Castlemaine symposium – takeaways

Redmond Hamlett reflects on the standout provocations and takeaways from the ACA Regional Architecture Weekend in Castlemaine, drawing out the ideas and themes that most resonate with his practice.

I was fortunate enough to attend the ACA Regional Practice symposium for 2025.  Held in the misty Mt Alexander Shire Valley on the weekend of 25–26 October at the McPhee Theatre and Buda House, the event attracted a mixture of practices from the regions and metropolitan Melbourne.

The first four speakers on Day 1 each had two to three decades in practice. They were clear that not everything along the way had worked or been successful, but it’s exactly this depth of experience that enables them to offer meaningful strategies for success. Session 4 featured three emerging practices that had been operating for 10 years or less, with each challenging traditional architecture practice and experimenting with new ways of working. Day 2 focused on sustainability in practice, with a panel discussion, a session on the ACA toolbox, and a valuable audience discussion.

People, Planet & Profit

Session 1 was presented by Paul Viney, Director of FFPV. Paul wears a lot of hats, including as the National President of the ACA.  It was quite a revealing and soul-exposing presentation of his life experience in the profession spanning over 35 years. We got to really look under the hood of his many practice experiences. Paul was able to frame most of his experiences as “glass half full”, including the missed and lost opportunities. It’s really about putting everything in perspective – “expectations are measured by ourselves” was a good reminder throughout his presentation.

Architectural practice in Paul’s view is really about People, Planet and Profit. All need to be in balance. While most architects are “dreamers” and “doers” who want to leave the world in a better place, an understanding of all three things is needed or NONE can be achieved.

Some takeaways include:

• see other architects as ‘colleagues’ and not ‘competitors’ (for future collaboration);
• encourage graduates and students to take an interest in construction as a means of realising architectural ambition rather than an obstacle; and
• don’t be fixed on the types of offerings architects can provide.

For me, colleagues as collaborators is essential in small practice. I hope this mentality of being seen as a ‘partner’ rather than simply a service provider also carries through to our clients, so everyone feels invested beyond the commercial relationship. These trust-based connections lead to the best outcomes and the most motivated teams.

Immersion, Inspiration & Connection

Session 2 by Stuart Tanner (Tanner Architects, Tasmania) was very clear in his presentation and strength of practice model. The act of architectural services is one of immersion and connection – to our clients, to our profession, to our ambition, and to our context and environment. Throughout Stuart’s presentation a number of his ‘provocations’ were added, and these were familiar stories to all of us in the room.

• Memories are Scribes of the soul (Aristotle)
• If a professional’s advice is rejected, don’t go back and ask for it again after the fact (in the case of one project moving to Cost Plus again ST’s advice – don’t ask what happened, but thank god for the written advice!)
• Architecture is an act of optimism
• When discussing budget, we can grow the wallet OR shrink the dream (I prefer the latter)
• We are not just talking about cost, but what about wastage of building materials? Can we do with building less?
• Alter the Public Tendering EOI Process and glass ceiling – standardise the RFT process, level the playing field by taking fees and unreasonable obligations out of the equation.

Stuart’s presentation was also incredibly moving. We got an insight into the human behind the drawings, the ideas and very considered work in some of the country’s most beautiful environs. Inspiration can come from many places, and Stuart draws on his love of music, nature, camping and free-diving. (How he fits all this in? That will be for another symposium.)

Stuart was able to use several of his projects as narrative devices for his provocations. We got the best of both worlds – a look under the hood on Tanner’s inspiration and idea generators, but also how his practice acumen helps him achieve otherworldly architectural outcomes for himself and his clients. This led to some excellent discussion in the room about challenging the removal of Fee Scales, but looking at Time Scales instead.

The general consensus was that rampant competition was detrimental to the profession and to built environment outcomes. The quest to lowest cost on fees is itself anti-competitive and not in the interests of a profession that is obliged to offer safe workplaces to their staff.  In other words, charging equivalent 1% fees might win jobs but it doesn’t save practices – it must stop!

Agility, Trust & Adding Value

For session 3, Anna Nervegna and Toby Reed (Nervegna Reed) were able to showcase a handful of their projects – and publishing activities – as their pathway to longevity in small architectural practice.

Involvement in the publishing world has helped NR be agile and a regular contributor to the profession. They described how challenging a client’s brief and reminding them of your professional obligations to them can create new opportunities. A case in point was the Central Goldfields Art Gallery / CGAG, located at the former Maryborough Fire Station for Central Goldfields Shire Council. Originally, the client sought an access upgrade, but it became a more sophisticated and comprehensive refurbishment than originally foreseen. They have enhanced the heritage and architectural qualities of the original fire station complex to create a gallery and public space with much greater value and opportunities for the local people.

Some excellent takeaways for NR’s presentation included:

• “Embed the intent” in the budget. This is so that the core ideas must be protected in the project, and cannot be removed if less-favourable tendering / cost planning comes about.
• Remove “I” from everything that comes out of your mouth. The moment you insert “I” into the project it takes the client out of imagining the project as their own.
• Pass on “enlightenment” to the client wherever you can. Regularly remind the client that “they are in good hands”. Integrity, faithfulness and trust matters!

