Shelley Penn


Shelley Penn is a Melbourne-based award winning architect, educator, urbanist and built environment advocate.

Education

Penn was educated at Kilvington girls grammar and completed her architectural training at Melbourne University in 1988, graduating with honours. She is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors course.

Professional career

Practice

In 1993, Penn established the firm Shelley Penn Architects as a hybrid practice initially specialising in residential design and shifting focus to include consultation to government and the private sector on public projects from 1999. Her work has been awarded and exhibited nationally and internationally.

Government

Penn has held several positions within state and federal government and in 2014 was recognised as a leading figure in Public Policy within the top 100 Women of Influence by the Australian Financial Review and Westpac Bank. In 2006, she became the first Associate Victorian Government Architect, and a member and then Chair of the National Capital Authority from 2009–2014 and the deputy chair of the Heritage Council of Victoria from 2008–2012. She has undertaken numerous consultancies as a strategic advisor and reviewer, including conducting major reviews for government including co-chairing the 2011 Barangaroo Review. She has served on multiple Victorian, South Australian and New South Wales local and state government Design Review Panels for projects of all scales.

Professional advocacy

Penn is an active member of the architecture industry's peak body, the Australian Institute of Architects, including having held numerous positions on local and national committees and task forces. After a two-year term as an elected member and Honorary Secretary of the Australian Institute of Architects National Council, in May 2012 Penn was elected as the Council's 73rd National President. She was only the third woman elected to the role after Louise Cox in 1994 and Melinda Dodson in 2009. Her election as president was particularly notable given that only a small group of sole practitioners are elected to the volunteer role despite more than half of the Institute's members identifying as sole practitioners. She is a Life Fellow of the Institute.
In addition to advocacy through representation, Penn is an active contributor to professional discourse. She has been a panellist in numerous public debates, published in many leading professional journals, including Architecture Australia, Architecture and Design, Monument and Artichoke, and is a regular contributor for Parlour; an online forum for the advocacy of women and equity in architecture.

Educator

Penn is currently an Adjunct Professor in Architectural Practice at Monash University and Associate Professor in Architecture at University of Melbourne's Melbourne School of Design. She has also taught, co-ordinated and guest critiqued Bachelor and Masters students at Monash, RMIT, Deakin and Melbourne University, since her own graduation in 1988.

Selected appointments