Architect Ian Briggs, Design Director of Plus Architecture heralds from Tasmania, where the highest building he saw as a child was six storeys. Now designing some of Australia's many high-rise apartment buildings, many of which have changed Melbourne's skyline.
He talks to Stephen Crafti about changes in apartment living and what to expect in the future.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
STEPHEN CRAFTI: Hi, I’m Stephen Crafti, I’m presenting Talking Design in Melbourne at RMIT University and I’m here with architect Ian Briggs who is one of three directors of Plus Architecture. Welcome to the show Ian.
IAN BRIGGS: Thank you very much Stephen.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: Ian, it’s an interesting practice, Plus Architecture, I would say you’re probably dominating the market at the moment in high rise residential apartments and I’d say that would be pretty spot on, is it?
IAN BRIGGS: Yeah, yeah. You don’t really think about comparing yourself to anyone else or the amount of work that you’re doing, you just do the job and you do what you love and if that happens to show through in the amount of work you achieve from clients, that’s all well and good.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: Let’s backtrack. You studied in Tasmania, you probably grew up in probably an environment that’s almost diametrically opposed to the environment that you’re working in now, which is high-rise urban environments. So you grew up in a backwater in.
IAN BRIGGS: I grew up in the countryside of North West Tasmania. So, for me, growing up as a child the tallest building around – my skyscraper was a six storey building in Launceston.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: That’s pretty threatening.
IAN BRIGGS: It was a marvel. I was so excited when I went to the big city and looked up at the tall towers of six storeys and that was there.
STEPHEN: CRAFTI: That was there. So you studied at Tasmania University in architecture and then came to Melbourne.
IAN BRIGGS: That’s correct
STEPHEN CRAFTI:… and formed Plus Architecture, with Craig Yelland and….
IAN BRIGGS: … Rainer Strunz ….
STEPHEN CRAFTI: Right
IAN BRIGGS: So the three of us head up the company from that period of time and we’ve slowly grown and now we’ve just recently appointed another director, Jessica Liew, and we’ve recently also opened our Brisbane and Sydney offices.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: And it’s now a very big practice, you’re looking at fifty, sixty staff…
IAN BRIGGS: That’s correct
STEPHEN CRAFTI: … so it’s quite big.... How did you get into the apartment market because everyone is now on the bandwagon, but you’ve been doing it for many, many years. What was some of the earlier work that you were doing? I’m thinking, I mean society was one project, but that already was well down the track. What was some of the earliest work that you were doing?
IAN BRIGGS: Some of the very early work that we did was down at the formation of Docklands, in particular Newquay, with NAB corporation. And it was a really interesting exciting time because….
STEPHEN CRAFTI: What year are we talking about?
IAN BRIGGS: That was about 2000 when those designs were starting to be constructed and it was a time when nobody really knew what Docklands could have the potential to be. Nobody really knew in Melbourne what apartment living on a grand scale, that now Docklands tries to aim for, could be so we were really pushing the frontiers all of us down there were pushing the frontiers of what inner city living might be like.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: Ok, so then a major project that came through more recently was Society.
IAN BRIGGS: Yes, Society was a really exciting project in that the typology of living that our client challenged us with, completely changed. Prior to Society, apartments were designed as if they were miniature houses and I think Society, the brief for Society, was one of : “well how do people really want to live in the inner city. Do they need lots and lots of bedrooms and space? Or does a single person really need all that space, or can they actually live in a smaller space but share amenities with the rest of the residents?”
STEPHEN CRAFTI: Let’s back track and for people who don’t know Society, it’s a high-rise development just sitting behind Chapel street. Just to fill people in on what it looks like and it’s very communal, you’ve got a lot of facilities; rooftop cinema, correct?
IAN BRIGGS: That’s correct. We had what was called a “lobby culture” which was a fairly large lobby space on the ground floor that wasn’t just where the concierge would welcome you but it was also the coffee shop for the residents; it was the bar on Friday and Saturday nights; it was a place where people would actually gather as an extension of their own living space. And that was how all the communal spaces were conceived and designed as extensions of their own space and a couple of years ago Craig, my fellow director and myself actually walked around the building after it had been lived in for a few years, with the building manager, who is normally the grumpiest person because he has to clean up after everyone else, and he was very very proud of the fact that the building actually worked. People really did use the spaces, take care of the spaces and I think the idea that residents don’t cherish or love a building is misguided. People really do take care of the space around them, if it’s well designed.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: It’s interesting the Society apartments, because they were extremely small – they are extremely small – I mean we’re looking at 35 square metres.
