Clare Cousins established her Melbourne practice, Clare Cousins Architects 21 years ago. The studio is engaged in projects large and small including housing, workplace, and cultural projects. The studio is currently delivering much-needed housing typologies including specialist disability accommodation and social housing in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Actively involved in the broader design community, Clare is a Life Fellow and Past National President of the Australian Institute of Architects. In 2021 she was awarded the Australian Institute of Architects ACT Chapter President's Medal for her advocacy to protect Anzac Hall. For her contribution to the profession, the American Institute of Architects awarded Clare the Presidential Medal in 2018 in New York, and in 2013 she was awarded the Australian Institute of Architects' National Emerging Architect's Prize.

As a passionate advocate for the advancement of architecture, Clare has lectured in New Zealand and Australia, and she is involved in various professional committees at state and national level. Clare regularly contributes to strategic advisory panels and is a panellist for the National Capital Design Review Panel in the ACT.

Clare was an inaugural investor in the Nightingale housing model and in 2021 she delivered Nightingale Village with five Melbourne architectural practices as both designer and developer. The Village is now home to more than 200 families in Brunswick.

Stephen Varady is an award winning, innovative and respected Australian architect, writer competition advisor and educator. He has designed projects in Australia and overseas, and run some of the most successful architecture competitions in Australia.

Stephen is an architecture writer, photographer and advocate for design excellence, with his writings published extensively in Australia and overseas. Stephen’s projects have also been published in Australia and overseas and included in exhibitions in Berlin in 2007 and the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2008. Stephen has received a number of RAIA awards, the Dulux Colour Award Grand Prix and the Belle House of the Year Award. He was also Creative Director for the 2006 RAIA National Architecture Conference.

Stephen has been an inspiring and enthusiastic lecturer and tutor in architecture, interior design and professional practice since 1985 in architecture and design schools at Sydney University, University of New South Wales, University of Technology Sydney, University of Newcastle and RMIT, and has lectured extensively around the world. Stephen has also been the curator of the Australian and International Brickworks Architecture Speaker Series since 2015.