Our alumni have always been a diverse group, sharing a passion for design innovation, construction and improving the places in which we live through many different avenues and professions.
The Faculty's success is written in the experiences and stories of our alumni. Working in Australia and across the world on a wide variety of projects, ABP alumni demonstrate excellence, innovation and drive. This is an opportunity for us to share their manifold achievements and experiences in a wide range of industry.
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Sarah Ball
As an architecture student at Melbourne School of Design, Sarah Ball pictured working in a small firm focusing on residential projects. Now the Principal, Global Sector Leader – Education at Woods Bagot, she focuses on spaces that shape student experiences.
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James Billson
James Billson graduated with a Bachelor of Building in 1988 in the footsteps of his grandfather Edward Billson, the first ever Architect graduate from the University. After starting his career with builder L.U Simon, he worked with Lewis Constructions on the Melbourne Central project with the redevelopment of the Shot Tower until moving to London.
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Hijjas bin Kasturi
Hijjas bin Kasturi studied at the University of Adelaide and the University of Melbourne (Bachelor of Architecture, 1965, Graduate Diploma of Town and Regional Planning, 1966). He returned to Singapore in 1966, and then moved to Malaysia in 1967, where he founded the School of Art and Architecture at MARA Institute of Technology. He went into partnership in 1969, and then formed his practice Hijjas Kasturi Associates (HKAS) in 1977.
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James Birrell
James Birrell has had a long and remarkable career in architecture and design, both in private practise and with government agencies. James won a Commonwealth Scholarship to study architecture and as a consequence was bonded to the commonwealth when he graduated.
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Katelin Butler
Editing a national design magazine gives one ABP graduate a unique insight into Australia’s architectural arena and fulfils her passion for writing and design.
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Max Chester OAM
As a young man, I lived quite close to the University of Melbourne. However, I never thought that the opportunity would come my way, to enter its illustrious grounds as a student. My school days were far from spectacular – I was not a great scholar but enjoyed immensely mathematics, art, graphics and history. My interest in history is still as strong today.
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Alan Choe
The urban redevelopment authority afforded Mr Choe the opportunity to play a key role in Singapore’s urban renewal program, the legacy of which is reflected in the contemporary Singapore masterplan.
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Andrew Christou
At the age of 27, Andrew Christou has already built a strong reputation as a construction professional. He joined Brookfield Multiplex, one of Australia's largest construction companies, in 2005 as part of an undergraduate program and is now an Assistant Project Manager, working on the new MSD Building.
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Belinda Colosimo
Belinda Colosimo completed her Master of Construction Management whilst working in the construction sector, and is now a full time Graduate Quantity Surveyor. We caught up with her to find out about her Melbourne School of Design experience, and what trends she believes are important for the industry and future construction professionals to consider.
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Katya Crema
A high-flyer in many ways, Katya managed to juggle her studies in property with a successful olympic career and working in the industry.
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Jeff Davies
Jeff Davies completed his Bachelor of Environments at the University of Melbourne in 2014. He went on to study the Master of Property and graduated in 2016. We caught up with him to find out how his career has evolved.
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Gwynneth Dickins
Gwynneth is one of the Faculty’s very connected alumni, who has met up with her particular group of friends every year since graduation. Her father (an Anglican Minister) had a degree from Cambridge and it was always assumed that she would go to University.
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Fiona Dunster
Growing up with an architect father, childhood was a mix of architecturally designed rabbit hutches, curved walls and ‘smilie’ windows. Early ‘site visits’ were spent with my father on overseas work trips where I would spend hours looking at and learning about buildings and the use of space.
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Julie Eizenberg and Hank Koning
Log on to the Koning Eizenberg website and you are greeted by six beguiling words in small orange letters on a white ground – “Architecture isn’t just for special occasions”. As the site loads you contemplate what this might mean.
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Richard Falkinger AO
Meet the ecclesiastical architect guiding design students through one of Melbourne’s most historic buildings.
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Sean Godsell
Sean Godsell was born in Melbourne in 1960. He graduated with First Class Honours from the University of Melbourne in 1984. After traveling in Japan and Europe he worked in London from 1986 to 1988 for Sir Denys Lasdun, before returning to Melbourne in 1989 and joined The Hassell Group. In 1994 he formed Godsell Associates Pty Ltd Architects.
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Pascale Gomes-McNabb
For the visionary and co-owner behind such restaurants as ‘Cutler and Co’ and ‘Cumulus Inc’, good food and good design are inextricably linked. Pascale Gomes-McNabb, who graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1997, has made a career out of designing chic interiors for restaurants.
