IN PROFILE: Graeme Gunn

Graeme Gunn recently won the Australian Institute of Architecture's 2011 Gold Medal for Architecture.

The Melbourne-based architect has a 50-year career and is known for working to improve housing and urban environments for all Australians.

He has previously worked at the Docklands Authority, VicUrban and RMIT University.

A&D spoke to Gunn about his addiction to architecture, affordable housing and what he learnt as Dean of Architecture at RMIT.

You have been credited with changing the landscape of suburban housing in Australia. What is your opinion of Australia’s current housing design?

Most housing is provided by volume builders, and this on the whole is an unsatisfactory response to the creation of better living environments for people. The volume building market exists to produce more at less cost and little consideration is given to rational, inclusive design processes.

As distinct from the general lack of involvement in housing for the major group of individual houses, architects continue to produce some innovative and high quality designed houses for a small group of clients receptive to the procreation of ‘new architecture’.

You’ve said “Apart from family, architecture has been the cornerstone of my existence for more than 50 years.” Why is architecture so important for you?

Architecture is important to me because it is an addiction, and addictions are hard to break. Architecture is also never a closed book — never determinate. As a consequence one seeks to know more — and we all know that the older we become the more conscious we are of how little we know. And so, one remains dedicated to the cause of architecture as an essential ingredient to the way in which we live, work and play.

Do you think Australia has adequate affordable housing? If not, what are some of the solutions?

‘Affordable housing’ is a broad term to describe a very complex problem, but for a number of reasons, housing is becoming less available for the middle level income majority in preferred and relevant locations. A rapidly increasing population, the need to live in close proximity to work, schools and cultural centres and the consequent high cost of land relevant to income all construe to make suitable housing unattainable.

One key to produce more affordable house is to restrain the cost of land. Building costs are another potential area of reduction, but more difficult to achieve.

[Another solution is] private individuals or groups purchasing land and undertaking their own development, thus pegging the land cost and eliminating the developer’s profit. For example, a group of like-minded people of diverse family structure could instigate a corporate body to purchase land, engage an architect, commission a design based on a mutually agreed brief, obtain all relevant permits and select a builder to construct the project.

You were Dean of Architecture from 1972-1982 at RMIT. What did you learn on the academic side of architecture which you couldn’t have learnt as a practicing architect?

The practice of architecture is ostensibly product oriented, requiring a person or a group to design and monitor the construction of a tangible object — a building, buildings or a place. During this process the wellbeing of all and their education should be of high importance.

Institutionalised architectural education should be primarily people orientated, in which case energies are directed toward the development of students and their ideas. In this sense the outcomes are far less tangible but equally as fulfilling as in the practice of architecture.

How different has your experience working with the Docklands Authority and VicUrban compared to running your own practice?

Our private practice tends to be involved in insular projects of minimal scope and complexity. My work with VicUrban has been about matters of a larger scale, both precinctually and in built form. The scope of my involvement at Docklands and the aspect that engages me most is that of the public realm and the integration of frontages, activities and life at street level. It is a difficult task to create a new, vital, complex and stimulating addition to the Melbourne CBD, but the challenge is always enticing and sometimes the results rewarding.

Which project of yours are you most proud of and why?

In one sense I am not proud of anything I have done or produced whereas there are some works and processes that could be deemed more important than others. If, on the other hand, I have been involved in projects that have embellished people’s living, working or recreating patterns, then of that I would be most proud. There is no best building but there are a number of buildings which seem to continue to generate enthusiasm from those using them.

What is one thing about architecture which never ceases to amaze you?

Architecture takes many forms and is generated by diverse minds in search of more relevant and stimulating solutions to the evolvement of the built environment. But given so much of our built environment is reiterative and capricious in its plagiarism it is always a surprise and delight to see an architectural resolution that in an innovative and thought provoking way rewrites the way in which we see and feel. Such works are inspiring in their capability to awaken.