ThomsonAdsett is celebrating 50 years as a leading Australian architecture and interior design practice. Recently appointed CEO Cameron Frazer is bringing a fresh eye to the business, and in this profile, shares his vision for the future.
You became CEO at ThomsonAdsett about 18 months ago - what drew you to the role?
I started my working life as an architect and then went into the public sector where I spent 13 years in project management and advisory roles. Through this, I became very interested in people and leadership. I also realised I missed working in a creative environment, so left the public service to take up leadership roles with the Australian Institute of Architects, and then with architecture firm Hayball as its business manager.
When the opportunity arose to lead ThomsonAdsett as CEO, I jumped at the chance. Helping people do their best to make business and creativity intersect is intriguing, challenging and enjoyable. I'm excited to be leading a practice with such a significant legacy and so much potential.
How has ThomsonAdsett evolved over the last 50 years?
Exploring that history has been a big part of my coming on board. It's very evident that a constant across the 50 years is a strong care ethos – projects that offer care to people in different ways, and a culture of caring for clients, partners and staff.
The practice was founded in Brisbane by Ian Thomson and Rob Adsett, who had a strong Christian background. They started out doing work for church groups and quickly moved into aligned spaces like health and aged care to become the leading architects in that space. Later came education, community and civic projects.
Whilst we've seen significant changes across all those sectors over recent years, not least because of the pandemic, the culture and ethos of care is the constant that underpins ThomsonAdsett. It's why clients come to us and why people work for us, and it resonates strongly with me. I have always been interested in work that contributes to the community and society.
Where is ThomsonAdsett now?
Education, health, seniors living and aged care, community, and social and affordable housing are all strong sectors for the practice.
Our clients benefit from ideas, innovations and expertise developed over half a century of making architecture. More importantly, we bring multi-sector capability to the increasing crossover between sectors. For example, health and aged care are very strongly aligned, and there is a growing adjacency between aged care and education.
We also have a strong retail team, and that's valuable because retail principles are increasingly applicable to, for example, health and aged care projects. Retail and commercial spaces play a key role in building communities, enabling people to live, shop and socialise in the one precinct.
Our interior design team is expanding and doing great work. All our projects draw on our interiors skills and the team is growing its own profile including servicing the strong demand to refit older aged care facilities, a strategy that we encourage.
What's your vision for ThomsonAdsett's future?
We're leveraging our history to go forward with renewed energy. Having (hopefully) come through the worst of Covid, the vision is to cement our reputation in our core sectors and grow our strong Australian base, then focus on expanding our international opportunities.
Recent appointments are bringing fresh thinking to our team. We have a new health principal in Melbourne and a new business development leader based in Brisbane, where we'll be moving into an exciting new studio in June.
ThomsonAdsett is looking ahead to the next fifty years with purpose, as one team united across four studios, with the shared intent of creating places that enrich people's lives and build on our ethos of care.
