Visiting Architects & Experts

Andrew’s design practice is centred around Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and he defines this role as a Public Spaces expert. As Senior Associate with ASPECT Studios (Sydney) Andrew acts as a lead designer and team leader, focusing on developing the wider discourse of built environment through these lenses. Andrew’s values towards the role of architecture in the making of the city is focused on developing rich urban, architectural and spatial environments that enhance the experience of the built form and for the communities in which they sit. His approach to projects focuses on the potential to redefine and enhance the urban environments, where they are located, as well as the wider relationships to community and place they create.

Graduating from the University of Newcastle, Australia with a Bachelor of Architecture (Honours Class 1) in 2005, Andrew cut his teeth as design architect for the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia at Architect Marshall from conception in 2007 through completion mid 2012. Upon delivery of the Museum, Andrew Donaldson Architecture and Design was established in Sydney in 2012.
ADAD won the City of Sydney EOI in collaboration with Lochbuild to create Wis(c)h, the William Street Creative Hub, where the ADAD studio was first located

Olivia is a registered architect with the New South Wales Registration Board, and has been practising architecture since 2004. Since graduating with first class honours from the University of Newcastle Olivia has worked with a range of clients, including private clients, local councils, community groups, wine makers, designers and speculative developers.

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.

Founding Director and studio alchemist, Phu Hoang and has led MODU since its founding in 2012. Phu directed the design of many projects in MODU, including the Exhale art park and the Promenade retail and office center. Along with Rachely Rotem, he was awarded the 2017 Founders Rome Prize in Architecture, since 1897 an annual prize to those” who represent the highest standards of excellence in the arts and humanities.” He has also been awarded the Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League of New York (2019) and the US-Japan Creative Artists fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (2018). Phu holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and a Master of Architecture degree from Columbia University in New York. Since 2011, he has taught at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. Phu is a fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a council Co-chair of its Society of Fellows, and a licensed architect in New York.

Founding Director and studio futurist, Rachely Rotem has led MODU since its founding in 2012. Rachely directed the design of many projects in MODU, including the Cloud Seeding plaza pavilion and the Heart Squared public artwork. Along with Phu Hoang, she was awarded the 2017 Founders Rome Prize in Architecture, since 1897 an annual prize to those “who represent the highest standards of excellence in the arts and humanities.” She has also been awarded the Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League of New York (2019) and the US-Japan Creative Artists fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (2018). Rachely holds a Bachelor of Architecture degree (Cum Laude) from Technion in Haifa and a Master’s in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University. She currently teaches in Rhode Island School of design and recently at MIT. Rachely is a fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a licensed architect in Israel, and a LEED Accredited Professional in Building Design and Construction.

Momoyo Homma is Director of Arakawa + Gins Tokyo office (Tokyo), and Director and a board member of the Reversible Destiny Foundation (New York).
After studying fine arts at Musashino Art University (Tokyo), Momoyo moved to Costa Rica where she worked as art professor for five years. She also started working as a researcher of Latin American and Caribbean art since 1997, and she has collaborated with numerous exhibitions featuring artists from the region.
In 1999, she encountered Arakawa, with whom she started working on Reversible Destiny projects. In 2002, she established the Arakawa + Gins Tokyo office with Madeline Gins and Arakawa, where she is currently based, and continues to work today.
Among many projects and events, she was in charge of coordinating architectural projects External Gene House SHIDAMI (Nagoya, 2005), Reversible Destiny Lofts Mitaka -In Memory of Helen Keller- (Tokyo, 2005), Biotopological Scale-Juggling Escalator (New York, 2013), and cultural/educational events such as Yoro Art Festival (Yoro, Gifu, 2017 onward), Puzzle Creature (Niigata, 2018), and Puzzle Creature Island Encounter (Teshima Island, Kagawa, 2019), working closely with the Architectural Body Research Foundation (until 2008), and Reversible Destiny Foundation (from 2010 onward) in New York.
Her passion is to continue to develop reversible destiny in the here and now, and through this work, pass on Arakawa & Gins’ extraordinary artistic, architectural, scientific and philosophical legacy to future generations.

Momoyo is one of the research members of a study group “Studies of the Architectural Body” at Kansai University (Osaka) since it was established in 2016, and often gives lectures on Arakawa + Gins/Reversible Destiny at Universities and colleges in Japan and abroad.

Nicole is a Sydney based architect, artist and designer focusing on digital fabrication techniques and craftsmanship. Her work explores the blurred boundaries between art, architecture, sculpture and traditional disciplines.
Nicole has worked across the disciplines of art, architecture and design since 2011. After completing a B. Des. Arch. and M.Arch at the University of Sydney she took up a role with Tzannes, an award winning Sydney architectural firm. In 2013 and 2016 Nicole exhibited large scale installations at Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi. She was awarded a Clitheroe Mentorship for her piece 'Dynamics in Impermanence' as an emerging artist in 2016. The same year she was also the recipient of a Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship from the Architects Registration Board for her research into ocean pools. More recently Nicole won the Young Australian Designer of the Year Award for Sustainable Design, an Australian Timber Design Award and a USYD Alumni Award. Her work spans two career paths pursuing architecture, research and the arts. She is recognised for her expertise and commitment to design excellence in coastal design and strategy.

