Professor Ian McDougall

Biography/ Background

Professor Ian McDougall is a practising architect, writer and teaching in architecture with 30 years experience in the industry. He began architecture at Adelaide University in the early 1970s, completing his degree in Melbourne.

 

He is a founding and current director of Ashton Raggatt McDougall, a national practice, that has established an international reputation for cutting edge architectural design. Since its formation in 1988, the firm has completed significant and influential projects, such as the National Museum of Australia, Canberra and the master planning of Melbourne Docklands. Ian’s interests are in architectural design as a cultural discipline both in individual buildings, evidenced in projects such as Marion Cultural Centre, Shrine of Remembrance and the Melbourne Recital Centre / MTC Theatres Complex, and evidenced in urban design, as in the Docklands work. He is an experienced urban designer, with a knowledge based on measured studies of the street, lane and arcade systems of Melbourne and Sydney. In the area of retail planning, he has compiled case study layouts of typical major retail centres in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

 

He has written critical essays and reviews for a wide range of journals and newspapers. He was cofounder and long term editor of Transition Magazine, a past editor of Architect Victoria and of Architecture Australia.

 

He has been teaching since 1982, beginning by taking Architectural History at RMIT. Since then, he has taught Design at RMIT (currently Adjunct Professor of Architecture) and University of Western Australia (visiting Professor 1992), with guest sessions at University of Sydney, Deakin University and University of Melbourne. He is a regular speaker at conferences, most recently as a keynote at the New Zealand Institute of Architects conference and the RAIA “Exchange” National Conference (both 2005).

 

He was President of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (Victoria) in 2000-02 and also national treasurer of the RAIA twice. He is currently a board member of the Venice Biennale Committee. In 2003 he was awarded a Centenary Medal for his contribution to Australian Architecture.

 

 

 

Awards & Achievements

Architecture Awards 1995 - now

 

2008

Albury Library Museum, Albury, NSW                                                                      

AIA National Award for Public Architecture

AIA Vic Chapter Public Architecture Award

AIA Regional Prize (Vic)

2007

Westernport House, Somers, Vic                                                                               

South East Development Award Best Residential Building

2006

Melbourne Central, Melbourne Vic                                                                           

Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design, National RAIA

RAIA Vic Chapter Commercial Architecture

Melbourne Prize

2004

Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne, Vic     

Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design, National RAIA

RAIA Victorian Architecture Medal

RAIA Vic Chapter John George Knight Heritage Award                                        

RAIA Vic Chapter William Wardell Award Institutional

Melbourne Prize,

2002

Marion Cultural Centre      

RAIA S.A. Chapter New Buildings

1997

Victorian Arts Centre Corporate Lounges     

RAIA Vic Chapter Marion Mahoney Award Interiors

1996

RMIT Storey Hall, Melbourne, Vic   

RAIA Victorian Architecture Medal

RAIA Vic Chapter Institutional Alterations and Additions

RAIA Vic Chapter Interior Architecture

ProMedicus Offices, Richmond Vic

RAIA (Vic Chapter) Commercial

1995

St Kilda Town Hall and Library, St Kilda, Vic

RAIA Vic Chapter Institutional Alterations and Additions

RAIA Vic Chapter Interior Architecture

 

 

 

Teaching Interests

Ian joined the University of Adelaide in 2007 and teaches in urban design and architectural design, with some participation in theory and history.

 

Ian is a believer in the capacity of architects to create meaningful designs through ideas and speculations generated from cultural readings and imagery. He teaches students in the design studio to combine the potential of creativity with the reality of actual building and urban projects. He believes that the creative experimentation and exploration designers undertake through the design process constitutes research, to be assessed, evaluated and built upon as a body of knowledge.

Publications

Selected Essays

 

Murray, Shane, McDougall, Ian and Raggatt, Howard, “Interview” Architecture Review Australia 108, December 2008, pp 57-67

McDougall, Ian, “Why Architecture Matters 1”, Architecture Australia, January/February 2007

McDougall, Ian, ‘Designing Docklands’, Waterfront spectacular: creating Melbourne Docklands, the people’s waterfront, ETNCOM, Roseville NSW, 2005, pp. 76–7

McDougall, Ian, ’10 lessons from Corrigan: a tribute from Ian McDougall on the occasion of the AS Hook address’, Architecture Australia, November/December 2003

McDougall, Ian, ‘Halfway to anywhere: working on Australian cities’, TAKE 1: Urban Solutions: Future Proposals for the Australian City, Rob McGauran (ed.), Melbourne 2002

McDougall, Ian, ‘Chasing modernism’, outside inside out inside outside in, Garry Emery, Images, Mulgrave 2002 pp. 50–1

McDougall, Ian, ‘Delirious town’, Luna Park and the art of mass delirium (exhibition catalogue), Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne 1998 pp. 33–5

McDougall, Ian, '5 Projects: Ashton Raggatt McDougall', Backlogue: the Journal of the Halftime Club, 1992, pp. 154–175

McDougall, Ian, 'Dispersion and the encyclopedic: towards new techniques for the city', Backlogue: the Journal of the Halftime Club, Melbourne 1992, pp. 34–41

McDougall, Ian, 'Melbourne vitalism: revisited drawings of architecture from the 1950s and 60s' (Architext catalogue curated by Ian McDougall), RAIA Victoria, 17 January 1987

 

Professional Associations

B Arch, M Arch RMIT Melbourne

Life Fellow, Australian Institute of Architects

Registered Architect, Victoria and South Australia

Entry last updated: Tuesday, 26 May 2009