Contracts and Procurement + Wellbeing

Our friends at Parlour have shared videos from the Wellbeing of Architecture Symposium, which took place in Melbourne last May. We’re sharing them with you because our co-founder and now WA Government Architect, Emma Williamson was a keynote speaker.

The Symposium supported the Wellbeing of Architects research project, a three-year study, led by Naomi Stead, into how workplace cultures and professional identity affect wellbeing in architecture. The Fulcrum Agency was a Research Partner in this study.

Emma was invited to offer a provocation on the link between ‘contracts, procurement and wellbeing’ and (no surprise to anyone who knows her) she had some pithy comments to make! Emma spoke honestly about the motivations for shifting from a practice of 20+ staff (and occasionally ‘paying wages with our mortgage when contracts were put on hold’) to creating The Fulcrum Agency, a small, agile practice ‘committed to a client type rather than a building type.’

She covered a lot of ground in five minutes, and if you’re running a practice, or considering starting a practice, or working with us at The Fulcrum Agency, we encourage you to watch the video here. Skip through to 18:42 if you just want to watch Emma.