The work of Dickie Architects in Perth, Western Australia

Most of our work deals with houses, and their style and amount of change come from a creative response to client requirements.

The virtue of the suburbs is their diversity. Every man’s home is his castle, and it is built in the style that he feels most suits him. Of course clients buy an existing house for its location; then they come to us to transform, extend and remodel it. We take equal satisfaction in dramatic alterations that make a house distinctive and in projects that blend with the existing: an invisible extension.

Does this compromise design? Certainly it means that every house has different demands. Some can constrain but others liberate ideas dramatically. Then the form comes from the house’s own needs and imposes itself on clients and architect alike.

We take a pride in working intimately with our clients, expressing their requirements and using whatever design or presentation tools are most appropriate for the circumstances. So we make card models as often as computer equivalents, and we have been known to lay out alterations with pink string pinned to the ceiling. Awareness of space is the stuff of discussion, for layman as much as for professional.