Queer Career - Conversations on the Design Profession

Presented by the Architects with PRIDE collective, Queer Career brings together a diverse panel of professionals within the built environment to discuss diversity in their respective professions and the strategies to challenge space making for greater inclusivity. 

Panelists

Brahman Perera

Brahman approaches interior design as a pursuit in experiential beauty. He applies an artistic lens to carefully compose natural textures, rich colour pairings and sculptural gestures, producing balanced and compelling interiors meticulously layered with personal touches. Empathic by nature, Brahman connects with his clients’ identities and harnesses design as an act of storytelling.

Building on this creative foundation, Brahman established his own practice in early 2020, at the age of 33. Brahman has since developed a portfolio of nearly twenty projects across residential, workplace and hospitality, and retail, each expressing his layered and personalised approach to interiors.

Lucian Hicks

Lucian is an Urban Designer bringing over 20 years of international professional and academic place-led urban design and landscape experience. Stemming from an architecture background, Lucian’s conscious path into landscape and urban design has been driven by a belief that contemporary environments require an interdisciplinary approach, merging research and professional lenses to urban design, landscape, climate, culture, economics, and more to observe and to facilitate feasible, holistically sustainable, and enduring 21st century urban places.

The success of Lucian’s work is evident in the recognition by multiple global awards, including being awarded The Pierre L’Enfant International Planning Excellence Award from the American Planning Association, the Honour Award from the American Institute of Architects, Fast Company, WAN, The PLAN, SCUP, BSLA, BSA, other professional groups.

Stephen Todd

Stephen began his writing career in Paris in the early 1990s where his immersion in the worlds of fashion, architecture and design saw him well-placed to contribute essays to journals of record, including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Australian and Le Monde; and magazines, including Wallpaper*, Blueprint, Fantastic Man and American Vogue. In 1998 he launched Numéro magazine, a culture and fashion title that remains an industry benchmark to this day. He subsequently acted as editorial consultant to publishers Emap (United Kingdom), Excelsior (France) and the Louise T McBain Foundation (Switzerland) before establishing boutique branding agency concept+image (Paris) in 2005. Clients of concept+image included Woolmark, Lancaster Beauty, Moët & Chandon (LVMH) and Swarovski. 

From 2008 to 2010 Stephen was global Director of Branding & Communication for Swarovski Intl. for whom he created advertising, exhibitions and publications and brokered cobranding engagements with fashion designers including Giorgio Armani, Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano and Alber Elbaz; and industrial designers, including Konstantin Grcic, Doshi Levien, Nendo and Neri & Hu. Returning to Australia in late 2010, today he is the Design Editor of the Australian Financial Review newspaper and the Head of Publishing at Powerhouse.

Moderated by Anna Brown

Anna is the CEO of Equality Australia. Her fingerprints are on nearly every major reform for LGBTIQ+ people in recent years. She played a critical role in the campaign for marriage equality co-chairing the Equality Campaign and running the challenge to the postal plebiscite in the High Court.

Anna has been instrumental in hard fought battles to secure federal LGBTI discrimination protections, remove discriminatory laws across the country and right historical wrongs by establishing schemes to erase historical homosexual offences. Anna’s legal work has helped to ensure that young trans people can access vital hormone treatment without the cost and delay of going to court, advanced marriage equality and furthered recognition of sex and gender diversity.

Queer Career will take place on Gadigal Land. Always was, always will be. 

Free tickets for First Nations & trans women of colour. Limited tickets. Send us a request on our website architectswithpride.com.au