The UK is more innovative in terms of promoting public architecture, Mark Kelly global director education and science at Woods Bagot told Architecture & Design.
“If there was [more] emphasis on creativity and the benefit to the community, then we might spend a little more money on it.”
Even so, argues Kelly, pubic architecture continues to set the trend in Australia with government clients being “enlightened” and having “generally higher values” than commercial clients.
“The problem is always that there’s never enough money,” he said. This comes shortly after learning centres at two private schools have controversially won the country’s two highest “public architecture” awards.
Simon Knott, juror on the awards, said the public architecture awards “probably had the wrong name”.
This week also saw British architects clean up at this year’s Building for Life Awards, which champions high design standards and sustainable development in public architecture. Winners of the six awards for best housing design included Project Orange’s Sinclair Building in Sheffield by first-time developer Christian Sinclair and Broadway Malyan, and A&Q’s transformation of a former military site in south-east London.