Dr Emma Whettingsteel
Senior Project Lead
Emma works in the middle spaces between research, built environment practice and social innovation. She is experienced in leading participatory research and design across a broad range of sectors, especially in the development of methods and processes that serve young people, First Nations partners, and regional community needs.
Emma has specialisation in the co-design of physical spaces that support a long term sense of belonging and empowerment, and enjoys the process of translating social needs to tangible outputs.
At ThirdStory, Emma leads projects that span highly relational local engagement to large-scale design and evaluation. She works closely with communities, service providers, and policymakers to co-design programs and environments that foster belonging, safety, and opportunity. Her work includes supporting transitional housing services, shaping culturally secure models of care, and developing innovative service blueprints that balance lived experience with systemic change.
Recently, Emma has contributed to the evaluation of EON Foundation’s remote community garden program, using accessible and flexible methods to meaningfully understand impact on food security and community wellbeing. She has supported codification and co-design of housing services, facilitated Social Design Academy workshops to build sector capability, and co-designed a Healing Circle in Derby with Anglicare WA, Emama Nguda Aboriginal Corporation (ENAC), and Ngunga Group Aboriginal Women’s Corporation. Through each of these projects, Emma ensures that the voices of communities and those with lived experience shape the spaces and services designed to support them.
Prior to joining ThirdStory, Emma led co-design and research in academic, commercial, and social sector settings. Emma played a key role in the development of national research and frameworks at Cox Architecture, including in the areas of strengthening collaborative design practice with First Nations stakeholders, developing trauma-informed design guidelines, evaluating public transport design options, and undertaking analysis of trends across a range of built form typologies (for example, examining the future of museums and galleries).
Her 2020 doctoral research, “It would give you a space to be yourself”, explored how interior design can increase Aboriginal students’ sense of belonging in Western Australian boarding schools. In 2024, Emma was named one of Australian Design Review’s 30 under 30 for ‘Architects and Innovators of the Built World’, recognizing her belief in the power of thoughtfully designed services and spaces as tools for social change.