Heather Wasley and Olivia McKim | 2023 Adelaide Autumn

Parlour POD

Our conversationalists for this episode are Heather Wasley, a Senior Associate at Grieve Gillett Architects and Olivia McKim, currently working as an architect at Brand Architects. In this open, honest conversation, Heather and Olivia share their struggles through university – one supporting herself away from family and the other with experiences of grief and feelings of failure.

Heather discusses her lengthy break between degrees while raising her daughter and her difficult decision to leave her home to pursue the goal of becoming an architect. Olivia shares the joys of getting her first job working in architecture after a challenging time at university. “When I landed in a design and construct firm, we're on site and documenting and… it really clicked to me. This is what I wanted.”

Other topics of discussion include the importance of well-designed housing for everyone’s quality of life, the valuable technical skills that can be learned while working for building designers and builders, and the motivations behind Olivia’s podcast series.

This episode was recorded live on Kaurna Country at the 2023 Autumn Adelaide Salon.Held at the Brickworks Design Studio on 4 May 2023, it was organised by Ali McFadyen. Photos: Benjamin Liew.

We hope you enjoy Parlour POD, live recordings from our much loved Seasonal Salon series. For more great Parlour content, head to our website, and follow Parlour on Instagram or LinkedIn. To support our ongoing work, join the Parlour Collective!