ORGANISATION
Kerstin Thompson Architects Pty Ltd
ESTABLISHED
1994
LOCATION
Melbourne (Australia)
SPECIALISING IN
Architecture, landscape and urban design.
EMPLOYEES
10
GROSS TURNOVER
circa $1m
MARKETS
Domestic 90% : International 10%
HIGHLIGHTS
Warrandyte police station finalist in 2008 World
Architecture Awards.
www.kerstinthompson.com
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‘HOW WE WANT TO LIVE’
Kerstin Thompson, Principal, Kerstin Thompson Architects Pty Ltd
INTERACTIONS WITH BUILDINGS
Architect Kerstin Thompson observes that everyone has an opinion on buildings. It is, she recognises, impossible to live without having interactions with buildings. Kerstin believes that too often we make the mistake of talking about buildings as if they are free standing objects that have nothing to do with the environment around them.
‘We always have to be thinking of buildings not just as material objects’ Kerstin says, ‘but as part of our cultural, financial and social systems.’
MAKES MORE SENSE
Innovation, for Kerstin, means finding ways of changing what people are familiar with and used to so that they are more responsive to how we live now, and will live into the future.
An example she gives is the practice’s approach to designing new terraces for the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, with its established terrace architecture. Kerstin turned the houses upside down.
‘Even a brief that we think we all know, a police station for example, can be thought about differently. With the right mindset and attitude about innovation there is always another way of doing it.’
Kerstin Thompson, Principal, Kerstin Thompson Architects Pty Ltd
‘You live on the upper levels’ Kerstin explains, ‘and you sleep downstairs where it’s cooler and a bit darker and a bit calmer. And it seems to make more sense.’ The importance of her design as an example of innovation is, she says, that it responds to how we live now whilst honouring the lessons from the past.
TINY LITTLE STEPS
For Kerstin, every project she takes on presents a unique set of problems to think about and find an innovative solution to. Innovation, she recognises, can happen in a great dramatic flash of insight ‘but more often’ Kerstin says, ‘it is in the tiny little day to day steps you take on a project.’
MORE INFORMATION
For more information about Industry Innovation Councils:
WEB www.innovation.gov.au/industryinnovationcouncils
EMAIL innovationcouncils@innovation.gov.au
PHONE +61 2 6213 7221
Manager
Industry Innovation Councils Team
Department of Innovation,
Industry, Science and Research
GPO Box 9839
Canberra ACT 2601