Sustainability might be a given in modern-day design terms, but there are many ways to be sustainable and make a positive impact. Featuring panellists Liam Wallis (HIP V. HYPE), Rebecca Trenorden (Carr), Jan O’Connor (Environa) and David Kaunitz (Kaunitz Yeung Architecture), this session is your chance to take a layered look at sustainability in design. From client-driven values to process, practice and outcome. We go wide to look at the bigger picture, before diving down into the finer detail.
Speakers
Jan Henderson
Jan Henderson was lately acting-editor of Indesign magazine and is now contributing across the breadth of Indesign products as well as Program Director of the INDE.Awards 2021. Her previous roles have included associate publisher at Architecture Media for three years, co-editor of inside magazine and Interiors editor of Architel.tv for the past six years. As Principal of Henderson Media Consultants she contributes to various architecture and design magazines, is a regular speaker at events and has participated as a juror for industry awards. Jan is passionate about design and through her different roles supports and contributes to design in Australia.
Liam Wallis
Founder of HIP V. HYPE and Managing Director of HIP V. HYPE Projects, Liam is a creative entrepreneur who believes in the power of design thinking to resolve intuitive solutions to project delivery and value creation. He is passionate about cities and is driven by a desire to achieve better outcomes.Since establishing HIP V. HYPE in 2002, Liam has refined a design led approach to business that seeks to shape and enhance the social, environmental and economic fabric of our cities through informed, responsive and collaborative design and development solutions.
Liam Wallis founded HIP V. HYPE whilst studying Architecture + Property & Construction at the University of Melbourne. The business became a lens through which he began to explore the relationship between design, sustainability and commercial value.
Taking a less conventional route, Liam worked for the likes of Six Degrees Architects and Casandra Fehey Architects, not in the office, but on site with tools in hand. The experience and relationships formed with passionate trades was a strong compliment to theoretical study, and provided the practical understanding of the intersection between design & construction that has assisted HIP V. HYPE deliver numerous construction projects of notable design.
Rebecca Trenorden
Rebecca brings extensive experience in workplace design, alongside a global outlook having practised in Australia, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Rebecca joined the Carr team as an Associate Director, having worked in the industry for 15 years and developing strong leadership skills. “In my time in Shanghai I learnt a lot about people and the importance of culture and leadership,” she says.
For Rebecca, a project’s success comes down to establishing a clear, holistic overview of the project, “What are the objectives, aspirations, opportunities/challenges, and how does the big conceptual idea tell that story?”
Part of the process to ensure a holistic project outcome is from client collaboration and drawing out a successful brief. “Our job is to prompt, listen and gain trust that we are the experts. This allows us to challenge our clients and deliver something that not only is perfect for them but exceeds expectations. To get to this result, people need to feel confident, that their opinions are valued,” explains Rebecca.
Jan O’Connor
Since 2003, Jan O’Connor has been the Managing Partner of environa studio, a Sydney based architectural firm, actively engaged with social and environmental design solutions.
Together with the practice founder, Tone Wheeler, who has been involved in the sustainability arena for nearly forty years, sustainable design has expanded to incorporate many other issues. It is inherent to environa’s being, no longer requiring a separate agenda. All projects are guided by a ‘triple bottom line’ approach.
Environa works with many different clients: government, corporate, indigenous and not for profit organisations and has built a strong reputation with numerous awards and accolades for sustainable design, winning the Milo Dunphy Award in 2014 for The Wayside Chapel. The studio’s projects span urban design, civic and commercial projects with a particular emphasis on social and affordable housing.
Jan was employed as the Retail Concepts Design Manager in the property development department of Myer Stores Ltd whilst completing an Architectural Degree (Hons) at R.M.I.T. Following ten years of corporate employment, in 1996 she co-founded the iconic retail tea company T2.
Responsible for all design, branding & marketing, Jan was influential in changing the perception of how tea could be sold & promoted. Following the establishment of T2 (which was acquired by Unilever in 2013 and is regarded as a disruptor brand in a previously conservative industry) she returned to architectural practice with environa studio.
David Kaunitz
Consultation, collaboration and time are the three ingredients David Kaunitz adds to his architectural practice that transforms a design from a building into a place. David founded Kaunitz Yeung with his wife Ka Wai Yeung following his return to Sydney after living in the UK and the Solomon Islands.
David has more than a decade of community development and post disaster experience in South East Asia and the Pacific working for clients such as UNICEF, UNHCR, World Vision and the Governments of Australia, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Fiji and the Philippines. As part of this time he spent four years living in the Solomon Islands, a period he says played an integral role in developing his approach to working with First Nations People and culturally diverse groups. David is also a fluent Pidgin speaker.
David’s European experience as senior architect and his unique relationship with remote communities underpins both the capability and direction of Kaunitz Yeung Architecture and its broad range of successful health, education, tourism and cultural projects for governments, organisations and commercial clients.
With projects in more than 30 Aboriginal communities, David has developed unique expertise working with Aboriginal stakeholders. He authored the 2017 update to the ‘Australian Government, Department of Health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Funded Capital Works Projects – Facility Design Guidelines’.