“It is a true honour and pleasure to come here as Prime Minister and congratulate you on your 90th anniversary. Through nine decades, the ABC has brought us closer together as a nation. You’ve added to our identity. You’ve added to our voice. You’ve brought us laughter and tears. You’ve exposed hard truths and celebrated triumphs. You’ve brought sunshine into dark corners. You’ve sought out the bright moments in order to share the light. As one of the mainstays of Australian life, the ABC has woven so many great strands into the fabric of our nation. And no one should ever diminish the sheer scale of your achievement in cementing a pair of talking bananas in our national consciousness.” --- PM Anthony Albanese, celebrating 90 years of the ABC at Ultimo, 5 August 2022
Albo’s speech to celebrate the ABC's 90th birthday last Friday reminded us of the breadth and depth of past glories, and hopefully a better future, for the ABC. But one thing stood out for me, as it has for decades: there is so little design, particularly architecture, on the ABC, and it is rarely taken seriously, especially now.
On Radio
It is hard to convey the 3D visual experience and haptic sense of design on TV, but radio is far worse. So, it is curious that there are more long-term design programs on ABC radio than TV.
For a long time, Radio National, or RN, has had a discussion of architecture on Saturday mornings. For almost twenty years it was By Design with Geraldine Doogue and Alan Saunders, an internationalist and a philosopher asking hard questions, as I knew from my occasional appearances. Later episodes were produced by the inestimable Janne Ryan (now a philanthropist in the field) who managed at one stage to corral Elizabeth Farrelly and me into a series of discussions of various building typologies.
Now the slot is now presented as Blueprint for Living by Jonathan Green, but he must juggle gardens, food, travel, fashion, product design, architecture and cities (spaces and places as he says) into a too brief show (recently cut from one and half to one hour). The weekly five-minute presentation by Colin Bisset on an ‘Iconic Design’ is a standout delight.
Local radio sometimes addresses issues of housing design, but this is usually framed in the context of ‘developers’. An exception was a regular talkback hour discussing home maintenance on Saturday Mornings with Simon Marnie on ABC 702 (NSW). Originally called the ‘Woodies’, and more recently the ‘Homies’, it lasted for 20 years until it was killed off just before Covid (the show that is, not the presenters, who included your columnist).
Outside these dedicated programs architecture is rarely, if ever, featured on RN. Late Night Live with Philip Adams recently celebrated its 10,000th interview. I’m a most dedicated listener and I can only remember one episode featuring an architect, James Grose discussing corrugated iron, and that was near its start in 1991. I hope the ‘Gladdies and Poddies’, as Adams calls them, can prove me wrong.
On Television
Design has no regular or long-term programs on TV to match radio, but in short series or ‘specials’, covering industrial design, gardens and home renovations, but not architecture.
Gardening Australia, originally presented by the wonderful Peter Cundall, now with the wildly energetic Costa Georgiardis, comes closest to covering design in its two annual series. Interviews with landscape architects, particularly on their process and inspirations, comes the closest to looking at our ‘Australian design character’. Just not enough.
The Inventors (1970-1982), then New Inventors (2004-2011) offered insights into industrial design ideas, not only through the three contestants each week, but through the judge’s discussions. The former was once the ABC’s most popular program. As a judge for a year on the latter I was disappointed to discover how stage managed it was (our questions were vetted by the producers) and the degree to which the difference between design and engineering was ignored.
Unlike those two home-grown programs, Grand Designs is a formula rehash. It only deals with ‘glamour homes’ and follows a predictable arc: the windows will arrive late, there will be a blowout in costs, and the architect or designer will rarely be seen or heard. Whilst the show is often better than its UK parent, it is not as well presented as its NZ cousin; but all of them fail to address the design issues in our cities and suburbs. ToT served up a more detailed critique here.
Curiously two of the best series on design were by Roy and HG, or rather individually by their alter egos. John Doyle presented Building Australia, a series that explored “the hidden history of our houses. Why have we built the way we have? How has the Australian landscape shaped the Aussie home? And how has the Australian house shaped the lives and culture of Australians?” Sadly, it’s not currently available on ABC iview.
