Stories That Shape Us: Lived Experiences in the Built Environment

Stories That Shape Us

30.06.2026

Last night was more than a panel discussion. It was a gathering grounded in community, connection, empathy, and the stories that shape us.

A huge thank you to our incredible panellists, Gerhana Waty, Director at Hansen Partnership, Praveen Reddy, Chief Strategy, Innovation and Partnerships at AMES Australia, and Andrew Perez, Managing Partner at Grimshaw. Our panelists were vulnerable and shared their journeys with honesty, storytelling and humour.

Some reflections that stayed with us:

  • Praveen reminded us that career growth is about the 3 Ps: Performance + Profile + Possibility.

  • Andrew shared the importance of giving back — if someone once threw you a rope that helped pull you up, make sure you leave that rope down for others when you’re in a position to do so.

  • Gerhana spoke about courage: be brave, stay humble, and take the risk. Sometimes we spend too much time questioning whether we’re capable instead of giving ourselves the chance to prove we are.

One theme that really resonated came from Praveen’s reflection that while we’ve made meaningful progress as an industry, there is still so much ground to cover. Representation and inclusion are improving, but equity doesn’t happen passively. It takes intentional action, advocacy, sponsorship, and people willing to challenge systems that were never designed for everyone equally. And across the entire conversation, one message kept resurfacing: sponsorship and allyship matter.

A big thank you to Aaron Chen, MAPP Co‑Founder and Senior Project Architect, for thoughtfully facilitating such an open and meaningful conversation. A special thank you to Gabriel Lu, Melbourne Acoustics Lead at Stantec, for his collaboration and support in bringing this event to life, and to Stantec for being the major sponsor of the night.

Thank you to our event sponsors Development Victoria, IZZA Group and Slattery for their generous support.

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