Baracco+Wright Architects

Mauro Baracco
Mauro Baracco (PhD) is a Director of Baracco+Wright Architects and an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Urban Design, RMIT University. His teaching and research have manifested an interest in urban resilience, more particularly associated to ‘the local’. These activities, encompassing design, teaching and philosophy, have developed from historical and cultural investigations to include ecological relationships of the built and unbuilt environment.

In Mauro’s academic and practice research, he seeks opportunities to position architecture in a catalytic role that places the architect in the role of strategic thinker across disciplinary boundaries. Over the past 10 years he has developed this approach through research projects throughout the Wimmera region in Western Victoria, Australia, Regenerated Towns: Regenerated Nature, connecting environmental repair undertaken by Greening Australia in their project Habitat 141 with environmental, social and economic repair through strategic and integrated architectural and landscape works in the towns that lie within and around this project. He has recently worked closely with ecologist Professor Sarah Bekessy to develop housing models and related public, civic and educational spaces whose design and siting allow for the rehabilitation of natural ecosystems and integrated connection with built space, providing increased habitat for non-human life as well as management of fire in Melbourne’s northern Grasslands.  Other projects focused on these topics include: Officina  Imperia, a research project envisaging speculative architectural and landscape proposals for environmental, ecological and economic resilience in Imperia, Liguria, Italy, and the invitation to the exhibition Broken Nature, Milan Triennale 2019, in collaboration with Louise Wright and Linda Tegg – the latter is a further development of the exhibition Repair, Architecture Venice Biennale 2018, where Mauro was the Creative Director of the Australian Pavilion in collaboration with Louise Wright and Linda Tegg.

Louise Wright
Louise Wright (PhD) is a Director of Baracco+Wright Architects. She is interested in a role for architecture that can extend its relationship with the natural world towards one that supports all life and explores this through built form and practice based research. Recent outcomes of these interests include the publication Robin Boyd: Spatial Continuity (coauthored with Mauro Baracco); the curation of the theme Repair at the Australian Pavilion, 2018 Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale; the work Grasslands Suspended exhibited in Broken Nature, Milan Triennale 2019, in collaboration with Mauro Baracco and Linda Tegg; and built and speculative design projects in collaboration with ecologists, landscape architects and artists.

Louise was a lead researcher in an Australian Research Council project with Professor Shane Murray exploring flexible housing and this deep knowledge has filtered into their practice. The design based academic research offers her an opportunity to reflect on new roles and relevance for architecture to respond to contemporary issues beyond the limits of commercial practice. Louise has taught Architecture at various schools including Monash MADA, UTS Sydney; Turin Polytechnic, Italy; Milan Polytechnic, Italy; and Mendrisio Academy of Architecture, Switzerland.

In 2018 she was the Creative Director of the Australian Pavilion at the Architecture Venice Biennale in collaboration with Mauro Baracco and Linda Tegg.