We sat down recently with design writer, Nathan Jame Crane of The Adelaide Review to explain what drives our practice forward and the idea of a collaborative pool of knowledge within the studio.

Architecture firm Grieve Gillett Andersen (GGA) was a clear winner at this year’s SA Architecture Awards taking home five awards across a number of categories.

The studio claimed the City of Adelaide Prize as well as the Gavin Walkley Award for urban design at the annual awards night for their Anzac Centenary Memorial Walk on North Terrace.

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“We are grateful for the attention the project has received,” director Dimitty Andersen says of the Anzac Centenary Memorial Walk. “As a major public realm project for the state and City of Adelaide, the project had a high energy level since its beginnings and this has continued post construction.”

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In the wake of the awards success, which also saw GGA architect Esther Chew be honoured with the Emerging Architect Prize, five of their key players sit down with The Adelaide Review to explain what drives the practice forward and how people and processes are essential to the studio’s strength.

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“When we talk about people, we need to put into context timeframe, there are no contract designers at GGA, we like to invest in people long-term,” says director Paul Gillett of the firm that prides itself on providing rigorous mentoring and training programs to all employees, in a number of different areas.

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This broad approach is essential says Andersen, whose previous firm (Dimitty Andersen Architects) merged with Grieve Gillett in 2014 to form Grieve Gillett Andersen.

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“We like to say that the Adelaide architecture market is broad but shallow, meaning there are many different kinds of projects, but not a lot of them at any one time,” Andersen says. One of the ways in which the practice seeks to enhance its employees’ skillset is in how it structures its teams to promote knowledge-sharing among staff members.

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Read the full article online here