Evelyn Reynolds

The Australian Fair Work Commission (FWC) has announced that it is undertaking a review of the Architects Award in order to determine whether architects, and other professionals, are underpaid.
According to a release from the FWC, the review is “on work value grounds to remedy potential undervaluation.”
The awards under consideration are those that necessitate, at a minimum, an undergraduate university degree, and which are not aligned with the minimum weekly rate of pay, described as the C1(a) benchmark rate. Alongside the Architects Award 2020, these include awards for higher education staff, such as academics and people working in local government.
The FWC’s decision to conduct the review is based on the findings of their 2025 Annual Wage Review on 3 June, which revealed that these classifications may be undervalued, particularly on gender-based grounds.
In their Annual Wage Review, the FWC states, “Professional occupations, considered as a whole, are majority female (55.4 percent). However, a much higher proportion — 69.7 percent — of modern award-reliant professionals are female. This … makes clear that the detriment of non-alignment with the C1(a) benchmark rate principally accrues to female professionals.”
In response to the review of professional awards, the Association of Consulting Architects (ACA) – the industry’s “peak employer association” – submitted concerns that gender undervaluation was not, in itself, reason to review the Architects Award.
“The architecture industry and occupation has never been a female-dominated workforce, either historically or at present,” the ACA’s submission noted, adding that “there is no evidence of historic gender undervaluation through the award system.”
According to the ACA, “The rates of pay under the Architects Award have consistently been aligned with comparable technical and professional awards (such as engineers and scientists).”
“While gender equity challenges exist in the profession, particularly in retention and progression, these issues are structural and cultural, not the product of award wage setting. They are being addressed through workplace and industry initiatives, rather than through the modern award framework,” the ACA added.
The FWC’s review is based on an accepted benchmark where females make up 60 percent of the industry’s population. However, the ACA argued that according to Australian 2021 Census data reported by advocacy group Parlour, women architectural graduates make up less than 50 percent.
In a social media post, Parlour welcomed the review as a “chance for structural change.”
Parlour co-founder and director Justine Clark said, “Architects constantly complain about no one values their work, data points to architects being among the lowest paid in the industry, and people are moving on in droves to better paid roles elsewhere. The award is part of this systemic undervaluing.”
“The review is an excellent opportunity to benchmark against other industries and clearly articulate the value of architects,” Clark added, noting that while “many practices are facing tough economic times right now … keeping the most vulnerable people on wages below the benchmark is not a viable long-term sustainable solution to the profession’s problems.” More

A development application proposing the establishment of a 10-storey residential building in Adelaide’s CBD has been lodged with the South Australian Planning Commission.
Planning documents note the proposed building would occupy a 1,241-square-metre lot on Hutt Street. The building would accommodate 45 apartments – 15 percent of which are affordable housing – as well as a residential lobby and retail offerings at street level. A two-level basement car park is also included within the proposal.
Plans state that while building height in the proposed locality is predominantly low-rise, several buildings ranging from three to eight storeys are present in the area.
Designed by DKO, the building features a podium and tower massing, with setbacks that gradually increase on the upper levels. According to the application, the ground level and podium have been “designed to promote a human-scale” at both Hutt Street and Allan Place, through the use of fine-grain materials and active shop fronts.

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The site is currently occupied by a two-storey office building, a single-storey building and a canopy structure formerly used as a service station. The lot sits adjacent to a row of eight two-storey terrace shops fronting Hutt Street, which are connected and listed collectively as a single State Heritage Place.
Dash Architects was engaged to prepare a Heritage Impact Assessment detailing how the project’s design responds to these neighbouring buildings. Their report concluded that careful scale and setbacks have ensured the proposal does “not dominate, encroach upon or unduly impact … the adjacent State Heritage Place.”

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The project will target a 5-Star Green Star rating and a 7-Star NatHERS rating. According to the application, the building will be fully electric and will include 300 square metres of roof-mounted solar panels to help meet these targets.
The proposal is on exhibition until 15 September. More

