Kristen Camacho on Gaudí, Perth and the buildings that stay with you
Kristen Camacho on Gaudí, Perth and the buildings that stay with you
News
06 Mar 2026
Q: If you could send a message back to yourself on your first day designing for the built environment, what would it say?
A: Not knowing everything is part of it. Stay open, ask the questions, be willing to be wrong. And when the nerves kick in, you worked hard to be in that room. You belong there.Q: What did becoming a registered architect teach you about yourself, beyond architecture?
A: Registration wasn’t the finish line. It was the most visible point in a much longer run. This goal had been shaping decisions long before university. What it taught me is that small, consistent efforts actually build something.
A: Tristan and Prasad. Across construction, design, project management, on-site problem solving, they’ve given me real insight at every stage. What’s stayed with me most is that no question was ever too small. They’d always make the time to work through it properly.Q: Now that you’re registered, what kind of projects are energising you most right now?
A: People-centred work, particularly adaptive reuse, social housing, civic and public buildings. The Coolamon Centre for St John WA, the work we’re doing with Development WA, remind me that good architecture has no prerequisite. It should be accessible to everyone who experiences it.
A: The opening of my first building. Watching people inhabit a space that once only existed on paper — that’s a feeling that doesn’t leave you.Q: Dinner with any designer, artist or thinker, who gets the invite?
A: Antoni Gaudí. Someone who saw structure and ornament as inseparable, and never stopped pushing what a building could be.
Q: If budget and approvals weren’t a barrier, what’s a space Perth is missing?
A: The South Fremantle Power Station. My thesis explored its adaptive reuse as a cultural and performing arts hub. After years of conceptual designs, I’d love to see it finally happen. A true Perth foreshore icon.
