Visiting Architects & Experts

Daniella Chedzey is a proud Ngiyampaa Wangaaypuwan woman of the Pilaarrkiyalu Pilar tree Mayi, I am also a registered traditional owner for Mount Grenfell.
In 2003, I was instrumental in the setting up of mums against drugs (MAD, CDAT) community drug action team, an Aboriginal initiative in the Hunter Region which held women’s and children’s drug awareness camps with a cultural aspect.
I teach traditional dance over a number of years.
I have a strong connection with my culture which influences my work and home life, being connected with culture is integral part of who I am, which inspires many aspects of what I provide as an Elder to my community through Aboriginal stewardship of land, bush tucker information sharing, cultural workshops, weaving baskets and dillybags, knowledge sharing traditional uses for bush medicine and tucker.

Co-founder and CEO of Yerrabingin “We walk together”- Indigenous Design Thinking for collaborative solutions.
“Our culture is embedded in the landscape, and environmental consciousness. Sharing this tacit knowledge and wisdom through a cultural landscape, at this point in time, when our earth is under threat, must be a principal for future landscape design approaches.”
Christian is a proud Woiwurrung and Maneroo Aboriginal man interweaving Indigenous tacit knowledge and collaborative design thinking to walk a new path, away from conventional approaches. Yerrabingin has launched the world’s first Indigenous rooftop farm in 2019, located high above Sydney on the roof of Yerrabingin House in South Eveleigh with over 2,500 Australian native plants.

Gretchen Wilkins is Head of the Architecture Department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. She has been practicing and teaching architecture for nearly twenty years based in the United States, Australia and Vietnam, previously as Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan and as Associate Professor at RMIT University Melbourne & Ho Chi Minh City. Her practice is interested in the making and unmaking of cities through design, manufacturing and mobility. This work has been supported by the Japan Foundation, Australia-China Council, James L. Knight Foundation and the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. She is the editor of Distributed Urbanism, Cities after Google Earth (Routledge), and has contributed to Architectural Design (AD), Princeton Architectural Press, the Storefront for Art & Architecture, Architecture Australia, the University College London and Architecture and Culture. Professor Wilkins received her Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan and PhD from RMIT University.

Dr Kate Dunn is a senior Lecturer at UNSW Built Environment. Kate’s research investigates experimental 3D Printing, Digital Fabrication and Robotics with a focus on the development of new and sustainable materials for digital fabrication. Kate’s research builds on traditional material processes and integrates them into emerging digital technologies for a range of industries including the Built Environment, Medicine, and Multi-Modal Data Visualisation. Kate convenes and teaches Design courses and has over 15 years of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching experience in Australia’s leading Universities and has had over 45 exhibitions, nationally and internationally.

Luke Russell is a very proud Worimi man. I am unbelievably privileged to be have the opportunity to learn and pass on the ingenious knowledge of my old people. I have been fortunate enough, over the years, to learn and work with some truly genuine knowledge holders who are helping me on this journey.
I am currently working to re-awakening my people’s traditional dialect, also working with all dialects within my language group. I have the pleasure of sharing my knowledge of traditional bark canoe making, tool making and, most importantly, re-telling the true stories, beliefs and practices of the Worimi and of those within the Kattung language group.
I look forward to sharing with all and if I can learn from you, please introduce yourself and we’ll sit down for a yarn.

Peter Townsend is the Heritage Officer at Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council. Awabakal LALC offer a range of services to its members and the Community, from Aboriginal Culture Education, Due Diligence, Community Programs and Cultural and Heritage Assessments. Awabakal are dedicated to advancing the wellbeing of our community.

Architect (Hons., Universidad Católica de Chile, 2010). Co-founder of OnArchitecture (2012- ) and Plan Común (2012- ). He has delivered lectures and participated in seminars at Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona, X Sao Paulo Biennial, Mendrisio Academy of Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Haus der Architektur Graz, Swiss Architecture Museum, Zagreb School of Architecture, Bauhaus-Weimar University and Canadian Centre for Architecture.

His articles and interviews have been published in 2G Magazine, AA Files, Architectural Review, Archithese, ARQ, ARCH+, Materia and San Rocco. Co-editor of “CMNcasos”, “ARQ Docs: Pier Vittorio Aureli” (ARQ, 2014), “ARQ Docs: Atelier Bow-Wow” (ARQ, 2015), “Lugares Comunes” (ARQ, 2015) and “Stereografía: Tattara & Zenghelis” (ARQ, 2020).