IAN BRIGGS: That’s correct, they’re 35 square metres apartments with fold down beds, curtains around spaces to demarcate different zones. But it doesn’t work unless you have the adjunct spaces which are the communal spaces. So many developments since that building saw the small apartments and didn’t understand the necessity of the other communal spaces to make the overall building work. So unfortunately there’s been a spate of very small, very poor amenity buildings that say they mimic the lifestyle of Society without actually understanding the whole picture.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: That is an interesting point and I think what’s happening – and correct me and tell me if I’m wrong – is that a lot of developers, architects, are almost just ticking the boxes: “oh, we need a home theatre, we need a rooftop terrace”, they’re kind of just paying lip service to those facilities or amenities.
IAN BRIGGS: They’re kind of just going through the motions without really understanding and some of the really exciting things we’re doing at the moment is tyring to bring back a diversity of not just apartments but also apartment users and livers into our buildings. So, for example we’re now producing three bedroom apartments again which is really great because that gives the opportunity for families to move back into buildings. But then, they may not really hang out in the “Yoga Room” that often, or the bar downstairs. They may need different spaces, so we’ve decided to supply a communal library spaces for maybe the teenagers that might live in the building, veggie patches for the young kid or whoever to go down and share some time in the actual outdoor space of the veggie garden, um, producing the shed where people can actually get some tools and do whatever they want to, in the communal shed. So, those sort of functions we’re looking at supplementing apartment buildings so that they become places that are more like vertical villages rather than a slab of flats.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: There was an interesting building that would have, that was going ahead, I don’t know if I can talk about it, the one in the city, which was a very interesting concept. Am I allowed to talk about that one?
IAN BRIGGS: Probably not, but let’s have a go.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: Well it was just going to be one of the highest buildings in Melbourne….
IAN BRIGGS: Yes, we can talk about that. It was a project that unfortunately didn’t go ahead so that’s why we can, but…
STEPHEN CRAFTI: … It was an exciting concept…
IAN BRIGGS: …. It was going to be a seven star, green star building when completed, which would have been about nowish, and it was a mix of restaurants, different types of lobbies, hotel and office and that again was a vertical city virtually, with high streets halfway up the building and I think that sort of project combined with the environmental and sustainability aspects of the building, which included algae facades that would generate methane that would power generators into the ground to create electricity for the building, double skin facades, solar panels across the facades. So, some of those innovations which we are just starting to see happen now, our client and ourselves were speculating on in 2008, when we started that project.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: And then there was…
IAN BRIGGS: Then a small hiccup happened, yes.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: When you stop a project like that and you’ve invested so much energy and time, creative energy into a project like that, it must be incredibly devastating for the office. Do you pick yourself up and say well we’ll use some of those ideas for something else, or how do you deal with those situations?
IAN BRIGGS: Every project whether it goes ahead or not is part of your memory and repertoire to continue on. You learn lessons no matter whether a building gets built or not. You learn more lessons when it gets built, such as Society, but it’s never wasted. It’s just disappointing not to see visions realised.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: You were also working on a new project, can I talk about that one….
IAN BRIGGS: Definitely….
STEPHEN CRAFTI:… In Moonee Ponds. That’s a very interesting project, it was the result of a limited design competition and it’s whee the Moonee Ponds Market used to be….
IAN BRIGS: Used to be.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: So it was just dirt? A dirt car park?
IAN BRIGGS: At the moment….well, the Moonee Ponds market stopped a while ago and since then it’s simply been an open air car park and a bit of an eyesore for Moonee Ponds central, so we won the competition and we are designing the first stage of the master plan for that site now. And it’s a really exciting project, the building is not the glamorous skyscraper that you might find in the city in height, but it still has to act as the front gate and the marker for this new precinct and as such there’s a balance between finding “the iconic” building that provides a signature for the development, as well as being a good resident to an existing structure and existing network of streets and community that is there presently.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: It must be actually very difficult creating a, you know, community, rather than just another building.
