Andra Matin’s conviction that architecture isn’t finished at the mastery of beauty, is emblematic of this. The minutiae and chaos on the long road to topping out is often concealed by the gleam and glint of a sleek final structure. In this issue, we bring the grit to the foreground. Warwick Mihaly explores the ins and outs of working pro bono in a year when an architect’s altruism has never been more in demand. In the first instalment of our new regular feature, Connecting Country, Wilson Architects talks about designing a college for Indigenous students at the University of Western Australia. Ray Brown explores the peculiar relationship between architects and builders and how to avoid it all falling apart. In our lead interview we get to see our built world, briefly, through Andra Matin’s eyes in Jakarta – usually a seven-hour flight but, in 2020, a world away.
