Lismore flood reconstruction: our practice of innovative architecture

February of 2022 is remembered by most Australians as the period in which Queensland and New South Wales was hit by unprecedented and devastating floods. In the city of Lismore, on February 28, flood waters reached 14.5m, causing widespread damage and destruction to the CBD and residential areas throughout the Northern Rivers region. In 2024, the city and its diverse community is still facing the challenge of rebuilding.

Lismore sits on the traditional land of the Widjabul Wia-bal people of the Bundjalung nation. Deicke Richards wishes to express our respect and solidarity with the Widjabul Wia-bul community and all Aboriginal People, acknowledging the care and custodianship they showed, and continue to show, to the Country we now live and work on. We wish to acknowledge that effects of climate change are made worse in settlements that are at odds with natural processes and care systems.  Much can be learned from the principles of caring for Country that First Nations people employed for thousands of years prior to occupation.

Deicke Richards’ involvement in flood recovery began in 2011 with our involvement in relocating the township of Grantham after it was hit by an inland tsunami caused by widespread flooding across Southeast Queensland. More than a decade later, we have been engaged by the New South Wales Resilient Lands Program to assist with the rebuild efforts in Lismore. While our engagement with the effort has come in many forms, ranging from community engagement, urban design and feasibility studies, I would like to highlight and discuss our work at Mount Pleasant.

In March, State Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin and Mayor Steve Krieg announced that a number of new dwellings will be constructed in Mount Pleasant Estate. These dwellings and land parcels will be provided by the New South Wales Reconstruction Authority as a part of the Resilient Lands Program, an initiative intended to open up land and housing options for those affected by the 2022 floods and thus involved in the government buy-back scheme. Deicke Richards is part of a multi-disciplinary team delivering the project. We are working alongside the Government Architect of New South Wales (GANSW) and the Living Lab Northern Rivers, a research lab based in Lismore that has provided immeasurable support, information, and insight to the community and authorities involved in the rebuild efforts.

While the project is in its early stages, I am taking the time to consider our role in this complex project and the way our practice aims to embody innovation.

While innovation is often discussed through the lens of technological development, I believe innovation in the form of social impact is just as valid. There are three modes of innovation employed at Mount Pleasant that I would like to discuss here: socially responsible practice as innovation, production vs. process management as innovation, and creativity through crisis as innovation.

For the sake of this discussion, I will define my understanding of socially responsible practice. There are thousands of definitions for this, some more honest than others.  In the context of running a business, to me, socially responsible practice is the prioritisation of social justice, community care, and employee wellbeing over production and profit. While this sounds simple, in 2024 we still see a significant gender pay gap in the architecture industry. Burnout and crippling hours are typical, and anecdotes of student and graduate exploitation are common. I am happy to say, as an employee of Deicke Richards, that these are not issues I personally face. While it is common knowledge that employee wellbeing in the architecture industry needs attention, community care and social justice are neglected to an even greater extent.

So, how are we considering socially responsible practice in the context of Lismore?

The first and most critical consideration that does not leave our mind is that the people of Lismore are traumatised. It is important for us to maintain a compassionate and human mindset when working on the project. It is easy to compartmentalise in this context. We are built environment experts, working on the production and procurement of dwellings. However, this does not negate the fact that we are people, coming to a city that has experienced great pain, frustration and disappointment. We consider this in the way we behave as people occupying a city, and in how we work as designers. When we visit Lismore, we dedicate time to genuinely understanding the town, beyond its physical environment. We make sure to support local businesses through our patronage and ensure we are respecting Country by learning about First Nations History and the stunning natural environment of the Northern Rivers region.

In our designs, we are conscious that the people we are designing for were not looking for a new home in 2022. They have been forced to look. This is a situation where designing what the community wants and needs comes well before designing what we believe the community wants and needs. There is a very big difference between the two.

Finally, we practice in a socially responsible way by taking up the role of advocates. We acknowledge that we did not witness the flood and cannot speak to the life experience of those who did. So, we advocate for their voices to be heard through genuine community engagement. As the local community, and those in institutions and government bodies, working on the flood rebuild would attest, the scale for the recovery  has resulted in a process that has been slow, frustrating, and ever changing. There are many parties and personalities pulling and pushing the process along certain paths. While we are a small body in this large pool, we use, and will continue to use, our limited sway to encourage engagement, listening deeply, and involving the community in their built future.

I have touched on the complex and diverse voices in the figurative ‘room’ of the rebuild efforts in the Northern Rivers region. Those working in the building industry will know that responding to complexity takes time. However, this project cannot be delayed. There is a real urgency and requirement for people to be housed in safe, comfortable homes. So, we must play a balancing game, which to us, is innovative; prioritising two conflicting goals, speed and process. In previous writing pieces, such as our contribution to the Venice Biennale 2023 ‘Shrink yourself to make yourself larger’ I have discussed the importance of slowing down, accepting change and approaching architecture with fluidity. At risk of revealing my own hypocrisy, slowness is a luxury that cannot be afforded in some contexts, one of these being in times of disaster. While I still wholeheartedly believe in my comments on the importance of slowness, I can recognize that in the context of Mt Pleasant, we do not have the luxury of a flowing timeline for budget and production purposes. So, to me, wrangling these opposing forces is innovative. Many projects have clear objectives that work in harmony together. This is not one of those projects. Our innovation comes from using expertise and know-how to squeeze in moments of expansion and slowness in a project sprinting towards a tangible finish line. This looks like constant reflection: What would our ‘dream’ approach be and how can it be adapted to get the best results under a compressed timeline?  It can also look like letting go of some control. True collaboration is not merely production by multiple parties. It is embracing diverse knowledge and lived experience, recognizing that with many hands comes nuanced and rich work. For architects, this means checking our egos at the door. We are excited to be working in a truly collaborative team and believe the project will be better for it. Collaboration can be messy; it can be complex and challenging. Managing this with the intention of true collaboration is innovative.

I have mentioned this ‘messiness’ a lot. This is because disasters, communities, and people are rarely ‘clean’ or simple. However, the way we approach this messiness can catalyse innovation. When I walk through the CBD of Lismore, I feel that I am witnessing something special. The destruction and hurt caused by the flood are evidenced by fenced off homes, boarded up shopfronts and unhoused people reminding us of the acute housing crisis that the area is facing. However, in contrast, there are shopfronts being used for activism, art initiatives, a pop-up library. The impact of an uninsurable CBD is one that truly represents its community. The Living Lab is a welcoming space for community members to learn about architecture and flood resilience. This truly community serving CBD is frankly wonderful and I believe an exemplar in a time when High Streets are dying out.  The CBD, to me, is a symbol of the way in which chaos, hurt and destruction can lead to innovation, newness and creativity. While the community could have moved away, they have chosen to stay and occupy their city, giving new local initiatives and businesses a chance to thrive; the result being a patchwork city that embodies its diverse citizens. We believe the ‘messy’ context we are working in will drive innovation and ‘newness’. We embrace the fact that the community is diverse, and a singular housing approach will not work. The flood caused a multitude of issues that require complex and new solutions. There is no simple approach to this housing relief project, but by embracing its chaos, our work will hopefully benefit its community. Rather than trying to ‘sort out’ the project and ‘clean’ it like a messy teenager’s bedroom, we are settling in, enjoying learning and embracing the complexity and nuance.

Our time in Lismore has just begun. We hope that our work will continue to innovate, grow and adapt to ensure that the people of the region receive the housing and community infrastructure that they want, need, and deserve.