IAN BRIGGS: That’s the most exciting thing of all, creating communities. Anybody can create a building, a warehouse is a building, a piece of architecture is something quite different. A piece of architecture should be something that people love and want to embrace and keep.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: And this project isn’t just for the residents, it’s also for the local community who’ll be using the library, who will be involved.
IAN BRIGGS: That’s part of the stage of the development, um, not the immediate first stage. But the building and its surrounds will form a vital linkage that is presently missing in the community. We’re providing civic space around the building for residents to use as well as for the community to pass through and to engage with. We’re looking at pop up markets that can then reinstate the old Moonee Valley Market that used to be there. So it’s great to, I guess, pull the threads back together of a site in that situation and see it come alive again.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: There’s even a bit of a homage to Dame Edna in the plan, or was that….
IAN BRIGGS: There was a speculated Dame Edna Everage memorial gallery, I can’t really call it memorial yet I don’t think. That would be kinda funny, but I think given the fact that they’ve already named one of the streets adjacent to the cite “everage street” we thought it would be appropriate to create a more significant structure in his/her honour.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: And that’s not going ahead?
IAN BRIGGS: Oh, that’s still in play.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: Ok, it would be an exciting concept.
IAN BRIGGS: It would be.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: Ian, how have apartments changed? Because you’ve been in it now, it’s getting close to twenty years.
IAN BRIGGS: Yes
STEPHEN CRAFTI: How do you see, you know, what are people wanting more of in an apartment and wanting less of?
IAN BRIGGS: They are wanting the freedom to choose how they want to live at prices that they can afford. They want the feeling that they are individuals but also part of a bigger community. They want to be able to look at their building and feel that it’s their own home: And I think that’s one of the most exciting things about apartment design, whether it’s small apartments or big apartments….
STEPHE CRAFTI: That not just being one of 100s…
IAN BRIGGS: Not one of many, yes. And that’s difficult given the constraints of the building and development industry that one finds oneself amongst. So that’s the challenge of architects: to provide all those great things and still get the business of building a building up and running.
STEPHEN CRAFI: Ian, you could have been satisfied developing Melbourne, or designing apartments in Melbourne. Why Sydney and Brisbane? What was the urge to expand into other states and how do you see design differing in those places?
IAN BRIGGS: In both cases the urge was more about a desire to learn from different locations. Coming from Tasmania and landing in Melbourne, I discovered Melbourne through architecture and through design. I discovered the different neighbourhoods. The different precincts, the different nature of, whether it’s Carlton or St Kilda or Fitzroy or Kensington or Footscray. And the same goes for Sydney and Brisbane, they are both amazing cities in their own right, and they’ve both got amazing stories to tell and I find that, through design, I can learn about those things. In Melbourne, a west facing apartment might be a little bit uncomfortable for a few weeks a year, but in Brisbane nobody would every dream of living in a west facing apartment. So, climatic conditions alone start to dramatically change your point of view and your reaction to sites and briefs and that’s really, really interesting.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: What are the other issues that you’re dealing with, you know, in areas like Sydney. What are their expectations of apartment living as opposed to somewhere in Melbourne?
IAN BRIGGS: The biggest different in both Sydney and Brisbane compared to Melbourne is that Melbournites will either live in the apartment or next to the apartment building in their own community; in their own little precinct. They’re very tribal. Brisbane and Sydney; you’re either in your apartment or on your deck or you’ve gone to the beach and so the idea of communal facilities in both those cities is much less important because of the fact that it’s more outdoors. So that changes the emphasis on the communal facility versus the amenity of the apartment itself. So the deck in both Sydney and Brisbane become vital living spaces as opposed to in Melbourne where often it can be a windy and fairly wet sort of space. So they are some of the big lifestyle changes that again start to inform the design of a building.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: Plans at this stage to work overseas, or you are doing work in China?
