The Red and Black Architect Architecture is for everyone

Devastating, traumatic and catastrophic. The summer of 2019-20 saw bushfires of an unprecedented scale impact Australia. It was the summer of the future that we had been warned about.More than 30 people have died and over 3000 homes have been destroyed by this disaster. Tens of thousands have been traumatised, whilst the impacts on...

The Square and the Park. In recent times these two civic spaces have been the subject of intense debate in our society. Is it acceptable to lose park for infrastructure? What is the role of commercial activity? What is the role of these spaces in a 21st century city that is subject to climate...

The ongoing building defects crisis is seemingly getting worse by the day, as more and more revelations of defective buildings come to light. Over the last few years, what has become glaringly obvious, is that the causes behind the surge in building defects are both complex and systemic. It is not simply a case...

Collective Agency, the 2019 Australian Institute of Architects National Conference has continued to challenge architecture’s status quo on the second and final day.In case you missed the day one highlights, take a look here.Session 5 Regenerative and disruptive economy.Kicking off day two at the Melbourne Convention Centre was session captain Nick Brunsdon from POST...

The Australian Institute of Architects National Conference has blasted into Melbourne. The conference agenda ‘Collective Agency’ promised to be a radical departure from architecture conferences of the past. The last time the National Conference was in Melbourne was in 2015 for the deep thinking and highly successful theme of Risk. Four years on, it...

In early February, the Australian Institute of Architects welcomed its new CEO Julia Cambage. Recently Cambage answered some questions about her role and the challenges and opportunities facing the Institute and wider architecture profession.Michael Smith - What attracted you to the role of CEO of the Australian Institute of Architects?Julia Cambage - I believe...

On the fifth of April 2019 Steven Avery, the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria confirmed in a single page what a large section of the Victorian community had known for some time: the Yarra Building at Federation Square was too culturally important to demolish.‘If the application were approved, and the Yarra Building demolished and...

International Women's Day is an opportunity for the architecture profession to reflect upon how we can make our profession more equitable. Updated data from Parlour last year showed that we are collectively still a long way from achieving a truly equitable profession. Progress is slow, but action is happening.Over the last few years the Australian...

Canberra is a city designed as a symbol, a focal point of the Australian nation which is laced deeply with meaning. A designed landscape of view lines and stone monuments, flagpoles and buildings of national significance. It is the place where the deeper symbolic meanings of architecture can be more easily read and understood...

Sydney Road in Melbourne’s north is the city’s longest continuous shopping strip whilst simultaneously being one of Melbourne’s busiest transport corridors and a local activity precinct for the booming populations of Brunswick and Coburg. These different and competing roles that a main street plays for a city and a community can sometimes result in...