Shelley Penn

Shelley Penn is a Melbourne-based architect whose work includes strategic advice to government and the private sector on architectural and urban design for public places across all scales, with her major focus being design evaluation and review. Her project work has been published and exhibited nationally and internationally, and has received a number of awards.

Shelley was the associate Victorian Government Architect for four years from 2006. She has also been design director in the Office of the NSW Government Architect in 2000-01.

In mid-2011, Shelley co-chaired a major review of the planning processes for Barangaroo, a 22 hectare, $6bn development located at the north-western edge of Sydney’s CBD. She is a member of the Victorian Design Review Panel and the Capital City Design Review Panel in South Australia. She was a board member of the Architects Registration Board of Victoria, a board member of the Linking Melbourne Authority, and was deputy chair of the Heritage Council of Victoria until mid-2012.

In other roles, she is Adjunct Professor in Architecture Practice at Monash University, and an associate professor in Architecture at the Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, where she also recently completed a term as Chair of the Architecture Advisory Board. Shelley is a Past National President of the Australian Institute of Architects, and is currently Chair of the National Capital Authority, the Commonwealth’s Statutory Authority charged with planning, developing, maintaining and promoting Australia’s National Capital.

Through her practice, advocacy and advisory work, and in all of her roles, Shelley is committed to contributing to culture, and to improving social equity, sustainability and well-being, through good governance and the poetic capacity of high quality architecture and public places.