Constructive Dialogue grew out of formative experiences of the directors. Nick’s practice is rooted in four years of travel and development work in Asia. In Papua New Guinea, Nick supported Ken Costigan and David Week’s village-based projects that boosted small scale enterprise. This provided an introduction to the strength of working with living vernacular traditions as outlined in the PNG Village Guesthouse Development Guide to which he contributed. Working with Lumanti on slum development projects in Nepal, Nick then began to develop his own approach to the role of an architect. Guided by Howard Davis, he explored the strength of Christopher Alexander’s pattern languages and participant-observer research as a strong base to involving people in building their communities. This work is outlined in two Nepali-language books (one on work with the community of Pativara the other on work with the Lonhla community) and a thesis.

During this time, Tim established the design-based practice Hewitt and Turner with Kirsty Hewitt producing a body of finely-crafted buildings. Through that work Tim developed an approach to maximising the reuse of existing buildings, enhancing the relationship to gardens, and exploring crafting with timber. This work has lead directly into Constructive Dialogue’s methodology of maintaining as much of an existing building as possible and finding opportunities for creating beauty in the structure of new components to a building.

Following years of smaller-scale work, The Salvation Army and Society of St Vincent de Paul provided the first opportunities for the practice to bring together their experience on a substantial community building in Australia. Working with enthusiastic teams on challenging sites, the team explored the strength of existing programs and the opportunities for new buildings [link: Caroline Chisholm and Batemans Bay] to provide a base for significant expansion of the services. The result is buildings tailored to programs, economically exploring structural beauty, and opening to gardens. This work has been documented in a New Directions in Sustainable Design.

Working on a range of new buildings, Constructive Dialogue discovered the strength of refurbishment projects. Work on homelessness services with Bob Seymour at The Salvation Army allowed early opportunities to work supporting program change. Both Foster House and William Booth House [link: Foster House] focused on the shift from an accommodation focus to case management and the development of a therapeutic space of change that began with the offer of “Socks and Jocks” upon entry to the services. These were fast to complete, economic to build, and provided a chance to work with staff of a service already aware of the challenges that needed to be addressed. They also provided opportunities to work on building part of a project with those involved in the planning [possible link to table video]. This work is documented in a book that explores Christopher Alexander’s legacy and directly lead to similar projects in other forms of supported accommodation.

The failures of aged care has consistently arisen as a central focus through the life of the practice. This began with undergraduate research and lead to the first articulation of a better way to support older people when Uniting engaged Constructive Dialogue to write a building design guide as the blueprint for significant refurbishment and new construction work as part of an organisational restructure. It was realised through work to carry out smaller, targeted significant improvements to buildings and later complete refurbishments as part of ongoing shifts in the organisations’ model of care. This work also lead to Nick’s engagement to lead the Environments Team at Dementia Training Australia and the development of an online course exploring the material.

In the current stage of the practice, work on residential aged care has been complemented by work on community projects with high levels of challenge. Working with Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service, required a response to a harsh climate, shifting ground conditions and the challenges of remote construction. This was achieved by configuring prefabricated modules to create a welcoming environment around gardens. Currambena School involved engaging with the student body of a democratic school to create a building that expanded playground opportunities and demonstrated construction methodologies.