Co-curator of ‘Forum Basel’ exhibition at Swiss Architecture Museum (2017). Co-curator of Conference Program 2020-2022 by Lisbon Architecture Triennale and Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB). Teacher at Universidad Católica de Chile (2014-2018) and MARQ UC (2020).

Katherine Ashe is co-director of the practice vittinoAshe which undertakes a diverse range of project types and scales from strategic visioning projects to highly crafted interiors. In parallel, she is a Senior Lecturer and co-Chair of the Design Stream in a newly established Master of Architecture program at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle. Katherine has been teaching, practicing and studying architecture in Western Australia since 1996 and her work consciously engages different approaches to architectural design. She seeks to explore creative diversity through her relationships with different institutions, practice (or creative) partnerships, research and education.

Mark is an Urban Designer and Landscape Architect with more than twenty years’ experience designing a broad scope of public projects in Australia, Asia, North America and Europe. Mark graduated from the UNSW’s College of Fine Arts in 1996. In 2002 he helped establish the Melbourne studio of Oculus which he led as Associate Director until 2016 when he founded Openwork as an office undertaking projects in public space, landscape architecture, urban design, research and speculation. In 2015, Mark was appointed Professor of Architecture (Urbanism) Industry Fellow within RMIT’s School of Architecture and Urban Design.

Richard Weller is the Meyerson Chair of Urbanism and Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. He teaches subjects in the history of ideas of nature, contemporary urbanism and advanced design studios and in both 2017 and 2018 he was voted by the Design Intelligence Survey as one of North America’s “most admired” academics. In over 30 years of practice he has worked simultaneously as an academic and a consultant specializing in the formative stages of design and planning projects ranging across all scales. His creative work has received numerous awards, predominantly in international design competitions since he began his practice in Berlin in the early 1990s. His work has been exhibited in galleries such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, the Gardner Museum in Boston, the MAXXI in Rome, the Guggenheim, the Venice Biennale and the Canadian Design Museum. His current research concerns global flashpoints between biodiversity and urban sprawl.

Daniel Jan Martin works between the fields of urban ecology, hydrology and design. Daniel teaches in architecture and landscape architecture at the UWA School of Design and works within the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, a national interdisciplinary research programme for water sensitive urbanism. Between geospatial and architectural scales, his work considers how we can work with and repair the natural systems in our cities and suburbs. He has a particular interest in environmental communication — sharing, translating and advocating for harmony between our cities, water systems and ecosystems — and contributes to environmental education through the Whole Perth Catalogue.

Sarah Jamieson is the director of Catseye Bay –– an emerging commercial design practice that foregrounds process and experimentation. Sarah is interested in the ways in which we think through doing. She has been exploring the process of her practice through doing a PhD at RMIT University.

Kira Jovanovski is a practitioner in spatial installation and architecture. She currently has a practice in residential architecture and is commencing a creative practice based PhD. Her research inspects ideas of the latent in an investigation of architecture’s impact on the body, attempting to articulate what at the surface is ungraspable and obscured. Site specific spatial installations and works on paper are the central instruments for the research. Kira has been awarded regional and state prizes for drawing and installation works and she has exhibited locally, interstate and internationally.

Paula Birch is a registered architect, PhD candidate and casual academic at The University of Newcastle’s School of Architecture and Built Environment. She studied in Newcastle, Papua New Guinea and Norway. Outside of her architectural career, Paula is a practicing artist, visual documentarian and the creative director of Photoautomat Australia, which is dedicated to preserving the legacy of coin operated vintage photo booths and analog photography.

Rowan graduated the MoA at Newcastle in 2015. He carries a diverse range of experience from residential work in a small design-build practice to large transport and infrastructure projects in one of Sydney’s largest commercial offices. Along with conventional practice he is also an avid maker-fabricator experimenting with translating digital design models to real world metal and timber via hand and CNC fabrication. He is currently undertaking Creative Practice Research which draws on these skills to produce architectural equipment which can foster a lifestyle of increased autonomy and resilience. These creations seek to fuse the principals and philosophy of permaculture with the design language of architecture.

