Emma Appleton is a registered landscape architect and urban designer. Through senior public agency roles held in the UK and Australia, she has advised on the procurement, design and delivery of significant public and private projects, and champions the role of multi-disciplinary design thinking in shaping great cities and places for people.
Following working on major city centre strategies in the design practice of Gillespies in Glasgow, Emma was the Head of Urban Design and Homes at CABE in London, leading a team to provide strategic advice urban renewal and housing growth areas across England. She co-authored ‘Creating Successful Neighbourhoods’, initiated bi-monthly Design Task Groups on design, heritage and sustainability throughout England and championed ‘Building for Life’, a national standard for well-designed housing.
Since returning to Australia, Emma has worked in advocacy and advisory roles in state government, initially as Urban Design Director of Regeneration at VicUrban, Victoria’s development agency. In her current role, as Director of the Victorian Design Review Panel at the Office of the Victorian Government Architect, she manages design review of significant capital projects and masterplans across Victoria.
Emma was awarded a Churchill Travelling Fellowship in 2005, and explored urban renewal in post industrial contexts in Germany and the Netherlands. She contributes to design advisory boards at Melbourne University and RMIT, was part of the inaugural Board for Urban Places in Queensland, chairs the Advocacy Committee for AILA Victoria, and is a sessional teacher in landscape architecture at Melbourne University School of Design.