30 Women, 30 Careers: Celebrating Diversity
Career — Architect
The Architect represents the woman who transforms imagination into the built environment. Architectural forms emerge from and surround her figure, expressing the journey from an initial idea to the creation of spaces in which people live, work and connect.
An architect brings together creativity, technical knowledge and an understanding of people, space and structure to design the built environment.
Architecture begins with an idea, but transforms through drawing, modelling, problem-solving and countless decisions before becoming a physical space.
The architectural buildings surrounding and emerging from the figure symbolise the many layers of an architect’s work — from the first spark of an idea and the conceptual drawing through to the creation of spaces in which people live, work and connect.
The architectural forms placed around her body suggest that architecture is not separate from the architect, but grows from her thoughts, knowledge, creativity and vision.
The small architectural model held in her hands represents the process of designing, considering and refining an idea. It reflects the architect’s constant process of making decisions — testing possibilities, solving problems and shaping an imagined space into something that can eventually be built.
The buildings rising above her head represent the imagination that precedes every creation. They suggest the ability to envision something that does not yet exist and to hold that vision in the mind before it becomes reality.
The sculpture explores the relationship between woman, imagination and the built environment, celebrating architecture as both a technical profession and a creative act.
This sculpture carries a particularly personal meaning for me because architecture has been a significant part of my own professional life.
My years practising as a registered architect taught me to see the relationship between people, space and structure — and to understand that the built environment is not simply about walls, roofs and materials, but about the lives that take place within them.
The architect represented here is therefore not only a professional figure. She represents the creative thinker, problem-solver and visionary who imagines possibilities and gradually transforms them into something tangible.
Her body becomes a meeting point between thought and physical form, reflecting the way an architect’s ideas can ultimately shape the spaces and environments around us.
The small architectural model held in her hands represents the process of designing. It symbolises the early stages of an idea — considering possibilities, testing forms, refining decisions and transforming an abstract concept into something that can be examined and developed.
The architectural forms surrounding her body represent the many ideas, decisions and layers of knowledge that contribute to an architect’s work. They appear to grow from the figure, suggesting that architecture is an extension of the architect’s imagination and creative thinking.
The buildings rising above her head symbolise imagination and vision — the ability to conceive something before it exists. They represent the moment when an idea exists first in the mind, before it becomes a drawing, model and eventually a built environment.
From behind, the building above the head and the stencilled medallion across the back.
The relationship between the figure and the buildings is deliberately intertwined. Architecture is not presented as something she simply produces. Instead, it emerges from her and surrounds her, suggesting that her knowledge, creativity and professional identity have become inseparable from the spaces she imagines.
The sculpture was hand-built from stoneware clay, allowing the architectural elements and the human figure to develop together as a single composition.
Testing the idea early, with a model house set on the head.
The challenge was to maintain the recognisable presence of the woman while integrating multiple architectural forms around and above her body.
The process reflects the same relationship between imagination and structure explored within the concept of the work: an idea must continually be tested, adjusted and refined before it can become a resolved form.
Finished — fired & glazed
This piece is awaiting its bisque and glaze firing. Finished photographs will be added here once it comes out of the kiln.
For enquiries about pricing or to commission a piece, please contact lee.anchor@optusnet.com.au.