I clearly remember growing up in a house filled with drawings and plans.

My father was an architect – Peter McMahon, Director of Property Services at the (state government) Housing Commission / Department of Human Services. I would sneak into his study to flick through his old 1^st year sketch book of city scenes and buildings and his thesis project – a Carmelite nun convent site in Heidelberg, beautifully presented on bound A5 parchment with Letraset text and meticulously inked drawings.

I knew I wanted to be an architect – there was no doubt in my mind even as a ten year old. For a particular assignment the other kids drew one-room houses, but mine was a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom open-plan masterpiece that had the teacher dumbfounded. I could draw anything, and copy anything, and unfortunately could pass any test with ease, a skill that led to a little more pub time and Archi-Review shenanigans during university days than was strictly good for me.

As my high-school years passed and friends asked the inevitable question of what I wanted to be  – “An architect”, he would shake his head with his stern lecture-voice on, saying, “You DON’T want to be an architect ….it’s a lot of responsibility…..and hard work….” and invariably described long hours of toilet detailing and free overtime. I was so sure he was trying to dissuade me, which of course instinctively made me more desperate to prove him wrong. Although in hindsight perhaps it was just all part of his cunning plan, because he was just so quietly pleased I had followed in his footsteps.

I once proudly described to Dad the office tour of the newly completed DCM Melbourne Exhibition Centre and the cool toilet basins in great detail during a short stint of year-out work experience at DCM. I recalled his toilet-detailing warning and thought that toilet detailing had pretty good potential after all! My dad passed away several years ago, but will always have a part to play in my professional life, having left me with such gems as “…sound financial procedures are the cornerstone of a successful professional practice….”  and of course unwavering support for the fledgling beginnings of our practice that he had witnessed.

Like many University of Melbourne Architecture students I was in love with the plan.

I loved the planning out of the design; the layering of a context-driven, often phenomenological approach with cultural meanings, of clever and elegant arrangement of briefed spaces, and always with specific progression of section heights, of views and spatial narrative. I have learnt over the years the absolute need to move quickly on from the plan to the dance of designing iteratively in all three dimensions, and the absolute need to revisit the plan and refine, refine, refine. Having recently completed three concurrent semesters of teaching MSD students together with my partner Rob Nerlich, I realise some things never change – and have watched and coaxed anxiously as students struggle to frame the perfect conceptual approach in plan only to run out of time to resolve the design fully and without the benefit of approaching form or plan iteratively.

I have been on an incredible journey since graduating.

I started my career in the heady days of the late 90’s, first for a few months with a great crew of graduate colleagues working all hours at Gray Puksand on a large commercial project roll-out. The former practice of Sally Draper and Simon Swaney, Swaney Draper Architects, soon followed. This was where I absorbed the importance of detail and design intensity, and worked with amazingly great architects who have become life-long friends and mentors. I also met my husband and architect / business partner Rob Nerlich here. We were rather hilariously covered in a Good Weekend magazine article once on whether it was a good idea to date a co-worker. We were meant to demonstrate the ‘for’ side however I am not sure what conclusions the readers drew!

We have worked in private practice since those days which has given us a great grounding and discipline for our current practice together, man|architects. Although most of the projects I worked on during my time at Swaney Draper were never built – my small toilet block refurbishment DID get built. More importantly though I got to experience many site visits – to the Lindrum Hotel and Carpark in Flinders St, to Melbourne Grammar School’s Wadhurst development (on the corner of St Kilda Rd and Domain Rd), and Lauriston Girls School, and amazing private residences, which were instructive and memorable in shaping an appreciation and discussion of architectural design excellence.

I worked for a few years at SJB Architects, where their graduate program is really commendable in teaching whole-architect skills of project management and responsibility and well as rewarding design skills.

I worked in London for four years, where I moved with Rob in the now-heady mid-naughties.

We arrived in 2003 at a time when Europe was flush with cash for cultural projects and the UK was in the middle of a boom with (the precedent to the BER here), the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Program, a Blair-Government initiative with the ambitious aim to refurbish or rebuild every secondary school in the UK. Rob and I landed on our feet, arriving flat-broke from a whirlwind architectural tour of Europe but hired virtually the next day by Curl La Tourelle Architects, who specialised in Education projects. I would become an Associate there, working both designing and delivering primary and secondary schools procured under both BSF and the capital works program (primary schools), and also assisting client side for London Borough of Camden and London Borough of Barking and Dagenham carrying out design feasibilities to be used as brief designs for PFI bids.

