Director of Arqua NSW & Central Coast

Richard Brew is an accredited member of the Association of Consultants in Access (ACAA)  and Director of Arqua Australis. He graduated from RMIT University in Melbourne in 1998 and has over 13 years experience in architecture and access consulting.

His extensive portfolio of projects include the highly awarded Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld Victoria, projects in Morocco, Poland and rural Australia.

Richard’s architectural projects have been featured in Monument magazine, Picturing Architecture and numerous times in The Age Melbourne Magazine.

He has a deep insight into the need for public places to meet the accessibility requirements of the building codes and standards. His own experience of growing up with dyslexia taught him to appreciate the need to treat others with the same dignity and respect that we personally would like to be treated with in public, regardless of any condition that we may have.

Growing up in rural Australia in the Riverina, has enabled Richard to become responsive to the needs of regional and rural communities. Specific challenges face rural and regional areas with regards to access to health, aged care and housing. Richard understands these challenges.

Richard lives on the Central Coast of NSW and provides services to clients Australia-wide and internationally.

Arqua Access Consultancy provides services to clients on the Central Coast and Sydney, NSW and in all states of Australia.

Arqua is a trusted name in access consultancy, with a wealth of experience and up-to-date knowledge.

We take our name from the last resting place of the 14th century humanist, Francesco Petrarca: Arqua Petraca.

Francesco Petrarca
(1304-1374)

Arqua-Petraca is a small town in Italy and the final rest place of Francesco Petrarca the 14th Century Italian scholar whose poetry and research invigorated an interest in Greek and Roman history, an interest that later spawned the Renaissance and the Humanist movements. To the Arqua team Petrarch survives as a historic reference for our exploration of personal sovereignty, society and architecture.

On his tours of Europe, Petrarca (1304-1374) poet laureate and scholar, promoted the virtues of studying the humanities; Greek, Latin history, philosophy and poetry. To Petraca the study of heroic Greek and Latin civilisations and the study of human thoughts and action became a means of releasing the potential of humanity for the greatness of the Roman kind.

Petracas work informed the early renaissance philosophy of humanism and his poetry and writing resonates into the present.

Humanism in the 20th Century continues the exploration of human self worth, dignity and the relationship of the individual and the community. The concept of a community protecting and respecting the sovereignty of the individual is now regarded as a precondition for continuing peace and social harmony.

The international community through the UN has determined that all communities share a responsibility to respect and protect the dignity of their citizens and that certain values be secured as Human Rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.