ADELAIDE-BASED architects are facing a severe shortage of top-end design commissions, a leading South Australian architect has claimed.
A small group of architects are blaming both government and business for short-changing the city when it comes to leading architecture.
“We’re not getting capacity that the other states are offering to do high-end design … The opportunities that are afforded the local design community aren’t being headed towards top design,” Professor Ian McDougal, from the University of Adelaide’s School of Architecture, told Architecture & Design.
His comments come after a disappointing result for the state in the Australian Institute of Architects’ National Architecture Awards, at which only one South Australian building scooped an award, out of 31 winners. Adding insult to injury for the state’s architects, that building was designed by a Melbourne-based architect.
At a forum following the awards, McDougal and architect peers Nick Tridenti, Geoffrey London, Malcolm Snow, the Lord Mayor of Adelaide Michael Harbison, and local property developers raised the question: “how do you make a city hungry for design?”.
“There is evidence that somehow we’re not getting recognition for what we do, or alternatively we’re not getting capacity that other states are offering,” McDougal said. “I think [responsibility] should fall on the clients.”
The group highlighted the need to make a newly commissioned hospital in Adelaide a top-end design. Since 2000, only five national architecture awards out of 154 have been presented to South Australian buildings. Three of those were led by eastern state architects and designers.
“While there is not a dearth of work in Adelaide, for some reason there is no recognition of the quality of the work,” McDougal said. When pressed as to whether Adelaide-based architects were too innovative to be appreciated, he said “possibly”. But more than that, “development companies and the government need to take on fresh ideas and give young designers a bit of a go”.
