Hearing Architecture

In 1980 the median house price in Melbourne was $40,800. Fast forward to 2016 and the median price of a house was $713,000. With property prices rising across the country, the concept of the Australian Dreamhouse on its own block with a front and back yard is becoming more like a fantasy. This was in part because median income didn't have the same rate of growth as property prices, so the gap between house income and house expense became wider every year. This increased gap means that many Australian's are finding it harder to own a home. To address this there are more apartments being built in our major cities than ever before, with most apartments having smaller floor areas than stand-alone houses. As Australians look for homes they can afford, architects are designing new forms of housing that can meet the needs of a growing population with complex financial burdens.

In this episode of Hearing Architecture, we've asked architects from around Australia how architects can play an active role in addressing housing affordability.

This episode of Hearing Architecture featured the following guests: Rob McGauran, Shaneen Fantin, Belinda Allwood, Jo Rees, Rod Simpson, Kylee Schoonens, Professor Philip Thalis, Joe Agius, Lee Hillam, Peter Stutchbury, Timothy Moore, Jane Caught, Andrew Maynard, Yvette Breytenbach, and Jefa Greenaway.

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 Australian Institute of Architecture 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.

This content is brought to you by the Australian Institute of Architects Emerging Architects and Graduates Network, in collaboration with Open Creative Studio. This content does not take into account specific circumstances and should not be relied on in that way. This content does not constitute legal, financial, insurance, or other types of advice. You should seek independent verification or advice before relying on this content in circumstances where loss or damage may result. The Institute endeavours to publish content that is accurate at the time it is published, but does not accept responsibility for content that may or will become inaccurate over time.

Most Australians live in cities. The 2016 census showed that 71% of Australian's live in major cities, and only 10% of Australians live in towns with less than 10,000 people. With this gap on the rise, it's important that the small communities around the country are not forgotten while large cities continue to grow. In order for small towns to function they need access to important infrastructure like hospitals, schools, and markets, but they also need buildings that help foster a community's social development. These gathering places have helped small towns around Australia develop some of the best examples of social resilience in the whole country, and architects who are based in these regional areas designed the majority of those buildings. In this episode of Hearing Architecture, we've asked architects from around Australia how architects have contributed to Australia's regional communities and how we can nurture regional areas as we plan for our country's future.

This episode of Hearing Architecture features the following guests: Shaneen Fantin, Belinda Allwood, Jessica Mountain, Emily Van Eyk, Yvette Breytenbach, Sue Dugdale, Kylee Schoonens, Jo Rees, Peter Stutchbury, Dik Jarman, Rob McGauran, Jefa Greenaway, Joe Agius, Professor Philip Thalis, 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.

This content is brought to you by the Australian Institute of Architects Emerging Architects and Graduates Network, in collaboration with Open Creative Studio. This content does not take into account specific circumstances and should not be relied on in that way. This content does not constitute legal, financial, insurance, or other types of advice. You should seek independent verification or advice before relying on this content in circumstances where loss or damage may result. The Institute endeavours to publish content that is accurate at the time it is published, but does not accept responsibility for content that may or will become inaccurate over time.

The beginning of an architecture project usually starts with some form of communication. It can be a conversation over a coffee, through an email from a client listing a dozen items that they "must have", or standing in an old building with a bunch of people describing what they can see in their head while they gesticulate in the direction of where new windows and walls could be. After this, everyone wants to agree on what was just discussed so there's as little difference between what was implied and what was inferred. To do this, an architect will usually start making drawings. This process is so successful that architects are now synonymous with drawings. Even the idea of building something without a drawing sounds like a paradox. This makes architects experts in explaining what the end result of a project will look and feel like, which helps minimise the chance of clients turning up to a building site and being surprised by what's been built. It may be second nature to architects, but even when a project has literally hundreds of drawings, it can still be difficult to understand what's going to end up on-site. In this episode of Hearing Architecture we've asked architects from around Australia why drawings are so important to the profession of architecture and how drawings can help communicate to clients and the wider community.

This episode of Hearing Architecture featured the following guests: Peter Stutchbury, Shaneen Fantin, Belinda Allwood, Joe Agius, Amelia Borg, Nicholas Braun, Timothy Moore, Jo Rees, Damian Madigan, Andrew Maynard, Lee Hillam, Steven Postmas, Jessica Mountain, Emily Van Eyk, Jane Wetherall, Professor Philip Thalis, Dik Jarman, Sue Dugdale, and Jefa Greenaway.

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.

This content is brought to you by the Australian Institute of Architects Emerging Architects and Graduates Network, in collaboration with Open Creative Studio. This content does not take into account specific circumstances and should not be relied on in that way. This content does not constitute legal, financial, insurance, or other types of advice. You should seek independent verification or advice before relying on this content in circumstances where loss or damage may result. The Institute endeavours to publish content that is accurate at the time it is published but does not accept responsibility for content that may or will become inaccurate over time.

Before any architecture project starts, there needs to be a client who has the vision to build something. Once they've committed to build, they'll need some specialists to work through all of the mandatory building requirements. In Australia, these include the local planning scheme, national construction code, and some specific design guidelines. So with all of those requirements being handled by the professionals, what is the client's role while all of this is going on? Some might think that they're just meant to sit back until they're called upon to pay a bill or attend a design meeting? But the client had the vision to have the project built in the first place. So does that mean they get their monies worth by getting involved in every single aspect of the architectural process as it moves from one consultant to the next? Or would this slow down the project team from achieving their aspirations? In this episode of Hearing Architecture, we've asked architects from around Australia what makes a good client and what a client can do to get the most out of an architect.

