Witnessing how buildings emerge from their foundations and how cities change has been fascinating for architect Nick Lukas since he was a child. While his formative years allowed him to be a bystander to these changes, now, as a director of Architecton, Nick can shape the way these changes occur, both at the micro and macro levels.
Graduating with a Bachelor of Architecture from RMIT University in 2002, the pleasure of ‘nailing’ a design and delivering well beyond what’s expected by a client, still provides Nick with enormous satisfaction even 20 years later.
While the urban landscape has certainly changed over this time, Nick’s formative working years, initially with Billard Leece Partnership (BLP) and later with NH Architecture, set up a framework which is still used a guide today. At a time when 3D computer modelling is the norm, he still starts working on a schematic by drawing on yellow trace floorplans and sections, even though young guns in the office don’t have rulers on their benches. While Nick proceeds to the next design phase with 3D modelling, he sees the pencil and paper as offering the freedom to come up with ideas.
Working at both BLP and NH Architecture also established important foundations to work on large-scale projects, from multi-residential and health to retail and commercial projects. And NH Architecture was where Lukas and Galtieri established both a friendship and the seed to eventually form a practice of their own.
Although Nick focuses on the design outcomes at Architecton, and Daniel on a project’s management and delivery, both roles intersect at various points to ensure the best possible outcome. Having built three homes for himself, Nick is also mindful of the ‘buildability’ of a project. And while yellow trace is still seen as a ‘good friend’, so are the latest innovations, such as his VR goggles that allow him to manipulate spaces and forms in the virtual world.
Unlike many architectural practices whose shingles carry the architect’s name, there was a deliberate decision from the outset to avoid this – hence Architecton not only evoking the foundations of our earliest buildings but alluding to the democracy inherent in this office, where it’s a team effort that brings together some of the brightest and most energetic in this industry.