Ladies and gentlemen, design enthusiasts, and those who appreciate the transformative power of architecture and property development, we are excited to welcome you to Future Talks by RTF, where we engage in thought-provoking conversations with the pioneers who breathe life into design stories.
Today, we have the distinct pleasure of introducing you to one such pioneer – Warwick Mihaly, a passionate advocate for the intersection of good design and entrepreneurship. His journey takes us through challenging environments with complex sites and diverse stakeholders, where innovation and creativity thrive.
Warwick’s commitment to the Australian architecture profession is unwavering. He has held influential roles, such as past director of ArchiTeam, and currently, he serves as a committee member and mentor with the Australian Institute of Architects. Furthermore, his insights have made their mark in academia as a guest speaker for the University of Melbourne and the Association of Consulting Architects.
What truly sets Warwick apart is his unique perspective on the world of architecture and design, which he shares with a broad audience through various platforms. He is the author of Panfilo, a blog that has become a beacon for architects seeking business wisdom. Additionally, Warwick co hosts ‘In Detail,’ a captivating podcast that offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes of creative business ventures, shedding light on the untold stories of the industry.
Beyond his professional pursuits, Warwick finds solace in the practice of yoga and, in a quirky twist, indulges in a hobby that involves buying LEGO sets, which he humorously pretends are for his children.
Today, we are honored to delve into the mind of this visionary, as he shares his insights and experiences in a conversation that promises to bring design stories to life. Join us as we embark on a journey of creativity, innovation, and the ever-evolving world of design with Warwick.
RTF: Hi Warwick, We are glad to have you as a guest on Future Talks by RTF. Thanks for joining us. What are some challenging aspects of being an architect that aren’t commonly talked about? And how has time reshaped them?
Warwick: My partner, Erica Slocombe and I, wanted to establish our own architecture studio as long ago as our university days, but we could never have imagined how challenging it would be to successfully run and grow a business for almost fourteen years. Our studies didn’t prepare us to be good financial managers, negotiate with clients, deliver projects on time, lead a team of architects, nurture our team in their careers, the list goes on. I feel architects are very good at talking about design, but not so good at talking about the businesses or workflow processes that underpin it.
I think there should be a lot more of this, and less secrecy around things like marketing, client acquisition, human resources etc. There are some good organisations in Australia working on this agenda (ArchiTeam, the Association of Consulting Architects and Parlour to name a few) and is the subject of my work with Panfilo and In Detail.
RTF: How do collaborative efforts shape a project? What is working with your Partner Erica Slocombe like?
Warwick: Every single one of my projects is a collaborative exercise, not just with Erica, but with ourteam, our consultants, builders and especially our clients. It’s funny how university typically sets up scenarios for design projects where you’re assessed on your individual merit, but then you hit the workplace and realise that never happens, that every single project is the consequence of many people’s input.
I would say collaboration is essential to the success of Mihaly Slocombe’s projects. I can see it clearly in our portfolio and the way each project has its own aesthetic, functionality and vibe. We see ourselves as design experts, guides and facilitators, but not dictators: we actively want our projects to reflect the personalities of the people who provide input into their development.
RTF: How rewarding have the last 14 years been for you working at your own architecture firm Mihaly Slocombe Architecture?
Warwick: I genuinely can’t imagine having spent the last fourteen years doing anything else. Running our own studio has been an incredibly steep learning curve, with plenty of challenges along the way, but very rewarding personally. I enjoy the position of being both an architect and business leader, with my head in both worlds.
It has been a particularly good match to nurturing a family. Erica (who is my partner in life as well as business) and I had our first child not long after we started Mihaly Slocombe and now share the loads of business and parenting evenly. Our kids are in primary school currently, with after-school activities pretty much every day of the week. Life is a supreme juggling act, I really don’t know how we’d do it if we were in salaried positions.
So the flexibility has been great. But the real challenge of running a small business has been making money. A lot of architects don’t ever manage it. Scaling an architecture studio is one way to achieve this, or carving out a niche where you only work for the ultra rich is another. But most small studios are a tough gig. Mihaly Slocombe has allowed us to balance work with family in a way that working in a corporate environment never could, the ongoing challenge is for it to convert the hard work of many years into financial rewards too.
RTF: What are the changes in the Australian Architectural and Design landscape that also mirror Global changes or vice-versa and how do you look at it?
Warwick: Hmm, it’s hard enough focussing on our local context that thinking global just feels too big sometimes! I would say that some clear consistencies between Melbourne and the world are challenges around climate change, supply chain shortages brought on by COVID and the war in Ukraine, subsequent increases in construction costs and shortages of good staff.
