Talking Architecture & Design

Peter Hogg is a practicing architect with more than 30 years experience in the field and is a foundational tutor and lecturer in the Bachelor of Built Environment program at Melbourne Polytechnic, where he has been Head of Program since January 2018. Peter is presently researching traditional indigenous building typologies in Victoria for his PhD at Deakin University. He talks about the challenges...

Troy Creighton is the managing director of Stormtech Grates & Drains who has some 31 years of working in the building materials industry. In 2004 Stormtech won a Design Mark at the Australian Design Awards for their drainage design and since 2006, Stormtech has been a member of the Standards Australia Committee and has been involved in the writing of the code covering linear drainage in bathro...

Steve Fox is an architect and the general manager and principal of BIM Consulting as well as a leading expert in BIM technology and on the impacts of technology on the construction process. After 15 years working as an architect for well-known firms like Architectus, he has spent the last 10 years in technological leadership positions as well as being a lecturer at Sydney University. He explains h...

We talk with executive director of the Suzanne Toumbourou, executive director of the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council and a judge for the 2020 Sustainability Awards about how the pandemic has changed the way we look at green buildings, why sustainability should be now on everyone's mind and is there a real possibility that Australia will start manufacturing more of its own bui...

Big River Group began operations in the early 1900s as a family-owned timber business.  Today, it has established its position as a major Australian building materials distributor, supplying an extensive range of high quality timber, builders’ hardware, building supplies and services for the residential, commercial, industrial, building and construction industries. With almost 20 years of working...

Builder and developer Kris Daff is the managing director of two progressive building firms – the first is Make Ventures, a Melbourne-based property development and investment group focusing on large scale urban renewal projects and the second is Assemble Communities, an end-to-end build to rent developer and community manager responsible for the introduction of a new and exciting housing model gai...

This episode we talk with founder and owner of design firm Archisoul Architects Jo Gillies about what is really important in these days of lockdowns, social isolation and social distancing and how we respond to these challenges will determine how we will get through them. Gillies also talks about wellness and its intimate relationship to our mental and physical wellbeing in a time of stress and is...

Principal and director of Sydney-based architecture studio Furtado Sullivan Sandra Furtado talks about what it's like working as an architect under a lockdown situation with an economy that's in hibernation and an industry desperately trying to keep going under the most unusual and trying of socio-economic conditions. Furtado gives us an insight into how things are at present and where t...

Dr Peter Sweatman graduated with first class honours in Industrial Design from the University of Canberra Peter started work with Caroma R&D on research to launch the first generation of Smart Flush toilets to the market and is currently completing a PhD in user centred bathroom design for older people at UNSW Built Environment.  He talks about creating a new class of bathroom that works as an...

Architect Nermine Zahran talks about how it is vital to continually learn and to educate others in the industry and in the general public about ways to minimise the impact of the built environment on the planet.  With a career that started in Egypt and that has now come to one sense of fulfilment in Australia, Nermine Zahran explains her journey from one side of the world to another and how she is...

We speak with Ruth Wilson about her diverse and accomplished 30-year career that has seen her manage large, complex projects and direct multidisciplinary teams towards buildings and places that exist at the forefront of innovative design. Wilson's role at Architectus spans being Studio Leader in Melbourne, a member of the Board of Architectus and an active leader of projects in higher educati...

ASPECT Studios director Kate Luckraft and associate Bianca Pineda share their ideas, views, experiences and thoughts on a range of iconic design projects ASPECT Studios has delivered like One Central Park, Barangaroo South and Quay Quarter in Sydney’s famous Circular Quay. Along the way, we find out about how working on these high-pressure and very much public projects as a woman and a landscape a...

We speak with architect Penny Fuller from one half of the leadership team of the firm Silvester Fuller which she founded with partner Jad Silvester.  Prior to launching Silvester Fuller, Penny’s career included work on Renzo Piano’s Aurora Place and a period at Foster + Partners in London, where she worked as an associate, leading design teams on the development of large-scale projects. For more i...

Architect and lecturer Tone Wheeler together with with A+D deputy editor Sarah Buckley dispel the myths over the range of complex yet logical reasons for our bushfire crisis and delve deep into what could and should be done to ensure that we never see a repeat of this Black Summer. With a mixture of many years of acquired knowledge working and designing in the built environment and an acute sense...

Celebrated building designer, awards judge, vehicle designer, sailor and head of sustainable design firm Envirotecture and also a rural fire fighter, Dick Clarke has spent nearly 40 years designing for and working in the Australian environment. He speaks openly and candidly about the reasons behind the devastation of the recent bushfires across the country, why they happened, how embracing climate...

In a coup for Talking Architecture & Design, we finally get to speak with the indefatigable Scotsman John McAslan and well-known local architect Troy Uleman from JMP about a wide range of subjects including the Central Station rebuild, the changing work culture in architectural firms and why architects must have a specific procedure when they work. Fresh from Glasgow, McAslan, the 2009 World A...

Architect and academic Tone Wheeler takes listeners on a historical journey through both time and space to explain how Australian designers taught themselves all about sustainable design, more often than not, the hard way. A fascinating journey into the history of sustainable design in Australia - a country that is challenged both by distance and climate.

Software platform Speckel has been designed to guide users through an often-bewildering maze of ideas and requirements.  Co-developer Darren O'Dea talks about simple ways to create better opportunities for building design and construction teams to work together to improve outcomes for the built environment - all via the Speckel platform. For more information, go to: https://www.awsaustralia.c...

With over 20 years of design experience working in Brisbane, London and Sydney, Amanda Stanaway has been building Woods Bagot ‘s workplace portfolio for 12 years. In this episode of Talking Architecture and Design, Stanaway gets to flex her design knowledge across major projects which has helped her build a strong understanding of the ways that industry and design intertwine. Stanaway brings an aw...

Director of PTW Architects Diane Jones is committed to evidence-based research and multi-disciplinary collaborations which inform her approach to advancing architecture as a practice and as a discipline intersection.  She speaks about her extensive experience in heritage, justice, civic, integrated communities and therapeutic environment projects that are guided by the principle that architectural...

Ros Moriarty is managing director and co-founder of both Balarinji and the Moriarty Foundation. Moriarty, who is best known for the Balarinji-Qantas collection of art aircraft featuring Aboriginal designs, talks about why Indigenous design matters and how it is becoming more important for architects and designers alike to understand and appreciate the 65,000-year old culture from where it evolved....

Koos de Keijzer, founding partner and principal of DKO Architecture has both a passion in typology research and an ongoing commitment to architectural integrity, contemporary residential development and the inherent beauty of applying simple design principles. He speaks with Talking Architecture & Design on what it takes to do great design in our ever-expanding urban environments.

During FRONT 2019, we sat down with International Towers' head of Marketing & Stakeholder Engagement, Jodie Taylor, to talk about, corporate design, her Indigenous heritage and how the Big End of Town is learning to embrace and promote Australia’s rich and deep Indigenous heritage.

David Kaunitz co-founded Kaunitz Yeung Architecture with his wife Ka Wai Yeung following his return to Sydney after living seven years in the UK included, five as a director of a large practice running its London studio where he worked on some of the largest projects in Europe, including the Barnsley Interchange and The London Olympic Village for clients such as HSBC, Marks & Spencer and Lend...

“The nature of work has radically changed,” says Simone Oliver, national sector leader – interior architecture at Architectus and Ambassador to FRONT.design 2019. “The rise of technology, automation, globalisation” – these are the big-picture forces driving change. On the ground, we see it play out through rapidly growing markets like the gig economy and co-working. Influenced by a clashing of typ...