Miriam Tholia

My passion for architecture began in childhood, spending hours sketching houses and imagining the lives unfolding within them. What started as a creative hobby evolved into a deep fascination with how spaces influence emotion, behaviour, and connection. Through my studies in interior architecture, I have come to see design as a language that communicates care and intention through light, materiality, and spatial flow. I’m drawn to architecture that promotes well-being, inclusivity, and healing.

As a graduating student, I believe that good design goes beyond aesthetics; it has the power to empower individuals, strengthen communities, and foster a sense of belonging. I am excited to embark on the next chapter of my career, further refining my skills, embracing new challenges, and collaborating with like-minded professionals to create thoughtful, meaningful spaces that enrich the human experience

Rays of Light

A multifaceted facility designed to support women escaping domestic violence by providing a safe, private, and supportive environment. Designed around principles of comfort, empowerment, and healing, it integrates flexible living spaces, natural light, and calming environments that nurture recovery and independence. Every element, from spatial layout to material choice, aims to restore dignity and promote well-being. This project aims to provide a supportive foundation for rebuilding lives with confidence and dignity.

Rays of Light - Childcare

Designed to foster safety, comfort, and creativity. The bright orange wall inspires happiness and imaginative play, while soft, neutral timber elements provide warmth and balance. The layout encourages exploration and interaction, creating an environment that supports learning and emotional well-being. Also this allows mothers time
to focus on personal growth, education, or recovery

Regent Complex

Urban Interior—This project involved the comprehensive redesign and activation of the Regent Station precinct in Preston, integrating housing, transport, and public space strategies to respond to contemporary urban challenges.
The redesign focused on sustainability, adaptability, and user-centered design, with particular attention to post-COVID concerns around public transport. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) principles were applied throughout the station and surrounding precinct to enhance safety, visibility, and accessibility. Flexible layouts, natural surveillance, and well-defined circulation paths ensure secure, comfortable, and inclusive spaces for all users.

Legends Museum

A museum showcasing handmade artifacts, designed to be bright, contemporary, and sustainable, with an emphasis on natural light and a ceramic solar shading system. The building utilizes environmentally friendly materials and advanced environmental controls. A passive solar feature is the clerestory windows, which release hot air in the summer and allow winter sun in for heat retention via the concrete floor in winter. The courtyards provide cross ventilation all year round.

Rays of Light Apartment

A thoughtfully designed two-bedroom apartment within the Rays of Light project, emphasizing comfort, safety, and well-being. Natural light fills the space through large windows, enhancing the warm, calming palette and highlighting the use of soft, restorative materials. The open-plan living and kitchen/dining area is designed for both functionality and a sense of connection.

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.