One of the things that makes Australia great is our richness of diversity. There are people from so many cultural backgrounds, language groups, and belief systems, which influences the way they want to live and shape their buildings. Allowing for these differences in the architecture process can raise some interesting opportunities. When an architect works with a client from a different background they'll need to learn how to design for that clients needs and the architect might not have experienced that before. It's these collaborations that can help the way Australian buildings evolve over time. However, when buildings are designed to meet the needs of large number of people in Australia, the results sometimes only meet the minimum requirements for a narrow demographic of our diverse community. By working with an architect, it should be possible to get much closer to the individual needs of all the people who make up our rich multicultural society.

In this episode of Hearing Architecture we've asked architects from around Australia how empathy, understanding and diversity impacts their clients and the community.

This episode of Hearing Architecture featured the following guests: Jefa Greenaway, Shaneen Fantin, Belinda Allwood, Andrew Maynard, Sue Dugdale, Dik Jarman, Professor Philip Thalis, Jo Rees, Jessica Mountain, Emily Van Eyk, Kylee Schoonens, and Lee Hillam.

The interviews in this episode were produced around Australia by EmAGN committee members: Jamileh Jahangiri, Daniel Hall, Kirsty Volz, Kali Marnane, Chris Morley, Sam McQueeney, Reece Currey, Brad Wetherall, Jess Beaver, Bede Taylor, Rebecca Webster, and Daniel Moore.

The AIA production team was Daniela Crawley, Stacey Rodda, Monique Woodward, and Thom McKenzie.

Produced by the Australian Institute of Architects Emerging Architects and Graduates Network, in collaboration with Open Creative Studio.

Written and Directed by Daniel Moore.

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