Dulux Study Tour 2026

Dulux Study Tour - Days 5 and 6

By Jack Gillmer

It’s been two years to the day since I arrived in Paris for a three-month residency through the Galang Residency, a program brought to fruition through a collaboration between the Powerhouse Museum and Cité Internationale des Arts.

During that time, I engaged with archaeology and anthropology museums, examining the rematriation, (re)conciliation and exhibition of First Nations cultural materials through a cultural and architectural lens. The work sought to challenge and reframe museological practice, and in doing so, partly informed the proposal for Home, a temporary archive of place, personal stories, and social cohesion presented in the Australia Pavilion at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale.

Returning to Paris now, alongside new friends and immersed in architectural discourse, visits and conversations with inspiring architects and their work, I find myself reflecting on how my practice continues to evolve, and I recognise synergies between the ideas explored in Home and the discoveries, encounters and questions that Paris continues to offer.

Touching down on the Paris tarmac, we were a world away from Country. In the days before our arrival, Paris had been gripped by an intense heatwave – a dense urban landscape bearing the full force of the urban heat island effect. Young Parisians sought relief by jumping into the Seine, despite restrictions that led to arrests. Yet, swimming in the river was once an ordinary part of Parisian life, a tradition long interrupted by pollution and regulation. Fortunately, the extensive infrastructure and water-quality improvements undertaken ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games have helped make a return to the Seine possible, transforming an act of rebellion into a safer reconnection with the city’s historic waterways.

Paris is an archive. Structures centuries-old line its cobblestone streets, each bearing traces of the social, political, economic and technological forces that have shaped the city over time. As one navigates both horizontally and vertically through its layers of history, these narratives gradually reveal themselves. Paris is a place where adaptation is not concealed but embedded within the urban fabric; where the evolution of society is inscribed into every building, street and public space.

Tadao Ando’s intervention within the Bourse de Commerce exemplifies this dialogue between past and present. His insertion introduces contemporary architectural language into a historic structure with remarkable restraint, balancing heritage with new cultural ambitions. Neither exists independently of the other, each enriching and informing the other. The result is not simply a contrast of old and new, but a continuation of the building’s ongoing story – a reminder that architecture is always both inheritance and transformation.

During our time in Paris, we met with Rohan Golestani, an aspiring architect from Perth working at Lina Ghotmeh Architecture. He reinforced the firm’s manifesto as being about the creation of “archaeology of the future” – reviving architecture as a medium for storytelling, memory, and traces from the past. The approach is deeply rooted in curiosity, with the firm undertaking archaeological-type research and engaging in community discourse to produce architecture that reveals layers of history and culture while meeting contemporary practices. 

I find reassurance in my approach to architecture: working with Country, community and culture to strengthen the identity of community and place, and empowering voices of the people.