Talking Architecture & Design
Now celebrating its 8th year (Season 9), Talking Architecture & Design is Australia’s first B2B architecture podcast that regularly talks about a range of issues that affect Australia’s architects, building designers and built environment professionals. Run by Australia’s most popular architecture magazine, Architecture & Design, the Talking Architecture & Design podcast gives a regular bite-sized dose of what is important and sometimes what is just plain old interesting to anyone and everyone in the business of building design.
Talking Architecture & Design
Episode 279: 2025 Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Business Awards Lifetime Achievement Award winner Michael Rayner on urban design & his 'what else' philosophy
Michael Rayner is a Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects, co-founder of Blight Rayner Architecture and the 2025 recipient of the Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Business Awards Lifetime Achievement Award.
This prestigious honour — presented only six times in the Awards’ two-decade history — recognises Michael’s remarkable four decades of design leadership, a career that has shaped Brisbane’s skyline, enriched Australia’s civic identity, and taken Australian design to international audiences.
From the Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney Exhibition Centre, Sydney Football Stadium, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, QPAC’s new Glasshouse Theatre to Sydney’s Barker College and a veritable smorgasbord of global high profile projects such as the National Maritime Museum of China, — Michael’s work has continually asked the same question: “What else?”
In this episode, we’ll explore his philosophy, the evolution of Brisbane’s architectural identity, and what true city-shaping leadership looks like in an era of rapid growth and change.