Paul Minifie
Paul has eighteen years experience as a design architect on some of Australia’s most significant public buildings and developments, which have attracted institute and other professional awards.

Since founding Minifie Nixon in 1999, significant work he has been responsible for includes the design of the Centre for Ideas at the VCA and the Australian Wildlife Centre at Healesville Sanctuary - both award winning projects that have forged the practice’s innovative reputation. Paul has a masters degree in urban design and through this influence all of Minifie Nixon’s architectural projects exhibit strong urban qualities.

His innovative approach to architectural thinking and his acute powers of communication make him a natural leader in practice and his intellectual generosity empowers clients, peers and colleagues. Through writing he contributes to architectural books and journals and partakes annually in the RAIA awards process as a judge across a range of categories.

Paul was a founding academic at the Spatial information Architecture Laboratory at RMIT University and currently lectures and teaches locally and internationally in the fields of design, computing and communications.



Jan van Schaik
Jan’s professional and academic career in master-planning, urban design, public realm, commercial, cultural, retail and residential areas has lead to notable outcomes in projects both internationally and within Australia. His carefully developed industry relationships, broad experience, charisma and leadership skills make him natural authority and community liaison. His energy and diligence motivate those who work with him to high standards and exacting delivery on all stages of a project.

Jan has extensive cross-cultural collaborative experience, most notably with the World Architecture Workshop, an ongoing research and teaching project with academics and professionals in France, Japan, Spain, China and the United States, which focused most recently on the role of urban design in energy usage in cities. He has participated as an external examiner at Deakin University, the University of Westminster, the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Jan’s interest in community arts and the public realm manifests through involvement in many public artworks and his voluntary role as the deputy chair of Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, a not for profit community arts organisation.