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 as Michael’s – along with Donaldson and Warn, Odden Rodrigues, Louise St John Kennedy and Bernard Seeber – were smaller and tackling more modest projects than their predecessors, but re-energising the design foundations of the city. The prolific outsider was Brian Klopper – polymath, autodidact and a visionary of sorts who produced inventive, self-built, economic but romantic work. Brian had rejected his modernist tendencies and sought to update the mannered work of George Temple-Poole. Even today, Michael recognises the presence of Brian in his early work.
Regional design knowledge, and how it’s held in location as a series of continuums, is so often left in the custodianship of small and loosely bound (or even non-aligned) minorities of thoughtful practitioners. In the early period of Michael’s practice, Brian’s influence was palpable in the use of decoration, pattern and motif, which had previously been banished by the modern project as insubstantial, unnecessary and “dishonest.”
I was studying with Dimmity Walker when she entered Michael’s practice in 1993 on a mandatory program of six months’ work experience. She was the daughter of a recognised artist. The shortfall in our abilities when compared to hers was obvious. Dimmity was making refined work including exquisite scale models using fine piano wire (welded using a dentistry welder), wax layers and tissue paper. Her first built project in the practice was in 1993 when Cafe 130 (now demolished) was realised for client Stuart Lofthouse. This was a clear extension of Michael’s body of work to date – warmly and diffusely lit, a collection of curated but eclectic elements, with handmade soft furnishings, and built-in and loose furniture designed and fabricated locally.
Closely following this in 1995 was Fourteen 7 (also since demolished), a restaurant across the road from Cafe 130 in Leederville. The fitout established a discernible evolution in the practice’s aesthetic base, from that of the single author – “Patroni” – to the partnership of “Dimmity and Michael.” Fourteen 7 was a sharp minimalist noodle bar with a single, long table at its centre, placed inside a stage-set-like frame that was itself suspended within a larger tenancy. From this point, Dimmity and Michael formed an enduring collaboration that was cemented in 2000 when the practice evolved into Spaceagency Architects. Since that time, the output of projects crucial to the design culture of the city has only increased – Barista, the Alex Hotel, Bread in Common, the Republic of Fremantle, Strange Company, the adaptation of the former state buildings, and the Premier Mill Hotel (in the Wheatbelt town of Katanning) to name a handful. Dimmity’s prodigious talent as a manipulator of matter has met Michael’s skill in crafted making and deep knowledge of construction, ensuring the practice has consistently evolved its creative territory. Today, the practice is led by Michael, Dimmity and Tobias Busch, who has been part of the Spaceagency team since 2012 and became a director in 2024.
Article for Houses Magazine
Words by Simon Pendal
Photography by Robert Frith, Jack Lovel, Ridhwaan Moolla
