Since completing her Bachelor of Architecture degree at the University of Sydney in 1976, Andrea Nield has been continuously involved in design and implementation of a broad range of national, and more recently international, architecture projects. For more than 25 years Andrea worked within the framework of both large and small architecture studios. She began her career at Lawrence Nield and Partners and held the positions of secretary and director from 1975 to 1998. In 1998 she co-founded Andrea + Lawrence Nield Pty Ltd. Until 2003 the substantive focus of her work was the realisation of hospitals, schools and community health facilities within the urban context of Sydney and its greater metropolitan area.

Since 2003 Andrea has drawn on her extensive organisational and architectural experience to direct large scale, humanitarian, design programs. She is one of the few architects in Australia who are professionally involved in this field. She works in areas where resources are scarce, and innovative and sustainable design practices can make significant differences to people’s lives.

She became the NSW director of Architects Without Frontiers in 2003, and in 2006 became the founding director of Emergency Architects Australia. Andrea works in an open-space model of business and practice, where a diverse community of participants are connected to designers, architects, engineers and allied non-government organisations around the world.

Responding to the real needs of endangered communities, her work involves advocating good design as an important element in humanitarian public policy. She also develops disaster mitigation strategies and coordinates the design and implementation of building programs. Emergency Architects are on the ground as soon as a country asks for emergency assistance – they survey building damage and provide cost evaluations for reconstruction. Emergency Architects stay with the project, working with local professionals and communities to ensure the work is executed correctly and transparently. Although chronically under-funded, their mentoring and training programs ensure sustained achievement in the field.

Following the 2006 Boxing Day Tsunami and the earthquake in the Solomon Islands, Emergency Architects Australia recruited architects to work in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Java; secured funding for the construction of 260 houses in Aceh; and designed prototypes for infrastructure and schools in the western provinces of the Solomon Islands.

It is this latter period of work, in particular, that has brought distinction to Andrea’s reputation and to her contribution to the architectural discipline. In awarding Andrea Nield the 2008 Marion Mahony Griffin Prize, the jury recognises her significant commitment as an architect and advocate for humanitarian programs in architectural practice.

Jury: Wendy Lewin, Maryam Gusheh, Harry Partridge