About ArchitectureAU

ArchitectureAU

Overview

ArchitectureAU is the online news platform of Architecture Media, Australia's specialist publisher for the built environment professions. Published at architectureau.com, the site carries daily news, project features, reviews, discussion and product information covering architecture, interiors and landscape architecture. It was launched in 2011, when Architecture Media consolidated the websites of its magazine titles into a single platform, and it has since served as the publisher's principal news outlet — the role that print frequency could no longer fulfil for its flagship journal, Architecture Australia.

ArchitectureAU draws on the content of Architecture Media's magazines, above all Architecture Australia, the journal of record for Australian architecture, alongside Houses, Landscape Architecture Australia and Artichoke. Its audience is the Australian design professions — architects, interior designers, landscape architects, graduates and students — together with clients, suppliers and interested members of the public. The site publishes new material daily, distributes an email newsletter, and sits alongside the publisher's substantial program of awards and events, including the Houses Awards, the Australian Interior Design Awards, the Eat Drink Design Awards and The Architecture Symposium. Since 1 July 2024 its publisher, Architecture Media, has been wholly owned by the Australian Institute of Architects, while remaining a standalone business with editorial independence.

History

ArchitectureAU's roots lie in the history of its publisher and its flagship magazine. Architecture Media was co-founded in 1987 by Ian Close and the Australian Institute of Architects, each holding a 50 per cent stake, to publish Architecture Australia for the Institute. That magazine is far older than the company: Architecture Australia marked its 120th anniversary in 2024, and is recognised as the journal of record for architecture in Australia — the official journal of the Institute, documenting the nation's significant buildings, its national awards program and the debates of the profession. Architecture Media expanded around it, developing titles including Houses, Landscape Architecture Australia (the official organ of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects) and Artichoke (the official organ of the Design Institute of Australia), so that its magazines collectively serve the peak bodies of the built-environment design professions.

Architecture Media was an early mover online, putting versions of its magazine titles on the web from 2000. In 2011, publishers Ian Close and Sue Harris consolidated those sites to launch ArchitectureAu.com, drawing content from Architecture Australia, Landscape Architecture Australia, Artichoke, Houses and Architectural Product News. The platform, together with its newsletter, quickly took over the news function once served by the "Radar" section of the print magazine, which the speed of internet publishing had outpaced. Ian Close remained managing director of Architecture Media until 2021, when Jacinta Reedy was appointed chief executive. In 2023 Architecture Media introduced the ArchitectureAu Award for Social Impact. Then, effective 1 July 2024, the Australian Institute of Architects acquired the company's remaining 50 per cent stake, becoming sole owner; Architecture Media continues to operate as a standalone business and to retain editorial independence.

Programming and Content

ArchitectureAU organises its coverage around the working interests of design practitioners. Its Projects coverage documents newly completed buildings and interiors across Australia — houses, cultural buildings, workplaces, landscapes and public infrastructure — typically with photography, project credits and commentary. Industry news reports on practice appointments, competition results, planning decisions, policy, awards programs and the business of architecture; recent coverage has included design competition wins, state and national award finalists, open-house programs and major project announcements in every state. Reviews and a Discussion section carry criticism and opinion from practitioners and academics, continuing the discursive role of the print journals in a faster medium.

The site also publishes content from across the Architecture Media stable: dossiers and features from Architecture Australia, residential work from Houses, landscape projects from Landscape Architecture Australia and interior design coverage from Artichoke, together with product news for specifiers. Regular fixtures of the Australian architectural calendar — the National Architecture Awards, the Venice Architecture Biennale, state chapter awards and the Institute's Gold Medal — anchor the editorial year. The publisher's awards and events are woven through the coverage: the Houses Awards, Australian Interior Design Awards, Eat Drink Design Awards, the AA Prize for Unbuilt Work and the ArchitectureAu Award for Social Impact all announce entries, shortlists and winners on the platform, and the site's "Most read" rankings give a rolling picture of the stories commanding the profession's attention.

Audience and Reach

ArchitectureAU addresses a professional audience centred on Australia's architects and allied designers, and its content assumes a reader engaged with practice, policy and design culture. Because the platform aggregates the audiences of four established professional journals and their peak-body readerships — the Australian Institute of Architects, the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects and the Design Institute of Australia — it occupies a central position in the profession's media landscape, a role its publisher supports with events that convene the same community in person, from The Architecture Symposium to the Our Houses speaker series. The ArchitectureAu showcase page on LinkedIn listed about 12,900 followers in October 2026, indicating the scale of its professional social audience; the publisher does not publish an independently audited traffic figure for the site, so no larger reach claim is made here. Its influence is also evident in the citation of its project coverage and news reporting across the wider design media.

Digital Presence

ArchitectureAU is a digital-first publication: the website is its primary product, updated daily with news and features, and supported by an email newsletter for subscribers — the site's invitation is to "join our architecture and design community for the latest news and reviews". Architecture Media's magazines are also available in digital editions for tablets, mobile devices and computers, and ArchitectureAU content is distributed through social channels including LinkedIn, where the publisher posts daily updates on new projects, competitions and awards news; posts dated October 2026 confirm the platform is actively publishing. The website's archive extends back through the publisher's magazine content to 2011 and beyond, making it a searchable record of Australian architectural production over the past decade and a half, complementing the print archive of Architecture Australia, which stretches back far longer.

Ownership and Organisation

ArchitectureAU is published by Architecture Media, an online and print publisher and events company based in South Melbourne, Victoria. The company is wholly owned by the Australian Institute of Architects, which acquired the 50 per cent stake it did not already own from co-founder Ian Close effective 1 July 2024; the Institute's chief executive Cameron Bruhn — himself a former editorial director of Architecture Media from 2009 to 2018 — described the acquisition as positioning the Institute's publishing for its centenary year in 2029. Architecture Media remains a standalone business within that ownership and retains editorial independence.

The company's chief executive is Jacinta Reedy, appointed in 2021 when Ian Close stepped down as managing director after more than three decades. Editorial direction across the portfolio is led by Katelin Butler, appointed editorial director in 2018 after eight years as editor of Houses magazine; the ArchitectureAU team includes associate editor Lucia Amies, a registered architect and writer based in Melbourne. The publisher's portfolio comprises ArchitectureAU, the magazines Architecture Australia, Houses and Landscape Architecture Australia, and the Design Speaks events brand, through which it organises The Architecture Symposium and a portfolio of awards programs.

Contact and Availability

ArchitectureAU is published by Architecture Media, Level 6, 163 Eastern Road, South Melbourne VIC 3205, telephone +61 3 8699 1000. The publication itself is available free online at architectureau.com, where readers can browse the latest projects and news, search the archive and subscribe to the email newsletter. Project submissions, news items and event information can be directed to the editorial team through the website, and the publisher's awards and events — including entry dates and ticket information for programs such as the Houses Awards and The Architecture Symposium — are published on architectureau.com and its sister events site, designspeaks.com.au.