Winners revealed: 2026 Australian Institute of Architects’ Dulux Study Tour

The Australian Institute of Architects, in partnership with Dulux, has introduced the 5 winners of the 2026 Australian Institute of Architects Dulux Examine Tour.

Callum Senjov, Jack Gillmer, Jasmine Placentino, Rachel Licht and Sharaan Muruvan had been awarded the coveted prize from a shortlist of 30 rising architect entrants. They’ll embark on a tour of Singapore, Paris and Vienna in June, joined by Ksenia Totoeva, a 2020 recipient whose earlier participation was deferred.

Industrial partnerships and program supervisor at Dulux Maridza Riccioni congratulated the recipients, noting “This yr’s winners … symbolize the highest rising architectural expertise in Australia, reflecting the ambition, creativity and affect that outline the occupation’s future leaders. The research tour presents a uncommon and transformative alternative to have interaction with globally recognised studios, expertise modern design cultures firsthand and produce new views again to Australia’s architectural panorama.”

Institute CEO Cameron Bruhn added, “The Dulux Examine Tour is greater than a recognition of excellence, it’s a sign of belief sooner or later management of our occupation. This yr’s winners exemplify the calibre of pondering, curiosity and ambition that can form Australian structure within the many years forward.

“By this tour, we aren’t solely celebrating excellent work as we speak, however investing within the individuals who will affect how our cities, communities and environments are designed tomorrow. We’re proud to associate with Dulux on a program that constantly helps rising architects at a defining second of their profession, as they start to form the occupation and the constructed setting at scale,” he commented.

Jury citations

Callum Senjov, Architectus (Qld)

Callum Senjov is at the moment an affiliate at Architectus. Senjov’s expertise spans a powerful vary of rail, public, business, sports activities, masterplanning and multi-residential tasks. Current highlights embrace the Misk Basis centre, Roma Avenue Station Enhancement, Iona School Provence Centre, and Rendu Towers residential aged care. As an Architectus sustainability champion, a member of the Institute’s Nationwide Local weather Motion and Sustainability Committee, and a Inexperienced Star Affiliate, he’s enthusiastic about advancing sustainable design by way of big-picture, cross-disciplinary pondering.

Recognized for his considerate, modern and sensible strategy, Senjov works intently with purchasers and communities to look past the temporary, uncovering alternatives that ship actual worth and significant outcomes. His approachable model creates a supportive, collaborative environment the place venture groups really feel empowered to discover recent concepts and imaginative options.

Past apply, Senjov is an advocate for rising architects. As rapid previous nationwide president of the Institute’s Rising Architects and Graduates Community (EMAGN), he focuses on high-impact, supportive initiatives that strengthen the occupation whereas caring for volunteer wellbeing – persevering with greater than 15 years of contribution. Senjov mentors college students as a sessional educational in design, expertise {and professional} apply at universities in South East Queensland. He’s additionally a proud contributor to Structure with Pleasure Brisbane.

Jack Gillmer, SJB (NSW)

Jack Gillmer, a proud Worimi and Biripi guri, is an affiliate and First Nations lead at SJB, the place he locations Nation on the centre of architectural apply and pondering. Based mostly in Sydney and educated on the College of Newcastle, he advocates for cultural data techniques in modern structure, reimagining the constructed setting as a vessel for First Nations narrative, reminiscence and shared belonging. His work demonstrates how house can maintain story, stewardship and duty, exploring how structure can evolve as a residing expression of Nation.

As a artistic director of Residence, the Australian exhibition for the 2025 Venice Structure Biennale, Gillmer co-designed a course of and exhibition grounded in “residing belonging,” collaborating with 10 universities and a artistic sphere of First Nations architects, practitioners and cultural leaders. His voice is more and more current on the worldwide stage, not too long ago talking on the College of Oxford, ETH Zurich, the Architectural Affiliation and Carleton College.

At SJB, he has amplified Indigenous views throughout a number of tasks, together with Newcastle East Finish and the Powerhouse’s Eucalyptusdom exhibition in collaboration with Richard Leplastrier AO. Gillmer is constructing a distinguished profession outlined by cultural management, mental generosity, and a continued contribution to design discourse in relation to Nation.

Jasmine Placentino, Parabolica (SA)

Graduating in 2015 from Monash College, Jasmine Placentino labored for high-profile companies Kerstin Thompson Architects and Fieldwork earlier than commencing her personal apply, Parabolica, along with her associate, Benjamin Pitman. Parabolica has created some stunning and much-awarded tasks, together with Echo Home, shortlisted for the EMAGN Challenge Award on the 2025 Victorian Structure Awards, and Three Backyard Home, which gained the John S Chapel Award for Residential Structure – Homes (New) on the 2024 South Australian Structure Awards.

Within the battle to retain Tadao Ando’s solely Australian work, the 2023 MPavilion in Melbourne, Placentino performed the Protect the Pavilion marketing campaign, contacting world-renowned architects and succeeding in garnering assist from over 60 high-profile practitioners, together with Jean Nouvel, Kengo Kuma and Alvaro Siza, which contributed to extending the lifetime of the pavilion till 2030.

