The Australian Institute of Architects, in partnership with Dulux, has announced the five winners of the 2026 Australian Institute of Architects Dulux Study Tour.
Callum Senjov, Jack Gillmer, Jasmine Placentino, Rachel Licht and Sharaan Muruvan were awarded the coveted prize from a shortlist of 30 emerging architect entrants. They will embark on a tour of Singapore, Paris and Vienna in June, joined by Ksenia Totoeva, a 2020 recipient whose previous participation was deferred.
Commercial partnerships and program manager at Dulux Maridza Riccioni congratulated the recipients, noting “This year’s winners … represent the top emerging architectural talent in Australia, reflecting the ambition, creativity and impact that define the profession’s future leaders. The study tour offers a rare and transformative opportunity to engage with globally recognised studios, experience innovative design cultures firsthand and bring new perspectives back to Australia’s architectural landscape.”
Institute CEO Cameron Bruhn added, “The Dulux Study Tour is more than a recognition of excellence, it is a signal of trust in the future leadership of our profession. This year’s winners exemplify the calibre of thinking, curiosity and ambition that will shape Australian architecture in the decades ahead.
“Through this tour, we are not only celebrating outstanding work today, but investing in the people who will influence how our cities, communities and environments are designed tomorrow. We are proud to partner with Dulux on a program that consistently supports emerging architects at a defining moment in their career, as they begin to shape the profession and the built environment at scale,” he commented.
Jury citations
Callum Senjov, Architectus (Qld)
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Callum Senjov is currently an associate at Architectus. Senjov’s experience spans an impressive range of rail, public, commercial, sports, masterplanning and multi-residential projects. Recent highlights include the Misk Foundation centre, Roma Street Station Enhancement, Iona College Provence Centre, and Rendu Towers residential aged care. As an Architectus sustainability champion, a member of the Institute’s National Climate Action and Sustainability Committee, and a Green Star Associate, he is passionate about advancing sustainable design through big-picture, cross-disciplinary thinking.
Known for his thoughtful, innovative and practical approach, Senjov works closely with clients and communities to look beyond the brief, uncovering opportunities that deliver real value and meaningful outcomes. His approachable style creates a supportive, collaborative atmosphere where project teams feel empowered to explore fresh ideas and imaginative solutions.
Beyond practice, Senjov is an advocate for emerging architects. As immediate past national president of the Institute’s Emerging Architects and Graduates Network (EMAGN), he focuses on high-impact, supportive initiatives that strengthen the profession while caring for volunteer wellbeing – continuing more than 15 years of contribution. Senjov mentors students as a sessional academic in design, technology and professional practice at universities in South East Queensland. He is also a proud contributor to Architecture with Pride Brisbane.
Jack Gillmer, SJB (NSW)
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Jack Gillmer, a proud Worimi and Biripi guri, is an associate and First Nations lead at SJB, where he places Country at the centre of architectural practice and thinking. Based in Sydney and educated at the University of Newcastle, he advocates for cultural knowledge systems in contemporary architecture, reimagining the built environment as a vessel for First Nations narrative, memory and shared belonging. His work demonstrates how space can hold story, stewardship and responsibility, exploring how architecture can evolve as a living expression of Country.
As a creative director of Home, the Australian exhibition for the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, Gillmer co-designed a process and exhibition grounded in “living belonging,” collaborating with 10 universities and a creative sphere of First Nations architects, practitioners and cultural leaders. His voice is increasingly present on the global stage, recently speaking at the University of Oxford, ETH Zurich, the Architectural Association and Carleton University.
At SJB, he has amplified Indigenous perspectives across several projects, including Newcastle East End and the Powerhouse’s Eucalyptusdom exhibition in collaboration with Richard Leplastrier AO. Gillmer is building a distinguished career defined by cultural leadership, intellectual generosity, and a continued contribution to design discourse in relation to Country.
Jasmine Placentino, Parabolica (SA)
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Graduating in 2015 from Monash University, Jasmine Placentino worked for high-profile firms Kerstin Thompson Architects and Fieldwork before commencing her own practice, Parabolica, with her partner, Benjamin Pitman. Parabolica has created some beautiful and much-awarded projects, including Echo House, shortlisted for the EMAGN Project Award at the 2025 Victorian Architecture Awards, and Three Garden House, which won the John S Chapel Award for Residential Architecture – Houses (New) at the 2024 South Australian Architecture Awards.
