Melinda Dodson, FRAIA

by Heather Livingston
Contributing Editor

Summary: When she was inaugurated in May, Melinda Dodson became the second woman and, at 39 years old, the youngest architect ever to head the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. Dodson would like her term as national president to be defined by a commitment to reducing the negative effects on climate that result from design and construction activities.

Educational background
Bachelor of architecture with first class honours, Adelaide University; bachelor of architectural studies, Adelaide University.

Why did you become an architect?
My interest in architecture began with technical drawing and art in high school. As early as age 15, I remember being attracted to the creative process of problem solving.

Who has inspired you in your career?
Frank Lloyd Wright is the architect who has most influenced me. In addition to studying his work more generally, I have built a physical model of Fallingwater and a three-dimensional CAD model.

Most architects wait until later in their careers to run for national office in their representative organizations. Why did you decide to run for president of Institute now?
I am motivated by a concern about climate change. I am championing the need for more sustainable cities and aim to move sustainable architecture into the mainstream by highlighting exemplary sustainable projects by architects.

An interest in wider built environment and construction industry issues over the years led me to serve as the Australian Capital Territory President of our Institute of Architects through 2007 and 2008. During that time, one of my initiatives was a housing affordability competition run jointly with local government. That competition, along with the solutions it offered, profiled starkly the conflicts between suburban sprawl and sustainability and the challenges facing our Australian cities and our housing affordability. Spurred on by this and a desire to contribute further, I successfully stood for the position of national president of the Australian Institute of Architects—the second woman and the youngest candidate to be elected to the role.

American news organizations have reported that Australia is the first industrialized country to experience rapid climate change in the form of severe drought due to greenhouse gas emissions. How is the Institute responding to that threat and what actions do you intend to take as president to reduce the impact of climate change?
I see the convergence of climate change drivers and economic drivers as a real catalyst to change the way we design cities and buildings. We seek “smart growth” of our cities, such as urban infill, which brings homes close to shops, workplaces, services, and entertainment facilities, makes better use of existing infrastructure, and allows healthier transport options, such as foot or cycle power. Our houses today on average are nearly double the size of those in the 1970s, with almost half the number of occupants. The fall in population densities in our neighborhoods has led to a loss of neighborhood amenities, including shopping center and school closures or consolidations, as well as security and safety issues as isolated neighborhood pockets are created.

Australians currently have an average carbon footprint of around 7.7 global hectares (gha) per person compared to our more sustainable target of 1.8 gha. Governments urgently need to raise awareness and offer incentives for more sustainable behaviors. Industry and we, as architects, have a role to play through exemplary sustainable projects that demonstrate the alternatives; however, habit, and certainly that all-too-human unwillingness to sacrifice immediate gain for long-term benefit, drag on the pace of change. Initial capital cost and expenditure, for example, are still primary drivers when purchasing a house, and household operational costs—including heating, cooling, and travel to work—are almost hidden by comparison. The other hidden cost is suburban infrastructure, which we all pay for. Vast extensions to roads and services are ultimately paid for by us. All new and existing buildings must work with our climate, not fight it, and as the trend towards bigger and bigger houses continues, we must ask ourselves: How much is enough? Our Institute is active with many initiatives in the area of climate change and cities including public relations and government advocacy, community buy-in, and technical advisory notes to members on sustainability.

You've said that one of your priorities is to support effective contract and project partnerships. How do you plan to do that?
We recently ran a procurement workshop which highlighted many issues around the procurement of architect services and construction procurement. At the heart of it, we seek contracts that ensure direct communication between the client and architect. Invariably, the brief and design suffer with project structures that separate client and architect.

We also have seen in the past 15 years construction contracts biased toward construction time and cost, with enduring quality suffering. We see the shifting focus to the long-term operation of buildings assisting our arguments for improved long-term building quality. We have seen contracts in the market that shift risk unduly onto the designer. Ironically, this is a somewhat naive approach to a contractual arrangement, as ultimately these contracts tend to be more problematic for both parties. What we require is balanced and fair contracts. Finally, contracts for innovation are needed. Sustainable design often means testing of new technologies, requiring contracts that can accommodate this innovation.

How do you think the international architecture institutes could work more cooperatively for the benefit of their respective members?
During a recent visit to the U.S. to participate in the AIA convention, I took the opportunity to also meet with other AIA chapters, the USGBC, and planning authorities in several cities. I also visited several recently completed LEED™ Platinum buildings. Immediately following, I met in the UK with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) and the government architects CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment). Fortunately, I was able to meet with UIA President Louise Cox in San Francisco and presented a paper on Sustainable Cities to the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) in Washington, D.C. While in London, I was able to join RIBA in congratulating our Dulux Study Tour recipients on their achievement.

This type of exchange enabled me to gather new ideas and reinforce areas where our own Institute is showing leadership by gauging our performance against our professional colleagues and peers overseas. It should be said that the hospitality and generosity extended to me by our colleagues overseas was of a very high standard and a testimony to our strong relationships with kindred associations.

Climate change is a global problem requiring collaboration among our institutes. In the U.S., UK, and Australia there is a call to government to shape market forces around low greenhouse gas emitting businesses and activities, along with city and community design for climate change. Collaboration across our institutes with our submissions to government on the Copenhagen World Treaty is one example.

What do you think is the most critical design issue facing architects of this generation, and why?
Climate change, our understanding of the criticality of sustainable cities, BIM systems, and the interdisciplinary nature of contemporary design practice now—to me—mean we are moving to what I call an “architecture meets science” level of analysis of our architecture. This is very exciting and very necessary but brings with it challenges.

Firstly, successful multi-disciplinary teams don’t just happen. They require active management and monitoring of their effectiveness. The true test of a good multi-disciplinary team is whether each discipline is learning from the next and stretching each other.

Secondly is the management of BIM and GIS models. When we design changes to cities—such as urban densification or an alternate transport route—we can feed data into a 3D model and database and test with rigor our design decisions. So we can analyze carbon emission reductions, predict pedestrian desire lines, and calculate traffic pollutants, thereby giving our clients more powerful information to support their decisions. This is very exciting as it moves architecture from the realm of opinion, experience, and talent to opinion, experience, talent, and more rigorous data analysis, including post occupancy analysis of whether our design has worked. I think a post carbon world demands this.

Lastly, the demands of sustainable design have meant looking at the design problem differently by dismantling the layered complexity of our fossil fuel/industrial age cities. As Peter Head, keynote speaker at the 2009 AIA National Convention put it: “we have made buildings so complicated … Take noise from vehicles [for instance]. We don’t want to hear this in our offices, so we have façades to keep the noise out. That is a fossil-fuel fix. You need loads of energy to create it. Then, having done that, you can’t naturally ventilate the building. So you’ve got to bring in air-conditioning to make it habitable.”