What was it like starting off 25 years ago?

Sam Crawford: It just seemed like the natural thing to do. I had completed a house for my sister whilst in my last year of university and I loved the independence that provided me. At the same time, it was terrifying; presenting yourself to the community as an architect carries a great deal of responsibility and risk.

Why did you start up your own practice straight after uni –– why not join a big firm?

I did not feel that my skills made me readily employable. After completing one project, I was offered other architecture commissions. It just seemed inevitable that I would pursue my own practice. I never considered applying for a job with a boss other than a client.

What was happening in architecture in Sydney and internationally that made an impression on you when you started up?

Postmodernism – as in ‘PoMo’ as a movement – was thankfully in its last throes. Entering the profession in 1997, schooled in Australian modernism, I felt that our education had given us a strong understanding that good design could transform day to day life.

How has the architecture landscape changed in that time?

In general, people are better informed, better travelled, more exposed to quality design and architecture through traditional and social media. In addition, television shows such as Grand Designs (UK) have exposed a greater proportion of the population to architecture and its impact. Shows like The Block, whilst wildly unrealistic about delivery times, also raise the consciousness of the public to the power of design – sometimes even in the absence of it.

Which buildings are you are most proud of and why?

Some of the projects that I am most proud of have not been photographed or awarded. They are small projects for friends and family that have made a significant and positive impact on their day-to-day lives.
Other key projects are:

• The FOCHTA Youth Training Centre, Malawi – this was an extremely challenging project on many levels, including having to raise the money for its construction.

• Avalon Beach House – my first architecture project, the design quality of which I remain very proud, particularly given our total lack of experience.

• Marks Park Amenities – remodelling of an existing sports change facility. It achieves an elemental quality that I aspire to – wrapped in one material, with recycled structural posts and beams from the Waverley Council Depot.

• North Bondi Amenities – the result of a great collaboration within the practice and with Sonia van de Haar of Lymesmith. The project still looks great and stands up to the battering it receives every day from the public and the elements.

• BARC – Blacktown Animal Rehoming Centre. Our first large and complex public building, completed over a seven-year period, built during COVID lockdowns.

• Bara Bridge, Centennial Park. Our first public infrastructure project, and the first project completed in consultation with local First Nations representatives.

Which projects were most challenging and why?

BARC (Blacktown Animal Rehoming Centre) was our first large and complex public building, involving public-facing spaces, display spaces, office spaces, treatment rooms, animal housing and a high-security/-danger work environment. It’s a building type that any given client group will only commission once every two or three generations – in other words, a very specialist building type for which the stakeholders had no specialist knowledge or corporate memory.

Then the FOCHTA Youth Training Centre, Malawi, was an extremely challenging project on many levels, including lack of funds, having to raise the money for construction, communicating with user groups in a small village on another continent, understanding local customs, understanding local building practices, and supervising construction from Sydney with help of SCA-appointed site architects.

You’ve won lots of awards. How important has that been in spurring you onto new designs and getting new commissions?

Winning awards has been important for our architectural practice. Architecture wards reward clients as much as architects. Good clients make great architecture. Aside from helping us get noticed and attracting new clients, awards, particularly those won in the early years of practice, have given us confidence that we are on the right track towards producing quality architecture. Peer recognition provides a sense of accomplishment – often in the absence of financial rewards.. Awards encourage staff within the practice to strive for quality, and provide recognition for their efforts. Awards keep us in the mind of the public that commissions architects.

How do you keep design fresh and relevant?

Treat each commission exactly as it is: a unique opportunity with unique challenges. Ask lots of questions – of your client and their brief, and of yourself. What are your motivations? Push others in the team – specialist consultants, contractors, etc. – to achieve excellence. Find a ‘way in,’ a concept, that is easily communicable to your client, that drives thinking on the project when things get complicated. Travel, reading, seminars, making, walking in the bush, gardening.

Keeping a business afloat during economic up and downs – how have you managed the inevitable tensions in the business and creative sides of the practice?

Good design wins new work. Keep doing good work, even when the fees have dried up. Good new work follows good completed work. Get stuff built. Good buildings, good spaces, are your best marketing.

Do you have a recognisable design language?

We neither aim to have nor reject a recognisable design language. We simply approach each project afresh from first principles. Part of the strength of our practice is that we work in highly collaborative teams. Everyone is given a go at the design and the best idea is put forward to the client, whether it comes from the student, the graduate or the director. The whole group takes ownership of the design through this process. Leadership is called upon when responsibility and delivery is required. Ideas are the currency of leadership.

Why do you work with artists and how significant is that?

Put simply – it enriches our work. A number of our best projects have resulted from collaborations with artist Sonia van de Haar of Lymesmith, and Connecting with Country consultants, Bangawarra. Each brings a rigour of thought and process to the integration of art, culture and architecture, resulting in enriched built outcomes. We have found that our design process has also been enhanced through exposure to these collaborations.

What do you attribute your success to?

