10 LEAD PROFILE
BEING BKK THE THREE LEADERS AT BKK ARCHITECTS TYPIFY THE COLLEGIATE NATURE OF MELBOURNE ARCHITECTURE PRACTICES. AND IT’S BEEN THAT WAY SINCE THE VERY START… / MADELEINE SWAIN
In days of yore, 21 was when we were given the key of the door and launched out into the world as fully-fledged adults. Things aren’t that cut and dried anymore, but as BKK Architects celebrates its 21st birthday, its maturation as a practice is undeniable. Recent high-profile projects include a collaboration with Kerstin Thompson Architects on a cultural centrepiece for the City of Whitehorse, another with Kyriacou Architects on part of the Victorian Level Crossing Removal Projects and, of course, the award-winning ACMI Renewal. The practice has also just been announced as part of the preferred team on a $15 billion, city-shaping infrastructure project – the NE Link – partnering with TLC (Taylor Cullity Lethlean) and Warren and Mahoney as the urban design/landscape team. The most surprising thing perhaps is just how much the practice has managed to accomplish, considering its non-hierarchical structure and determination to ensure everyone gets their say. The interview for this profile with partners Simon Knott, Tim Black and George Huon ran way over time and could easily have lasted for hours longer. Along with co-founder Julian Kosloff, Knott and Black officially incorporated the studio in 2000. Kosloff was at the practice for 17 years before he and fellow principal Stephanie Bullock moved on to form Kosloff Architecture. It was an amicable parting of the ways, says the trio now. “It was just a decision to go in different directions,” says Knott. The team initially came together through their shared experience at RMIT. “It was and still is a fantastic learning hub and breeding ground for architecture,” says Knott, adding how it instilled a “collegiate sense around Melbourne of talking about architecture and ideas”. According to Black, one of the best things about RMIT from a practice perspective was that, unlike most local schools, it didn’t have a general studio space on campus. “This led students to set up their own studios in a cheap rented space within the city and that was a very formative time for us. Simon and I shared one for some years.” While Huon started out as an artist, coming to architecture as a mature student, Black and Knott both spent time studying commerce
THE BUSINESS OF ARCHITECTURE
as well as architecture. And Black has since returned to study to acquire an MBA; however, their business savvy was mostly learned on the job, they say. Knott gained vital experience working with Neil Clerehan when he was just 25 and the great man was in his 70s. It meant he was able to meet people who had spent 40 years living in houses Clerehan had designed. “They talked about how much they loved them and how much Neil had changed their lives and their kids and grandkids had grown up in these houses. It really instilled in me the sense of the importance of architecture and how much it could change people’s lives.” A move to Wood Marsh built on this foundation. The studio was growing from a few people to a larger practice and taking on much bigger projects, and Knott found himself taking on a project architect role “well before my time”. Both practices taught him how to use his initiative, he says. “The sink or swim thing was pretty real at Wood Marsh...” Black also learned from the best, cutting his architectural teeth working for Peter Elliott, where he was exposed to much more than how to be a great designer. “Peter is a very good leader and manager; he’s incredibly well-rounded as an architect,” he says. Starting their own practice was still a leap into the unknown, however. “I think we went into it with a fair amount of naivete,” says Knott. “We had a couple of computers and started around the kitchen table. I think if you said ‘this is what’s involved’ I’d probably have thought twice about doing it. “Architecture has become a lot harder in the 20 years we’ve been in practice,” he adds, indicating the relative simplicity of planning processes and gaining building permits when they started out. “We did very much learn on the run,” he says.
MARVELLOUS MELBOURNE MENTORS The trio stress again and again that their biggest help in the early years came from their peers. They were part of a monthly practice management group with studios like Jackson Clements Burrows,
