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2 weeks ago | 
architectureau.com | Tom Grant |Elizabeth Farrelly
Stopping sprawl? It’s a no-brainer. We’ve known this for half a century or more, yet no one will say it. Even professionals are wary of the topic while, for a politician, being photo-opped with an “end to sprawl” placard would be seriously brave, and not in a good way. You can imagine the pile-on. “End of the Australian dream,” headlines would shout. Then again, with the great Australian dream fast becoming a nightmare – unaffordable, unsustainable, inequitable – maybe the time has come?
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1 month ago | 
architectureau.com | Tom Grant |Elizabeth Farrelly
What, exactly, are the rights of the dead? In particular, what rights do they have to occupy space on a shrinking planet? What claim should they have on our place-making? We think of death as an absence – at least from this world. Architecture, on the other hand, is about the living, the present.
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2 months 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?
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2 months 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?
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Feb 25, 2025 | 
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.
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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.
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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.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
architectureau.com | Tom Grant |Elizabeth Farrelly
Anyone who’s been apartment-hunting lately knows that the despised ’70s redbrick walk-ups, though considered mean at the time, generally offer more protective benevolence – more sense of home – than anything built this century. Not only are they more solidly built and reliably waterproof, but their more generous space standards also typically come with such old-school luxuries as separate kitchens, laundries, toilets and linen cupboards. And true, some of this bespeaks regulatory or policy change.
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Nov 6, 2024 | 
architectureau.com | Tom Grant |Senlina Mayer
Rising living costs are outrunning architects’ salaries, leaving many feeling discouraged. At current, there are few viable alternatives other than to leave the profession altogether. In order to maintain interest and commitment to the profession, systemic change is needed across all levels of the industry, starting at university.
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Oct 28, 2024 | 
architectureau.com | Tom Grant |Donald Bates
Rising living costs are outrunning architects’ salaries, leaving many feeling discouraged. At current, there are few viable alternatives other than to leave the profession altogether. In order to maintain interest and commitment to the profession, systemic change is needed across all levels of the industry, starting at university.