Public servant turned entrepreneur, Saneia Norton is a landscape architect and design communication specialist. At the NSW Government Architect’s Office she designed and delivered public domain projects from Circular Quay to Broken Hill until a series of mid-career speed bumps became the catalyst for reinvention. In 2016 she founded Saneia Norton Design Communication (SNDC) to help design professionals wield words as powerfully as images, build confidence presenting work and move beyond long-held scars of brutal design juries. Through lectures and workshops, SNDC’s coaching has empowered hundreds of architects, landscape architects and urban designers to become stronger communicators. Saneia is creator of the podcast ‘Dig Beneath Design’ where designers talk openly about their best and worst experiences communicating their ideas. She works part-time at multidisciplinary design office TYRRELLSTUDIO.

Andrew Leach teaches the history of architecture at the University of Sydney, where he currently serves as Associate Dean (Research). He has recently held the Wallace Fellowship at the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies Villa I Tatti and was the 2019-20 Stuckeman Visiting Professor of Interdisciplinary Design at the Penn State University. Among his books are Manfredo Tafuri (2007), What is Architectural History? (2010), Rome (2017) and Gold Coast (2018). Since 2017 he has been editor-in-chief of Architectural Theory Review.

Professor Gerard Reinmuth is a Founding Director of the architectural practice TERROIR (since 1999) and has been Professor of Practice at the School of Architecture at the University of Technology, Sydney, since 2011.

TERROIR emerged from conversations around the potential for architecture to open up and work into questions of cultural consequence. The practice is internationally recognised for its built work, while Gerard’s research and teaching specifically explore the agency of the architect given contemporary economic and political tendencies. These questions underpin Gerard’s advocacy work through writing, speaking, teaching and through the Institute, including roles as NSW Practice Committee Member, NSW Chapter Councillor, co-Creative Director of the 2009 National Conference (Parallax) and Creative Team member of the Australian Pavilion for the 2012 Venice Biennale (Formations) and numerous other professional organisations.

This work has culminated in Gerard’s current research project, “Towards a Relational Architecture” (in collaboration with Professor Andrew Benjamin) which, in re-thinking the discipline, might inform a new conception of the profession. Finally, Gerard argues that his practice work, and the argument he needs to engage with client to effect key decisions on built and non-built outcomes is a form of advocacy in itself.

Tamara joined TERROIR in 2000 and is now a Principal of the practice. Her key role within the TERROIR leadership team recognises her integral importance to the way that TERROIR delivers its projects, particularly large-scale complex work where Tamara’s strengths lie.
Tamara has worked on many of the strategic, urban and master planning projects run from TERROIR’s Sydney office and in each case has been responsible for their management and delivery but has also delivered a number of architectural projects generally of a public nature.
Tamara has been involved in the profession more broadly via membership of the AIA NSW Practice Committee and AIA NSW DARCH Committee (now EmAGN) and has taught in both design studios and professional practice for a number of years.

Ben Hewett is Executive Director Innovation, Strategy and Integration in the Housing and Property Group of Department of Planning, Industry and Environment.
From 2015-20 Ben was Deputy NSW Government Architect, leading the GANSW’s strategic direction, and integrated design agenda, including NSW’s Better Placed design policy.
Previously, Ben was the South Australian Government Architect and Executive Director of the Integrated Design Commission and Office for Design and Architecture SA. Ben directed “5000+, an Integrated Design Strategy for inner Adelaide”.

William Feuerman is a designer, teacher and writer working in Australia. He is the Director of Office Feuerman (OF), a Sydney based design and research office, founded in New York in 2007. Before starting OF, William worked at several leading international architecture firms including five years at Bernard Tschumi Architects in New York.

William studied at Columbia University GSAPP and at the California College of the Arts. He came to Sydney in 2010 via New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He is a contributor to Architecture Australia, The Conversation and the New York-based website Untapped Cities, where he writes about art, architecture and the city.

In 2010, he began teaching at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), where he served as the Course Director for the Bachelor of Design in Architecture program and Associate Head of School from 2012-2016. William has taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design as well as the undergraduate interior design program at Pratt Institute’s School of Art and Design.

