LOOKING beyond buildings purely as bricks and mortar, Canberra architect Erin Hinton not only pictures a bright future for the architecture industry but is the industry’s bright future.

Hinton was recently awarded the Australian Institute of Architects Emerging Architect Prize for the ACT and will contest, along with the six other state winners, for the National Emerging Architect Prize in April.

Hinton is not only a practising architect but an academic – she convenes and lectures for the Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Interior Architecture at the University of Canberra and is herself completing a PhD in urban design, where she is exploring the conditions of contemporary cities using Canberra as a case study.

She was also the curator of the Young.Hot.Canberra exhibition at the Gallery of Australian Design, which will be back in 2017, and has collaborated with glass artist Blanche Tilden to produce a series for the Glass x Design Exhibition at the Canberra Glassworks.

Hinton strays away from more traditional approaches to architecture through her collaborative practice, Hinton Architects.

Depending on the scope of the project, she handpicks the team she thinks will suit it best, from interior designers, industrial designers, textile artists, ceramicists, graphic designers and street artists, in the hope the results are something that has never been seen before.

“I think architecture, like lots of different industries now, is facing changes and if we can’t accommodate those changes, architecture will become irrelevant,” Hinton says.

“It’s looking at architecture style that’s broader than just a building, an isolated building that’s potentially built because it looks good aesthetically or gives someone a sense of identity.

“I think it’s more than that. We need to understand that architecture must encompass a whole range of social and cultural issues.”

Hinton’s work can already be seen across Canberra. Her built works include Mocan and Green Grout (NewActon), ONA on the Lawns (Manuka) and various works throughout the NewActon Precinct in A. Baker and Peppers Gallery Hotel.  

She also played a part in the successful Braddon redevelopment as seen in her built works Palko Apartments and Unit Concepts.

Hinton believes the success of Braddon’s redevelopment can be achieved in other areas throughout Canberra.

“Occasionally, when I go to working groups [for new Canberra developments or masterplans] or I hear clients say: ‘What we need to do here is Braddon, we need to do another Braddon here’. I feel like saying:  ‘We don’t need to do another Braddon here. It was a very special set of circumstances that led to Braddon  being Braddon. So what you need to do is Woden here because you are Woden or you need to do Kingston here because you are Kingston’.

“I always say that it’s really important to leave some room in Canberra for the unplanned to happen so we don’t get so obsessed with this plan or this legacy of Canberra that we don’t leave room for the unplanned because, in a way, that’s where the interesting stuff happens.”

She also has high hopes for keeping women in the industry, something that she is already instilling in the next crop of architects – her students.

“What we need to do is make the more alternative pathways in architecture,” Hinton says.

“I think that that would have a great effect on women getting back into the industry after they’ve had children because, at the moment, the biggest drop off for males and females is at the time when they are having children and we don’t see those women necessarily come back into the industry.

“We could think about some alternative pathways for women or fathers, that’s not necessarily sitting in the office 9-5 in the same capacity or same roles that are considered conventional or traditional.

“For my students, I started a little series of talks where I got graduates who had graduated from architecture but had moved into allied fields.

“We had an animator that worked for Pixar come back. That animator took how we teach digital drawing and went into animation and took it one step further.

“We have people who do film clips for people or work in museums and galleries as curators.

“Game design is another one. It was just showing that you have the skills to do these other things as well.”