Placentino has contributed to Institute committees, together with as co-chair of the Gender, Fairness, Variety and Impression Committee (2025–), co-chair of the South Australia EMAGN Committee (2024–), and as a juror and mentor. She has spoken at quite a few occasions, together with Small Follow Discussion board, ArchitectureAu Asks, and Sustainability Snacks.

Placentino is a exceptional younger architect who has mixed apply, household (with two younger youngsters) and advocacy with aplomb, and can drastically profit from the expertise and learnings of the Dulux Examine Tour.

Rachel Licht, Licht Structure (Tas)

Rachel Licht is a registered architect and co‑director of Licht Structure in Hobart/Nipaluna, the place she pairs design excellence with a beneficiant, neighborhood‑minded apply ethos. Starting her profession at Preston Lane Architects, she contributed to award‑profitable residential tasks, constructing a repute for rigour, consumer care and finely resolved detailing.

Since 2022, Licht has led sustainability initiatives in her studio – attaining Local weather Lively certification, embedding reconciliation and sustainability motion plans, and steering work towards electrification, circularity and lowered embodied carbon. Her present portfolio spans vital neighborhood tasks, notably the Boat Harbour Seaside Surf Life Saving Membership and the Warawyn Childcare Centre, the place she coordinates advanced stakeholder teams and delivers sturdy, place‑responsive structure with social affect.

Past apply, Licht is a contributor to the Australian Institute of Architects’ Tasmanian chapter by way of EMAGN, awards and honours, and initiatives, reminiscent of Archibubs and Sketchy Enterprise, that construct collegiality and assist for rising practitioners. A 4‑time shortlistee, Licht seeks the Dulux Examine Tour to broaden a regional perspective with world insights on housing, reuse, metropolis‑making and procurement, and to strengthen nationwide networks. Her management, sustained neighborhood engagement and sustainability focus make her a deserving winner who will translate the tour’s learnings into tangible advantages for apply and the broader occupation.

Sharaan Muruvan, MJA Studio (WA)

Sharaan Muruvan is a extremely engaged, organising, and culture-shaping architect from Western Australia, the place he’s embedded throughout a collection of business boards, teams and taskforces. An empathetic, beneficiant and welcoming advocate for the occupation, he’s deeply energetic in steering the Institute’s formal and ancillary consultant actions.

He’s a registered architect and early-career skilled inside giant apply, contributing to the realisation of advanced interdisciplinary tasks with ambition, generosity and talent. He’s additionally a sessional educational and unit coordinator at Curtin College, demonstrating his sturdy perception in schooling as a software for optimistic social change.

Muruvan has been instrumental in driving change by way of EMAGN WA. Serving as co-chair from 2023 to 2024, alongside holding a number of prior and ongoing roles, he has been central to elevating EMAGN WA’s profile. Beneath his management, the cohort and its actions have grow to be highly effective, extremely seen and of remarkable worth to the occupation.

Muruvan is an apparent future chief of structure in Australia. An award reminiscent of this may act as a propulsive pressure, deepening his networks, validating his strains of enquiry, enabling studying by way of collegial change, and supporting his development into positions of optimistic affect and transformative futures. We’re excited to see this trajectory proceed to unfold.

Jury

The 2026 Australian Institute of Architects’ Dulux Examine tour jury included chair of the jury and Australian Institute of Architects’ nationwide president-elect David Wagner of Atelier Wagner; Australian Institute of Architects board member Tiffany Liew; Christina Earls of Dulux; Peter Wooden of Dulux; Nic Brunsdon of Brunsdon Studio; and the Institute’s Tasmanian and Worldwide chapters government chief Jennifer Nichols.

Ksenia Totoeva, Tonkin Zulaikha Greer (NSW) – 2020 winner

Initially from regional NSW, Totoeva graduated from the College of Newcastle with the College Medal. Right here, she developed an early engagement within the metropolis by way of Renew Newcastle, an city regeneration initiative designed to reinvigorate the failing downtown that seeded her curiosity in neighborhood activism and concrete tasks. From this starting, she went on to grow to be concerned within the Institute’s EMAGN committee, the place, from a grassroots organiser, she emerged as a frontrunner and function mannequin, notably for younger girls within the occupation, as nationwide president of EMAGN in 2016–18. Her skilled profession developed in parallel, first at Lahznimmo after which Tonkin Zulahika Greer, the place she is now an affiliate director.

As a practitioner, she has labored throughout a spread of venture sorts and scales, as a part of a crew and as a venture architect, contributing to plenty of award-winning tasks in addition to to improvements in apply. The jury believes that, along with her dynamism, Totoeva will profit drastically from the chance of the Dulux Examine Tour and the teachings that this immersion in a spread of practices will present her persevering with skilled improvement and management potential.