5 minutes with Peter Gianguilio

Join us for five minutes with Peter Giangiulio, one of Carabiner’s inaugural Directors, well known for his dedication to delivering public architecture that aligns with and supports its users – from primary school students beginning their learning journey, to the minerals and resources industry of WA.


Are you excited for the next chapter, and your upcoming retirement from architecture?

Oh, I'm excited. I am certainly very excited, but I'm of course, also a bit melancholy. My architectural career, and in particular my own role as mentor within Carabiner has been a significant, important and very enjoyable part of my life. And, while I'm looking forward to new adventures, I'll certainly leave this place with a bit of sadness. But, that sadness is tempered by the fact that I think about Carabiner as an organisation, and the people who make up Carabiner, led by David Karotkin, as one of the proudest achievements of my career.

I leave it with confidence, confidence that it will go on to be bigger and better, and better serve its clients going forward. I’m certain of that.

Are there some memorable projects that come to mind?

If I think back over the projects, and clients that stand out to me over the years, in the early 2000’s we were lucky enough to win a project that involved the master planning and refurbishment of three very important metropolitan recreation camps in Western Australia; Ern Halliday, Point Walter and Woodman Point.

The process of delivering those camps, and in meeting the people who ran that organization was a very enjoyable experience, and one that's led to an ongoing involvement 25 years later. We are still involved with the legacy that they now hold.

As recently as last week I received a phone call from the manager of Point Walter, interested in my advice in moving forward with some master planning. That phone call, and that trust over two decades later gave me a lot of pride.

Whatever the nature of the client and the people involved, the enjoyable part of the architectural process is getting to know them, getting to know who they are, getting to know the people who they service, in the buildings that we design. That’s fascinating.

It makes my job as an architect and a designer more interesting because I get to understand in great detail, some of the various passions people have in their working lives, and to help them - through better buildings - deliver those services and those passions.

Another good example of that, and it's a little bit of an unusual one, is a project and relationship that has stretched over almost the entirety of my career and time with Carabiner.

In the early 2000’s, we received a commission to master plan and deliver two drill core libraries, one in metropolitan Perth in Carlisle, and one in Kalgoorlie. In the design and delivery of the project, I learnt a great deal about the process of geology and mining, the mining industry and exploration here in Australia, what geologists do and how important it is to the state.

They are essentially libraries for rocks, but hugely important libraries. Particularly in the context of the importance of mining in Western Australia.

As I said before, the success of those two initial projects, both the master plan and the eventual execution of both of them led, 10 and 15 years later to the major expansion of both those facilities and, even more recently to discussion regarding master planning and future planning for how those very important facilities might be improved going forward in the future - given their importance to this state and its economy.

As a result of my involvement with these projects, I was approached by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and was lucky enough to make a trip to India where I was invited as a consultant at Oil India to talk about those projects. They were very interested in developing a similar project for a similar purpose in India for their very large, mineral and oil exploration industry.

Has there been any specific feedback from clients, stakeholders or users that has really resonated with you?

The feedback I've had from the geology and mining industry regarding the core libraries and their importance. The recognition nationally and internationally as the best examples of what they are.

That's given me great pride, because it means the people who use them are finding them very effective,  very supportive of their requirements. The feedback I'm getting from the department itself is the huge demand created by the completion of these projects.

The client’s expectation that once the facilities were built and their purpose, it was a case of build it and they will come. And now they have – they are filling up with drill core at an expanding rate, and even more successful than the experts expected them to be.

State Netball Centre is also a project that gives me great pride.

It was master planned right in the middle of a very busy netball centre in the middle of Jolimont.

Hundreds of netballers and their parents and their cars every Saturday morning. In the middle of that, we landed the iconic State Netball Centre. The headquarters and peak body of netball and of course, the training and administrative headquarters of the West Coast Fever.

The project’s success, how well an elite sport facility is set so comfortably within the community facility that surrounds it has also been given me great satisfaction, because that was an objective of our stakeholder consultation, our master planning and eventually the delivery of that project.