Greg Pickhaver’s intense intelligence and deep curiosity of urban issues informed 6 episodes of Secrets of our Cities, that looked at Fremantle, Fitzroy, Bondi, the Gold Coast, Footscray and Kalgoorlie. Actually, they’re not on the ABC but SBS (close enough), and you can watch them here.
When you look for John Doyle’s Building Australia on ABC iview it suggests a series called Designing a Legacy, by serial modernista Tim Ross. Once one half of Merrick and Rosso, he has developed a passion for modernism in design, particular architecture and furniture.
Ross is well researched and an affable presenter, but together with Roy and HG we might ask why the ABC insists on going down the same road as commercial TV in having ‘celebrities’ as presenters, even if they’re very good. Food programs have chefs, not eaters, so it’s time to have the design chefs as the presenters.
Australia’s best investigative reporting is on the ABC: think Chris Masters on Four Corners, worldwide reporters on AM, PM, 7.30, This Day Tonight, Foreign Correspondent and Lateline. Despite the excellence you will never hear a word on design; housing is always treated as property, and our cities are settings for stories, not the stories themselves.
Architecture does pop up unflatteringly in some places. Most architects know Utopia, if only by watching its depiction of government malfeasance in infrastructure projects, through knitted fingers. Check the credits carefully to see which architectural and design firms supplied the ‘collateral’.
Speaking of unflattering, the ABC may be gun shy about any more series about architecture given the risible reaction to its 2000 series about architects and architecture, In the Mind of the Architect. Voiced by David Wenham, it was so lugubrious, ego driven and self-serving as to be laughable. It painted a wholly unflattering picture and to my mind did great damage to the public standing of Australian architects. It too is no longer available on ABC iview.
Finally, after that survey we may say that the best presentation on design on TV happens on Playschool. There is so much creativity for children in Bananas in Pyjamas, the Wiggles and Bluey (and diversity and indigenous issues in Little J & Big Cuz, by SBS and NITV). But in Playschool the children are encouraged to draw, to imagine and make their own local environment. Would that we had Playschool for adults!
My part in this media design failure
Australian architecture and design are poorly served in all media, not just the ABC; dominated as it is by shows on home renovations and ghastly mansions. As readers of my various columns will know, I have a strong commitment to promoting Australian design and architecture, the uniqueness of our cities and particularly their suburbs and housing.
As you can see from the above, I have had the occasional ‘brush with fame’, to push that barrow. Whilst I have voice for radio, I also have a head for one, but that hasn't stopped me trying for many years to get a detailed presentation of Australian architecture on TV, preferably the ABC.
I have twice pitched ideas for a show on Australian architecture to the ABC. Early on I was advised by Andrea Stretton. In 2008, with two experts, Nick Wolff and Todd Kluczniack, I wrote a detailed treatment (proposal) for thirteen one-hour episodes on Australian architecture. Called Building Australia, it predated the series of that name presented by John Doyle and takes a very different tack.
Most series on architecture are based alternatively on either specific locations (The Elegant Shed, NZ), or on historical eras (Architecture at the Crossroads, Granada UK) or on issues (Pride of Place, US). None of this engages the public. In our version of Building Australia each episode takes a common human activity as the basis for examining the kinds of buildings that serve that use.
Topics include education, sport, shopping, work, housing, civic life and so on, so that every episode had buildings that the viewing public could identify with and had used, been taught in, worked in or lived in, and so they could be engaged to learn a little of the design ideas and principles behind them.
I think the ABC has a duty to deal with Australian design and architecture, given it is more than 20% of our GDP and so much of it is unique to us. I grant you it is hard, but I think there is a way to do it. It may not have a stale pale male as presenter, but I think it is essential to have a public discussion of the issues, not say crisis, in our cities and suburbs.
Tone Wheeler is an architect.
The views expressed here are solely his.
He can be contacted at [email protected]
