Daniel McKenna
Dan was part of the inaugural Monash Architecture course, graduating with Masters in 2013. During this time he began his professional career at Breathe Architecture, leading various projects with a strong focus on environmental sustainability, and architecture that has a meaningful impact on our cities. This naturally led Dan towards a greater focus on medium density housing, identifying the significant progress that needed to be made in delivering high quality apartment buildings in our country.
In 2014 Dan was part of the team which delivered Nightingale 1, a pilot project which aimed to re-orient the medium density housing market away from an investment and wealth creation tool, to designing housing for people to call home. This project won national and international awards, with its fierce commitment towards positive social, environmental and financial outcomes.
Nightingale Housing, a not for profit development company was then formed in 2016, with Dan joining the team as its sole employee during the very early startup years. The decision to transition from a design role within the architecture community meant a need to develop and build an entirely new model, one which aimed to revolutionise the entire industry. Very quickly Nightingale was leading projects from initial finance raising, site acquisition, planning approvals, sales, marketing, community engagement, design & construction management, through to project handover and community curation. It was in these years in which Dan was able to develop a broad range of experience and skills across the field of urban development and sustainable housing.
In 2022 Dan became the Chief Executive Officer, where he now leads the team towards a future of innovation and transformation. In this role he continues to grow and foster the cohesive team culture, as well as guide the organistaion’s direction in an ever changing housing landscape. Nightingale leads by example, successfully reorienting the multi-residential housing market to focus on sustainable, community led buildings. Dan has taken Nightingale into a new era of leadership, providing a new voice in the broader political and media landscape, challenging the historic notions of the ‘great Australian dream’ and providing very real and accessible housing alternatives for a diverse range of people. Nightingale homes are sold at-cost to owner occupiers through a unique balloting system, as well as to registered Community Housing Providers which provide long term Affordable rentals to those most in need.
The current national housing crisis needs a broad range of solutions from the entire sector, and Dan and the Nightingale team is continually leading the market to show what is possible.