Emerging Models of Practice

Session 4 featured three emergent practices. Sarah Hobday-North from ArchitectGP and Value Architects Group practically stormed the stage, and proclaimed that “This is the growth area for residential architecture, the 95% of homeowners who don’t even think to pick up the phone to talk to an architect.” Sarah has designed a business that offers very short low-cost services, modelling her delivery mostly on the Telehealth Model. She aims to be as accessible to the most amount of people as possible – to diagnose their built environment problems, and offer a service (cure) that suits them best.

For her, the product is not the service. It’s not the built outcome. It’s the ‘Ah-ha’ moment they experience by meeting their architect – not unlike a GP for a health consult.

Silas Gibson from Sense of Space Architects (SOS), based in Gisborne Victoria, offered that architects can unlock opportunities with mass developers by developing repeatable design models based on sound sustainability concepts and use of conventional materials and building systems. From a business perspective, he works with as many collaborators as possible (in-house staff is not the only vehicle for running a practice).  These are not new ideas certainly, but with good systems in place it has made SOS a sustainable practice.

Jean Graham from Winter Architecture gave an account that really spoke to the need for flexibility and life balance in the profession. She didn’t need a pandemic to unlock this; her team has been doing this for over a decade. Her own practice advocates for as much flexibility as possible in how their staff work and operate. They have always had access to their desk, library, cafe, public place to work – OR the office’s set-up.

These business models are really about raising awareness of our value add, but also demystifying stereotypes about the cost of the profession. Professional fees are expensive but they are valuable. It’s about reminding ourselves that our experience and skills are valuable – and offering full services is not the only way to reflect this. That’s the point of being a professional in the first place – your professional opinion matters.

Practice Sustainability

The first session of Day 2 focused on Practice Sustainability. Talina Edwards of Envirotecture and Shae Parker-McCashen of Green Sheep Collective shared a handful of reflections on their practices, the intentional actions that helped their own motivations, their unique selling points and areas of expertise.

Talina shared key milestones, such as specialising in Passivhaus design and establishing relationships with builders using the mass-builder model – in part to be able to scale her studio’s offerings to a wider public. She raised the idea that being in business – any business – is a bit like being a tree, with different, defined life cycle stages. She offered metaphors on being grounded, changing with the seasons, being part of a network, being connected and leaving a legacy greater than oneself. In a nutshell, she aims for Net Zero – reducing reliance on fossil fuels and finite resources in the long-term operation and maintenance of the housing projects her team delivers, while creating comfortable, energy-efficient homes. This is a strong value-add in any person’s metric.

Shae highlighted the tension between a built environment striving for sustainability and resilience, and an architectural profession that often sees few of those benefits. The risks of burnout, and the pressure to tolerate scope and time creep, run counter to what we all want – a truly sustainable architectural practice.

Shae emphasised the value of intentionality (versus being reactive) and reminded us that architecture is more than just buildings – it’s about building understanding. Without her explicitly saying this, my read is that the emphasis on the client, their needs, our collective understanding and the output we all get (finished project and sustainable practice) is something that is continually built upon and shouldn’t be lost in the day-to-day phases of architectural projects.

I think the audience got the sense of Shae’s sense of responsibility not only for her clients, but also for those closest to her – her family, her staff, her friends.  I was very taken with this approach and reminder, and being grounded in intentionally putting client first at least gives me heart in what I – and many others – do. And with good practice systems and habits, the rest follows.

Expanding Practice

The panel discussion curated by Brad Hooper was very lively, with quite a lot of provocations. The theme for the discussion was “how can architects have greater reach?”, building on Sarah-Hobday-North’s presentation from the previous day. Audience provocations included:

• Introduce the legislative requirement that architects are used on most public or medium scale and above residential projects.
• Development of architectural style and system guides, not unlike the ‘Age Homes Service’ (I’m sure there have been others), as a baseline of quality.
• I’ll quote Stuart Tanner for this one: “We need to get copies of Architecture Australia sold at Bunnings”. I will add, “also Green Magazine too”.  (We need to make architecture, design and sustainability more widely accessible and available to the body politic.)
• Establish consortiums with not-for-profits and developers.
• Adopt a mindset of being a “socially-conscious developer” to address access to housing and the prevailing homelessness crisis.

ACA Business Toolbox

The last session for the symposium, presented by Paul Viney, was on the ACA Business Tools, available to all members.  We all got a crash-course into the ACA’s Time Cost Calculator Tool, which helps members come up with suitable hourly rates (based on one’s own practice – not arbitrary commercial rates), but also determines a range of hours needed for most project typologies.

Final word

My final thoughts – this was one of the best value architectural symposiums I’ve ever attended. I felt energised and part of a collegiate body of professionals, perhaps helped by the modest number of attendees (and yes, it helped that I stuck around to go to the pub afterwards!).

The event completely challenged my expectations. I anticipated more discussion on practice, systems and fees, but the strength of the presenters meant design work, ideas and inspiration became a compelling way to illustrate successful practice systems at work, particularly on Day 1. Session 4 from the emergent practices probably needed more steering from organisers; it was hard to take away practical strategies beyond the “what not to do” war stories. Still, it was an extremely successful two-day event.

I’m looking forward to the next symposium – hopefully see you there!