A new report has found that only about half the workforce delivering Australia’s $213 billion, five-year Major Public Infrastructure Pipeline is currently contributing to net-zero outcomes.
Released in August 2025, the Delivering Net Zero Infrastructure: Workforce Report outlines a national strategy to address workforce skill shortages in the built environment that are limiting Australia’s ability to decarbonise its infrastructure projects. The report was developed by Infrastructure Net Zero, a coalition of industry and government bodies formed in 2023 to guide and accelerate the decarbonisation of Australia’s infrastructure sector. Some of these bodies include Infrastructure Australia, the Green Building Council of Australia, the Infrastructure Sustainability Council and the Department of Infrastructure, among others.
The report defines and quantifies the current net-zero infrastructure workforce – workers whose responsibilities include reducing project emissions – and provides recommendations for growing this workforce. According to the report, buildings and infrastructure “are responsible for almost a third of Australia’s emissions and indirectly responsible for over half.”
Infrastructure Australia CEO Adam Copp said the success of reducing these emissions will depend on the strength of the infrastructure net-zero workforce, which currently stands at 130,000 workers across 36 occupations, including construction managers, engineers, architects and tradespeople. While this represents just over half of those working on Australia’s Major Public Infrastructure Pipeline, Copp noted that “more can be done to engage the rest of the workforce” across all stages of the project lifecycle to support net zero targets.
The report’s main recommendation is that governments, industry and educators develop a new, industry-wide training program to promote a consistent national approach for decarbonising projects in the built environment.
Infrastructure Net Zero chair Jonathan Cartledge stated that the race to net-zero infrastructure is also a race for skills. “For the first time, we have a clear picture of the workforce it will take, and this report sets out a pathway for industry and government to ensure we have the people to design and build that net zero future,” said Cartledge.
Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council CEO Alison Scotland stated that reaching Australia’s net-zero objective “demands more than policy and investment,” it requires a skilled workforce capable of designing and implementing net-zero infrastructure at scale.
The full report, along with its recommendations, can be accessed online. More

Australian architecture practice Billard Leece Partnership (BLP) has announced the launch of BLP Asia, with a new studio in Singapore.
The Singapore hub is intended to serve as a dedicated centre for BLP’s operations in Asia, building on their portfolio of projects in the region, including the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital and North District Hospital, Hong Kong.
The practice, which this year celebrates 30 years, currently has studios in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The launch of BLP’s Singapore studio marks a pivot from the practice’s Hong Kong studio, which is no longer operational.

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According to a communique from BLP, the new studio “will extend [the firm’s] expertise to meet the region’s evolving challenges from ageing populations to sustainable health outcomes, while creating a platform for knowledge exchange between Australia and Asia.”
BLP’s managing director Tara Veldman said, “Singapore is a natural gateway for our growth in Asia. We are excited to share our expertise for the incredible opportunities that lie ahead, confident that …we will continue to set new benchmarks for our clients in health architecture across Asia.”
Principal and BLP Asia lead Dev Bagga added that the region “is fast becoming a global hub for innovation and transformation,” and that “BLP Asia will be committed to drive this growth alongside like-minded partners through design excellence in healthcare and social infrastructure.” More

A proposal for twin towers in Parrmatta’s CBD, designed by SJB in collaboration with Land and Form, is currently on exhibition within the NSW government’s major projects planning portal.
Sited on a vacant lot opposite Parramatta’s station and bus interchange at 2 Fitzwilliam Street, the $400 million mixed-use project seeks to deliver high-rise rental housing atop a hotel podium with ground-floor retail.
After securing first-stage development consent in April last year, Urban Property Group selected SJB’s initial design from a design excellence competition between three competitors. At the time, the proposal included one apartment tower and one office tower above an office podium.
Having been selected for the NSW government’s State Significant Rezoning Program – an initiative launched in September 2024 to fast-track the delivery of housing to contribute to the National Housing Accord target – the scheme was revised with the replacement of the original office component with residential accommodation and a hotel.
Across two towers reaching 48-storeys and 40-storeys high, the current project includes more than 700 build-to-rent apartments. The podium, which accommodates a 217-room hotel and ground-floor retail dining spaces, is articulated with a diagonal, cross-block pedestrian link that echoes the break in the towers above and continues the axis of the train station entrance opposite. A five-storey basement for car parking is located below.

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SJB’s website notes, “Our proposal for 2 Fitzwilliam Street introduces a critical piece of urban fabric to Parramatta’s fast-changing CBD, facilitating intuitive connections and public respite with a strong sense of belonging and resilience.”
According to the firm, the design for “the podium responds to natural movement paths through the public domain – people, wind and water – creating an organic form that guides people intuitively, scales to human proportions and adapts to the natural topography of the site.”
The current state significant development application can be viewed online. More

Timothy Hill is the director of architecture studio Partners Hill. In 2025, he was awarded the Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal in recognition of his exemplary architectural work, as well as his broader contributions to the profession through education, discourse and advocacy.
In this episode of Design Speaks Weekly, Katelin Butler, editorial director at Architecture Media, sits down with Timothy as the national Gold Medal tour gets underway. He reflects on the current state of architectural process, explains his use of the term “little ‘a’ architect” and considers how we might more clearly define the role of the architect.

