In naarm, the 2025 Emerging Architect Prize Tour continued with Placement Studio — Stephanie, Jacqueline and James — offering a portrait of their practice built on deep listening, long friendships, and quiet conviction. Their collaborative approach extends well beyond the studio: Stephanie founded Tender, a social community space; James is president of his local kindergarten; and Jacqueline teaches at Monash University. People-first thinking is a disposition. Leaning into adaptive reuse and the value of what's already there, their masterplan approach stages a vision clients can grow into incrementally, which connected with stories I shared of informal settlement residents adapting their housing as and when means permit. This strategy supports the agency of residents to things on their own terms, in their own time, when they are able.
A photograph of Swanston Street in Melbourne by Kali Marnane
The Q&A had a noticeably different texture to Hobart. Where the questions there were philosophical (What should the profession be doing? What is the value of what we do?), in Melbourne they were practical (How did you start your practice? What was the experience of pivoting to consultancy? How do you work together? How do you choose a builder, and when do you bring them in?). That shift perhaps reflects similar underlying values, refracted through different urgencies.
A thread that connected both talks was the idea of translation: Placement Studio's role in facilitating conversation between clients, builders, and communities echoed my own reflections on reframing expertise as the work of carrying lived experience into policy and design. "We always come up with a better solution when we're collaborating together," James noted — and that felt true of the evening itself.
“Often the most meaningful work isn’t loud.”
A photograph of James, Kali and Stephanie at the AIA Melbourne office