Explore, imagine and create cities, cultures and communities
UWA’s School of Design is a collaboration of creative thinkers and makers that includes landscape architects, urban designers, experimental artists, historians and architects. We inspire our students and graduates to be boundary-breakers, navigating knowledge, cultures, habitats and landscapes to the benefit of our communities and environments.
Our School is future-focused and comprehensively prepares graduates for a successful entry into their chosen career of design.
From a unique place, we imagine cities, cultures and communities.
Explore, experiment and create with us.
Welcome from the Dean and Head of School Kate Hislop
Clever and creative design is needed now more than ever. At a time when environments are increasingly coming under threat, we have exciting strategic and instrumental opportunities to make a positive impact on the ways that we understand, shape and inhabit our built and natural landscapes. Preservation and enhancement of public and private realms; considered responses to global and local peoples and cultures; resourceful use of systems and materials; and smart application of technologies are at the forefront of our teaching and research efforts at the School of Design.
Western Australia is a unique place in which to learn and practice within the fields of art and design, and at UWA we distinctively bring these disciplines together. We offer dedicated studio spaces, leading workshop facilities, on-site technical expertise and a range of local and international study destinations. Here, students obtain the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in their chosen careers, guided by dedicated staff internationally renowned as scholars and practitioners. Industry partners and professionals support the School in its mission to educate the next generation of architects, artists, art historians, landscape architects and urban designers. The future of work may be changing, but for these careers there will always be a place.
Look closely, think boldly, work skilfully, act generously. Join our vibrant community and make your future here.
Disciplines and Courses
We deliver courses and research in the following areas
Architecture
Fine Arts
Landscape Architecture
Urban Design
History of Art
Building Information Modelling
Research
LAWN Project
The LAWN Project explores sustainable solutions for lawns in Perth in times of drying climate.
Bio-based Materials Design Lab
The BBMLab is a multicultural and interdisciplinary community that conducts cutting-edge research, develops solutions and fosters innovation
Visualising Batavia Silverware
Imaging and analysing VOC's previous metal trade objects for Mughal India
News
Lucina Tassone awarded at The Lester Prize
Lucina Tassone awarded at The Lester Prize
Congratulations to UWA School of Design Fine Arts student Lucinda Tassone on being awarded the $20,000 Minderoo Foundation Spirit Prize at the Lester Prize for her painting 'I love fast food'.
Image credit: Lucinda Tassone, I love fast food, 2024. Oil on Masonite, 122 x 91 cm
Maria Ignatieva awarded the IFLA President's Award 2024
Maria Ignatieva awarded the IFLA President's Award 2024
Congratulations to UWA Professor in Landscape Architecture Maria Ignatieva on receiving the 2024 IFLA President’s Award!
The IFLA President’s Award recognises the contribution of an individual or organisation for the advancement of the profession of landscape architecture through their participation in IFLA and have made a fundamental difference to the global profession of landscape architecture. This award celebrates excellence and acknowledges the profound difference that a dedicated individual can make in our global community.
Dr Ignatieva’s work has spanned continents, bridging gaps and fostering collaboration in the pursuit of sustainable and biodiverse urban landscapes. Her tireless efforts in research, education, and practice have left an undeniable mark on the profession.
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Read more here
Officer Woods shortlisted for 2024 National Architecture Award 2024
Officer Woods shortlisted for 2024 National Architecture Award 2024
Congratulations to Senior Lecturer Jennie Officer who, as part of Officer Woods, has been shortlisted in the 2024 National Architecture Awards, for the Spinifex Hill Project Space in the Public Architecture and Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture categories and for the project 27 Rule Street in the Residential Architecture - Houses (New) category.
The National Architecture Award winners will be announced at the 2024 National Architecture Awards in Adelaide on 7 November 2024 at the Adelaide Convention Centre.
Read more here
Image: Spinifex Hill Project Space | Traditional Owners: The Kariyarra People | Architects: Officer Woods | Builder: Cooper and Oxley | Photographer: Robert Frith
Hatched 2024
Hatched 2024
We are very proud to announce that UWA School of Design Fine Arts Honours graduate Esther Forrest has been selected as one of 22 artists from 21 art schools across Australia for this year’s ‘Hatched’ exhibition at PICA. Now in its 33rd year, Hatched continues to provide an essential platform for early-career artists, presenting their works to a national audience. The exhibition runs from 3 August-13 October.
Scale of care wins
Scale of care wins
Congratulations to UWA Landscape Architecture Lecturer Daniel Jan Martin, UWA alumni Elliot Lind, Tara Moore, Tim Mettam and Liam Mouritz and Teaching Associate Alice Ford on placing first in the national Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care competition ‘Reimagining where we live’ for the urban brief.
