27 April 2009

As part of the City Thinking: Architecture Talks series, UQ's School of Architecture will host a lecture by Melbourne architect Howard Raggatt on April 28 at 6pm in the Abel Smith Lecture Theatre, St Lucia.

The Architecture Talk series coordinator Peter Skinner describes Howard Raggatt as "one of this country’s most challenging and provocative architects".

The website of Melbourne-based architects Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM) opens with the blunt statement, "Not For Everyone".

The major works of ARM have always divided public opinion and generated passionate discussion. RMIT's Storey Hall, the National Museum in Canberra, the Marion Cultural Centre in Adelaide and the Albury Library are complex and visually confronting buildings but all have received the highest accolades of critics and the profession.

The extensions to the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance and master-planning projects for Melbourne Docklands and Perth Waterfront are works at the broad urban scale. Their most recently completed works, the Melbourne Theatre Company and the Melbourne Recital Centre, have already been widely acclaimed.

Steve Ashton, Howard Raggatt and Ian McDougall have been at the centre of architectural culture and debate for 30 years, and have generously contributed to education and the profession in Australia and internationally through exhibitions, publications and public lectures.

In 1993, Howard Raggatt LFRAIA was appointed the first Adjunct Professor of Architecture at RMIT in 1993 where he developed the new Masters course in Urban Design.

Media: Peter Skinner on 0421 456 526 or p.skinner@uq.edu.au or Kirstie Galloway on (07) 3365 3537 or k.galloway@uq.edu.au for further information