Order of Australia

Professor Esther Charlesworth has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours. Esther is the Academic Director of our Master of Disaster, Design and Development and her award recognises her “significant service to architecture, to education and to the community of the Asia-Pacific region.”

Professor Esther Charlesworth

Esther is the founding Director of Architects without Frontiers (AWF). Since 2002, AWF has undertaken over 42 health, education and social infrastructure projects in 12 countries for vulnerable communities, and has been described by ABC radio broadcaster Phillip Adams as ‘destined to develop into one of the greater forces of good on this battered planet’.

She has also worked in the public and private sectors of architecture and urban design in Melbourne, Sydney, New York, Boston and Beirut since graduating with a Masters in Architecture and Urban from Harvard University in 1995. In 2004, she was awarded her PhD from the University of York (UK).

She has published seven books on the theme of social justice and architecture, including: ‘Humanitarian Architecture’ (2014) and ‘Sustainable Housing Reconstruction’ (2015).