majarch@vdd.com.au | 0409 404 941
552 Victoria Street, North Melbourne, Victoria
Recently, Mary Ann (Visionary Design Development’s Director) participated in the 16th annual Livable Cities conference; presentation title: Accessible Pedestrian Infrastructure: a Missing Link in Accessible Public Transport
May 2026 marked the culmination of many years of endeavour; Mary Ann’s PhD was conferred 11 May 2026.
In December 2025, Mary Ann was invited to participate in the now-annual Melbourne School of Design Ableist Cities Symposium. Fellow ‘PhD panelists’ included Dr Patrick Dwyer, Dr Sonya Iskandar, and Imogen Howe.
Recently (late October 2025), Mary Ann was invited by Hing_Wah Chau (course chair in architectural design at Victoria University) to guest lecture on built environment accessibility, to VU’s Bachelor of Architectural Design 3rd year students.
As a highly respected member of the Victorian Chapter of the Institute of Architects, Mary Ann recently represented VEAC (Victorian Enabling Architecture Committee) as a juror for the 2025 SONA Super Studio competition.
Mary Ann recently submitted her PhD appropriately titled: Towards better built environment accessibility praxis, designing change in complex adaptive systems: a designerly case study
Recently Saumya and Mary Ann co-authored a paper with Nicole Mechkaroff titled: Re-framing Built Environment Practice: Towards an Accessible City. This has now been published in The Journal of Public Space Special Issue. The title of the Special Issue is Universally Accessible Public Spaces for All
VDD Studio recently investigated redesigning the International Symbol of Access as part of a competition run by the International Union of Architects and Rehabilitation International. Check out our design and gain some insight into our design process.
In March 2022 Visionary Design Development hosted an MTalk ‘Disability, Human Rights, and the Built Environment’ at MPavilion. Many thanks to MPavilion, our fabulous guest speakers and the wonderful audience for attending.
Mary Ann’s article Models of Disability and Human Rights: Informing the Improvement of Built Environment Accessibility for People with Disability at Neighborhood Scale? published 2018 Laws, Topical Collection, Disability Human Rights Law, continues to be regularly viewed and/or downloaded.
Many thanks to Archnet-IJAR (Q1 Architecture journal) editors, Drs Beatriz Maturana, Ashraf M. Salama, and Anthony McInneny for accepting our contribution to the Special Issue: Architecture, Urbanism, and Health in a Post Pandemic Virtual World: Challenges and Opportunities in Education, Research, and Practice.
In the spirit of reconciliation Visionary Design Development acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea, and community. We pay our respect to elders past, present, and emerging, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
