Andrew Partos

Director - Landscape Architecture

Award winning urban designer, architect and landscape architect with over 25 years’ experience, Andrew Partos was jointly responsible for the design and delivery of the iconic civic plaza at Federation Square, Australia’s most visited place.

He has worked in sustainable development for over ten years, with client responsibility for some of Australia’s most innovative projects including the Government Services Building and Lonsdale Street redevelopment in Dandenong and the Meridian productive landscape community in South Dandenong. Recent projects include a sustainable mine village in Mozambique with its associated community outreach program, and cluster village projects in Taradale and Malmsbury in central Victoria.

Craig Czarny

Director – Urban Design

Craig is a leading urban design and landscape architectural practitioner with over 28 years’ experience across design practice and research with an outstanding array of local and international project experience.

Craig is a highly regarded contributor to the urban design and landscape debate in Melbourne and overseas through regular project work, publications and conference presentations. He is the recipient of planning and design awards from local and national planning and landscape architectural institutes and is engaged by both government and private sector to advise on urban design, landscape and environmental matters.

Craig’s project work addresses the spectrum of critical design matters facing cities, spaces and places today. He is a strong advocate of strategic design processes and is regularly involved in broad scale land management and city planning initiatives. His expertise in built form analysis and masterplanning also extends to the more intricate design of urban and landscape spaces. This has been demonstrated in considerable project work within both Australia and South-East Asia and in North and South America and Great Britain.

In addition to his project work, Craig is an active contributor to research, having served as a sessional lecturer at the University of Melbourne and a regular juror for both local and international urban design and landscape architectural project awards.

Damian Iles

Director – Urban Planning

Damian is a town planner with over 25 years’ professional experience in both the government and private sectors. His experience includes all elements of the statutory approvals process over a variety of land use and development applications; including conventional market housing, build to rent housing, student accommodation, independent and aged accommodation, co-housing, community living, multigenerational housing and other alternative models. He has experience in the delivery of early learning, child care centres and a range of education facilities through metropolitan and regional areas. He is also involved in other sectors including, industrial and employment, commercial, hospitality and retail, recreation and community based initiatives.

Damian has a passion for innovative medium and higher density housing models and projects with a strong social conscience and commitment to sustainability. His holistic community focused work includes projects for Nightingale Housing, Launch Housing, Aboriginal Housing Victoria, Housing Choices Australia, STREAT, The Uniting and Baptist Churches, among many others. He seeks to champion better designed and more sustainable solutions for our communities, cities and towns. He also has a range of experience preparing master plans for both the public and private sectors. This work extends to institutional development and the preparation of various planning scheme amendments, as well as peer reviews, advice and strategy.

A respected expert witness, Damian is passionate about planning outcomes and provides a balanced narrative influenced by an understanding of government regulation, property, strategy and the importance of liveable, sustainable and workable solutions for the built environment. He provides frank and fearless advice and is passionate about influencing outcomes with enduring value.

Jane Keddie

Director - Urban Planning

Jane Keddie has experience across a wide range of planning projects and processes, working regularly on large scale strategic planning and urban design projects. She regularly manages complex projects, including extensive consultation and management of multiple sub-consultants. She works across Hansen’s planning, urban design and landscape architecture teams and has a clear appreciation of the operation of the Victorian Planning Provisions and the planning structures operating within the Victorian context.

Jane has worked extensively on the planning of our regional cities and centres. She has particular experience and interest in the planning in response to Climate Change and was involved in both the SDAPP and more recent work addressing coastal hazards for the Municipal Association of Victoria.

Her excellent verbal and visual communication skills assist in the wide range of presentations, consultation and stakeholder engagement that her work entails. Jane continues to travel widely and her interest in other places, and the sustainability of our settlements informs her day-to-day work. She continues to work on selected statutory and VCAT projects, ensuring that she retains a practical understanding of the need for robust outcomes at the end of strategic or design planning projects.

Jane has been elected to the Victorian committee of the Planning Institute of Australia, and is actively involved in the work undertaken by both the Policy & Advocacy and Partnerships & Outreach sub-committees.

Gary Wissenden

Director – Urban Planning

Gary is a town planner with over 16 years’ professional experience in public and private sector roles. His career has taken him to the United Kingdom as well as the Cities of Stonnington, Yarra and Glen Eira in metropolitan Melbourne, in addition to more than eight years in the private sector working across metropolitan, peri-urban, coastal and rural projects.

As a planner, Gary has managed a diverse range of statutory planning projects including mixed use and residential developments, commercial and retail projects, a range of liquor license and entertainment venues, education and institutional projects as well as telecommunications and infrastructure projects.

Much of Gary’s expertise lies in advocacy work. He regularly represents the public and private sector at VCAT and public meetings, providing professional and balanced advice.

In addition to his statutory planning work, Gary maintains a keen interest in strategic planning. He has worked on several land use strategies, with a focus on the coastal regions of Victoria. His strategic experience also extends to Hansen Partnership’s work in Vietnam.

