The Common Ground event series is a collaborative event initiative that aims to bring early career professionals working within the built environment disciplines together to share knowledge and build networks.

EmAGN and AILA Fresh have come together to discuss Wellbeing in the Built Environment. Along with guest speakers from the Architecture and Landscape Architecture professions, we will delve into what wellbeing means in the profession in day to day practice and on projects. Our speakers will be able to provide their unique insights from the profession and advice on challenges and learnings on maintaining work/life balance.

The event will be co-hosted by Alison McFadyen, Director at Parlour, alongside Malisa Benjamins, Architect at Bryant Alsop and Co-chair at Emagn VIC. Alison will bring her expertise as a key contributor to the Guides to Wellbeing in Architecture Practice and to help navigate discussion.

Our guest speakers include:

Marti Fooks, FOOKS Landscape Architecture and Urban Design
Stephanie Clarke, ClarkeHopkinsClarke
Dr. Ha Thai, RMIT School of Architecture and Urban Design
Mina Alavi, NH Architecture

Details: Common Ground x Wellbeing in the Built Environment, 6-8.30pm 18 September 2024
Venue: Sculptform Studio, 50 Queen Street, Naarm/Melbourne
Catering: Nibbles and drinks provided
Country: Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung
Public transport: Tram/Train/Bus available
Tickets: All profits from this event will be donated to Orygen Youth Health. Tickets are allocated equally between the disciplines - please ensure you place your order correctly as per your discipline.

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Speakers:

Marti Fooks, Director at FOOKS Landscape Architecture and Urban Design

Marti Fooks is a Naarm based Queer Landscape Architect whose passion for design remains in its potential to advocate for community, combat the climate crises and challenge the status quo. They have practised internationally and locally on highly acclaimed and complex public projects. Along with their team they won the Future Park Competition for their entry titled ‘The Gap’. In 2023 Marti founded FOOKS, a small creative studio with a focus on quality, collaboration, sustainability and equity. They are interested in collaborative ecosystems in projects that elevate diverse voices. They teach at RMIT and are the founding Chairperson of AILA Queer Vic.

Stephanie Clarke, Senior Interior Designer at ClarkeHopkinsClarke

Steph is a Senior Interior Designer at ClarkeHopkinsClarke Architects, co-founder of DesigNetty, and a committed member of CHC's IDEA group, promoting Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility. With a career spanning from New York to Melbourne, Steph has made significant contributions across mental health, workplace, and seniors living sectors. Her work on the Barwon Health Mental Health Hub exemplifies her dedication to co-designing with lived experience and clinical expertise, creating spaces that truly support well-being. Recognized as a 2023 Architectural Design Review 30 Under 30 shortlist, Stephanie’s practice is rooted in empathy, sustainability, and innovative design.

Dr. Ha Thai, Lecturer at RMIT School of Architecture and Urban Design

Dr Thai’s teaching and research focus on the social and economic significance of urban physical form, i.e. how the spatial settings of cities’ street networks, everyday used public spaces, building types shape dwellers’ social and economic activities. His research brings together three major schools of urban analysis, including mathematical-based space syntax, mapping-based urban morphology, and ethnography. He has collaborated with designers and scholars globally, engaged with informal traders and disadvantaged migrant communities to examine the spatial nature of their livelihoods and transnational place-making practices. His research findings advance knowledge and practices on policy making, design and management of cities, advocating more just, inclusive, vibrant, and safe public spaces. His most recent projects include ‘Economic significance of Hanoi’s urban form’, ‘World Atlas of Chinatowns’, and ‘Migrant place-making in Australia’.

Mina Alavi, Associate at NH Architecture

Mina is an architectural designer with a Master’s degree in Architecture from the Fine Arts University of Tehran and eight years of industry experience. She has contributed to a wide range of projects, including residential, commercial, urban development, and health and wellbeing. Mina worked on three innovative Mental Health and Wellbeing Expansion Program projects located at Sunshine, Northern, and Royal Melbourne Hospitals. These projects arose out of recommendations from the 2021 Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System to redesign the model of care and uplift acute public mental health bed capacity. The project team at NH Architecture used evidence-based design to translate new models of care into physical environments that embed salutogenic and biophilic principles. Delivered through a co-design partnership, concepts were deliverd through a collaborative co-design process alongside clinicians, nurses, stakeholders, and people with lived experience of mental illness.

Alison McFadyen, Director at Parlour

With a career spanning over 15 years in architecture consultancy, research and advisory, Ali has worked in multiple architectural practices in SA and is currently undertaking her Ph.D. on women’s careers in Australian architecture. Ali is a Director and Secretary for Parlour Inc, a research-based advocacy organisation working to improve diversity in the built environment. Recently, she co-authored the Guides to Wellbeing in Architecture Practice and worked on the ‘Flex from the Start’ research project, codesigning flexible work interventions for large construction sites in Sydney. Ali has been a sessional Studio Educator since 2010, tutoring in under-grad and master design studios at UniSA.

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Thank you to event sponsors Sculptform and Fielders!