Phil Harris is a founding director of Troppo Architects, which, after 20 years in the Northern Territory, has now grown to include offices around Australia. Harnessing these resources, alongside diverse work in National Parks, Phil has led Troppo’s involvement in information and cultural centres, public realm, and village centre projects nationally. He has also led Troppo’s work in robust defence infrastructure projects, including the highly awarded $100 million Lavarack Barracks redevelopment in Townsville (with Thiess and BVN); Troppo’s engagement with the Northern Territory Government in creation of Weddell’s first villages' detailed concept design; and diverse medium density residential developments in different states, including for government and affordable housing sectors.

Since 1989 Phil has worked in Kakadu National Park for Parks Australia, as well as the Djabulukgu Association’s diverse interests, and, since 2000, in Far North South Australia’s Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in schools and art centre programs, and recently a healthy foods cafe program. Phil leads Troppo’s work in National Parks around Australia, including recent projects for the Australian Walking Company in Uluru Kata-Tjuta National Park (now nearing construction completion), and again for Parks Australia on Christmas Island.

Under Phil and Troppo co-founder Adrian Welke’s leadership, the practice has richly engaged with Aboriginal Australia for over 30 years in the Top End, Western and Central Deserts, Kimberley and south-western Western Australia, Cape York, APY Lands and far-western South Australia, and in outback and coastal New South Wales. In this odyssey, Troppo has travelled in excess of 600,000 kms (= 15 times around the planet) on outback/country roads. Phil has also led Troppo’s work in National Parks in the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales, and (pre-Covid) has been engaged in community-based work in Vanuatu.

But Phil’s abiding engagement is the realm of residential architecture – in which Troppo has received in excess of 40 Australian Institute of Architects awards around Australia. To bring small-but-decent-and-site-fitting architecture to the suburbs and the bush, Phil has overseen Troppo’s development of trop_pods, which are now rolling out across the country to a backyard near you.

Phil has lectured widely in Australia and also Europe, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, the Pacific, Africa and Central America; and has chaired in the Papua New Guinea Institute of Architects architecture awards. In 2010 at a ceremony in Paris, Phil and Troppo co-founder Adrian Welke, on behalf of the practice, received the Global Sustainable Architecture Award, the only Australian practice to be so awarded. In 2014 Phil and Adrian were awarded the Australian Institute of Architects' Gold Medal, the Institute’s highest personal honour.

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