Principal Architect, Tribe Studio Architects
BArch(Hons) (Sydney)
Ms Hannah Tribe addressed graduates from the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building and the UTS Business School in the Great Hall, University of Technology, Sydney on Tuesday 1 October 2013, 10.30am.
Our speaker today is Ms Hannah Tribe.
Hannah is Tribe Studio’s Founder and Principal. She studied architecture at Cornell University and the University of Sydney graduating with First Class Honours and the University Medal. She has also received the Royal Australian Institute of Architects NSW Chapter Prize and prizes for design, history, theory and construction. Before starting Tribe Studio, Hannah worked for award-winning architects in Sydney and New York where she was involved in art museum design, urban design, mid and high-rise residential and high-end houses.
Hannah has taught at a number of universities in Sydney including UTS, teaching design and design communications. She regularly lectures to peers at the Australian Institute of Architects events and to the general public. She is a member of The National Association of Women in Construction and has sat on the NSW Chapter Council of the Australian Institute of Architects. Hannah has been invited as juror on awards panels, including the Australian Institute of Architects Awards and the Interior Designer Excellent Awards.
Hannah has built the reputation of the practice, recognised for design excellence in built and conceptual work in residential, urban design, installation and interiors. The practice currently has a team of six architects working on projects all over Australia and in the UK.
It gives me great pleasure to invite Ms Hannah Tribe to deliver the occasional address.
Speech
Presiding Chancellor Mr Robert Kelly, Presiding Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Booth, Faculty Deans Professor Peter McNeil and Professor Stephen Taylor, staff, distinguished guests, graduates, your families and friends.
I’d like to tell you a story.
It was 2008.
I had been running Tribe Studio for five years. We were a tiny team – just myself and a recent graduate (like yourselves).
We had just started to receive some positive attention for some small projects – a publication here, competition win there and out of the blue, Richard Francis-Jones rang me up to ask me to contribute to the national Architecture Conference.
He was gathering a group of 6 emerging architects from across the country to present future visions of the city of Sydney to a jury panel of 12 international starchitects in front of a huge crowd.
I was terrified.
All my instincts were screaming
“Just say no!
Too hard!
Too easy to fail!
Too easy to fail publicly and memorably in front of the entire profession! Don’t do it
don’t do it
don’t do it.”
So of course I did it.
How did I work up the courage?
I had a glass of wine with an eminent member of the profession: an architect a few years older than I am she gave me some excellent advice that I shall now pass on to you.
She looked me squarely in the eye and said,
“Hannah, you must do 3 things every year that make you feel sick with anxiety or you’re not growing as a professional. Be adventurous. Be bold.”
Her words really resonated with me. It gave me way to reframe fear as a positive – to embrace the terrifying challenge instead of shying away. When something feels too scary, too hard I remember ‘be adventurous. be bold’
You are at the end of one stage of your lives and at the begging of the next. You are leaving the comfort zone of the education system for the great big adventures of your careers. There will be times in your immediate future (job interviews spring to mind) when you will feel sick with anxiety.
Brilliant - they are excellent opportunities to practice boldness.
Virgil famously said ‘Fortune favours the bold’
Emily Dickinson said ‘Fortune befriends the bold,’
Or the erotic poet Ovid, Venus favours the bold….
When you are sitting terrified in the foyer waiting for that interview, and you need to harness you inner-bold you could think of it as Virgil’s luck, Dickinson’s friend and Ovid’s lover.
The two really big, bold moves I have made have been starting my own business at 26 and choosing to keep growing the business while also growing a pair of little boys.
I started Tribe Studio When I was only 2 years out of university.
After graduation, after my own terrifying interview, I had walked into a dream job.
I was working for a small design firm in a gorgeous old Victorian building in the city.
My job was to draw up fabulous designs and build models. That was the architectural part.
As the Junior member of staff I also had to file, mind one partner’s babies, and fetch the other boss a Peppermint Crisp at 3o’clock daily.
The reality of working life was a bit of a come-down. There was the classic transition from big fish small pond to a much bigger pond but the fish stays roughly the same size and the poor old fish feels a bit lost and lonely.
At university, the path is laid out in front of us, the goals are clear and achievements along the way are explicitly defined by exams and grades.
In life after university, there is no right path.
There is no path.
There is not even a next step.
And when you decide to take a step in some direction, there is no one there to say - Hey, nice step you just took! That looked like an HD kinda step to me. Well done.
After 2 years in my job, I acted on a rather adventurous whim.
I quit my job to concentrate on a big painting commission.
And lo, people started to contact me asking for architecture. Within a year, I had a Practice with staff.
At the time, it didn’t strike me as bold.
In Hindsight, I am amazed by the chutzpah of that 26year old Hannah, who didn’t yet know what she didn’t know and took a big step on an unknown path anyway.
I have also reflected upon the astonishing boldness of my university friends.
It’s been only 12 years since we were sitting in your shoes, and I am pleased to report that my cohort has gone on to do amazing and varied things. Our boldness and our wins have not necessarily coincided as we have trodden different career paths, so it is always with pleasure that we celebrated each other’s successes
Jeremy Hughes took me on a site visit when he was project architect on the Carriageworks and I was simply floored by the scale and complexity of the project and his sheer courage for taking it on.
Marcus Trimble has had the get-up-and-go to start the architecture blog supercolossal, found Pecha Kucha in Australia and build a successful practice with Matt.
Matt, Matthew Bennet uprooted his life to Harvard where he studied his masters degree and then uprooted again for Madrid where he worked with Rafael Moneo Before Setting up shop with Marcus.
In the face of overwhelming adversity, Jo Best had the courage and compassion to take on the running of troppo in Darwin. She is working all over the top end, from remotest Arnhem lands to the islands delivering incredible, sustainable work. She also catches her own fish for dinner from her front garden.
It is a pleasure for me to honour my uni friends in some small way here today.
As you reflect on your time at university, it is worth remembering the contribution of your friends to your university success.
But even more importantly today is a powerful symbol of the success and commitment of your families and your teachers. I pay tribute to the people who have helped you through your education for without their generosity this would not be possible.
To conclude, I’ll tell you one last story.
Five years ago, I embarked on another unknown and unknowable adventure. I decided to become a working mother at the helm of growing ship. When I was heavily pregnant I met my friend the architect again… this time for herbal tea.
I asked her how on earth I was going to cope with a baby and a business. Again, she looked me squarely in the eye and said “Hanna you made it through architecture school. You can do anything.”
I’d like to extend that to the design and the business graduates today.
You made it through university
You can do anything.
Be Bold.