NH Architecture principal, Roger Nelson, speaks to Kate Gibbs about urban planning, retail challenges and the future of architecture in Australia.
What are you working on?
We’re covering a large number of significant projects in Victoria in particular. That includes the Melbourne Convention Centre, a joint venture with Woods Bagot. The building is pretty much finished and includes the Hilton Hotel. It’s substantial. We also do a lot of work for Westfield.
What challenges do you face in your work?
The suburban situation is something that we have always sought to bring a design agenda to. The suburban model and our suburban condition are very complicated to deal with. It’s one of the most urbanised countries in the world and there is a constant discussion about infrastructure and new roads systems, public transport, high density — these things are on the top of the agenda and will continue to be so, even in spite of economic conditions distracting everyone.
How does retail work differ from other types?
We’ve seen a situation with retail development - it’s been relatively bereft of architectural merit and a general sophisticated design. In the old days they would build a police station, a court and a train station, but these things are delivered differently nowadays. The retail environment is actually the genesis of most town centres now. All the rhetoric and ads of suburban sales for housing and residential is about how marvelous it is to live in this place, not the housing itself. A lot of it is shifting because of the dynamics of how the retail organism manifests itself.
Does sustainability come into your work?
The sense that a retail environment should be planned with a higher value given to urban planning is upon us. It will be demanded of us and we certainly have to pay more attention to sustainability issues. You can put your finger of sustainability; it’s hard to do that with a good urban environment. The inevitable calming down of our industry will mean there will be time to consider these things more fully rather than just push work out. But sustainability will be more than just saving water and energy, but about sustaining ourselves socially and as communities - building environments that you don’t need to rebuild five years later.
How are things changing for urban architects?
The problem with planning in our country is that we’ve been an economy in the past 10 years, but now we might move back to being a community. The political term of three years or so gives rise to expedient development because it’s all about making sure we do good things while we’re in power. So the long term planning of major pieces of infrastructure are really difficult. Politics is now one of the drivers of urban development. Paul Keating has spoken endlessly about this. If we were in Germany it would be taken for granted that a new building would be sustainable. But here we’re still debating when to put a water tank in a house.
What do you love about your job?
We’re interested in the idea of delivering our ideas, wrestling with the Australian environment, which has its own peculiarities, and tackling the ideas of urban development — which a lot of architects try to avoid. Most of the buildings I have been involved in have been very democratic. People make a choice to go there. If you design an office, well people have to go there. In our case, a lot of our projects are publicly minded and are enjoyed by the public. The public decides whether to go there or not. It’s like being a performer and you put yourself out there. People either have the thumbs up or the thumbs down. And you have to learn to cope with that. It makes you more in tune with community values. You can’t become the arrogant architect and decide the best way for people to live their lives.