During the conversation, Hill reflects on the paradox that, despite all the advances in digital tools, architecture hasn’t necessarily become more efficient. He notes that while “architects use QWERTY keyboards to make drawings now,” much of the essential knowledge about how buildings are made still comes from two-dimensional drawings.
“I’m not speaking romantically. It’s just that, for all the 3D-ness of things, you need to know the measurements – and the measurements are forever going to be in two dimensions. So here we are, madly drawing in 3D, but the drawings are still for building contracts. So, um… why are we drawing in 3D again?”
Design Speaks Weekly is presented in partnership with the Australian Institute of Architects and with support from Lysaght. A fresh episode will be delivered every Tuesday. You can listen to it on major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Pocket Casts. More

Brisbane City Council has granted consent for the rezoning of an 86-year-old former paint factory on the city’s southside that would see it transformed into a mixed-use arts precinct. With the site currently designated as low-impact industrial land, the approval paves the way for a two-stage development featuring converted spaces for creative industries and a series of new apartment buildings.
The site at 115 Hyde Road in Yeronga opened as the Taubmans paint manufacturing plant in 1939 and operated for more than 60 years before closing in 2015. It has since served as a temporary creative space for artists such as Richard Bell and Judy Watson, as well as architecture practice Five Mile Radius.
Following council’s approval last week, the factory is now set to evolve into a permanent “arts village” based on plans prepared in 2023 by Wolter Consulting in collaboration with landscape architecture practice Dunn and Moran, and architectural design firm Mode Design.

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The first stage of proposed works includes the reworking of the paint factory to the south of the site, including food and drink outlets, art spaces, a theatre and an escape room, as well as 64 car parks for visitors and staff with up to 200 spaces for events.
According to a media release from the councillor for Central Ward Vicki Howard, the 34,000-square-metre precinct “could also feature markets, health services, a garden centre, a hardware store and hundreds of new homes” in the future.
As part of stage two of the works, a collection of apartment buildings are proposed on the north-side of the site. In respect of the precinct’s approved height, council has endorsed a four-storey-high envelope on the site’s southern edge and up to eight storeys in the site’s centre.

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Submissions made by the public during the consultation period in early 2024 were divided in their response to the proposal, with many local residents favouring the factory’s adaptive reuse but expressing concern with the scale of the proposed mid-rise apartments within the predominantly low-rise suburb.
In 2023, councillor for Tennyson Ward Nicole Johnston noted that while “some aspects of the proposal are innovative and welcome, such as reuse of some the existing buildings for arts purposes … others are concerning, such as the significant number of future high-rise unit blocks and an estimated additional 2000 vehicles per day accessing the site.”
“Finally, some are just plain inadequate, namely the lack of any new infrastructure,” she added.

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Howard’s communique aligns the proposal with the council’s ambition to convert under-utilised commercial and industrial land into lifestyle and housing opportunities to cater for rapid growth, as outlined in Brisbane’s Sustainable Growth Strategy.
Chair of the Lord Mayor’s Better Suburbs Initiative Ross Elliott commented, “Suburban renewal means making the most of what we already have, by repurposing older suburban land uses into contemporary places which meet today’s community needs. The Paint Factory project does just this.
He added, “In the same way that former industrial areas like James Street, New Farm, have over time converted into vibrant mixed-use precincts, the same can happen in other precincts across the city.” More

The City of Sydney is seeking feedback to help shape the planning and design of a multimillion-dollar renewal of the state-heritage-listed Paddington Town Hall on Oxford Street.
Built in 1891 to the design of architect John Edward Kemp, the two-storey town hall is an example of the Victorian Free Classical architectural style and was the result of an international design competition. Its standout features include a 32-metre clock tower, an open colonnade to Oxford Street and rows of Roman-arched windows flanked by corinthian pilasters.
The original building, including furnishings and the clock tower, cost £13,000. However, the clock tower itself was not added to the building until 1905 – to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII.
According to the NSW State Heritage Inventory, the town hall has historical, aesthetic and social significance. The building was the venue for the first Aboriginal Debutante Ball in Sydney in 1966 and the fourth National Homosexual Conference of 1978, which passed a motion to commemorate the first Mardi Gras.

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It also contains what the heritage inventory describes as “very rare surviving public interior design elements by Walter Burley Griffin,” who designed the interior renovations in the 1930s to make the hall more suitable for dances.
Today, the historic town hall houses a library, a cinema and Stapleton Hall, which is used by arts and cultural organisations, community groups, charities and schools.
According to the council, the upgrades will improve accessibility, functionality and versatility of the building, modernise building services and amenities, repair and protect important historical features, and strengthen the buildings’s role as a cultural and community hub. The existing library will be retained.
Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore said it is the first major upgrade for the building in more than 50 years. “This wonderful building is emblematic of the Victorian free classical architecture of the time,” said Moore. “We’re asking the community to share their stories with us about the building, what their connection is and what memories they have of this historic venue.”
Feedback can be submitted online until 25 September 2025. More