Hi David,
I am really pleased that you are spotlighting this. I am originally from Melbourne, Australia and we have a wonderful, much celebrated Australian architectural heritage. In-large part owing to Australian Architects' volunteering, educating and engaging the public in the discourse of Architecture. During the 2000s, my community revisited Australian-modern contributions (events/ silk-screened tees by students/ forums etc. etc.) which helped reaffirm the role of Architecture in the public eye. Proudly I may boast, that on any given day, walking through Melbourne, you may find teenagers talking about what they like and don't like about certain buildings, or relationships that they have within the city fabric. Good design seeps into and permeates the rural areas also.
One of the reasons that this is possible is that Australian's celebrate public spaces, have many of them and they are designed. An ever-changing array of billboards reflecting creative solutions to complex problems. A small anecdote:
I live/ work in Oakland. Early on in the design process for a project we have under construction, I suggested that the development our "affordable/ low-income" housing parcels were located in, should be connected to the adjacent urban neighborhoods via a bike bridge spanning train tracks and a freeway. This could also be the gateway to City. This would also undermine the "gated" nature of the new waterfront development. I remember Rod Henmi FAIA, Design Director at HKIT mentioning later to me, (Rod referred to here without any negative subtext etc.) something to the effect that "we don't do things like that here." I sent him this link:
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS821US821&biw=1382&bih=646&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=d2wJXdG6FdWE-gSS6LPACA&q=pedestrian+bridges+melbourne&oq=pedestrian+bridges+melbourne&gs_l=img.3..35i39.19052.45070..47004...0.0..0.73.107.4......0....1j2..gws-wiz-img.....0.UQCD1I6oVk8
Sadly, it has become my impression that Architecture is so undervalued by the broader public here in the US, that we still see New York headliners "Where are all the Women Architects?".
I'll be dong my part next Spring as a Programming Coordinator, to establish the an inaugural Women in Architecture exhibition in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's hard to focus on the work, when the obstacles to practicing so desperately need spotlighting. A design exercise right there.
I hope to continue these conversations, and look forward to digging into the links you have generously provided. It may all appear a bit tangential, however I believe it's all interrelated.
Sincrely Thanks, Bridget
Bridget Basham, AIA Assoc., OWA + DP
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