Emily Rutherford

Interior Architecture

During my time studying Interior Architecture, I have explored my many interests in design and have found a love for designing for living with a closer connection to nature, prioritising sustainability and making people feel good in spaces. These values are evident in my designs and demonstrate my belief in the importance of design making a positive impact on people's lives and the planet.

Grow Well | 2024

My Capstone project Grow Well, is focussed on making wellness accessible rather than just a luxury. Located on the site of an abandoned dairy factory in Warragul, Grow Well brings the community together through mindfulness activities that teach skills that people can bring into their lives to improve their wellness. The project focusses on the themes of Nutrition, Movement and Creativity. For Nutrition it explores the processes of growing, cooking and eating food, featuring a greenhouse and edible gardens, cooking classes and a café. For Movement, it features a yoga and exercise studio and native Australian gardens for people to explore and appreciate. For creativity, it includes studios for pottery, sewing and art as well as a multi-functional market and exhibition space located in a heritage building.

Grow Well | 2024

Café

Grow Well | 2024

Courtyard

Museum of the Handmade | 2022

This project is centred around sustainability, featuring details such as a ceramic facade designed for the different sun conditions throughout the year. Located underneath the train tracks along the Djerring trail between Caulfield and Carnegie, this Museum will attract people to the site, encouraging them to spend time outdoors with activities such as walking and bike riding along the trail.

Mellow | 2021

Mellow is a project focussed on Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). This design is located at Swinburne University and aims to attract more people to the site to create a safer and more welcoming space to spend time in and utilize as a route to the train station. The design is focused on creating the feeling of warmth and comfort, contrasting to the site which is often blocked from the sun.

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.