We wish you and your family a gentle, joyful and safe festive season and year ahead.
Each Christmas, we donate to Warrawee Women’s Refuge in place of client gifts. This organisation transforms donations into moments of joy for women and children rebuilding their lives. This year, they’ll use the funds to provide fun school holiday activities for children in their care.
Our 2025 Impact Statement demonstrates just how busy we have been this year. We are closing from Wednesday, 24th December, and re-opening on Monday, 12th January.
We hope you enjoy a restful break and look forward to reconnecting next year.
It’s our fourth year supporting a performance at The Blue Room, and we’re leaving the theatre for a journey on foot through Perth instead. UP THERE (Boorloo) has been described as a walking meditation on the people and buildings that make up a place. Noongar perspectives and stories will be woven through the production, as we consider how to bring life into the CBD’s empty or underutilised spaces.
You walk past shop front after shop front with ‘For Lease’ signs. Who even is Lease?
And why do they get all the empty shop fronts?
You look up to the second level of terrace shop fronts. “Oh, but they’re for storage”, your friend says, your Mum says, your friend’s Mum says. But surely all these spaces aren’t for storage.
What stories do they have to tell?
What stories do we have to tell about them?
Brought to life by Tay Conway, William Gammel, Leah Robyn, Rebecca Riggs-Bennett, and the people of Boorloo, UP THERE (Boorloo) is a site responsive audio walking tour of empty and underutilised spaces in the CBD of Boorloo (Perth). This work will interrogate place, space, community and people’s ability to occupy these spaces. We can’t wait to see it! Book your tickets here.
A pointed article and a reckoning for the profession.
TFA Principal Andrew Broffman responds to ArchitectureAU’s dossier on the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games, and invites the question: how deep does our discipline’s commitment to First Nations’ agency and reconciliation truly run?
We’re never short of an opinion at The Fulcrum Agency. Go here to read Andrew’s important piece now.
A breathtakingly beautiful and history-swerving body of work.
Last week, we all received a present from Kieran*: a copy of Birrundudu Drawings by John Carty, Jason M. Gibson, Alistair Paterson, Luke Scholes, Jessyca Hutchens, and Stephen Gilchrist.
The Birrundudu Drawings represent one of the most significant bodies of historical imagery ever introduced into the canons of Australian art. A collection of 810 crayon drawings were created by sixteen Aboriginal men working on a Northern Territory cattle station in 1945. That place was Birrundudu, an outpost of Gordon Downs, a large cattle station with a lease that extended across the Northern Territory and Western Australian borders. The works resulted from the men’s engagement with the anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt. Dutifully recording as much information about their meaning as he could, Ronald Berndt and the men who made these drawings captured an extraordinary record of the Country, ancestors, history and ceremonies of the region.
The drawings are not simply important because they have never been seen, nor because there are so many of them. They are important because of the convergence of these two aspects – their scale combined with their novelty has transformative potential in the narratives of Aboriginal art and Australian history. A breathtakingly beautiful and history-swerving body of work.
We’re delighted to announce our B Corp re-certification!
While the journey was demanding, requiring us to examine every aspect of our business from staff wellbeing and finances to client relationships and environmental impact, it ultimately confirmed what we hoped: that we’re on the right path, putting people and planet first.
Our good friend, Ricky England, will soon walk 250km from Dwellingup to Perth to raise awareness and funds to stop low-grade bauxite mining in WA’s precious Northern Jarrah Forests. TFA Director, Kieran Wong will join him for part of the journey, alongside our mates Jen Lowe and Berlin As Ricky states, “these forests are not just beautiful; they’re vital to our climate resilience, home to rare biodiversity and essential water catchments.” Despite their ecological importance, Alcoa and South32 propose clearing 13,672 hectares of forest for mining operations, permanently degrading this irreplaceable landscape. Thank goodness we have brave activists like Ricky and WA Forest Alliance standing up for our environment. Go here to donate or join the protest.
Will Ek-Uvelius and Nina Juniper Executive Co-Directors, Vessel Contemporary
Our latest contribution through the Fulcrum Fund, the charitable arm of our business, where we squirrel away funds to support community-led projects.
Vessel Contemporary is a new contemporary art space down the road from our studio in Fremantle. Led by our friends, Will Ek-Uvelius and Nina Juniper, Vessel has plans to transform ‘The Naval Store into a place for dynamic, site-responsive creativity that sparks societal change.’
We’ve come on board as a Founding Supporter of their Artist-in-Residency program and are looking forward to seeing what Amanda Bell creates over her 8-week post!
We were thrilled to hear that TFA founder, Emma Williamson, was recognised with the prestigious 2025 National President’s Prize at last week’s Australian Institute of Architects conference!
Emma, now serving as Western Australia’s Government Architect, received this honour alongside her colleagues in the Government Architects Network of Australia (GANA): Scott Balmforth, Abbie Galvin, Jill Garner, Leah Lang, and Kirsteen Mackay.
The jury praised GANA for their “exceptional leadership and dedication in the field of architecture and urban design” and highlighted how their work has “significantly shaped the built environment of Australia, enhancing the quality of life for all Australians.”
The citation commended GANA’s achievements in:
Establishing design review frameworks that put good design at the heart of our cities
Promoting sustainability and environmental stewardship in architectural practices
Championing social equity and inclusivity in the built environment
Preserving Australia’s architectural heritage through restoration and adaptive reuse
Advancing architectural education and the profession through collaboration
Emma’s commitment to quality design and creating spaces that benefit communities continues to inspire our work. While we still miss her, we are chuffed she’s doing so well in her new role.
For the past few Christmases, we’ve donated to a women’s refuge in Fremantle, and each year we’re amazed by what they achieve with our relatively small contribution. Pauline Eves at the Fremantle Foundation sent us the acquittal report this morning, and it made some of us teary! The refuge staff used our funds to create meaningful experiences for families in their care during the school holidays. They purchased movie tickets and rides on the giant Fremantle Ferris Wheel. For children unable to leave the centre due to safety concerns or anxiety, they organised a special Bluey Day at the refuge. What tipped us over the edge was a message from a little girl who was excited to finally have holiday adventures to share with her friends at school. Previously, she had felt isolated from her peers because she’d had limited access to the special activities other children enjoyed during breaks. At the risk of sounding overly sentimental, this proves the old adage: a little really does go a long way.
TFA is delighted to welcome Christina Fogale to our Sydney studio!
Christina is a Senior Designer with 12 years of experience working on healthcare and community-focused spaces, including vital social housing projects in remote Northern Territory communities.
Christina’s design approach is deeply informed by her work with First Nations communities in Central Australia and The Anganwadi Project in India, where she designed and built a kindergarten in Ahmedabad’s slum communities. These experiences cultivated her understanding of culturally responsive design and commitment to creating spaces that serve diverse populations with dignity.
She loves ceramics, good food and hiking, which means she fits right in at TFA!
“What I enjoy most about life is learning about people; their histories, cultures, and perspectives. What I enjoy most about design are the conversations to flesh out ideas, problem-solve, and spatially plan for a well-functioning space. It is special for me to find these qualities in The Fulcrum Agency and to pursue collaborative work with the communities we have the good fortune of working with.
