Howard Raggatt

His ideas and bold experimentation have redefined typologies and shaped some of Australia’s most recognised and talked about buildings and cityscapes.

Howard’s commitment to an architecture of ideas has resulted in some of the most talked about buildings in Australia, including the National Museum of Australia in Canberra and the Barak Building in Melbourne where the 32-storey image of Wurundjeri Elder William Barak looks out over Swanston Street. Each treats architecture as means of telling stories – remembering the past and embracing the future.

“We like to think that the story of Australian is not one, but many tangled together. Not an authorised version but a puzzling confluence; not merely the resolution of difference but its wholehearted embrace.”
– Howard Raggatt, ‘Visible and invisible space’ in Tangled Destinies, Dimity Reed (ed)

With Ian McDougall and the late Steve Ashton, Howard won the 2016 Gold Medal, the Australian Institute of Architects’ highest honour. In the same year, ARM published its monumental 1616-page book Mongrel Rapture in which he explored new ways to write about and explain their architecture. In 2026 Howard and Ian were bestowed honorary doctorates by RMIT University for their body of work which has not only shaped Australia’s built environment but contested its cultural assumptions.

A respected cultural leader, educator and mentor, Howard continues to expand architecture through advocacy, exhibitions, lectures, publications and teaching.