ARCHITECTURE

Architects

S tory by JUDY BAROUCH Photography by JOHN FEDER

Women breaking the mould

Female architect disruptors are staging a pushback after a history of gender imbalance in their industry. Under challenge, too, is the edifice complex of male starchitects, whose show-pony exteriors are designed to target publications and garner accolades.

Recent strike across the bow: the snaring of the 2020 Pritzker Prize (architecture’s Nobel) by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, co-founders of Ireland’s Grafton Architects. And last October, Abbie Galvin was appointed the first female NSW Government Architect since the position was created more than 200 years ago, following in the footsteps of Jill Garner, Victoria’s State Government Architect.

Yet despite the ratio of male to female graduates being roughly proportionate – and the majority of deans in Australia’s 19 schools of Architecture now being female – women architects are still under-represented in senior management roles and wage disparity remains a bête noire.

The Australian Institute of Architecture’s Gold Medal, awarded annually since 1960, has only ever had three female winners. According to Tone Wheeler, President of the Australian Architecture Association and principal of Environa Studio, it’s only recently that female architects have begun scoring the “glamour” positions and projects that define Gold Medal winners. “Diligent, but not spectacular, community buildings that women specialise in just don’t rate in the men’s club,” he says. Here, five established and GenNext architects share their thoughts.

The one to watch

Felicity Stewart, director of Stewart Architecture, Sydney & Canberra

Stewart has a Master of Architecture and Urban design from Columbia University NYC, and a Bachelor of Architecture (Hons 1) capped with a University Medal. As co-founding director of Stewart Hollenstein, she was instrumental in realising the $65 million Green Square Library and Plaza, winning the2019 Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public Architecture. “My hope is for a future with a more considered approach to residential architecture, one where quality comes before quantity,” she says. “A friend described her COVID-19 isolation experience as ‘life shrunk down’: her world became smaller and less complicated. The pandemic has reframed our domestic values. Despite ongoing hardship, on a positive note there’s more cooking, making, growing, repairing, and local activity in streets and green spaces, which have become welcome extensions of our homes. Those with smaller homes can take advantage of spaces like libraries, which bring greater opportunity for connection. “This is increasingly important in Australia where, according to census data, one person in every four lives alone, with numbers rising.”

“My hope is for a future with a more considered approach to residential architecture.”

“COVID-19 also will reshape how we live, work and learn at home. Smaller residences will see a more creative reconfiguring of living spaces into daytime offices.”

The high-flying futurist

Ninotschka Titchkosky, co-CEO of BVN, a 300-person architectural practice with studios in Sydney, Brisbane, London, New York

Titchkosky has garnered numerous national and international awards, including a RIBA International Award and a World Architecture Award commendation. Recent works include the rebuilding of the heart of the campus at ANU, Canberra, plus a new STEM school for 2000 students. “Currently it costs too much to build, takes too long and has too great an environmental impact,” she says. “Sophisticated prefabrication, including mass timber construction, robotics and large-scale 3D printing will move into residential projects for a more sustainable future. This will open up a range of previously unavailable, bespoke design possibilities, and allow the crafting of complex forms and the use of new materials to reduce wastage. We’re developing robotically, 3D-printed, earth-friendly concrete columns and glasslike polycarbonate structures that are similar to traditional glass-blown artistry.

“COVID-19 also will reshape how we live, work and learn at home. Smaller residences will see a more creative reconfiguring of living spaces into daytime offices. Larger family homes might emulate good workplace design, acknowledging the benefit of the collaborative workspace. Rather than everyone being locked in separate rooms, there might a few private rooms to the side for video conferencing. And it’s goodbye to the letterbox, replaced with new parcel drop boxes.”

Left: Ninotschka Titchkosky, co-CEO of BVN; Opposite page: Felicity Stewart, director, Stewart Architecture

The brightly emerging

Melissa Bright, founding director, Studio Bright, Melbourne

Bright has received numerous awards and is currently shortlisted for the 2020 AIA (Vic) Awards and the Houses, Australian Interior Design and Dulux Colour Awards.

“The key for the future will be to design housing of increasing densities that is accessible, affordable and enriches daily life,” she says. “It’s exciting how the typical backyard can be reimagined in less space; internal courtyards, rooftop gardens, integrated planting, vertical landscapes can all make a positive contribution to a reduced garden footprint.

“Balancing privacy with community connection is also important; how a house can be a private, protected retreat while also linked to its urban context.

“Existing planning regulations are about keeping people apart (building setbacks, overlooking). A better focus is enhanced use of land and infrastructure to support connected communities, with walkable and cycle-able suburbs and a sustainable, carbon-neutral future.

“Wherever possible we retain and refurbish good-quality houses, valuing the layers of history and craft and enjoying the challenge of adding new, sympathetic, contemporary buildings within a rich and diverse context.”

The mid-career quiet achiever

Dimitty Andersen, director at Grieve Gillett Andersen, Adelaide

Anderson’s honours include the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) 2017 (SA) Award for Residential Architecture (new houses) and the AIA 2017 (SA) Award for Sustainable Architecture.

“One of my lecturers at uni pronounced that only upper and lower socioeconomic groups use architects,” Andersen says. “Her shock tactic worked; this statement has stayed with me for more than 20 years. A positive future for domestic architecture is to be able to share our expertise across a broader cross-section of the community.”

While passionate about residential architecture being more considerate of sustainability at an urban level, she is adept at incorporating environmental features into individual homes. She worked on an eco-aware new-build for a former South Australian environment minister where a comfortable yearround internal temperature of 20C was achieved.

“Future houses will also have a brain,” says Andersen. “Advances in bluetooth technology will see a reduction of wiring, with centralised digital controls. No more shopping lists stuck to the fridge. And after the recent stockpiling of toilet paper, maybe bidets will be in demand.”

The late-career superstar

Professor Kerry Clare, co-director for 40 years of Clare Design, Gold Coast & Sydney

With husband and co-director Lindsay, Clare is also a professor of architecture at Bond University and has received more than 50 AIA awards for housing, public, educational, commercial, environmental and recycling projects, including the 2010 Gold Medal and two AIA Robin Boyd residential awards. Highprofile commissions include the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art and UNSW Village Housing. She predicts a trend for multigenerational living, “housing where there’s enough room for grandparents to easily help with grandkids”. In a prolific career, a favourite project is a modest, two-storey, corrugated iron granny flat in Burleigh Heads sited on a 400m² suburban lot originally intended for one dwelling.

“This small backyard pavilion explores the big benefits of intergenerational living,” she says, adding that it can multi-task as an office and sleep-out. A large roofed deck and courtyard separates the building from the front residence, and pivot doors and windows modulate air flow. Sliding screens allow its deck to be connected or separated so the extended family can come together or retire as required. It is important to keep a secondary building footprint compact, making space for trees and gardens.”