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The winning design ‘Scales of care’ imagined a productive relationship between the practice of care and the environment, a positive feedback loop fostered between residents and the world around them.
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The competition called for testing of the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care’s critical draft National Aged Care Design Principles and Guidelines, which are a response to the Royal Commission into Aged Care’s recommendations tabled in 2021.
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Under the banner ‘LM2A with Super Natural’ this represents a launching moment for LM2A made up of Elliot Lind, Tara Moore and Tim Mettam with Super Natural, a collaborative environmental practice between Daniel Jan Martin, Liam Mouritz and Alice Ford.
Simon Anderson awarded Neville Quarry Prize
Simon Anderson awarded Neville Quarry Prize
Congratulations to Emeritus Professor Simon Anderson on receiving the 2024 Neville Quarry Architectural Education Prize!
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Simon Anderson’s contribution to architectural education over a 34-year-long career is undeniable. His dedication to his students and their learning, alongside a substantial publication record, has made him one of Australia’s preeminent architectural educators. He has mentored countless emerging practitioners in the process.
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From 2010 to 2016, Anderson served as the dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts at the University of Western Australia, overseeing the transition of the faculty into the UWA School of Design. In this role, he pioneered the development of the practitioner–academic model of university tenure, reflecting his own substantial contribution across the domains of practice, teaching and research. An internationally cited academic, his commitment to the profession extends to aid work and advising the government of New South Wales.
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As well as being an accomplished professional, Anderson cares deeply about the careers and wellbeing of others. It is this eminent and sustained devotion to the profession that makes him the worthy recipient of the 2024 Neville Quarry Architectural Education Prize.
Events and community engagement
Design@Home
From 2025, we're introducing Design@Home, a foundation year program for regional and remote students within WA.
Summer Exhibition 2024
Showcasing work from the creative fields of Architecture, Fine Arts, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design and BIM.
UWA School of Design
Opening Wednesday 13 November, 6pm
until 21 February 2024
weekdays 10.00am-4.00pm*
(except UWA Christmas closure 23 December to 3 Jan 2025)
FAM+24
UWA Fine Arts + Electronic Music & Sound Design Graduate Exhibition
Exhibition Opening Event
31 October, 6.00pm-8.30pm
Exhibition Dates
31 October - 7 November, 10.00am-4.00pm daily
Our alumni
Emilia Galatis
Curator, writer, consultant and facilitator
Emilia Galatis
Curator, writer, consultant and facilitator
Bachelor of Arts (Honours)
As a Fine Arts (Honours) graduate, Emilia has worked freelance for over 10 years across urban and remote areas seeking to strengthen and support community-led commercial artistic practice for artists and their arts organisations. She has delivered projects and major exhibitions for Indigenous-owned art centres and national institutions and held roles as creative director of Revealed for Fremantle Arts Centre in 2016 and 2017; co-curator and community liaison for Desert River Sea: Portraits of the Kimberley for the Art Gallery of Western Australia; and arts and business manager of Warakurna Artists the remote Ngaanyatjarra lands. Her current clients include AGWA, AACHWA and Martumili Artists.As a current Churchill fellow, she has been developing international business opportunities and advocating for Indigenous contemporary arts inclusion in broader contemporary dialogues.
Looking back on her studies at UWA, Emilia says she had no idea how her life was going to pan out at the time.
“I was able to choose electives that enriched my intellectual capacity and extend my critical thinking. After getting to third year psychology, I decided that I didn’t want to be a psychologist. I did extra units to finish my degree with two different majors in Archaeology and Fine Arts theory. I then completed an honours dissertation in Fine Arts. After psychology and my deep interest in human behaviour, these two majors, on reflection, are oddly in line with that interest. I enjoyed the study of the output of humanity rather than the flesh itself. Darren Jorgensen and Clarissa Ball at Fine Arts and Jane Balme and Alistair Patterson at Archaeology were formative in my future career pathways and knowledge.”
Photograph by Casey Ayres
Abel Feleke
Norman Foster Foundation Scholar
Abel Feleke
Norman Foster Foundation Scholar, Madrid
Bachelor of Environmental Design and Master of Architecture
Abel is an Ethiopian-Australian designer working across architecture and urbanism with a strong interest in city futures. In investigating innovation through design he has taught and worked alongside communities across the globe. The sole recipient of the 10th Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Norman Foster Travelling Award, he is a Norman Foster Foundation Scholar and contributing writer to ArchitectureAU. He has worked in the international studios of Kengo Kuma & Associates (Tokyo), Foster + Partners (London) and the Norman Foster Foundation (Madrid), collaborated alongside the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (Perth), and taught at the UWA School of Design.“The part of the course that I enjoyed the most was getting to form a close network of friends and mentors. Being able to learn in the classroom is important, but what I found of great value was the opportunity to come across a lot of curious minds with differing perspectives. It's really this access to a wealth of experience coupled with the opportunity to debate opinions that I found most beneficial to my personal growth.”
