Lily Pepper & Angela Chua | "Opinionated & Impressionable" | Brisbane Spring 2024 Artwork

Parlour POD

Parlour POD presents convivial conversations from Parlour: gender, equity, architecture. Episodes are drawn from much-loved Seasonal Salons, recorded live across Australia. Wide-ranging and diverse stories of lives in and around architecture and the built environment are told with humour and humility. Personal and particular, intimate and engaging, each episode canvasses the complexities of careers, obstacles faced and opportunities found.

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Parlour POD

Lily Pepper & Angela Chua | "Opinionated & Impressionable" | Brisbane Spring 2024

August 09, 2026

0:00 | 34:23

Our conversationalists for this episode are friends and one-time colleagues Lily Pepper and Angela Chua. At the time of the recording Angela was a graduate of architecture at ARUP, and Lily a graduate of architecture at Wallace Brice. Lily also now hosts the Seasonal Salons in Brisbane, and this conversation helped introduced her to the Parlour community.

Committed to the potential of the profession, Angela and Lily also articulately resist its more problematic mythologies and habits. In this episode they speak of their growing confidence as ‘emerging practitioners’, their will to shape positive professional futures from the grassroots, and where and how graduates can find leverage and impact. Angela talks of digging her heels in to find opportunity, balancing work and study, and having to “grow up quickly”. Lily describes the challenge of finding her way into the profession after the arrival of COVID-19, and the surprising bureaucratic complexities of practice. She highlights her work on the Resilient Homes Flood Program as a formative experience that demonstrated how small, practical interventions can produce meaningful community outcomes.

Together they discuss the changes they want to see – breaking down hierarchies and more collaborative approaches. They canvas the problematic framing of architecture as a ‘passion’ and the unhelpful behaviours that flow from this. They describe environments in which graduates mentor and learn from each other, and the potential of more sustainable and rewarding models of architectural practice.

This is a hopeful conversation with two of our profession’s bright sparks!

This episode was recorded live on Yuggerah and Turrbal Country at the 2024 Brisbane Spring Salon. Held at the Brickworks Design Studio on 7 November 2024, it was convened by Justine Clark. Photos: Alanna McTiernan.

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!