2019 A. S. Hook Address: Improv

Improv

“Improv” seemed like the right title to relay a career arc in which offhand decisions became jumping-off points for opportunities. As improv requires, we have embraced the “yes, and” (as opposed to the “no, but”) philosophy in our practice. The following – adapted from the A. S. Hook Address we delivered at the University of Melbourne on 29 October 2019 – outlines where that philosophy has taken us. We start with our roots, describe what drives our practice and, finally, share some projects.

Roots (Hank)

I wanted to be an architect since I was three years old. My father was a builder – a hardworking, sometimes stubborn, Dutchman. He tendered for houses designed by architects who gave him sets of blueprints for the purpose. I would pull out my Derwent pencils and colour them in, carefully representing brick, stone, glass and wood as appropriate and trying to keep within the lines. Dad returned the coloured drawings with his tender. At around thirteen, I started drafting plans for spec and custom houses that Dad was building and, over the summers, pitched in with the construction. These were typically suburban brick veneers inspired by model homes. A few years later, the family bought a property on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula and Dad let me, at sixteen, design my first house. It was a ten-by-ten-metre A-frame with a full-height glass wall looking out to the tea-trees. Then I had to help build it, which gave me quite an appreciation for the challenges an architect can create.

Julie and I met in 1972 on the first day of architecture school at the University of Melbourne. She knew nothing about building – her father made ladies’ underwear. Over her summers, she had often worked in her dad’s factory, from the packing room to the