Thomas de Monchaux lives and works in New York City. He studied early in life at Nicholson Street Public School in Balmain, Sydney, and still calls Australia home. Trained as an architect at Princeton University and Brown University, and raised in a family of architects and urbanists, he teaches at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation; and is an award-winning design writer and critic. He is a recipient of the Winterhouse Award for design writing and criticism, and of a Graham Foundation Grant, among other honors; and is a past guest editor of the SOM Journal. His writing has appeared in n+1, Architect, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and now Places, where he is the inaugural 2021 critic-in-residence for architecture.

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.

Shellie is an 8th generation Novocastrian, tracing her family history back through 7 generations of women to the time of Newcastle’s colonial settlement and the last of the Awabakal people to live a traditional life. She uses a combination of research and art practice to reconnect to her aboriginal heritage.
A graduate of Architecture and current PhD candidate, Shellie specialised in heritage conservation, working extensively on projects around Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Lower Hunter before moving to Canberra to join the Commonwealth Governments Heritage Branch.
Shellie has a love for living history and uses a combination of personal story and the interpretation of art and weaving objects to make the traditional/historical relatable to our lives today.

Dr Joshua Zeunert is an AILA Registered Landscape Architect and specialist in environmental design and strategy. He is fascinated by the dynamics of the Earth in relation to human activities, anthropogenic impacts, and landscape-scale change over time. Given agriculture's monumental role in making and remaking ecosystems, he has a particular interest in food systems and accordingly, the relationships between cultural practices and landscape outcomes. Joshua has published three multi-award-winning books including Landscape Architecture and Environmental Sustainability (Bloomsbury, London, 2017) and the Routledge Handbook of Landscape and Food (Routledge, London, 2018). Currently a Scientia Senior Lecturer at UNSW in Sydney, Joshua was previously a Lecturer at Deakin University, at Writtle School of Design (UK) and the University of Adelaide. He has delivered courses in thirteen academic programs at five universities, including 45+ unique courses.

Dr Stephen Neille is a partner in Neeson Murcutt + Neille and was a founding director of Pendal and Neille and art practice SURF. He has taught at the University of Western Australia, at the University of Sydney, and at Curtin University, where he was the Head of Department of Architecture. Stephen’s doctoral thesis, Speed_Space: Architecture, Landscape and Perceptual Horizons, was completed at RMIT in 2007. Stephen has been a significant contributor to the realms of practice, teaching, research and writing in Australian architecture. Processes of discovery, strategic contribution, poetic intelligence, and the creation of atmospheres underpin his work and teaching at all scales, from rooms, to buildings, to townscapes and cities.

Nicole Gurran is an urban planner and policy analyst whose research focuses on comparative urban planning systems and approaches to housing. Her recent work has considered affordable housing supply; housing markets; economic productivity, and risk.

Dr Helen Pynor is an Artist and Researcher whose practice explores the materiality of human and non-human bodies, and philosophically and experientially ambiguous zones in relation to the human body. She works across a range of media including sculpture, photography, installation, video, media art, performance, wet biology and microscopy. In this lecture, Pynor will discuss 3 in-depth research and exhibition projects: ‘The Body is a Big Place’ (2011-2014) exploring the intersubjective nature of organ transplantation, ‘The End is a Distant Memory’ (2016) exploring the life-death boundary; and ‘Habitation’ (2021) exploring the porosity of the animate-inanimate boundary in relation to prosthetics.

Tania Davidge is an architect, advocate, writer and researcher, and co-founder of the architectural research practice, OoPLA (formerly OpenHAUS). Her practice focuses on engaging people and communities with architecture, cities and public space in creative ways.
Tania is a passionate advocate for public space. As the president of the public space advocacy group, Citizens for Melbourne, Tania led the successful ‘Our City, Our Square’ campaign opposing the demolition of Federation Square’s Yarra building and its replacement with an Apple store.
Tania has a Master’s degree in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University in New York. She is undertaking PhD research at Melbourne University developing strategies for engaging public audiences with the public realm.

Dr Rory Hyde is a designer, curator and writer based in Melbourne. His work is focused on new forms of design practice for the public good and redefining the role of the designer today.
He is Associate Professor in Architecture (Curatorial Design and Practice) at the Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, and a Design Advocate for the Mayor of London. From 2013 to 2020 he was the Curator of Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Verena von Beckerath is co-founder of Heide & von Beckerath—an architecture practice based in Berlin that works with alternative models of ownership and governance in urban housing projects. She holds the position of Chair of Design and Housing at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and was visiting professor at Cornell University, NY.

Jack Self (1987) is an architect based in London. He is Director of REAL and Editor-in-Chief of Real Review.
Jack's architectural work promotes social equality through the design of homes, housing, and domestic space. He specialises in radical new typologies (including co-housing), alternative models of ownership, finance and procurement.
In 2016, Jack curated the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale with the show Home Economics.
He is Master of Diploma Six at the Architectural Association, where he teaches domestic design with Guillermo Lopez.
Jack's other work includes curation, exhibition design, brand consultancy and communications, publishing, editing, writing, furniture design and art direction.

Mike Xie is a Distinguished Professor at RMIT University. He has played a leading role in the original development and subsequent worldwide adoption of a technology known as Evolutionary Structural Optimisation (ESO) and Bi-directional ESO (BESO). This technology has been used by thousands of engineers and architects around the globe to design innovative structures including several landmark buildings. Mike has been awarded the Clunies Ross Innovation Award, the AGM Michell Medal and the Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation. In 2020, the topological optimisation software, Ameba, developed by Mike’s team was recognised by DigitalFUTURES World as “The Most Influential Digital Tool of the Year”.