That said, we’re discovering to our delight that Australia still manufactures a lot of high quality, sustainable products. Incorporating these into our projects allows us to address a lot of the global challenges I mentioned above by thinking local. More locally-sourced stone, bricks, timber, glass, tapware, light fittings, joinery panels, laminates, pinboards etc. are doing great things for the ecological footprints of our projects and reducing supply chain challenges as well.
RTF: How do you look at the work beyond designing for young architects, such as involvement in publishing, handling media and building an online presence?
Warwick: I’m not sure I understand this question, I’m sorry.
If you mean should young architects get involved in other endeavors beyond the strictures of a typical job, than I say yes. Your 20s and early 30s are an excellent opportunity to establish a pattern of extracurricular activity. Establish a presence in the world, get involved in local advocacy efforts, meet people, write articles for journals. These are good things in and of themselves, but will also pay dividends for your career in the long run too.
RTF: What do you think of building a social media presence for architects? How important is it and what does it demand from the architects who choose to do it all on their own?
Warwick: Developing an engaging social media presence is an increasing challenge for architects I think, the algorithms are not what they used to be! Mihaly Slocombe is lucky to have a decent number of followers on Instagram, but keeping them engaged sometimes feels like keeping a hungry and very picky monster constantly fed! Our audience rewards us for new content but punishes us for recycling anything they might have seen before. Which means maintaining our online presence is very demanding.
We’ve commissioned a marketing consulting to help us with some of this, but even still it’s a lot of work. We spend a huge amount of time each year on marketing, hundreds and hundreds of hours. I certainly don’t think we’ve found the right balance yet.
RTF: What advice would you give to emerging architects who are looking to increase their chances of getting their work published? Are there any specific resources or platforms that you would recommend for architects seeking publication opportunities?
Warwick: You have to hustle hard, and be prepared for rejection. Fourteen years in, with established contacts at journals that have published our work before, and we still find it hard. So the pain of trying to get that great new renovation out there somehow is still very fresh in mind!
We prepare a marketing campaign for every finished project, with tiers of projects ordered by priority and reach. Then we go through the list, reaching out to them in turn. It can take many months to get through it all, often with many emails rewarded with nothing but silence. But we keep at it, and we generally find ourselves in a position to place each project somewhere.
RTF: What kind of attention do you give to the ‘community’ in conceptualising a project? How do pragmatism and subjectivity go hand-in-hand in it?
Warwick: This depends on the project. For a small residential renovation, what you refer to as the “community” might be limited to a consideration of street engagement or heritage preservation in our design process. That said, even for a family home, our clients are still members of their own community and have stories to share.
For a school or public building, the community is absolutely central to our design process. Here we will actively seek engagement with community members via briefing workshops to inform our designs.
Across all our projects, the more carefully we’re able to listen to our clients and stakeholders, the better we think our designs will be. For instance, we’re currently working with a primary school on the outskirts of Melbourne to develop a masterplan for their campus. I’m pleased to say that the masterplan is not at all like what we had first envisaged for the school, but has been wonderfully influenced by briefing and iterative design input from the school. The design has been a truly collaborative effort.
RTF: What’s your take on AI and architecture/design?
Warwick: I follow a couple of great architects exploring the limits of AI and architecture, and I love the output emerging from their experiments. But it’s unclear still how this will translate to spaces that people will be able to build and inhabit.
On the one hand, I think lots of people are getting very excited about AI without thinking carefully enough about its dangers, but on the other hand there have been heaps of technological developments in the past that have seemed huge at the time and have ended up being not so big deals. CAD, BIM and VR have all had their time in the sun, I guess now it’s AI’s turn. Ask me again in five years!
RTF: How do you foresee architecture and design to transform in the coming years?
Warwick: I’m not sure there will necessarily be huge transformations in architecture over coming years so much, more evolutions along pathways that are already underway. I think as a whole the profession is going to become more environmentally sustainable, more gender diverse, and will probably have to come to terms with AI settling into our daily lives in one way or another.
RTF: Who has been your inspiration throughout your architectural journey?
Warwick: Good question. My sources of inspiration have come from two main places over the years, neither of which are what you might think of as classical answers to this question.
The first group come from the books I’ve read in the startup, tech and business worlds, which I’ve found fascinating for as long as we’ve been in business. People like Stephen Covey, Ed Catmull, Steve Jobs and Tony Faddell. Creative people who have built incredible things and shared their stories along the way.
The second group come my close group of peers, with whom I’ve shared the journey of developing our business and look up to as class acts in their own businesses. There’s Erica of course, who is so strong in any number of areas that I’m not, and there are my podcast cohosts Mick Moloney and Kate FitzGerald, who are badass architects and businesspeople that I admire deeply.
