Founded in 1984, the practice of Michael Patroni Architect quickly became recognised as a small but substantial design force in Perth. This was a time when the local profession seemed to be recovering from a downturn in creativity following a previous era of immense productivity. The 1960s and ’70s had been dominated by names such as Hawkins and Sands, Forbes and Fitzhardinge, Cameron Chisholm and Nicol, Howlett and Bailey, Brand Deykin and Hay, Summerhayes and Associates, and Ferguson Architects, who, in their own ways, had brought modernism to Perth and overseen its revision, particularly regarding material and climate responsiveness. Some of these firms were still producing memorable work into the 1980s, but most had changed guise or just about run out of creative puff.
In the mid ’80s, practices such…