In the fight to retain Tadao Ando’s only Australian work, the 2023 MPavilion in Melbourne, Placentino conducted the Preserve the Pavilion campaign, contacting world-renowned architects and succeeding in garnering support from over 60 high-profile practitioners, including Jean Nouvel, Kengo Kuma and Alvaro Siza, which contributed to extending the life of the pavilion until 2030.
Placentino has contributed to Institute committees, including as co-chair of the Gender, Equity, Diversity and Impact Committee (2025–), co-chair of the South Australia EMAGN Committee (2024–), and as a juror and mentor. She has spoken at numerous events, including Small Practice Forum, ArchitectureAu Asks, and Sustainability Snacks.
Placentino is a remarkable young architect who has combined practice, family (with two young children) and advocacy with aplomb, and will greatly benefit from the experience and learnings of the Dulux Study Tour.
Rachel Licht, Licht Architecture (Tas)
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Rachel Licht is a registered architect and co‑director of Licht Architecture in Hobart/Nipaluna, where she pairs design excellence with a generous, community‑minded practice ethos. Beginning her career at Preston Lane Architects, she contributed to award‑winning residential projects, building a reputation for rigour, client care and finely resolved detailing.
Since 2022, Licht has led sustainability initiatives in her studio – achieving Climate Active certification, embedding reconciliation and sustainability action plans, and steering work toward electrification, circularity and reduced embodied carbon. Her current portfolio spans significant community projects, notably the Boat Harbour Beach Surf Life Saving Club and the Warawyn Childcare Centre, where she coordinates complex stakeholder groups and delivers durable, place‑responsive architecture with social impact.
Beyond practice, Licht is a contributor to the Australian Institute of Architects’ Tasmanian chapter through EMAGN, awards and honours, and initiatives, such as Archibubs and Sketchy Business, that build collegiality and support for emerging practitioners. A four‑time shortlistee, Licht seeks the Dulux Study Tour to broaden a regional perspective with global insights on housing, reuse, city‑making and procurement, and to strengthen national networks. Her leadership, sustained community engagement and sustainability focus make her a deserving winner who will translate the tour’s learnings into tangible benefits for practice and the wider profession.
Sharaan Muruvan, MJA Studio (WA)
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Sharaan Muruvan is a highly engaged, organising, and culture-shaping architect from Western Australia, where he is embedded across a suite of industry boards, groups and taskforces. An empathetic, generous and welcoming advocate for the profession, he is deeply active in steering the Institute’s formal and ancillary representative activities.
He is a registered architect and early-career professional within large practice, contributing to the realisation of complex interdisciplinary projects with ambition, generosity and skill. He is also a sessional academic and unit coordinator at Curtin University, demonstrating his strong belief in education as a tool for positive social change.
Muruvan has been instrumental in driving change through EMAGN WA. Serving as co-chair from 2023 to 2024, alongside holding multiple prior and ongoing roles, he has been central to elevating EMAGN WA’s profile. Under his leadership, the cohort and its activities have become powerful, highly visible and of exceptional value to the profession.
Muruvan is an obvious future leader of architecture in Australia. An award such as this would act as a propulsive force, deepening his networks, validating his lines of enquiry, enabling learning through collegial exchange, and supporting his progression into positions of positive influence and transformative futures. We are excited to see this trajectory continue to unfold.
Jury
The 2026 Australian Institute of Architects’ Dulux Study tour jury included chair of the jury and Australian Institute of Architects’ national president-elect David Wagner of Atelier Wagner; Australian Institute of Architects board member Tiffany Liew; Christina Earls of Dulux; Peter Wood of Dulux; Nic Brunsdon of Brunsdon Studio; and the Institute’s Tasmanian and International chapters executive leader Jennifer Nichols.
Ksenia Totoeva, Tonkin Zulaikha Greer (NSW) – 2020 winner
Originally from regional NSW, Totoeva graduated from the University of Newcastle with the University Medal. Here, she developed an early engagement in the city through Renew Newcastle, an urban regeneration initiative designed to reinvigorate the failing downtown that seeded her interest in community activism and urban projects. From this beginning, she went on to become involved in the Institute’s EMAGN committee, where, from a grassroots organiser, she emerged as a leader and role model, particularly for young women in the profession, as national president of EMAGN in 2016–18. Her professional career developed in parallel, first at Lahznimmo and then Tonkin Zulahika Greer, where she is now an associate director.
As a practitioner, she has worked across a range of project types and scales, as part of a team and as a project architect, contributing to a number of award-winning projects as well as to innovations in practice. The jury believes that, with her dynamism, Totoeva will benefit greatly from the opportunity of the Dulux Study Tour and the lessons that this immersion in a range of practices will provide her continuing professional development and leadership potential.