There was a time when many of the public institutions of the state were designed and supervised by a government architect’s office, or a public works department. But in the recent decades of diminished public works and the privatisation of government agencies, the government architect’s office has gone from being a provider of architecture to an advocate of quality design and intelligent urban policy. This panel will bring together a range of positions—local, national and international—to review and debate the role of the government architect. 

The panel includes Ian Gilzean, Scottish government architect; Jill Garner, acting Victorian government architect; John Denton, former Victorian government architect; and Helen Lochhead, assistant NSW government architect. The panel will be moderated by Andrew Mackenzie, director of the architecture competitions organiser CityLab and of the architecture publishing house URO Media.