IAN BRIGGS: We are doing a little bit of work in China. We’ve just come back from a Victorian state sponsored trade mission there. And there’s boundless opportunities and also boundless considerations to what work we do there and how we do it. We’re always open to opportunities, whether it’s China or closer to Australia – South East Asia or even New Zealand, but at the moment we’d like to facilitate our offices in Brisbane and Sydney, as well as Melbourne, for the time being.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: So you’re the key design director for plus architecture, so literally you work with a team of people and then the other directors work on other areas of the practice.
IAN BRIGGS: That’s correct.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: So that’s quite an unusual situation as well, having just one design director, or is that quite common?
IAN BRIGGS: It’s less common. Often there is a more designed focused director in any office, but typically offices are more sort of mini offices within the office. So, a single director will see a project through from start to finish. Plus Architecture, Craig will see the project through from the purchase of the site through to understanding what the massing and the form of the building might be to achieve the brief that the client has set and then I would then take that project and start to finesse it, design it, in a way that achieves the architectural outcome that we need. So there we have the business case design, and we have the architecture designed, and then Rainer Strunz, the other director, would take those directions and actually make sure it could be built.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: What do you think are the main challenges facing apartment living going forward? You know, if I said to you “Ian, if you think in say twenty years time, how do you see Australians living?”
IAN BRIGGS: I would say, in my time spent in Melbourne, which started in 2001, the number of dwellings being built in Victoria has dramatically changed from being single houses to being apartments and that’s just going to keep going. There’s only so much space on the planet. The more buildings you make the less space there is. Ideally consolidation for everyone’s sake is better in theory. How that’s done in practice is critical. You can understand the environmental impact of every building we build is really crucial and understanding its social impact and cultural impact is critical. As far as the way that we live in the future, I think the ability for people to be able to form communities and subsets is really vital so we don’t lose our sense of who we are. You know, there’s dystopian visions presented by Blade Runner for example, um, where everyone lives in giant pyramids for example. That’s probably not where we want to be. It’s a balance between using the earth’s resources preciously and still creating spaces which we can call our own.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: The other thing which I think is a good point is that there has been a trend to upsize apartments. You know, we went down very, very small and now I believe we’re going a little bit more….
IAN BRIGGS: That’s correct. In fact I got a brief from a client about a year ago who asked me to design a building that people would want to live in. And I thought that was a strange brief coming from the fact that this client of ours has already got us to design a number of buildings previously. But I took his word for it, I said okay, let’s design a building that people want to live in. So we started to look at what that meant and for us it was a building that people would call home, and it was a building that didn’t try to be the latest icon on the street but rather a building that would fit within its environment strongly, proudly, but without shouting. And the investigations took us to New York and some of the apartment towers that surrounded Central Park and the simplicity that they express and the quiet confidence they express. So we took that lesson and applied it to the project, which inside has a wide range of apartments, whether that’s quite small apartments for single people or very very large apartments that might have four bedrooms and multiple living spaces. So that building we’re very proud to be able to say that we have a really good social mix of different people and decisions were made early on to have all of those people coming in through the same lobby, through the same lift. It was really a good mix of people, not segregating.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: Because there are apartments where there is a bit of a hierarchy going on and the ones who live in the one bedders use the tradesmen’s entrance and the people who have the luxury apartments, you know, have this wonderful wow pow sense of arrival.
IAN BRIGGS: Well, it’s a lesson that we learned from housing in the United Kingdom where often projects that are over a certain size are required to have a social housing component. And, in those buildings often the entrance to social housing is on the other street compared to where the housing for the private residents are. And so the segregation enforces a stereotype, which the residents in the social housing are more than happy to live up to. Once you have a mix of people, everybody starts to take care of their own space and take pride in their own environment.
STEPHEN CRAFTI: Ian, it’s been interesting seeing all the work that you’ve been doing. A huge amount, it’s quite staggering when you look at the number of apartments, I won’t ask you to name, to give me a number on how many apartments you’ve designed in Melbourne –thousands literally – but look thanks for coming on the show. It’s been a pleasure.
You’ve been with Stephen Crafti, Talking Design at RMIT University in Melbourne. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks Ian.
IAN BRIGGS: Thank you.
