Tom Grant

4 weeks ago | architectureau.com | Tom Grant |Laura Harding

Around the world, architects are seeking to tackle the housing crisis through pre-ordained, replicable models for innovative low- and mid-rise housing, which are able to be streamlined through planning pathways. The speed and economy of this approach are designed to appeal to a broad range of built environment professionals, but do these benefits stack up?

1 month ago | architectureau.com | Tom Grant |Elizabeth Farrelly

The TV shows a young couple standing outside a crisp inner-city terrace (“Whether you’re buying your first home…”), before transitioning to a blousy suburban McMansion (“…or housing a growing family…”). It’s an ad for some insurance company, but the unquestioned subtext is: it’s all about growth. If some is good, more is better. Is it, though? Just how out of touch can a cultural propaganda meme be?

1 month ago | architectureau.com | Tom Grant |Elizabeth Farrelly

Just when you thought modernism’s Great Man theory of architecture might be safely entombed with the rest of that wildly destructive century, out pops a film like The Brutalist. Not since the 1949 film of The Fountainhead has an architecture flick been more seductive – nor more self-aggrandising, sententious and just plain wrong. Both films promote the misunderstood architect-hero.

Jan 20, 2025 | architectureau.com | Tom Grant |Elizabeth Farrelly

My favourite street sign reads “Beware. Pedestrians.” I love the implied image of pedestrians as fierce and ravening hordes that might attack some hapless car and devour it, bloodily, no questions asked. Yes! I think. Guerilla pedestrians! Those we need more of. Of course, the sign actually intends the opposite of this, a paternalistic protectionism that casts pedestrians as a victim class, deserving tolerance but not respect.

Jan 14, 2025 | architectureau.com | Tom Grant |Jennifer McMaster

Architects so often complain to each other about the demise of the architect in the public eye, about a broad lack of appreciation for good quality design, and about the dystopian future for the profession. If we’re so concerned for the wellbeing of our industry, why, then, do we often speak only to other architects? And how do we broadcast the value of architecture to a wider audience? We are practicing in an important, yet turbulent, time.