The Creative Directors believe architecture matters. They are committed to exploring how architectural knowledge, training and experience can be put to work in diverse ways for the benefit of the community. They aim to extend architecture’s reach and amplify its impact. Leverage 2020 sees them combine their collective experience and intellectual rigour to pursue these concerns with an outstanding group of speakers and conference delegates.
Emma Williamson
Emma is a founding Principal of TheFulcrum.Agency, a creative consultancy that leverages community and social outcomes through evidence-based design thinking, advocacy and research. Her portfolio includes urban design, educational projects and public buildings that have been recognised through awards from the Australian Institute of Architects, the Australian Award for Urban Design, and an International Award for Public Participation for work in community led design processes.
With degrees in architecture and interior design, Emma’s work is driven by a belief that high quality design can help improve experiences at every scale and that architects have an important role to play in conversations about the future of our cities. She has been an invited juror on several national awards and in 2019 was a member of the National Awards Jury for the Institute.
Emma currently sits on several design review panels and is Chair of the Design Review Panel for the City of Canning, a member of the State Design Review Panel WA and Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Monash University.
KIERAN WONG
Kieran is Principal of TheFulcrum.Agency. His role at the agency is to lead the research, advocacy and design components of client briefs, working with communities across Australia, from remote to metropolitan. Kieran is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at Monash University, and Industry Partner for the University of Sydney’s Health Habitat Incubator. He is currently working with a number of Indigenous communities on the Groote Archipelago, NT, and in Minjerribah, QLD, on projects that are locally led, and have been developed through intensive co-design processes.
Kieran is the Immediate Past National President of the Association for Consulting Architects, the national peak body representing the business interests of architectural practice. He is a regular contributor to design studios at University of Notre Dame Australia, Curtin University and the University of Western Australia and has served on several professional advisory boards and juries. In 2016, he co-authored the report, #designperth, with the Property Council of Australia, The Greens and Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute on the critical role design should play in the densification of our cities. His writing has been published on topics covering urban renewal, Indigenous housing and new models of practice and procurement.
Kieran’s work is underpinned by his belief that design matters and the ability of good design to influence positive outcomes, not just for individuals, but also for the wider community.
DR. MARYAM GUSHEH
Maryam is an architectural researcher and design educator. She is Associate Professor and Deputy Head of Architecture at Monash University. Maryam has a particular interest in bridging academia and the profession and is skilled at conceptualising and realising projects that span these worlds.
Maryam’s specialisation is in twentieth-century architectural culture, extending to the contemporary period. She examines the way global disciplinary trends travel between cultures and are, in the process, uniquely transformed. These ideas have been explored through scholarly work, professional criticism and international exhibitions. Maryam was co-curator of Thinking Drawing/Working Drawing, Gallery Ma, and Universal Principles: Unique Projects in Australian Architecture, Sky Gallery, both in Tokyo, and was coordinator of the creative team for Abundant Australia – the Australian Pavilion, 11th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice Architecture Biennale. She has published broadly including with Toto, Wiley, Thames & Hudson, Allen & Unwin and UNSW Publishing.
Prior to joining Monash, Maryam was the Director of Architecture and coordinator of the Housing Stream in the Master of Architecture degree at the University of New South Wales.
JUSTINE CLARK
Justine is an architectural editor, writer, researcher, advisor and advocate. She is a co-founder of Parlour: women, equity, architecture, leads the organisation’s event, advocacy and funding programs, and established the Parlour website. Justine also consults to built environment organisations, practices and universities on policy, strategy, publications, events and engagement. She is a member of the NSW State Design Review panel, special advisor to the Architects Male Champions of Change, and an Honorary Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Justine is active in public discussions of architecture; she has also organised many events, curated exhibitions, served on national and international juries and was co-convenor of Transformations: Action on Equity in 2019 at the University of Melbourne. From 2000–2011 Justine worked on Architecture Australia, and she was editor of the journal for seven years. Her writing appears in both the scholarly and professional press, on topics including gender and architecture, architectural criticism, architectural drawing and postwar modernism. Her work has won awards for architecture in the media and her broader contribution to the profession was recognised in 2015 with the Marion Mahony Prize and in 2019 with the President’s Award from the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects.