Nimshi Gunasekera

My design philosophy comes from the warmth and care I experienced growing up in my family home. I believe every detail, material, and corner matters in creating spaces that feel personal and thoughtfully made. I strive to design spaces that are not only functional but also deeply meaningful to those who experience them. While studying, I worked as an interior design intern, which gave me valuable hands-on experience and helped me further develop my skills.

Outside of design, I love binge watching shows, reading, spending time with my dogs, exploring new cuisines, and traveling with my family. These experiences continually inspire me and bring new perspective to my creative process.

MOTU - Museum Of The Unseen

MOTU is an innovative museum that redefines the traditional exhibition experience by addressing the decline in visitor engagement resulting from a lack of sensory, emotional, and ergonomic connection.
Certain spaces in the museum are designed to actively stimulate the senses of sound, smell, touch, and taste, while other spaces offer different activities and experiences for visitors to explore. Every element of the design is carefully considered to evoke emotion and enhance sensory awareness, creating an experience that is immersive and memorable for all.

MOTU - Semi Outdoor Seating

The outdoor seating area provides visitors with a place to pause and unwind, allowing them to take a break from the museum experience and recharge before exploring the next exhibitions.

MOTU - Acoustic Museum

An immersive acoustic museum showcasing natural soundscapes and wildlife audio.

MOTU - Gustatory Museum

A dedicated coffee-tasting space featuring brews from major coffee regions, celebrating cultural diversity and offering a sensory learning experience.

Museum of The Handmade

This project, located at Melbourne Gaol, integrates a ceramic facade into the museum’s design using sustainable materials. A stacking technique creates a distinctive and innovative aesthetic while keeping sustainability at the core of the design.

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.