Gary is an active member of Victoria’s planning industry bodies such as the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) and the Victoria Planning and Environmental Law Association (VPELA).

Steve Schutt

Director – Landscape Architecture

Steve is a registered landscape architect with extensive experience in Australia and internationally. He is skilled and experienced in the delivery of  projects ranging across the fields of public domain design, residential landscapes, educational institutions, recreational facilities, natural and rehabilitated landscapes, commercial developments and large-scale infrastructure projects.

His skills and experience embrace the full spectrum of landscape architecture including conceptual design; design development; documentation; contract administration; master planning; visual assessment; community consultation as well as the provision of expert evidence to planning tribunals.

Steve has extensive experience in the management of multidisciplinary project teams. He has managed the design and implementation of a number of major landscape projects including the University of New South Wales Mall, Walsh Bay Redevelopment, Sydney Olympic Velodrome, Frankston CAD Urban Renewal, Langtree Mall redevelopment in Mildura, the Devonport Foreshore redevelopment in Tasmania as well as the multi-award winning Mackenzie Falls Gorge Trail.

As a director of Hansen Partnership, Steve is able to apply his skills and experience to a range of projects from landscape master planning to urban design studies and the detailed implementation of landscape designs in both urban and non-urban environments. In this regard, Steve is able to operate effectively as a multidisciplinary professional, offering skills in urban planning, urban design and landscape architecture.

Gerhana Waty

Director - Urban Design

Gerhana is an experienced urban designer with over 14 years’ experience in both the public and private sectors with a sound knowledge of design appraisals, master planning and framework initiatives within Australia and internationally.

Gerhana’s passion for urban design is driven by her architectural background and her particular interests in how evidence-based design and urban analytic could influence quality decision making and design outcome in a constantly evolving urban environment. Her contribution in strategic and statutory dimensions of urban design at Hansen reflects a strong, tangible and complementary emphasis on creating safe and sustainable spaces. She had previously contributed and led award winning transit oriented development and public realm improvement projects including the Surabaya Urban Develop­ment Program in Indonesia and the AILA Award for the Streets for People Feasibility Study for the City of Darebin.

In addition to her project work, Gerhana also regularly provides advice to Government agencies and developers on development applications and design justifications both locally and internationally. Gerhana is also an active contrib­utor to research through RMIT and the University of Melbourne (Melbourne School of Design) as a seasonal Master of Architecture Studio Leader.

David Barnes

Director – Urban Planning

Hansen Partnership’s Director David Barnes has been a town planner since 1980. With an MBA to supplement his planning qualifications, David is both a strategic planning specialist and an experienced statutory planner.

As a statutory planner David has been involved in obtaining planning approvals for a wide range of projects including residential, retail, commercial, industrial, rural, tourism, entertainment, sports, recreation and community development projects.

He has extensive experience representing clients at planning appeals and panel hearings as both an advocate and as an expert witness.

As a strategic planner, David’s experience encompasses policy formulation and implementation; preparation of strategy plans; structure plans; urban design frameworks; development plans; planning schemes and amendments; community consultation; preparation of infrastructure funding strategies and development contributions plans as well as the preparation of commercial, industrial and residential market assessments.

In addition, David has experience in Asia preparing urban management plans; strategy plans; structure plans; master plans; planning and development controls; institutional strengthening programs and professional training programs.

Sandra Rigo

Director – Urban Planning

A Director of Hansen Partnership, Sandra is a Town Planner with over 25 years of experience in statutory and strategic planning, in both the private and local government sectors.

Sandra’s experience encompasses all elements of the development approvals process from initial site choice, to a collaborative design process and finally navigating the statutory process to gain planning approval.

She regularly gives planning evidence at VCAT and enjoys the challenge of presenting and participating in a range of public forums including community consultations, stakeholder and council meetings.

Whilst focussed on statutory planning in recent years, Sandra’s experience extends to strategic planning projects, including built form reviews, urban character studies, structure plans and urban design framework plans. Her responsibilities in these projects include the coordination and conduct of community consultation programs and writing planning policies and controls.

Outside project work, Sandra is a strong supporter of women in the property industry with a particular focus on the professional development and mentoring of young planners. As the only female director for many years, Sandra has always been passionate about mentoring female staff, fostering their career development and opportunities to encourage the next generation of female directors

Freya Shaw

Chief Executive Officer

Freya has more than 25 years’ experience working in a variety of finance and administration roles and is Hansen Partnership’s CEO.

Freya brings a wealth of experience working in management accounting roles within small-to-medium enterprises and multinationals in both Australia and the UK. Her background in the manufacturing industry has provided her with experience in creating and implementing quality assurance programs, interpreting legislation, writing procedures to ISO9001 standards and managing large projects, all of which benefit the smooth running of Hansen.

At Hansen, Freya oversees the financial performance , ensures the effective day-to-day operations, facilitates the mentoring, coaching and training of staff and co-ordinates the business development and marketing activities. Her responsibilities also include assisting with creation of the Company vision and strategy.

Freya is CPA qualified and also holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting & Marketing).