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Jefa Greenaway
Leaving behind a childhood ambition to enter politics, Jefa Greenaway discovered a love of design and architecture in his 20s. After obtaining a Diploma in Architectural Drafting at La Trobe, Jefa studied Architecture at Melbourne University and went on to be the first Indigenous Architect to be registered in Victoria.
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Victoria Grounds
Over two cold wintry days when the wind and rain beat down on her modest house steeped in family history, on the clifftop above Ranelagh Beach, Port Phillip Bay, Victoria Grounds (B.Arch. 1972) generously told Judy Turner her story.
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Lucinda Hartley
Landscape Architect Lucinda Hartley’s commitment to community development through design led her to establish CoDesign, a social enterprise working with communities, professionals and service providers to build social inclusion through neighbourhood improvement projects.
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John Hasker
If ever there was a man whose career was determined by one material, that man was John Hasker AM, who graduated in Civil Engineering in 1960, and followed his father into a career built on concrete. John enjoyed watching the expanding importance and versatility of concrete, and witnessed its arrival as the building material of choice, supplanting bricks and mortar.
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Meg Herrmann
When you meet Meg Herrmann you instantly know you are talking to someone who grew up on a farm. It’s in the sense of adventure, the confidence, the can do attitude, and the gutsy approach to working in what has been until very recently, an exclusively male industry.
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Toby Horrocks
Toby graduated from Melbourne School of Design in 1999 and spent nine years learning his trade at John Wardle Architects. He worked on numerous large scale projects, such as the Westfield Sydney City office building and perfected a niche skill, designing creative patterns on glass and facades.
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Lisa Hunt
A recent Master of Urban Planning graduate, Lisa Hunt is a young woman who understands the value of strategic planning in mitigating the impact of natural disasters. Lisa works for the Country Fire Authority (CFA), a role which positions her at the cutting edge of one of Australia’s biggest urban design challenges – bushfire risk reduction.
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Derek Huynh
Master of Architecture graduate Derek Huynh discusses how his career has progressed since finishing uni, and his advice for those thinking about studying design.
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Targol Khorram
Targol Khorram started studying architecture in Iran in 1998 and completed a Master of Urban Planning in 2015 at the University of Melbourne. She currently works as an urban designer at the City of Stonnington and leads a place making studio at the University of Melbourne. She previously worked on the Queen Victoria Market redevelopment. More recently, she was the President of Architects for Peace for two years.
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Damon Lavelle
The Fisht Stadium in Sochi staged major global events during the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and the 2018 FIFA World Cup. For architecture alumnus Damon Lavelle, Principal at Populous, London, the project was the culmination of the practice’s work in Russia.
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Crystal Legacy
Among our many high achieving graduates, one of the more impressive is Dr Crystal Legacy. A native Canadian, Crystal came to Australia in 2005 to take on a cross-disciplinary Masters of Environment at the University of Melbourne.
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Emily Lin
I started working at RWA the week after my last semester finished. My first three days at work was spent on renders for a design presentation to the client for the Australian Wildlife Heath Centre at Healesville Sanctuary.
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Peter Lovell and Kai Chen
Architects and heritage consultants
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Tony Luo
Tony Luo recently started at the Victorian Planning Authority as a Student Planner, after finishing his undergraduate studies in urban planning at Melbourne. He believes it has boundless opportunities to build positive urban outcomes for all communities and neighbourhoods and shared with us his student experience.
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Nan Ma
Nancy (Nan) Ma reflects on her time studying at the Melbourne School of Design, and what inspired her to pursue an international career in research which has led her to undertake her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States of America.
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Roderick (Rod) Ian Macdonald
Rod Macdonald was an innovative architect and driving force behind many of the great post-war modern buildings in Melbourne. He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Melbourne in 1948. The following year, a scholarship changed his outlook on architecture.
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Noel Madigan
In 1973 I entered what was then known as the Bachelor of Building (now Property and Construction). It was during the final year that I met guest lecturer Robert Milne, who offered me my first job with E.A. Watts in 1980.
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Peter Martin
Peter Martin always liked building cubby houses as a kid, so it wasn’t out of character when he enrolled in the Building (now Property and Construction) course at the University of Melbourne in 1964.
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Albert Mo and Eid Goh
From award-winning inner-city collaborations to high-rise residential developments, Architects Eat approaches each project with an open mind and a firm emphasis on context.
