Stephen Trotter's Life Fellowship for 50+

Past director, Stephen Trotter has been awarded Life Fellowship by the Australian Institute of Architects for over five decades of contribution to Australian architecture.

The AIA’s citation on Stephen notes;

Stephen Edward Trotter spent over 50 years in post-war formations with other notable Queensland Architects of the era culminating in Fulton Trotter Architects. He has designed some of Queensland’s most iconic, innovative and timeless buildings.

In 1962 Stephen was awarded the national Sisalcraft Scholarship and travelled the world for three months to document tropical architecture in the important architectural text “Cities in the Sun”.

Instead of looking to Europe for design inspiration, Stephen was keen to learn from other cultures of tropical regions and use this knowledge to develop a relevant sub-tropical vernacular for Brisbane.

Stephen’s designs were inspired by the climate, geometry and innovative construction techniques. His response was an eclectic mix of buildings with innovative floor plates (often circular), that could be built efficiently through the use of repetition.

His pioneering work in researching the architecture of the sub-tropics and tropics and adapting these lessons to contemporary conditions has had a lasting influence, as seen in the distinctive regional tropical modernism now emerging in Queensland.

Stephen is also passionate about the practice education of young architects and he lectured at QIT for 19 years. He was also involved in the Queensland Chapter Council for a number of years with a particular interest in architectural education.

Stephen trained his two architect sons Mark and Paul in the importance of sub-tropical design and has been a driving force behind the ongoing success of this long established Brisbane practice.