Empathy – literally, the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It may seem obvious, but we are designing buildings for others, not for ourselves. To do so, we need to remind ourselves that on a regular basis. It is something that I remind my staff, and the consultants that we work with. When that is forgotten, it is ego that takes over. When designing public buildings in particular, it is important to remember that your client wears many hats and has to represent many disparate viewpoints, including politicians, their immediate bosses, the funding body, the maintenance team, the local community and the broader public. Understanding the drivers for the project agenda is important.

You started in residences and now work across many typologies. What challenges has that presented?

Learning who you are working for and what drives them. Larger organisations can be opaque at times – hard to read, hard to navigate. Sometimes the person you are dealing with directly, the project manager, is simply a cypher or an algorithm. Our job is to work out why that code has been written and by whom; what and who is really driving decision-making – preferably by getting your design in front of that person, or by enabling and giving the tools to the cypher to communicate your design to the decision maker or makers. If you can give ownership of your ideas to your client, equip them with the rationale, they will be a champion and fight for the project design.

How have you attracted and retained the best staff talent?

Doing good work attracts good people; treating people well retains them in your practice for longer. Listening and giving everyone a voice, agency in design and practice gives everyone an incentive to stay. We find that people rarely, if ever, leave SCA to go to a similar role or promotion in another practice. When people leave SCA it is for a change of career, or to live in a new city.

Why do you have such a strong focus on staff wellbeing?

Architecture is like gardening. Clients enjoy the flowers and the fruit, the produce – but it is the soil biome – the people you employ – that must be rich and diverse if you are to grow beautiful and nutritious produce.

What would you say sets you apart from other practices?

Consistent quality in both design and service. Consistently seeking out from clients what it is that they need most and delivering it. Our projects have been enriched by incorporating Connecting with Country principles and expertise on all our projects.

How important is it to be heard publicly on design issues?

Forcing yourself to form and publicly voice an opinion exercises the mind. Your voice in the public square in Sydney, in NSW, in Australia, has a tiny, tiny global impact. But it is the accumulation of publicly expressed ideas from diverse voices that drives and forms public opinion. To me, it is important, when asked, to contribute, to challenge yourself to provide coherent and cogent opinion.

Where does your personal design inspiration come from?

It really does come from the client’s brief, listening and reading. Sitting with a blank sheet of paper. Putting the first line on the page. Short bursts of hard work and creativity, followed by time to mull over ideas – when awake and asleep. ‘Sleeping on it’ is a powerful driver of thinking. Discussing ideas. Verbalising what you cannot yet put on paper. Collaborating with diverse people.

What architectural style/group/period inspires you and why?

I am inspired by Australian architecture today. The quality, depth and diversity of architectural expression in Australia right now is extraordinary. For example, the public work of Kerstin Thompson (KTA), the residential work of Mel Bright (Studio Bright) and the social engagement work of Philip Thalis (Hill Thalis Architecture and Urban Projects) are very inspiring to me. And there are many others. Each is exploring their own exemplary vision of architecture and urban design, in response to challenges particular to place.

I am also inspired by the movement towards greater understanding, care and connection with Country that is being driven by the GANSW and explored by many architects in collaboration with First Australians.

What do you see as the future of small-medium firms in Australia?

Stronger and better than ever. Bigger firms have the resources to serve bigger projects, more complex client bodies. Small and medium firms produce outstanding work and maintain the pressure on larger and established firms. Young, small practices are constantly emerging with fresh energy and ideas. That is a great thing. The quantity of quality architecture produced in Australia is exceptional. Small and medium firms drive much of that innovation and will continue to do so.

What issues do you think are facing architecture in the future?

Though the likely impact of artificial intelligence is still being understood, I believe that those practices that manage to harness AI as a productive tool will excel. AI may assist architects in meeting the greatest challenge – climate change – that is driving weather extremes and the global movement of people. AI may also leave us behind as irrelevant.

What’s your advice to young architects starting off in the profession and/or thinking of setting up their own firm?

Listen to your clients. Ask lots of questions. Be bold without ego. Take your clients on the journey, led by a strong idea. Work hard, aim to do good work. Good work follows good work. Get involved and add value to industry organisations. Good follows good. Grow in number incrementally, organically, as the work flows and your capacity and expertise develops.

What is your legacy?

The people that make up the practice that feed the plants, that grow the flowers and the fruit that people enjoy. The equipping, nurturing and development of their talents. Their future trajectories and what they will contribute in shaping our cities. An ecosystem that is stronger than one individual.

What’s the single most valuable lesson you have learned through leading a 25-year-old practice?

Keep reminding yourself to be empathetic to your client – to put yourself in their shoes, to think about the consequences of your design decisions on them and those around them. Architecture is an act of love. Thoughtful consideration of detail makes architecture. How will the building be maintained? How will it be enjoyed? How long will it last? How will it be paid for? Who will use it? Will they feel alienated or forgotten? Or will they feel loved?

Sam Crawford Architects
samcrawfordarchitects.com.au

Photography
Brett Boardman (except FOCHTA)

More by Sam Crawford Architects: Bara Bridge