Leader Spotlight #05 - Dr. Sofia Colabella

Dr. Sofia Colabella, an Italian by birth, gained Australian residency following her migration. She serves as a Lecturer in Architectural Technology within the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning (ABP) at The University of Melbourne.

1. Background and Inspiration: Can you share a bit about your background and what inspired you to pursue a career in the property and construction industry?

My journey has been anything but linear. It has been dictated by curiosity and the type of desire described by Deleuze in his Abécédaire as something that constructs a concatenation, or an ensemble, that flows from the development of new artefacts and new technologies because they failed or did not perform as promised or because everywhere there is room for imperfection and, as a consequence, for improvements. My parents raised me to resist the throw-away consumer culture of the '80s and '90s in Italy. They adopted a “make-and-mend” culture in our household, encouraging tinkering and a “learning-by-doing” approach. From a young age, I grasped the ecological value of what today is common knowledge around “sustainability”, from minimising material use in repairs and new creations to reducing consumption and waste of resources. My parents' love for nature guided my interest in biological structures and forms to learn from nature's minimal use of materials for maximum efficiency.

After high school, architecture seemed to be an ideal educational pathway to experiment with similar themes at the intersection of creative and scientific disciplines. It also seemed to offer opportunities to advocate for underrepresented groups and proactively address social equity and diversity issues. That was when I began engaging in debates about women’s role in society, social disadvantage, and privilege. My PhD thesis arose from my interest in forests and tested the hypothesis that socio-technical, environmental, and architectural gains could be achieved through innovation in both structural and architectural design.

Within this context, I designed and prototyped a deployable, lightweight, low-cost timber system for renovating heritage buildings. After a few experimental prototypes, I co-founded Gridshell.it, a company specialising in designing and constructing large-span timber structures and acoustic shells. At that point in time, Frei Otto’s pioneering research on lightweight architecture, ideas on the natural environment, and his sense of social responsibility were major inspirations for my work. Becoming a carpenter, an architect, and an academic was the unplanned and best choice that helped my desire to understand the built environment from different perspectives to inform good design.

In 2015, I moved to Australia and, in 2016, to Switzerland to work as a research visitor at the EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) for one year with Prof Corentin Fivet and conduct research on upcycling reclaimed sports equipment for structural purposes. When I started teaching at The University of Melbourne in 2019, I was very excited, thinking this would be an opportunity to learn about Australian culture. After one semester of working within the multicultural environment of the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning (ABP), I realised that I had learned much more about my own cultural heritage instead, which – as Erin Meyer brilliantly poses it in her book The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business – was “invisible to me when I was in it and part of it”. Over the course of the past five years, I have learnt invaluable insights about shaping a welcoming place for research and education, where respect and humility have driven my journey to pursue meaningful and inclusive connections. In 2023, I joined the “ABP Diversity and Inclusion Committee”, originally created to proactively address issues of social equity and diversity within the faculty. That’s a wonderful place to work and reflect on how to ingrain equity and diversity in our built environment across public, private, academic and advocacy sectors.

2. Leadership and Diversity: How do you integrate your cultural background into your leadership style, or how do you advocate for diversity and inclusion within the industry?

I like to think that the new habits and ways to communicate and interact in a multicultural city like Melbourne have helped me reframe my cultural background, its societal standards and communication styles, up to rethink the interplay between language and message. People from Naples (and southern Italy at large) are often depicted as capable of great humanity and solidarity even in circumstances of existential threat, to be in uncertainty with dignity and take risks. I treasure these qualities, and I incorporate them into my roles, focusing on authenticity and genuine interactions, integrity and being a person of my word, understanding and caring about the needs and feelings of others. Resilience, adaptability, being open to learning and evolving, and considering the impact of cultural differences are ingrained in my DNA but are also skills that I nourish and practice through continuous learning to become a better human. The privilege of having this job today lies in the possibility of creating an equitable and inclusive space for me, my research and teaching teams, and my students.

Navigating the male-dominated world of construction, structural design, and fabrication has always been challenging for me as a woman and, incredibly enough, it still feels exotic in many ways. In my journey, I had to unlearn societal standards and stereotypes that men are more likely to fit the construction role while making space for uncertainty, risk, emotional exposure, and responsibilities. Yet, both in my practice in Italy and here, at The University of Melbourne, I have been given (and purposely used) the opportunity to lead by example, mentor and train younger generations of architects, and promote the leadership role of women around me while being mentored by inspiring humans who have been generous enough to explain in their own ways how to create my own toolkit to make these things real.

3. Advice for Aspiring Professionals: What advice would you give to young professionals from multicultural backgrounds who aspire to leadership roles in the property and construction industry?

We all possess transformative power in creating space for diversity and embedding diversity and inclusion in all we do. Looking for and taking up all opportunities to deepen inclusive practices and culture and not being afraid to lean into discomfort are key starting points in the construction workplace and any other endeavours in which we decide to thrive. What I love about Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous definition of power, “the ability to achieve purpose and effect change”, is its non-inherently good or bad significance and the remark on “ability” as a neutral attribution with no colour, race, or gender. My advice would be not to be fearful, to find solidarity, and to share experiences: construction is a team effort, and we can only progress into our global challenges if we learn from each other and creatively enable deeper connections.

Steve Jobs, one of my personal heroes (I often revisit his talks and interviews), gave one of my favourite pieces of advice to young professionals: “Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” (Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios, at Stanford University on June 12, 2005)

4. Future Vision: In your opinion, how can the property and construction industry better support multiculturalism?

With my European heritage-centred background, I see the beauty and positive value of incorporating local history, culture, environment, resources, social dynamics, collective memories, and communities of practice into design solutions. To do better, we need to improve and expand our capacity to listen and understand the wider context in which we operate.