Community as an Architectural Determinant

This week we held a Leadership forum within our practice, to explore the future of our design work.

Held in our workshop space, the “Leichhardt Lounge”, 20 of our design thinkers assembled to grapple with the changing nature of Architecture in the Age of Community.

The three generations of our forebears in this practice championed modernism, design for climate in subtropics, and design for place and meaning. Our next generation are exploring how the rise of communities can positively influence our design and processes.

Using an interactive workshop format, our enthusiastic participants explored the question of “What is Community?” and “ How will the importance of community fundamentally impact our design and process?”

Our teams identified the recognition of “Communities” as being the intersection of place, need, and aspiration. This led us to explore widening of our already thorough consultation work, along with design of our works as user-centric, changing and evolving architecture unique to its community – architecture as an “organism, not Architecture as “hero” or “machine”.

We will continue to involve our creative young team in designing our future as we set our sights on 100 years of practice.