Manaini and Abbie

Manaini is a practicing architectural technician, having worked at numerous architectural firms in Suva prior to commencing her Australia Award. She is passionate about educating the wider community, as well as her family and friends, about structurally safe building design and development, especially since witnessing the destruction of so many homes during Cyclone Winston.

Manaini hopes to influence positive change in Fiji and was drawn to the Women’s Leadership Initiative in the hopes of learning from a mentor who is experienced in community outreach programs.

Abbie’s work is focussed on promoting the architectural quality of the built environment and making the physical world around us better for everyone through the power of great design.

She has worked for close to 30 years on public, educational, health, research and commercial projects that have been highly awarded, published and recognised internationally for bringing fresh approaches to common project types.

Projects Abbie has led have been the recipient of more than 40 state, national and international architectural awards including the RAIA Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design, the RAIA Jack McConnell Award for Public Architecture and the RAIA Blackett Prize for Regional Architecture, in addition to personal awards such as the AIA Marion Mahoney Griffin Prize for a distinctive body of work in the field of Architecture.