• TFA supports new First Nations work at The Blue Room Theatre

    TFA supports new First Nations work at The Blue Room Theatre
    Salted Pretzels

    Together with our friends at Block Branding , we are thrilled to announce our sponsorship of Salted Pretzels, a new play by Cezera Critti-Schnaars, to be presented at the Blue Room Theatre in October.

    You know the rules. Boy meets girl. They go on a date. Fall in love. Hit a slight speed bump. Work it out. And then live happily ever after. Everything moving easily into place.

    Turns out, real life isn’t a rom-com and love isn’t always enough to keep things on the straight and narrow. In a world where so much depends on who knows who and most importantly, whose heart beats for who, sometimes the most enduring love stories come from the messiest of meetings.

    The play is described as a ‘heart-busting modern celebration of identity, self-discovery and authenticity interrogates the complexities of falling in love at the messiest of times’.

    We can’t wait to see it and are proud to again support First Nations storytelling in WA.

    Book your tickets via the Blue Room website .

    Emma Brain

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  • Architects for the Voice

    Architects for the Voice
    Insta_movie

    Emma Williamson is one of a group of leading architects calling upon the built environment profession to vote YES in support of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice in the upcoming referendum on October 14. ⁠ This article in ArchitectureAU outlines their motivation for championing this campaign.

    Join us in sharing your reason for voting yes by clicking the link in our bio and tagging @architectsforthevoice and using these hashtags: #architectsforthevoice #yes23 #architectsforyes #ulurustatement

    Join us in keeping the momentum going!⁠

    Emma Brain

  • EB Makes AFR

    EB Makes AFR

    Emma Brain is busy balancing her work in communications at TFA with a national role at the Association of Consulting Architects .

    Last week she was interviewed by Michael Bleby from the Australian Financial Review for an article on the increasing demand for First Nations input into public and institutional building projects. The focus of the article was Jefa Greenaway, a First Nations architect and coauthor of the International Indigenous Design Charter, a practice guide for professionals. Greenaway describes how ‘with no more than 20 Registered Indigenous architects in this country’, the growth in Country-centric design has ’caused a crunch in terms of capacity and resources..’

    In response Emma said:

    Engaging meaningfully with First Nations communities is, in many ways, a challenge to the profession’s standard models of project delivery. It must not become a box-ticking exercise to satisfy compliance requirements or become another burden on already stressed First Nations communities and organisations.

    At TFA, we see this as an opportunity, a call to change the way we do business as a profession. At the ACA and The Fulcrum Agency, we are treating this as an invitation to contribute to a built environment that offers a more truthful reflection of this country.

    Emma Brain

  • Women for Yes!

    Women for Yes!
    Women_for_YES

    The Women for Yes campaign launch included an epic speech by Mary Crooks AO. Not epic in length, but in the way in which she so eloquently dismantled the no case and reminded us of the power of women’s activism. It’s a must listen type situation! Go here to listen now.

    Emma Brain

  • Fighting Monument East

    Fighting Monument East

    TFA Partner Emma Williamson was in the press this week for her efforts in opposing a proposed housing development near our Fremantle studio. Emma convened a group of design advocates to convince the State Administrative Tribunal that the development ignored the principles set out in the Medium Density Code and would do little to contribute to character and quality of the surrounding neighbourhood. Fortunately, SAT listened and the development was unanimously rejected! Go here to read more about Monument East .

    We are aware of the demand for development and the need for housing. But it is all about getting the balance right. Our agenda is not to have award-winning design but good design that can be implemented as quickly and cost-efficiently as possible.

    Emma Brain

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  • Homelands where the heart is

    Homelands where the heart is

    The Australian recently published an article about three Martu communities we are working with now.

    Homelands where the heart is describes the housing crisis in Punmu, Parnngurr and Kunawarritji, where half of the existing homes have been deemed ‘beyond economic repair’. We have been working alongside JYAC and HealthHabitat on Ngurra Palyamaniny, a ‘survey-fix’ program enabling houses to be repaired in two-steps: simple repairs first followed by major works. The work is pacy and requires meaningful community involvement. You can read more about this project here .

    We are pleased that the poor quality of housing in remote communities has been raised in a major national publication. It’s something we address daily as part of our work. Our clients and the community tell us that people want to live in community on Country , rather than in the mining towns that dominate the northwest. Our job is to deliver the housing and community infrastructure to make that happen.

    Top image: the Survey/Fix team including TFA's Andrew Broffman (3rd from right) and Akira Monaghan (far right)Bottom image: Akira on the tools

    Emma Brain

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  • A guide to talking about the Voice

    A guide to talking about the Voice

    The Yes Campaign has developed a very handy guide to talking about the Voice to Parliament. It gives you the tools to design a conversation about tricky issues and provides straightforward answers to genuine questions.

    We cannot afford to be complacent about this referendum and it’s incumbant on all of us to educate ourselves and be open to sharing our knowledge. Hopefully this document might make potentially awkward conversations that little bit easier.

    Download the Guide Now!

    Emma Brain

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  • Pertame School needs our help!

    Pertame School needs our help!
    Christobel Swan

    This is Christobel Swan, a respected Elder and founder of the Perfume School, a community-led language revival program empowering Pertame Elders to pass their language and cultural knowledge onto the next generation.⁠

    ⁠There are currently around 20-30 fluent speakers of Pertame still with us, all within the grandparent and great grandparent generation. Without serious action, Pertame will be lost within the next generation.⁠
    ⁠
    We are pleased to be assisting the Pertame School with their campaign to raise funds to build a school on Country south of Alice Springs. Our role is pro bono and involves the development of a design brief and grant writing. Time is critical with this project and if you are able, we ask that you consider making a donation to the school here .

    Emma Brain

  • ArchitectureAU Award for Social Impact

    ArchitectureAU Award for Social Impact
    Image: Kieran Wong

    Our work on the Groote Archipelago Housing Programme has just won the inaugural ArchitectureAU Award for Social Impact and we could not be happier! ⁠ ⁠ We have been working with the Anindilyakwa community for eight years and have have made lifelong friendships and almost consider the archipelago our second home. For long enough it was! ⁠This project demanded a new way of thinking about our role as designers. We developed a Social Impact toolkit to measure our work and totally re-shaped the way we practice. ⁠Read the full Jury Citation here .

    Congratulations also to joint winner Kaunitz Yeung Architecture for their work on the Puntukurnu AMS Healthcare Hub.

    The architects were expert in technical and planning information, and Anindilyakwa cultural expertise was also recognized as central to the program. This two-way learning means the community now has the knowledge and confidence to determine their own housing projects with a long-term lens. Peter Finney, Anindilyakwa Housing Aboriginal Corporation

    Emma Brain

  • Style Profile: Emma Williamson

    Style Profile: Emma Williamson
    Emma Williamson

    A fun and informative break from our regular programming!

    TFA’s Emma Williamson was recently invited to share her thoughts on fashion and creativity as part of (our favourite store) Dilettante’s style series. In doing so, she had the opportunity to try some fabulous outfits and talk about the work we do at TFA.

    Click here to read more.

    Emma Brain

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Fremantle/Sydney
+61 (0)8 6111 0949


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