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Penny Morris
Mrs Penelope Morris AM (B. Arch Hons 1974) is a high achiever and one ABP alumni who has taken a less travelled path and made it her own. Having been raised on a Gippsland farm, with a younger and an older brother for playmates, Penny has always known how to survive in a male dominated environment.
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Susan Oliver
In the 1970s Susan Oliver, ASX company director and tech investor, graduated with a Bachelor of Building into a deeply male-dominated industry. Her career trajectory marks key moments in the recent history of Melbourne development – managing Victoria’s first urban renewal project in Emerald Hill; working with Merchant Builders; joining the board of Transurban in 1995 as the Citylink project was about to commence.
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Hugh O'Neill
Dad came back from New Guinea where he had been working on radar and the war was over. Aged twelve, I got a hundred per cent for geometry and was allowed to help select works for an exhibition of satirical linocuts by Eric Thake at East Kew Central School!
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Shelley Penn
Shelley Penn (BArch(Hons) 1988) was appointed the 73rd national president of the Australian Institute of Architects in May this year. She is also an Honorary Associate Professor in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. Louisa Ragas asked Shelley about the challenges facing architects today, her passion for the profession and her thoughts on good design.
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Sarah Lynn Rees
Sarah is a Plangermaireener woman from Hobart, Tasmania. She graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2012 with a Bachelor of Environments (architecture major) and is the first architecture student to be accepted into the Charlie Perkins Scholar program, where she is currently completing an MPhil in Architecture at the University of Cambridge, England.
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Hannah Robertson
Following on from her Master thesis, Bush Owner Builder, which received international acclaim, including a RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) Dissertation Medal, Hannah Robertson has been working in consultation with indigenous communities across Australia.
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Sonia Sarangi
I like to think of myself as a global citizen. I was born and raised in Dubai (it was a quiet desert town then) and my ethnic background is Indian. I completed my Bachelor studies in Architecture at NUS in Singapore and worked there for a few years before moving to Australia to study the M.Arch program at the University of Melbourne in 2006.
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Fereshteh Tabe & Amir Shouri
Hailing from Iran and now living and working in New York, Fereshteh Tabe and Amir Shouri are making their mark on the metropolis' architectural scene.
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Damian Tang
Appointed Director of Design of the National Parks Board of Singapore in January 2014, Damian Tang is keen to contribute towards greening Singapore and transforming it into a sustainable ‘city in a garden.’
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Pe-Yang Teng
Pe-Yang Teng graduated from the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning in 2007, with a Bachelor of Architecture and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture.
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Ray Tonkin
Cultural heritage is critical to defining and celebrating our nation’s diverse history and character. Acknowledged as a national leader in cultural heritage matters, Ray Tonkin recently received a Public Service Medal at the 2010 Australia Day Honours Awards: a fitting acknowledgment of his incredible public service to the recognition, management and promotion of Victoria’s non-Indigenous cultural heritage.
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Kate Tregloan
After completing a PhD at Melbourne School of Design, Kate Tregloan has recently returned to the Faculty as Associate Professor of Teaching and Learning. Here, she shares insights from a career spanning practice, research and teaching.
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Eduardo Velasquez
“Architecture is one of the few professions that can truly have a profound impact on society, affecting the way we live, our health, comfort and quality of life.”
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Laurie Virr
Your reporter was lucky enough to make a visit to Laurie and Mary Virr at their home Rivendell – designed and physically built by Laurie in 1975 in Kambah, which was then a very outer suburb of Canberra.
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Rohan (Gamini) Warnesuriya
Just after ANZAC Day 2013, in a coffee shop in Perth, I met a remarkable man – another of our graduates whose life has taken an unpredictable path. Born and raised in what was then Ceylon, Rohan (then called Gamini) Warnesuriya could be described as a self-made man with so many talents that throughout his life it has been hard for him to choose between architecture, planning, business management and his first love, art.
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Hong Yi (Red)
“Try new things and take risks!” That is the advice artist Hong Yi has for aspiring architects, artists and designers.
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Datin Ar. Teng Chiu Chew Ying
I am a global citizen. I was born in China, my parents took us to Hong Kong and Taiwan before moving to lndonesia. I studied in Australia, married my husband, and now live and work in Penang. However, I still travel back to Australia frequently to collaborate with Australian architects.
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Stephen Yuen
Alumnus Stephen Yuen featured in the 2018 program for The Mental Health Services Conference in Adelaide, presenting his Master of Architecture thesis on the potential of virtual reality for therapeutic support.