MGS Architects has appointed Katherine Sundermann as an associate director.

As an urban designer with a background in architecture and planning, Sundermann has led major projects such as university masterplans, creative precinct strategies and urban renewal frameworks.

Sundermann has experience with campus masterplanning and stakeholder consultation, as project leader on the major university masterplans for UNSW, University of Wollongong, Monash University and La Trobe University, and has contributed to strategies for creative precincts in Cremorne and central Ballarat.

Passionate about creating the framework for architecturally and socially diverse urban areas, Sundermann says she draws on her research into Dutch urban renewal and citizen-led development to inform urban renewal projects.

Sundermann is also a studio leader at the University of Melbourne, running an annual study trip to the Netherlands in collaboration with TU Delft and Deltametropolis Association.

Entitled ‘Opportunistic Urbanism’, this studio aims to engage architecture and urban design students with the ‘Dutch approach’ to urbanism, seeking to integrate the often segregated fields of architecture, urban design and planning.

She has a post-professional Master in Urbanism from TU Delft, focusing on regional design, performative urban design and collaborative planning, and a Master of Architecture from RMIT University, Melbourne.

According to the firm, this promotion "...reflects Katherine’s ongoing leadership role within MGS Architects, and her passion for strategic thinking about the future of our cities".