN

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE (NEW) AWARD HOUSE AT PRETTY BEACH LAHZNIMMO ARCHITECTS Photo: Brett Boardman COMMENDATION WANGI WATERFRONT HOUSE SHAC COMMENDATION LAMBTON HOUSE CURIOUS PRACTICE

RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE – MULTIPLE HOUSING AWARD LUME SJB Photo: Brett Boardman COMMENDATION ALMA RESIDENCES CKDS ARCHITECTURE

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2021 NEWCASTLE AWARD WINNERS

SUSTAINABLE ARCHITECTURE COMMENDATION VALENCIA STREET CURIOUS PRACTICE Photo: Katherine Lu

COLORBOND® AWARD FOR STEEL ARCHITECTURE PORT STEPHENS HEALTHONE SHAC Photo: Alexander McIntyre

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PROVOKE

Sculpture or architecture: the battle continues WORDS: CHRIS JOHNSON

James Packer’s sculptural skyscraper, designed

by British architect Chris Wilkinson, has ignited a debate about the relationship between architecture and sculpture. The Sydney Morning Herald’s letters page was full of outraged attacks on Wilkinson Eyre’s sinuous tower at Barangaroo and agreement with columnist Elizabeth Farrelly’s claim that the building looks like a sexual part of the human body. She questioned the relationship between architecture and sculpture.

This debate has uncanny similarities to another battle about architecture and sculpture that also played out in The Sydney Morning Herald 140 years ago. From 1882 to 1890, many negative comments were published about NSW Colonial Architect James Barnet’s outrageous designs of free-form, life-like sculptures on the General Post Office (GPO), rather than the usual stiff, classical figures of eminent men. NSW parliamentarians decried his innovation and called for the GPO’s new carvings to be removed.

There is a long lineage of discussions about architecture and sculpture going back to Vitruvius and involving Ruskin and Cockerill in Victorian times. By 1882, Victor Hugo had added a new chapter to his book, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, titled ‘This Will Kill That’, in which he claimed that the arrival of the printing press would subtract from architecture the important role of representation and storytelling. During a Master of Architecture history and theory

course at UNSW, Dr Peter Kohane explained the importance of Ruskin, Cockerill and Fergusson in the debate about architectural representation.

James Barnet would have been closely involved in these discussions around London before he arrived in Australia.

After years of argument, the NSW Legislative Assembly in 1890 voted 54 to 5 to retain the GPO carvings and its members now saw them in glowing terms as ‘the beginning of art in Australia’ and that the style was now flowing to the rest of the world. In the Assembly, Mr Hawkins said that ‘The Paris Salon had adopted the style of carving of the Sydney Post Office’.

Chris Wilkinson’s tower at Barangaroo has become today’s battleground about the essence of architecture. Many people seem to be very supportive of the flowing shape. I think it could be argued that architecture in Sydney should reflect the spirit of Sydney’s beaches and harbour bays, to relate to the fluidity of water, rather than the orthogonal grid laid down by colonial surveyors 200 years ago as they set out to control development. Many Sydney architects seem to agree including FJMT with their flowing ‘cloud’ building at Barangaroo followed by their UTS building and the design of the Star tower in Pyrmont. South of the border, Melbourne architects ARM strive to make their buildings contribute to urban life with very sculptural forms.

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PROVOKE / SCULPTURE OR ARCHITECTURE: THE BATTLE CONTINUES WORDS: CHRIS JOHNSON

A key sculptor of note to architects of tall buildings is Brancusi, who was most excited by the early skyscrapers he saw on visits to New York. But he also became entangled in debates about the representation of sculpture.

He brought two of his beautiful bird works to America, but these were confiscated by US customs officers who could not see any resemblance to a real bird. After months of wrangling, Brancusi managed to avoid the hefty import duties by reclassifying his sculptures as marble, but the customs officers were not impressed.

Which brings me back to Barangaroo and to my own little souvenir of Brancusi. On a visit to Paris, I bought a small replica of one of his works (signed of course!), that I think has the same style and spirit as Chris Wilkinson’s elegant building at Barangaroo. What both Brancusi and Wilkinson are aiming to achieve are forms that naturally evolve as they grow.

They both challenge the old orthogonal systems – Wilkinson now being far more advantaged than Brancusi by access to BIM software. But just like Barnet’s GPO sculptures, gracefully curved built forms are about the future. Over time the Barangaroo tower probably also will be supported by 54 to 5 of its observers but the five against will still fight the new approach and call for a return to the old, safe, rectilinear ways. ■ _____ Chris Johnson is a former NSW Government Architect and former CEO Urban Taskforce Australia.

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Barangaroo architecture and Brancusi sculpture | Photo Chris Johnson

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