Laura Harper is a practising Architect, a Lecturer in the Architecture department and the current James Cox PhD Scholar.
Laura's research is both architectural and urban, studying material and construction through their systematic connection to wider processes and structures of the city. Laura is part of the Urban Laboratory and co-director of the Regional/Rural research group.
Laura has over 15 years' experience in both international and local architectural practice and currently works with NMBW Architecture Studio where she is an associate. Notable architectural projects include the Santry Demense Social Housing, Dublin with DTA Architects (RIAI Silver Medal for Housing 2009/2010), Box Hill Gardens (AIA award for Urban Design 2014) and Point Lonsdale House (AIA Architecture Award for New Residential, 2016) with NMBW Architecture Studio.

Dr Cathy Keys is a Research Fellow in the School of Architecture, The University of Queensland. Her research considers issues of culture and gender difference in existing architectural histories exploring the social and historical properties of Australian vernacular architecture. She has a background of research into the cultural and architectural properties of Warlpiri-speaking Aboriginal women’s jilimi (single women’s camps). More recently, her research has focused on the flow of architectural knowledge between First Nations people and settlers on Northern Australia’s moving colonial frontier. A practising artist - her architectural teaching focuses on the cultural aspects of materials and making. Tamara has worked on many of the strategic, urban and master planning projects run from TERROIR’s Sydney office and in each case has been responsible for their management and delivery but has also delivered a number of architectural projects generally of a public nature.
Tamara has been involved in the profession more broadly via membership of the AIA NSW Practice Committee and AIA NSW DARCH Committee (now EmAGN) and has taught in both design studios and professional practice for a number of years.

Kate Luckraft is a highly experienced landscape architect and Studio Director of ASPECT’s Sydney studio.

Kate’s project experience spans many sectors of the industry from public parks, playspaces, education precincts, health campuses, to mixed use precincts and integrated public transport projects.

Kate leads the Sydney Studio, managing a team of 45+ professionals, responsible for the wellbeing and career progression of staff as well as the financial sustainability of the practice. This role includes collaborating across the other ASPECT Studio practices to assist teams from other states and
internationally by sharing her design and project management knowledge.

Kate’s thirst for ongoing learning has translated into a process of applied research on many projects, which has enabled her to develop detailed knowledge, to a specialist level, in both integrated
play space design and the design of public domain for light/ heavy rail projects. These specialist skill sets compliment her comprehensive construction knowledge allowing her to guide all types of projects to achieve excellent built results.

CJ Lim is the Professor of Architecture and Urbanism at The Bartlett UCL and founder of Studio 8 Architects. He has held a long preoccupation with architectural storytelling, exploring how narratives from literature, history, politics and humanity can inform the innovation of resilient architecture and cities. His other authored books published by Routledge include ‘Short Stories: London in two-and-a-half dimensions’ (2011), ‘Food City’ (2014), ‘Inhabitable Infrastructures: Science fiction or urban future?’ (2017) and ‘Smartcities, Resilient Landscapes and Eco-warriors’ (2019).

Perry Kulper is an architect and Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Michigan. In a prior life he was a SCI-Arc faculty member for 17 years and held visiting teaching positions at Penn and ASU during that time. Subsequent to his graduate studies at Columbia University he worked in the offices of respected mentors Eisenman/ Robertson, Robert A.M. Stern and Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown, before moving to Los Angeles. His primary interests include: the roles and generative potential of architectural drawing; the outrageously different spatial opportunities offered by using diverse design methods in design practices; and in broadening the conceptual range by which architecture contributes to our cultural imagination. He was the Sir Banister Fletcher Visiting Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL 2018-19. In 2013 he published Pamphlet Architecture 34, ‘Fathoming the Unfathomable: Archival Ghosts and Paradoxical Shadows’ with friend and collaborator Nat Chard. They are at work on a new book to be published by UCL Press. Recently he optimistically ventured into the world of the digital, attempting to get a handle on ‘cut + paste’ and ‘magic wand’ operations in Photoshop—as a result he has encountered one of his steeper learning curves. Even more recently he has also been snooping around under the metaphorical hood of digital realms. Fantastic beasts have also been on his mind.

Bec Lewis is a registered architect for the courts of Victoria, teaches at Monash University and engages private work on the side. Her background in practice, teaching and research is driven by the pursuit of creating meaningful spaces and fostering education.