RMIT University honours the architects who wrote ‘Sorry’ on a national museum

ARM Architecture founders, Howard Raggatt and Ian McDougall, awarded honorary doctorate from RMIT University

When Howard Raggatt spelt out the word ‘Sorry’ in braille across the panels of the National Museum of Australia in 2000 – before the apology had been made, before it was policy – he was doing something architecture rarely does: taking a position. When Ian McDougall covered the Shrine of Remembrance’s auditorium with a Hiroshima peace crane, or draped a giant curtain across the facade of the Geelong Arts Centre, he was doing the same. ARM Architecture, the practice Howard and McDougall founded with the late Steve Ashton in Melbourne in 1988, has spent nearly four decades making buildings that say something.

RMIT University today jointly conferred them the degree of Doctor of Design honoris causa at a doctoral degrees ceremony, recognising a body of work that has not only shaped Australia’s built environment but contested its cultural assumptions.

ARM’s projects are among the most recognised public buildings in the country: the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, Perth Arena, the Melbourne Recital Centre and Southbank Theatre, the Hamer Hall redevelopment, the Shrine of Remembrance precinct, the renewal of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, and HOTA (Home of the Arts) on the Gold Coast.

Fittingly, Ian and Howard accepted their honorary doctorates in a ceremony conducted in RMIT’s Storey Hall – the building they transformed in 1995 for contemporary educational, exhibition and conference purposes, and one of Australia’s most discussed works of architecture. ARM later added the ‘green brain’, with its unmistakeable green form now an iconic landmark in the heart of the Melbourne CBD.

Howard, Ian and Steve built a practice defined by intellectual seriousness, formal ambition, and a refusal to treat Australian culture as a footnote to somewhere else. In 2016 the three were joint recipients of the Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal, the profession’s highest honour. ARM has also been recognised with a record seven Victorian Architecture Medals and the 2023 NSW Institute of Architects Medallion.

The RMIT connection runs deep. Howard and Ian completed their Masters of Architecture at RMIT under Leon van Schaik, whose Design Practice Research program asked architects to make visible the thinking already embedded in their work. Howard’s Notness: Operations and Strategies for the Fringe (1991) and Ian’s The Autistic Ogler (1994) were among the program’s formative documents – and among the sharpest pieces of architectural thinking produced in Australia in that decade. Both are adjunct professors in RMIT’s School of Architecture and Urban Design.

Honorary degrees are awarded to those who have made an outstanding contribution to the wider community. Today, the institution that shaped their intellectual formation has recognised what they built with it.

Professor Vivian Mitsogianni, Dean, School of Architecture & Urban Design, lauded Howard and Ian’s sheer bravery of experimentation and deliberate support of Melbourne and Australian architectural culture.

“Their groundbreaking design experimentation, support of cultural production and discourse in Australia, significant body of adventurous and highly awarded buildings and commitment to education and mentoring of the next generation of architects is fittingly acknowledged through this award,” she said.

“We’re very proud of RMIT Architecture’s over 35-year long association with Ian and Howard and ARM Architecture. They have been an enormous influence on several generations of architects and students in Melbourne, and we congratulate them on this important honour.”

Accepting the honour, Howard described architecture as something like filmmaking – “requiring a long list of skilled people to achieve” – and acknowledged those who offered encouragement “when there were much less courageous choices available.” Addressing new graduates, he invoked the principle associated with computer scientist and US Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper – that it is sometimes better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission – and urged them to look beyond their own inclinations: “Look out for something significant, look out for that big idea, even if it isn’t yours.”

By video, Ian remembered arriving at RMIT (then called the Working Men’s College) – as a working-class kid who had little idea what an architect actually did. “I went there in 1976 to learn about architecture that was radical, contemporary, and taught by actual architects,” he said, “and realised that architecture could symbolise a civil society.”

That conviction became the foundation of ARM’s practice, with the architect as narrator, theorist and craftsman.

“We were dedicated to always learning, always striving to capture the ideas and stories in built form. I had the great fortune to team up with Howard and Steve for over 45 years – and we had the luck to design buildings for adventurous clients.”

Both expressed heartfelt thanks for being embraced by the RMIT architectural community, particularly  those who fundamentally affected their opportunities and who hold enduring belief in their work.

ARM congratulates Howard and Ian, two of the finest architects working in this country, and two extraordinary people we are lucky to work alongside.