As a child, I learned to swim in the river that threaded through our rural home in Yarras.
A family of platypi lived in the very same waterhole, and on days when one surfaced beside us, it felt like a silent blessing. a fleeting encounter with something ancient, rare, and profoundly wild.

Those childhood moments planted the seeds of reverence, a reverence that now grows into purpose.

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Today, that purpose lives not only in the spaces I shape, but in the conversations I seek to start. as a speaker, educator, and advocate for environmental design. I believe architecture must do more than shelter. It must awaken. It must guide. It must participate in healing what has long been neglected.

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That’s why 5% of all profits from Lisa Dew are dedicated to the UNSW Platypus Conservation Initiative Research Fund. a gesture rooted in gratitude and a promise to protect the native animals that once stirred my wonder. TO support their survival is to honour the joy they gave me. To speak about them now is to share that joy forward.

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When I began contributing to this research, my why came into focus. It felt like THE FIRST DAY I RETURNED TO university that shaped me TO GIVE MY FIRST ARCHITECTURAL TUTORIAL, SUCH AN AMAZING HONOUR. a way of saying thank you to the place that sparked the discipline,
curiosity, and conviction that has carried me across continents and into MULTIPLE award-winning ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTS.

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But my work has grown beyond the built form. Now, I feel most alive when using my voice. whether on stage, in classrooms, or through my writing, to invite others into a more conscious relationship with our world.

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The soul of Lisa Dew is not just about creating beautiful spaces. It’s about stirring awareness, encouraging dialogue, and inspiring a new generation of designers and dreamers to act gently, wisely, and bravely.

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This practice is a bridge between past and future, between architecture and ecology, between silence and voice.