Christina Chau
University lecturer
Christina Chau
University lecturer, Perth
PhD (History of Art and Communication Studies)
Since completing her PhD, Christina has been working as a lecturer, first at UWA and now at Curtin University. She has published a book titled Movement, Time, Technology and Art and presented on ABC TV about contemporary art in Australia. Christina has also published academic articles on kinetic sculpture, contemporary art theory, post-internet aesthetics, robots, contemporaneity, Henri Bergson, and Gilles Deleuze.“What sticks with me the most are memories of the conversations that emerged during and after the tutorials. Through talking about the readings in the tutorials, I learned a lot about how to be a decent human being, but also how to engage with ideas that I found uncomfortable or challenging. I learned how to think, what to think about, and how to think through problems. I also learned how to have conversations with people that thought differently to me, without having a fight about it,” she says.
“I love that my career requires me to commit a lot of deep thinking time to my areas of expertise. I also love that academia is a lot more collaborative and social than I first thought. Being able to talk through ideas, theory, and ethics with colleagues and students is immensely nourishing.”
Photograph by Bo Wong
Jenny Watson
Associate at ARM Architecture
Jenny Watson
Associate at ARM Architecture, Melbourne
Bachelor of Environmental Design and Master of Architecture
Jenny is now a Melbourne-based Associate at ARM Architecture. She has worked on a wide range of large projects all over Australia including RAC Arena, Elizabeth Quay, Melbourne’s Southbank Theatre and, currently, the Gold Coast’s HOTA Gallery and Geelong Arts Centre. She has a keen interest in computer-aided 3D design, and is skilled at virtual 3D modelling for designing buildings and for communicating them to clients and the public.The things she enjoyed most about studying at UWA were “The complex, varied, often contradictory passions of each of the staff, which showed me how many different ways there are to approach architecture and be an architect. Also, of course, the lifelong friends I made during long hours in the studio, the computer lab and the library.”
Joe Bean
Co-founder of ‘Brave and Curious’
Joe Bean
Co-founder of ‘Brave and Curious’, WA
Bachelor of Design and Master of Architecture
Throughout his studies, Joe became increasingly interested in how design relates to ecological and social contexts and finished his master’s by travelling to the Philippines to intern with Habitat for Humanity Asia-Pacific and writing a dissertation on climate-induced displacement.After graduating he worked for residential architecture practice David Weir Architects, then lived in remote north-western Zambia for a few months working with Orkidstudio (now Build X and BuildHer), working on design and project managing construction of doctors’ and nurses’ housing. There he learnt a lot about the potential of a construction process to promote change, equality and wellbeing in a community, as well as the opportunities, constraints and nuances in getting humanitarian projects off the ground.
He’s now relocated to the south west and runs a small business called ‘Brave and Curious’ with his friend and mentor Greg Grabasch, working across urban design, landscape architecture and architecture.
“My UWA degree provided me with a broad set of skills which I have been able to apply to a wide range of projects. I have worked across a huge range of scales already – from large trail mapping projects through to detailing bathrooms. I am grateful that by offering a wide range of electives, my course facilitated this jack of all trades (master of none at this stage!) approach. The course also encouraged me to form a world view and design approach that I have been able to test and bounce off collaborators, clients and the local seals, with positive results so far.”
Sara Padgett Kjaersgaard
Landscape architect and lecturer
Sara Padgett Kjaersgaard
Landscape architect and lecturer, Sydney
Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (Hons)
Sara is a Registered Landscape Architect (AILA), PhD candidate (UWA) and Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at UNSW. She was awarded the Jeppe Aagaard Andersen scholarship to travel in Denmark in 2006, where she worked on projects including the London Olympics and the Aalborg Music Hall. She has held several leadership positions with the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) and has recently been a juror (2019) and co-host (2020) of Channel 10’s Australia By Design – Landscape Series alongside Jamie Durie.“I knew Landscape Architecture was the right degree for me – it’s the perfect balance between the arts (design), science (natural systems) and human culture (geography/anthropology). Landscape Architecture is a diverse and growing profession which is gaining increased profile within Australia and abroad. The profession is well equipped to deal with some of the biggest challenges this century including climate change, rapid urbanisation, preventative health measures, access to open space, species diversity as well as political activism.”
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