Newly elected to the ArchiTeam Board at the 2024 Annual General Meeting, we ask Sam Perversi-Brooks 5 questions to find out a little more about him.
Sam is the Director in Charge of CPD and Events Portfolio.
Who are you?
My name is Sam, I have a Master of Architecture from RMIT University, and I also hold a Diploma of Building Design and Drafting from RMIT, somehow enabling me to better understand the two sides of the same coin...
I was born in Melbourne and lived in New York City at a young age before moving to Tasmania where I spent most of his childhood. (Big city or the sticks has always been the way for my family!) I moved back to Melbourne to study architecture and spent over 15 years working in the Melbourne architecture industry. I’ve recently returned to Tasmania with my young family and am currently based in Hobart.
What do you do?
I’m an architect and run my own small practice Perversi-Brooks Architects. I’ve previously worked mostly in larger design practices on the briefing, design, coordination and delivery of large-scale projects within the education, research, commercial and civic sectors - this broad-ranging experience has helped form a holistic view of the design and delivery of complex projects.
I am a father to two beautiful kids, a partner, son and brother, and I try my absolute best to do all these things well!
In all my free time (?!) I also play guitar and make music, art and furniture, and have been known to have a crack at surfing (badly), kayaking (reasonably), riding (my silly Melbourne single speed up Hobart’s steep hills), hiking (for days), and anything else to get away from the screen and immerse myself in the beauty of nature.
What has been your most scary/courageous thing you’ve ever done?
Becoming a father was - by any measure - certainly the most scary/courageous thing I’ve ever done. Parenthood remains scary, challenging and wonderful – all wrapped up in two little bundles of joy (read terror!)
Taking the (slightly reckless) leap of faith to start my own practice around 10 years ago - with no real paying projects - was, in hindsight, probably pretty courageous. Sometimes I find you’ve just got to put the wheels in motion to see what happens. Take small, but imperfect steps.
Beyond this, and most memorably as a teenager, was summoning up the courage (despite my best introverted sound judgment) to busk at Salamanca Market on the weekend with my screamo best mate – our biggest tip was being paid $20 to shut up and leave by one of the stall holders…
Who do you admire and why?
Professionally, still right up there is Rem Koolhaas (although I totally appreciate it’s longer de rigueur to idealise Starchitects) something about his heady mix of sharp intellect, cynical realism and ‘make no little plans’ optimism speaks to my architectural tendencies.
You kind of have to say your parents, don’t you?! In all seriousness - I genuinely mean it - they’ve done a remarkable job, through what were, at times, challenging circumstances; supporting and nurturing a bunch of pretty amazing human beings (even if I do say so myself!) whilst remaining true to themselves, and not compromising their core values and belief systems, no small feat.
On a personal note, I greatly admire my partner in life and parenting, Atika – she’s faced many hardships (although most probably wouldn’t know it), she’s more open and willing to ‘do the hard work’ than probably anybody I’ve ever met, striving to live an authentic life, and to contribute in a meaningful, heart-felt way, but quietly, and not in an instagrammy ‘look at me’ kind of way.
What is it about ArchiTeam that made you want to get involved?
I've come from a professional background in large collaborative design practice, so starting my own firm I signed up to ArchiTeam in order to join a fantastically positive support network of smaller and emerging practitioners, who could help lend a more collaborative and engaged spirit to what can, at times, be quite an isolating pursuit as a sole practitioner.
Since joining ArchiTeam I've become more actively engaged as a member of the CPD Committee for the last 3.5 years. I've attended a number of conferences, as well as entered the awards on a number of occasions, and was lucky enough to take out the under $700K Alts and Adds last year - the competition is strong!
I’m very much looking forward to contributing to this fantastic organisation through my role a CPD Committee Chair and Director.