Architect Megan Hendy and the spaces that shape us

March 08, 2015 in Architecture

Megan Hendy is a young woman with great intensity and integrity. She is laser focused, deeply considered, articulate and passionate about design, space, place, family and the rights of others.

We sit in her lounge room surrounded by a kaleidoscope of interesting objects, which all look so casually placed, but I sense this is a woman to whom precision is not only a requirement of her profession but is innately within her character.

She has created a beautiful space inside and outside her Seddon home. It’s a visual feast with objects promising rich provenance and great stories, if only they could talk.

From a young age, around 10 or 12 Megan knew she wanted to be an architect. She describes her childhood self as a tomboy who was really into making things.

“My dad, as an engineer was really interested in technology and I was interested in spaces. Even as a young child I’d be designing houses and when we would do renovations I’d ask if I could play with the bricks and he’d be ‘OK you can play with the pile of bricks today but I have to use them tomorrow’.

So I’d make a cubby house with kitchen and whatever and roofing material and the next day it would get torn down.

I was always interested in the making of things, of spaces and designing and seeing how things worked in a three dimensional way.”

Megan had an adventurous, nomadic childhood thanks to her father’s profession as an engineer. The family moved overseas and to a dizzying number of locations across Australia, including Nhulunbuy, in Arnhem Land, which had a profound effect on her.

She cites the endlessly shifting landscapes of her childhood as the reason she and her family are so close and why she embraces change as an adult. But the notion of home is a fluid concept to her; it’s less about place and more about space and what inhabits it:

“Wherever your stuff is, is your home, rather than the place itself. The place is changeable but it's the things and how you feel in that space. Things that have memories attached, that makes a home,”

Megan confesses that she is a 'little bit of a perfectionist' and seeks constant improvement.

“I have that inquisitive, curious mind where if I think something can be improved or if I want to understand it, I think there’s got to be a better way to do something. I have to try, to investigate. I’m a problem solver. I do that through design,”

Megan’s design practice focuses on hospitals. She explains that she’s not into elitist architecture or architecture for architects. For her spaces must function and be fit for purpose and above all be created with the wellbeing of people in mind.

“I’m involved with a lot of the planning and interiors of hospitals. Hospitals and health in general is an interesting field. It seems conservative but it’s quite dynamic.

You are designing to not only make the numbers stack up for a business case for that building to work, function and fund itself, but underneath that you have a duty of care to the staff to make sure it works for them and then you have to consider the patients and people using that space and it’s even more special,"

The conversation turns to residential design and Megan makes an interesting point about the functionality of the sort of one-size fits all design seen in many apartment designs.

“Even though I don’t work in residential architecture it has a special place in my heart in terms of looking at how people actually live,"

"I look at so many plans and I think – they’ve designed people out of it. They’ve designed hobbies and craft and creating out of the lifestyle. They are designed for people that inhabit and consume, there’s no space to make or you can’t have people over for dinner because it’s not big enough.

It’s what I really dislike about a lot of modern apartments they are designing those lifestyle choices out of them,”

Megan has an intense sincerity and is direct and open about what she sees as her responsibility to others, who may not necessarily have received the sort of unwavering support and encouragement she did from her family.

“My dad and mum were always supportive of everything. There was never any, ‘you can’t do that’ it was about ‘how are you going to get there? What are you going to do?’ It was never ‘you can’t do this or that’.

I feel privileged of my history. I think it’s important to support the people around you so they can develop themselves and create opportunities.

Supporting the people around you day-to-day is important. If someone is being picked on or is being treated unfairly that you deal with it. I see it as my responsibility.

If you are a strong person and have the assertiveness and strength you should use it as a force for good."

Read about three other creative women of the Melbourne's west as part Boundless a project from Jessica Dean + Kim Aleksandrowicz for International Women's Day.

words jessica dean + pictures kim aleksandrowicz