This episode of Hearing Architecture featured the following guests: Damian Madigan, Rod Simpson, Sue Dugdale, Peter Stutchberry, Justin Carrier, Kylee Schoonens, Steven Postmus, Shaneen Fantin, Belinda Allwood, Professor Philip Thalis, Rob McGauran, Jo Rees, Lee Hillam, Dik Jarman, Yvette Breytenbach, Jefa Greenaway, Hugh Mcguire, and Andrew Maynard.

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.

Australians love to renovate their homes. You can tell we do because there are so many DIY TV programs that show us how to give it a go. But when you watch programs like Grand Designs, The Block, or House Rules there's rarely an architect to be seen. With many programs like this out there a lot of people might assume that design, renovation, and building can all be easily undertaken by anyone at home as long as they have the time and money. Now, this is true to some extent, and a lot of people have a great deal of fun renovating their homes. But it might be hard to know how far you can go yourself before things start to get dangerous or it becomes more costly than if some professionals had taken it on. In this episode of Hearing Architecture we've asked architects from around Australia how architects are portrayed to the public and how clients can be involved in the design process.

This episode of Hearing Architecture featured the following guests: Damian Madigan, Rod Simpson, Sue Dugdale, Lee Hillam, Peter Stutchberry, Justin Carrier, Steven Postmus, Nicholas Braun, Jane Caught, Timothy Moore, Shaneen Fantin, Belinda Allwood, Joe Agius, Rob McGauran, Jo Rees, Dik Jarman, Hugh Mcguire, and Andrew Maynard.

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.

This content is brought to you by the Australian Institute of Architects Emerging Architects and Graduates Network, in collaboration with Open Creative Studio. This content does not take into account specific circumstances and should not be relied on in that way. This content does not constitute legal, financial, insurance, or other types of advice. You should seek independent verification or advice before relying on this content in circumstances where loss or damage may result. The Institute endeavours to publish content that is accurate at the time it is published, but does not accept responsibility for content that may or will become inaccurate over time.

In 2017 the Australian Institute of Architects awarded Melbourne based Architect Peter Elliot with the Gold Medal, which is the Institutes highest honour. As part of his gold medal tour, he told younger architects "to let the theory come later". Some Architects were taken aback by this because they'd spent so much time studying how to embed design theory into their work. In this episode of Hearing Architecture, we've asked architects from around Australia to tell us what they think about the use of theory in architecture.

This episode of Hearing Architecture featured the following guests: Damian Madigan, Rod Simpson, Sue Dugdale, Kylee Schoonens, Peter Stutchberry, Justin Carrier, Steven Postmus, Nicholas Braun, Jane Caught, Timothy Moore, Shaneen Fantin, Belinda Allwood, Professor Philip Thalis, Joe Agius,Yvette Breytenbach, Jefa Greenaway, Rob McGauran, Jo Rees, Dik Jarman, Andrew Maynard and Peter Elliott.

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, 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.

This content is brought to you by the Australian Institute of Architects Emerging Architects and Graduates Network, in collaboration with Open Creative Studio. This content does not take into account specific circumstances and should not be relied on in that way. This content does not constitute legal, financial, insurance, or other types of advice. You should seek independent verification or advice before relying on this content in circumstances where loss or damage may result. The Institute endeavours to publish content that is accurate at the time it is published, but does not accept responsibility for content that may or will become inaccurate over time.

When you start to look for it, architecture is everywhere and it's the stage on which we play out our lives. It doesn't matter whether we're working in it, living in it, or resting in it, it's part of our lives and memories. In this episode of Hearing Architecture we've asked architects from around Australia to tell us what they think architecture's role is in culture: is it informed by culture or does it inform culture?

This episode of Hearing Architecture features the following guests: Damian Madigan, Rod Simpson, Sue Dugdale, Kylee Schoonens, Peter Stutchberry, Justin Carrier, Steven Postmus, Nicholas Braun, Jane Caught, Timothy Moore, Shaneen Fantin, Belinda Allwood, Professor Philip Thalis, Joe Agius, Rob McGauran, Jefa Greenaway, Dik Jarman, and Andrew Maynard.

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, 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.

This content is brought to you by the Australian Institute of Architects Emerging Architects and Graduates Network, in collaboration with Open Creative Studio. This content does not take into account specific circumstances and should not be relied on in that way. This content does not constitute legal, financial, insurance, or other types of advice. You should seek independent verification or advice before relying on this content in circumstances where loss or damage may result. The Institute endeavours to publish content that is accurate at the time it is published, but does not accept responsibility for content that may or will become inaccurate over time.

Architecture is all around us, almost all of the time. But with so many buildings around us, why don't we know more about how they're designed and what goes into the design of these buildings?

Welcome to Hearing Architecture, a podcast about architects, what they do, and why it's important. In this podcast we'll be interviewing architects from around Australia who will tell us about the work they're doing to improve our cities and neighbourhoods.

Please subscribe and you'll be Hearing Architecture very soon.