Luke Johnson (OC 1987)

Cutler

How did Cranbrook set you up for life after school:

I was born in Papua New Guinea and the experience of living there until I was 7 and a half years old shaped me in ways that Cranbrook expanded upon positively. Thanks to a really creative older sister, I was already engaged with drawing, painting and making things when I walked through the New South Head Road Gates for the first time. However I was very fortunate that at Cranbrook there was an established culture of teaching and learning that valued creative arts. It was at Cranbrook that I experienced the excellent art teaching of Mrs Ulm in the Junior School and then Mr Gregory in the Senior School. Both of these teachers equipped me with creative insights and technical skills that I have drawn upon throughout my post-school life.

Favourite memory/teacher/moment at Cranbrook:

I retain many strong memories from eleven years of schooling at Cranbrook. One memory that comes back to me often is walking into an art class (in the now demolished Mansfield Building) and seeing my art teacher, Mr Richard Gregory, drawing a large format chalk illustration on the blackboard of a significant building from architectural history. I was struck by the three-dimensional quality of the drawing and at the same time I had a sense of the inevitable, that I could do that kind of drawing too. That single memorable experience from Cranbrook often returns to me when I am doing a large scale architectural drawing across a white board or screen.

University/College:

School of Architecture, University of NSW

Current Occupation:

Designer of complex built environments. Some people call it Architecture but for me it encompasses architecture, landscape architecture and urban design as well.

Career Highlight:

Architecture is absolutely a collaborative art form so any career highlight is intimately connected with the contributions of many others: my architecture colleagues, engineers, builders and clients. A recurring highlight for me is returning again and again to a favourite building that we realised and experiencing how that building continues to get better with age. It’s like revisiting a friend. With completed buildings in Australia and Japan, I have these kind of friends in many interesting places.

What motivates you in your work:

Creating built environments that connect with their specific place. Buildings generally don’t move around. They are physically embedded in their surrounding context so it follows that built environments are best realised when they have a positive relationship with their context. That is, when they intrinsically belong to their place.

Tell us something about yourself that no one really knows:

I can eskimo roll a sea kayak ten kilometres off the coastline.

What would you have liked to achieve in the next ten years:

As a parent of three boys who will all be at Cranbrook together next year (!!!) I am really looking forward to their achievements over the next ten years. Seeing them develop into independent adults with purposeful lives is the aim that I look forward to each of them achieving in their own unique ways.

What advice would you give your Year 7 self:

Keep drawing. It’s a beautiful and rewarding endeavour.