WA architects making global impact

INTERNATIONAL architecture studio Woods Bagot has credited a year of global success to the international opportunities taken by its Western Australian architects.

The firm was named the 2009 AJ100 International practice of the year, and was able to advance its vision as “one global studio” with the opening of its Shanghai studio.

Woods Bagot director Mark Mitcheson-Low said the firm’s success was thanks to a significant number of the company’s architecture experts and executive management members who originate from WA.

Mr Mitcheson-Low told WA Business News the company’s Middle East studio, opened in the 1980s, evolved out of the WA office, and currently 12 top line experts or executives working for Woods Bagot were from WA, including managing director Ross Donaldson.

Other Woods Bagot executives, European operations director Earle Arney and design director Alf Seeling, were awarded prestigious Leading European Architects Forum awards in Berlin in November for the Qatar Science and Technology Park.

“Projects such as the Qatar Science and Technology Park in Dubai are all about cutting-edge research in the oil and gas industries and has tenants such as Chevron, Total, Exxon, Shell, GE, Virgin industries, Microsoft and Rolls Royce, which is developing jet engines to run on gas,” Mr Mitcheson-Low said.

He said the opening of the Shanghai studio provided a huge growth opportunity for the firm.

“There is a huge amount of construction to undertake; the Chinese are very hungry for knowledge, particularly on sustainability, because there is now a realisation that they are one of the major developing countries,” Mr Mitcheson-Low said.

“They do have very strong local design offices but not necessarily the latest cutting-edge thinking behind sustainability and other issues, so where we come in is we’re bringing that design knowledge.”

Australian institute of Architects WA chapter president Rod Mollett said there was a multitude of international opportunities for WA architects in Asia, based around leveraging sustainable building knowledge, prefabricated building techniques and specialty projects such as education or hospitals.

Mr Mollett recently returned from a Department of State Development trip to China to assess what opportunities exist for WA-based construction and architecture businesses.

“Western Australian architects really do have something to sell,” Mr Mollett said.