{"id":319583,"date":"2025-12-01T00:51:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T00:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/319583\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T00:51:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T00:51:24","slug":"fini-calls-on-architects-to-rock-the-boat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/319583\/","title":{"rendered":"Fini calls on architects to rock the boat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adrian Fini<\/a> has encouraged architects to continue to challenge the status quo despite resistance from planning authorities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The H-U<\/a> director last night became an honorary fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects<\/a> WA Chapter, for his contribution to the field of design.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2016 Western Australian of the Year and Order of Australia recipient is behind several significant projects, including the restoration of the Old Treasury Buildings and the Malaga Film Studios.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a rare speech, Mr Fini<\/a> outlined his deep connection to architecture during the course of his more than 40-year career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He joked that it was unusual for a developer to be recognised in this way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not lost on me that I\u2019ve been invited into the architects tent, even if this is some kind of scam that you\u2019re trying to trick me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of my career, I\u2019ve just been standing outside holding the budget and asking why you\u2019re making everything cost too much, but to the institute, to the jury and the colleagues and the communities who have walked alongside me, thank you.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see this as a culmination of what I do, but an encouragement to keep going.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a sense, development is the same as what your profession is. We\u2019ve never really finished anything and we haven\u2019t done it properly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always one more building, one more street corner, and one more community waiting to be connected to its place.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He pointed to the challenges associated with property development in WA, given its harsh environment, which often led to exemplary design.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Western Australia, I think we\u2019re lucky and tested at the same time in the context we build in,\u201d Mr Fini<\/a> said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got this endless horizon line, this intense, fierce light, this crazy wind that hits us all the time, this \u2026 climate that doesn\u2019t really forgive lazy design.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not really inconveniences, but these raw materials make our architecture a little bit more distinctive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, you know, as developers and architects, we should lean more into these conditions, use them, celebrate them, rather than trying to engineer them the way away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best buildings in WA in my view, aren\u2019t flashy; they\u2019re confident, climate wise and generous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Challenging the norm\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Fini<\/a> added that economic viability and the incorporation of quality design were not mutually exclusive aspects of projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my life as a developer, obviously I\u2019ve got to worry about feasibilities and returns, but I\u2019ve also learned that the projects that perform commercially are often the ones that also perform architecturally,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are drawn to places that feel right, they want comfort, they want beauty, they want practicality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they\u2019re not opposites; they\u2019re just good business partners that we all have to work with and learn to work with.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He encouraged the architectural professionals in the audience to keep pushing the boundaries of design, even when it was difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found as a developer that doing something that is different, that challenges the norm, is difficult to get approved,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe authorities that we all have to deal with are practiced and well-practiced at approving the ordinary and the really quite simple.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, a project that is complex difficult and wants to deliver new outcomes is often too complex for the authorities to understand, and that\u2019s actually our biggest battle.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added that it took courage to go against the grain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means having the courage to commission good design, even when the spreadsheets to us say, just do what you did last time,\u201d he siad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means trusting architects to surprise us, and being brave enough to say yes when the right idea appears.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also means keeping the process open, ethical and sustainable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Fini<\/a> advised the architects in the room to challenge developers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just really about challenging us, saying we\u2019re wrong, [saying] \u2018what about this?\u2019,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how many schemes we go through until we get to an answer, but sometimes it\u2019s \u2026 very frustrating for some of the architects, but that\u2019s frustrating for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re not doing cookie cutter stuff, it\u2019s a process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a learning process, and hopefully we\u2019re all collectively learning in that process to do even a better job the next time; so it\u2019s just a big, long conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about what planning authorities could do to improve, he said \u201cthe list could go on forever\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there\u2019s a process that\u2019s complex \u2026 it\u2019s got to be fair and equitable and transparent,\u201d he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you all live in the R code environment …\u00a0these things are archaic, so we\u2019re in a process that\u2019s wrong.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Key issues<\/p>\n

Mr Fini<\/a> also stressed the importance of mentoring and noted that he received some valuable guidance from key high-profile WA architects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve taught me, in a sense, that design is a form of leadership, and that good architecture isn\u2019t about shouting the loudest, but it\u2019s about listening the hardest,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added that the challenges the development industry faced into the future were serious, including housing affordability and environmental sustainability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[There is] an urgent need to decarbonise our built environment, and an extremely serious issue about greening our cities, which we\u2019re obviously not good at solving at the moment,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m an optimist; I believe that architects and developers together have the tools to meet these challenges head on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Fini<\/a> called on the audience to continue to fight for sustainable projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we have the energy and many of you and the passion and the will to battle towards the next approval, and the conviction to convince our political leaders, and it\u2019s a hard battle,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got many people on the front line at many times, arguing these cases, and obviously the architectural profession is an important part of that war.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019ve learned anything, it\u2019s that buildings matter less than the life they enable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in the end, that\u2019s what we\u2019re all chasing, the chance to make life better, a little richer and a lot more connected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if we can do that, even occasionally, it\u2019s a legacy worth building on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recognition<\/p>\n

In handing the honorary fellowship to Mr Fini<\/a>, Australian Institute of Architects<\/a> WA president Ross Donaldson<\/a> commended the developer on the material impact he has had.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHis love of architecture has seen him champion many architectural practices, and he has created buildings that have transformed and revitalised whole precincts of Perth and Fremantle,\u00a0melding successful commerciality with\u00a0design,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Donaldson<\/a> handed out the President\u2019s Prize to Officer Woods Architects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Fremantle practice has received more than 30 awards for its projects, which include Spinifex Hill in the Pilbara and Boola Katitjin at Murdoch Univeristy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officer Woods was also selected from an international competition to include its designs in the recently launched NSW Pattern Book<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adrian Fini has encouraged architects to continue to challenge the status quo despite resistance from planning authorities.\u00a0 The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,459,64,63,460,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-319583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}