Media contact

Fran Strachan
Communications Manager Low Carbon Living CRC
+61 2 9385 5402
fran.strachan@unsw.edu.au

Lucy Turnbull will join 20 of Sydney’s high-profile female professionals at an event aimed at encouraging more women to take up leadership roles in the built environment industry.

The impressive line up of women from across architecture, design, planning and academia will talk about their diverse careers and their potential to collaborate with other women in the industry.

Engaging Women in Built Environment will be hosted by the Dean of UNSW Built Environment Professor Helen Lochhead.

“My goal is to see 50% of women in leadership roles by 2025 but that requires working together in new and innovative ways,” she said.

Recent research has revealed only 20.6% of registered architects in Australia are women, despite women graduating from Australian architecture schools in equal numbers to men for the past 30 years.

“At UNSW we have very good admission and graduation rates for women but problems arise at the mid-career mark because work expectations are not aligned with other life priorities like raising children,” Professor Lochhead said.

“Career progression stalls at this point which leads to fewer women in senior positions.”

Recent research also shows that the number of registered female architects drops dramatically after the age of 30.

Professor Lochhead hopes the event will encourage networks between women in the industry and the University to provide a platform for projects, research partnerships, work placements and mentoring.

“Women have different career paths, either through choice or necessity, and we should recognise and celebrate that difference because in the 21st century a flexible and adaptive career is not only valuable but essential. While women may not always have a linear and logical career path, it makes them incredibly resilient in the long run,” Professor Lochhead said.

Engaging Women in Built Environment presenters include:

Alison Mirams, General Manager NSW/ACT, Building, Lendlease, 

Alison Page, Designer & Filmaker, Zakpage 

Amelia Holliday & Isabelle Toland, Founding Directors, Aileen Sage

Amy Bendall, Urban Designer, City of Sydney

Barbara Schaffer, Principal Landscape Architect Government Architects Office 

Adjunct Professor Diane Jones, PTW, Executive Director 

Associate Professor of Practice Elizabeth Farrelly, UNSW Built Environment

Dr. Hazel Easthope, Senior Research Fellow, City Futures Research Centre

Iva Durakovic, Interior Architecture, Sessional Academic 

Jane Rothschild, Project Director, The Anganwadi Project, Caroline Kite, Senior Architect AJ+C,TAP volunteer

Jo Lees (nee Skinner), Senior Project Engineer, Lendlease 

Julie Bindon, Founding Director, JBA  

Kirsten Stanisich, Director, Interior Design, SJB

Associate Professor Linda Corkery, Landscape Architecture, UNSW Built Environment 

Lucy Hughes Turnbull AO, Chief Commissioner, Greater Sydney Commission

Natalie Galea, PhD Candidate, UNSW Built Environment

Natalie Pelleri, Research Associate, UNSW Built Environment 

Nicole Gardner, Lecturer, Computational Design UNSW Built Environment 

Rina Bernabei, Senior Lecturer, Industrial Design, UNSW Built Environment 

Professor of Practice Sue Holliday, Director of Urban Policy and Strategy, UNSW Built Environment

ShanShan Wang, Designer, Roam Technologies

Adjunct Professor Sue Barnsley, Principal, Sue Barnsley Designs

Professor Susan Thompson, Planning, UNSW Built Environment  

Virginia Kerridge, Principal, Virginia Kerridge Architecture 

What: Engaging Women in Built Environment public event

When: 6–8pm, Monday, 10 October 2016

Where: G001 Theatre, Red Centre West Wing, UNSW Kensington followed by a networking event in the Red Centre Gallery.