Stuart Vokes & Aaron Peters
The two of us
Aaron Peters (left) and Stuart Vokes at their studio in Brisbane, Australia. Photo: Alanna Jayne McTiernan
Interview by Janne Ryan | Photography by Alanna Jayne McTiernan & Christopher Frederick Jones
Architects Stuart Vokes and Aaron Peters believe in the power of collaboration. Their key to creating spaces and houses of depth and delight is listening to their clients’ stories and designing the narrative around them. In their hands, a great story becomes a great building.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE ARCHITECTURE?
Stuart: I was always interested in being a part of something, partly in terms of personal identity, and partly to do something meaningful.
Aaron: Admittedly, I applied for architecture with little conviction. It wasn’t until I wandered over to the architecture studios at university (Queensland University of Technology) and saw the models and drawings that I realised this might be something I could be passionate about. In retrospect, it’s hard to imagine I could have done anything else.
Auchenflower House by Vokes and Peters. Photo: Christopher Frederick Jones
CHANCE ENCOUNTERS?
Stuart: Soon after graduation I met the talented photographer Jon Linkins who taught me how to think about architecture as an act of composition. I learnt about the difference between detail and manner. Jon was an important mentor in my early graduate years.
Aaron: I think this passes as a chance encounter: I ended up at university because I wanted to live somewhere other than my parents’ house.
Subiaco House by Vokes and Peters. Photo: Christopher Frederick Jones
“When you believe in your own ideas and work, it doesn’t feel like risk-taking.”
Subiaco House by Vokes and Peters. Photo: Christopher Frederick Jones
HOW DID YOU go into practice together?
Aaron: I met Stu when I was a third year student. He was a tutor in my design studio. We talked about our mutual admiration for the architecture of Donovan Hill. I remember riding home after my first day in the office and telling my girlfriend that I was never going to leave.
Stuart: It’s surprisingly difficult to find true comrades in the field. Aaron and I formed a wonderful and productive relationship very quickly. I like his thorough interrogation of ideas. I invited him to help me with a project in my first months of practice in 2003, and we’ve been collaborating ever since. Vokes and Peters was founded in 2015.
Hill End House by Vokes and Peters. Photo: Christopher Frederick Jones
WHAT STRENGTHS DO YOU BRING TO THE PARTNERSHIP?
Stuart: Recently we’ve articulated that the key element of a successful design partnership is not simply shared design knowledge and sensibilities, but also the presence of a caring and proactive critic. We are each other’s best critic, and the work we produce is better as a result. We talk in short hand, but we also aim to disrupt and inspire each other, and problem-solve with aspiration.
Aaron: I’m more conscious of the strengths that Stu brings to our partnership. He’s hardworking, passionate and articulate, but it’s his conviction that allows him to bring others along with him. I’m less certain behind the scenes, so I value having an ally who can be decisive, charismatic and confident. Maybe my role is to offer a productive infusion of doubt, just to keep him on his toes.
Hill End House by Vokes and Peters. Photo: Christopher Frederick Jones
HOW DO YOU FIND CLIENTS? OR, DO THEY FIND YOU?
Aaron: We’ve always attracted clients through our work, and as a result the practice has grown slowly over time. We’ve also tried hard to make work that is principled and embodies a set of values that we aspire to uphold. We seem to attract clients who share similar aspirations, a shared passion for making buildings.
Stuart: We practice with conviction, but also recognise the need to be tenacious and persuasive. We hope our clients and our practice find each other because of that. It’s about certainty and self-belief, not arrogance. It’s about shared story telling.
Hill End House House by Vokes and Peters. Photo: Christopher Frederick Jones
WHAT’s THE ROLE OF STORY TELLING?
Aaron: We rely on this a lot. We ask clients to write stories about themselves, things that inspire them, hobbies, the small details of their daily lives. Then we pitch ideas and explain our designs through our clients’ narratives. I think it’s always more interesting (and flattering) to hear your own story reflected back at you.
“The key to a successful design partnership is… the presence of a caring and proactive critic.”
WHERE DO YOU LIVE, AND WHY?
