Monash academics appointed as Australia’s Creative Directors for the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale

Napier Street Apartments, Kerstin Thompson Architects, 2001, Melbourne, Australia, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country. Photo credit: Matthew Stanton

Image: Napier Street Apartments, Kerstin Thompson Architects, 2001, Melbourne, Australia, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country. Photo credit: Matthew Stanton

Monash University academics have been appointed as the Creative Directors of the Australian Pavilion for the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale – one of the world’s leading architecture exhibitions.

The Australian Institute of Architects announced Monash University and Kerstin Thompson Architects’ (KTA) Lived In as Australia’s exhibition at the Venice Biennale, which will take place in Italy from 8 May to 21 November 2027.

Lived In is led by Professor Maryam Gusheh, Associate Professor Lee-Anne Khor and Professor Louise Wright from the Monash Urban Lab within Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA), in collaboration with architect Adjunct Professor Kerstin Thompson.

Lived In will draw on examples from the first-of-its-kind Housing Atlas of Australia initiative, an upcoming visual guide showcasing hundreds of best-practice apartment dwellings across Australia’s urban history. The exhibition will explore the contribution of multi-unit dwellings to Australia’s housing through drawings, data, photographs and film.

Adjunct Professor Kerstin Thompson said this timely research captures diverse ways of living that can inform our future housing models.

“As one of the most urbanised populations in the world, many Australians live in apartments, yet the story of apartment design in Australia is less known,” Adjunct Professor Thompson said.

“Lived In presents this story as both a counterpoint and complement to Australia's famous suburban image as predominated by the single-family suburban house.”

Professor Maryam Gusheh said once apartments are constructed, we don’t often reflect on how these spaces are used or how they impact their setting.

“Our exhibition looks at how architecture supports everyday lives and how life patterns continue to evolve these environments across time,” Professor Gusheh said.

Professor Louise Wright said the design of apartment buildings in Australia has been remarkably inventive and has made an important social contribution to diverse ways of living in Australia.

“Well designed denser housing models are critical to Australia’s housing and urban future to limit the expansion of our cities,” Professor Wright said.

Lived In was chosen as Australia’s exhibition from 21 submissions across 11 institutions.