FOUR GENERATIONS SHAPE CITYSCAPE

Architect and artist Amanda Izzard tells the rich story of her family’s connection with the building and construction industry in NSW.

Four generations of my family have found great opportunity and rewarding careers in construction. It is an exciting industry to be involved in, especially in Australia as we continue to grow and shape our cities around us.

My grandfather, John Stevens, was a carpenter with great skill and built houses, including his own which still stands in Oatley. I have a plan of his house that he hand drew in 1919.

He served in World War I and upon his return worked for NSW Railways in Eveleigh Works building the railway carriages, which were all timber at the time.

My father, Clive Stevens, recalls my grandfather building the house around him as a child and also grew up with building skills. My father was very creative and decided to become an architect. He left school at 14, like so many of his generation, to help provide for the family in tough times and started work as a draftsman.

His first job was with Dairy Farmers drawing up the horse drawn carts that would deliver milk to houses around the suburban streets. He went on to complete his architecture degree at Sydney Technical College, studying at night, and designed many beautiful buildings including churches, Penfolds Wine building (now Ikea at Tempe) and houses such as his iconic mid-century house in Cronulla. He also lectured at the University of NSW for many years.

As a child I was fascinated by my father’s beautiful hand drafting skills as he would draw up plans. He eventually allowed me to colour them in and I was hooked. As children we were also lucky enough to travel overseas and he would explain the principles of design behind beautiful cathedrals and castles in England and the Parthenon in Greece, which really inspired me.

My father also built a couple of our houses himself so I grew up watching and helping him build timber framework and stone walls. It was great to learn practical skills to give you confidence to have a go and the satisfaction of creating useful things. Of course I went on to become an architect too.

After university I worked in London. It is great that there are opportunities in the construction industry to be able to work overseas, especially with sought-after Australian qualifications. I enjoyed collaborating with people from around the world on large scale architecture projects but after a couple of years was excited to head back to Australia to work in residential design, which I felt had far more exciting opportunity in Australia.

Upon my return I teamed up with my father to create our own architecture business. It was a fantastic opportunity for me, as my father was a hard taskmaster and trained me well and we went on to work for many years designing houses and aged care facilities, winning some design awards along the way. I also completed a landscape diploma at TAFE as I felt biophyilic design principles were important. That is to design the house and garden as one fluid space, the outside and inside informing the design of each other and nature then becomes the backdrop to living. shaping our cities but finds the demands of long hours and tight work schedules challenging. She has since been headhunted by another company.

Architecture is a very challenging career and allconsuming. You really need to be pretty determined to start with a great end vision for a project and then collaborate with so many stakeholders including the client, council, consultants, suppliers and builders, working together as a good team and driving it to a high standard of completion.

I also find it challenging to convince clients (and council policy) that bigger is not always better and we should concentrate on more beautiful and sustainable houses that are informed by our natural environment. Architecture is also very rewarding when beautiful buildings and spaces are created from nothing but a thought and provide people with well-functioning and uplifting houses to enjoy. As a career it doesn’t get much better than that!

As A Child I Was

I also renovated and designed new houses for myself and family, so continuing the family tradition, my children also grew up on building sites. From as young as four weeks of age they would be hoisted into my backpack and accompanied me to site meetings on building sites (not OH&S compliant these days!).

They were also hooked, not only into the excitement of construction but the value of living in welldesigned and constructed buildings to your feeling of well-being. All three entered the building industry.

Zoe, always very organised and a good communicator, studied construction management at university. She took up a cadetship with Built while studying at uni and went on to work with them on large scale projects in Sydney.

She loves the great career opportunities it offers and excitement of being part of a large team

Xavier followed the more practical route, taking up a carpentry apprenticeship from school. He really enjoys working in a team of good builders and learning great skills to take forward to his own projects in the future. He is also now studying surveying, first through a TAFE diploma and now at university parttime, happy to move away from the physical aspect of construction to a more technical role.

Lili is in her final year studying landscape architecture at Uni NSW. She also has a part-time job with JMD Design offering her great insight into landscape architecture to inform her study.

She is focused on the importance of nature to our sense of wellbeing and the increased role it needs to take in our cities moving to a more sustainable and beautiful environment for living.

She is challenged by the need to educate the public in the importance of our native environment and adopting sustainable practice in design and construction moving forward.

It is fantastic to see more women entering into construction over the generations, to bring a valuable new perspective and approach to building as we move forward to a more sustainable future.