Stuart: I live in a house with my wife and our three young boys in a fantastic neighbourhood, developed in the mid-1930s, around six kilometres from the centre of Brisbane. We live on a slow street which has enabled my boys to experience the kind of spatial suburban setting of my youth (in the 1970s). It’s about encouraging street play, bike-riding and roaming with local mates.
Aaron: I live in West End about seven minutes’ walk from the studio. In high school I spent three hours a day travelling on a bus, so I never wanted to live outside the inner city if I could help it. I feel really privileged to live where I do. We have a little timber cottage and a big backyard. We know lots of people in the area and love feeling like we’re part of a vibrant community.
Auchenflower House by Vokes and Peters. Photo: Christopher Frederick Jones
YOUR VALUES?
Stuart: We have a collective/shared responsibility and custodianship of a street/neighbourhood/city. We admire the place in which we live and work. There is bountiful creative inspiration and nourishment right in front of us. Ideas are scale-able – small (projects) can be transformative.
Aaron: Preserving open space and recognising the value of natural settings. Upholding our responsibility to enhance the places in which we work, valuing historic fabric, working with old ideas irrespective of whether they’re in fashion or not.
“Resilience is vital, but in the long term, mutual support is more important.”
YOUR GOALS?
Stuart: I’m not sure if I consciously set goals. Every day I rise with enthusiasm for the potential of a day, planned event or design problem-solving.
Aaron: I’d achieved every life goal I’d set myself by my late twenties (lose virginity, buy a stereo, make a building). I’d only added ‘make a building’ to that list since I was about fourteen. These days I’m less about goals, I just want to be a happy, decent kind of human.
Highgate Park House by Vokes and Peters. Photo: Christopher Frederick Jones
HOW DO YOU STAY FOCUSED?
Aaron: We both want to make buildings, it’s our lodestar. It gives us the equilibrium we need to stay on track despite the ups and downs of the process. I work best when I make space for myself to daydream. I find collaboration really stimulating, but I still need time alone with an idea.
Stuart: We’re tenacious and apply energy and enthusiasm across a number of projects simultaneously. We’re also very competitive and driven to meet self-determined project outcomes.
Highgate Park House by Vokes and Peters. Photo: Christopher Frederick Jones
What’s the ROLE OF RISK?
Stuart: I think the client takes risks, and our role as architects is to lead them through that journey. When you believe in your own ideas and work, it doesn’t feel like risk-taking: it feels obvious, maybe even safe.
Aaron: The construction industry seems to be all about managing risk nowadays. I think it’s critical to keep things in perspective and avoid letting excessive caution diminish your optimism. We take considered risks all the time. If we didn’t our work would be pointless.
“I find collaboration really stimulating, but I still need time alone with an idea.”
YOUR COLLABORATIVE CHECKS & BALANCES?
Aaron: Keeping our focus on the buildings. We work with fantastic staff and clients, an it’s important to remind ourselves of these positives, and of what we’ve already achieved by being optimistic. Resilience is vital, but in the long term, mutual support is more important.
Stuart: We don’t set corporate-style KPI’s to measure our performance. Sure we have financial targets to meet as a group, but we prefer to focus on the less tangible things that attracted us to starting this practice. When things feel difficult, we remind each other of the simple joys of practice: sitting at a drawing board with coloured pencils, detail paper and ideas. That hasn’t ever shifted thankfully.
Hillside House by Vokes and Peters. Photo: Christopher Frederick Jones
YOUR HARDEST LESSON?
Stuart: Self-acceptance is the starting point. We are getting better at accepting both our capabilities and limitations. It’s about knowing and admiring who we are. It’s more fun to be ourselves and project that onto everything we do every day, and the buildings that we make.
Aaron: There are lots of hard lessons in practice. Being brave enough to acknowledge problems, talk about them and address them is the hardest part of being an adult / partner / friend / parent.
Architects Stuart Vokes (left) and Aaron Peters. Photo: Alanna Jayne McTiernan
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
Aaron: We’d like to keep making buildings. Different types of buildings, different flavours of buildings. I think we’ve been pretty successful at balancing our working and private lives thus far.
Stuart: The nature of our commissions is shifting from predominantly private homes to a range of public buildings. We are loving the shift in scale and conversation.
