2014 UQ ARCHITECTURE LECTURE SERIES–Kate Luckraft

The 2014 UQ Architecture lecture series is here! This Tuesday 6 May will feature Kate Luckraft from ASPECT Studios.

To get your warmed up for Tuesday night, we asked Kate a few questions about what you can expect to hear from her lecture and what inspires her...

What does a typical day look like for you?

Up at 5.45, pack school lunches, have breakfast, drop kids at school. 8.45 arrive at work. Meetings with clients/design teams/site visits and discussions with ASPECT staff til 5pm. Catch up on emails from 5 – 6. Time to think about projects, do some sketches/mark up drawings 6 – 7.30. Home for dinner and chats with the family. Catch up on news/read/watch a movie/wash dishes. 10.30pm Bed.

What can attendees to your UQ Architecture lecture expect to hear?

Great public places occur when spatial arrangement, program, microclimate, aesthetics and human behaviour combine to create spaces that feel inviting, stimulating, safe and attractive.

This does not usually occur by chance, but through careful consideration of these elements and how they are interrelated.

In this presentation I will outline how ASPECT Studios designs public spaces with these considerations in mind and demonstrate a number of ways in which this approach to design has been applied to create great public places in Sydney.

Some of the projects transformed previously under-utilised public spaces (ie small laneways) through public domain upgrades that included paving, lighting, artworks and furniture. Other projects involve the creation of a new type of space within an existing precinct of the city (ie the Alumni Green at UTS and Darling Quarter in Darling Harbour). The third type of project in the presentation is the re-thinking of an existing public place (MLC Centre plaza) to assist in regenerating a bigger precinct (Martin Place). All of these projects are located within or on the fringe of the CBD of Sydney and have the potential to become destinations in their own right, despite their very different spatial configurations and scales.

Where do you go to get design inspiration?

The work of Beth Gali; Wolfgang Oehme,  Piet Oudulf, Dan Pearson and Carme Pinos; the writing of  Richard Louv, William H Whyte and Jan Ghel and WLA/Landezine/Topos journals.
What are your top 5 favourite design books?

1998, Carme Pinos: some projects since 1991, Actar,  Barcelona

Gehl, Jan, 2011, Life Between Buildings, Using Public Space, Island Press, London

Wyte William H, 1980, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, Edwards Brothers, Michigan

Oehme Van Sweden Rademacher, 1998, Bold Romantic Gardens, Florilegium, Australia

Joris, Yvonne, 1998, Beth Gali 1966 – 1998, Museum Het Kruithuis, Netherlands.

If you weren’t a designer, what would you do?

Be a stone mason

What has been your greatest achievement?

Raising two inquisitive children and working on Darling Quarter (simultaneously!)

Outside of Design, what inspires your work?

watching how people use public spaces; Sydney’s incredible natural landscapes.

Who is your double doppelgänger?

Big Bird