As it happens, at the time we were delivering that project and shortly after, my daughter was in netball stage of her life and, I spent a lot of time in and around that building both as a user and as an architect.

You've worked on a broad variety of typologies. Is there any one design principle that's been a through-line in your work?

My philosophy is that design and architecture is not about arrogance.

Some architects may say ‘everyone just leave us to do what we do’. That's not my view. And it's not Carabiner’s view. My pleasure is delivering bespoke public buildings for a very specific purpose. My joy is getting to know the people and getting to know what those buildings are for - and the people who will use them, and then delivering design outcomes that that meet those objectives.

Of course, I will say I enjoy bringing design skill to that solution and delivering extraordinary architecture, but I don't think that one can exist without the other. I think understanding the needs of our clients, and the broader community is essentially how I mark the success of some of the projects that I've been lucky enough to be involved in.

You've had a long and successful career in public architecture. Is there any advice you would give to someone hoping to succeed in the industry?

That’s a great question. I've been approached by architecture students and young people during the journey, people who are considering studying architecture have asked my advice.

There is a tendency in our profession to be cynical about the challenges of architecture as a career. Challenges of budgets, the challenges of risk, the challenge of not being able to deliver as you wish to deliver, because of the various restrictions that govern everything, every important built project.

But I'd like to cut through that - because beyond that, it is a rewarding and fabulous profession where the legacy of your working life is built projects. You have added to the community that you're a part of in a very permanent, and important way.

Over the journey we've delivered many fantastic primary schools for Western Australia and, to see the kids arrive, on the first day or even at the opening day ceremony.. it is a joy to watch how those buildings truly come alive when people start to occupy them.

We’ve been lucky enough to receive some very joyful, sincere references from the principals of some of those schools that we've opened. The fact that people, unsolicited, have taken time to write such glowingly positive comments has also, has also given me great, great joy and validation.

It’s important to keep in mind the importance of what we do, for the community we live in.

And it is absolutely, it is absolutely all worth it.

The technical, financial or legal challenges - they're all real, but they make architecture what it is. We're not painting beautiful pictures on a canvas. We are creating important infrastructure, which represents a very significant public investment in the built environment. It’s a very serious responsibility to deliver that with professionalism.

Do you have any predictions as to how primary school design might change in the next few decades?

I think education, and the world in general, is a predominantly digital world. Obviously, education will continue to evolve in the future as it has evolved in the past.

The key has always been as much as possible to stay ahead of that evolution, but also understand the flexibility required. We live in a world that changes very rapidly, and to be aware and agile to the flexibilities of things we can predict and things that we can't predict is an increasingly important part of educational architecture, as is the overarching view of sustainability.

Primary schools are occupied by primary school children between the hours of 9.00am and 3.30ish. What an amazing opportunity that is for those buildings to be utilized outside those hours by the broader community. Particularly in a rapidly growing city like Perth, where often the very first piece of public infrastructure built within the expanding suburbs is the primary school.

I feel it's incumbent on designers to recognize that, the responsibility and that opportunity and to make sure that it is fulfilled. And then in fulfilling it, it will augment the quality of that school in its original purpose as a primary school. The more connected the school is with the community, the better an educational outcome that will deliver.

If you were to wind back your career back to the very start, is there anything that you would be doing if you weren’t an Architect?

I think the broader idea of planning and communities.. I think I would have pursued an early interest in the broader planning of towns and communities as architecture becomes the infill.

The broader picture of how communities are planned and developed. I would have also loved to have been involved in that, in that aspect of urban planning and design.

What’s next for Peter Giangiulio?

Because it's been such a dominant part of my life for 30 years, I think I do need to take some time when I'm not practicing as an architect, and in particular the director of an architectural firm to just to look at the world around me.

Then to see where my interests take me, keeping my mind involved and my interest in the community that I live in active - because that's really where I get my enjoyment. I would like to stay involved and aware of what's going on around me and how my built environment is changing, even if I'm not directly an active participant in that process.