I also worked at John Wardle Architects, fortunately using the experience gained in procuring education buildings in the UK to be Assistant Project Architect for the Victoria University Learning Commons and Exercise Sports & Science Precinct project- an amazing journey working first under Associate Megan Dwyer in the very early stages of Brief, Return Brief, Stacking Model and very early iterations of the plans and sections, to later assisting lead the team of architects on the delivery of the documentation. It’s a truly great, complex and challenging work of architecture with a magnificent relationship to its suburban, campus and environmental context. It won both State and National Public Architecture awards to national acclaim. I was also lucky to lead a smaller project for Queens College, which added – you guessed it – a toilet block to the main hall and a refurbished lobby rebuilding the glazed western façade of the main hall. Both these projects were built after I had departed on maternity leave – a great life experience of course, albeit a potentially frustrating one for the “architect primary carer” – whichever gender – to learn to let go of the emotional involvement of the current design baby for the greater good of an actual baby.

What drew me to architecture and keeps me passionate about it is that old-fashioned notion of genuinely improving people’s lives through great design.

I enjoy making something truly great, inspiring, meditative or uplifting that could otherwise have just been ordinary with business as usual. It is equal parts the thrill of the challenge and the desire to exceed expectations and to see wonder and excitement on clients faces when they experience the result. School design is particularly rewarding, because of the large and complex nature of the projects with an accretive design narrative – the many stakeholders are actually the ultimate users of the building, and the reward for a great building is so immediate and direct compared to, say a commercial project or high density residential, where there may be a disconnect between those who are briefing (and paying) and the final users who may never experience the whole building from inside to out. I truly believe improved design can be done without adding cost, and comes about through attention to light, space and detail, and importantly through place-making and attention to materiality and formal and material resolution.

I spend lots of time trying to convince students of the importance of the design of their building for the 99% of people who WON’T go into them, where it forms part of the urban context and the visual language of the city – how they as designers must make sure their contribution to a place is exciting, is FORMED of a contemporary sensibility, DOES address 21st century issues of social and environmental sustainability and contextual response – that these are essential ingredients for a vibrant design city and then too often new projects fall woefully short of this, that everyone expects less than this too, with the risk of creating dull, lifeless and unsuccessful urban / suburban realms.. Ultimately the joy of creating something wonderful for the client, in its context, is what it is about for me.

Our work at our small office in South Melbourne has mostly been part-time over these last few years as we have raised our two young children.

I can’t deny there has been a juggle to fit in the demands of practice and parenthood, however there is great momentum for the practice this year and for the focus (elation?) you feel as your eldest child starts school. We have carried out predominantly residential work over the years, starting with our first commission in North Fitzroy in a back street near Alexandra Parade where I lived in a share house after leaving uni – unfortunately earmarked for demolition with construction of the East-West tunnel! We have subsequently worked across Melbourne for house renovations in St Kilda, Port Melbourne, Middle Park, Kew, Malvern and the Mornington Peninsula.

We are also hoping a small commercial project will commence construction soon in Marysville, and have our first new apartment building in Brighton about to hit planning. We are also beginning to engage with the city – we have our first buildings being designed in the north end of Elizabeth St.  I love these buildings because they are our own, and they represent the culmination of a varied, hard-working and very personal architectural life journey.

There are so many ways to answer the question of my ultimate dream project.

It’s like the ‘world peace’ answer at a beauty pageant! I’m influenced by the work of my international and local architectural heroes – Zumthor, Ban, Kuma, Suto de Moura, Koolhass, and of course Murcutt, Boyd, Wardle, Hill and Thompson. They demonstrate a mix of beauty in materiality and formal conception for projects that are residential or resort-like in nature, yet also works celebrating community i.e. places of worship and justice, music and working, and most importantly education.

My honest answer, despite residential always holding a dear place in my heart, really would be to work on a great school project commission, which had a transformative pedagogical or social ambition as its brief. Schools are a litmus test for a society – its concerns; its priorities. Architects can transform this investment in capital works beyond the confines of aspiring to build an okay project on time and to budget. It’s so much more than that – to create buildings that are designed and detailed well to teach our students about excellence in design for a start. You have the ability to inspire, uplift and unite a school community, no matter its economic or academic standing, for the very real learning benefits to children.

With school projects you get to engage deeply with ideas, pedagogy and place-making for the benefit of future generations for a real and heterogeneous group of people. This is the greatest challenge and responsibility for me, and ultimately the most rewarding.

For more information: www.manarchitects.com.au