Team

Dr Esther Charlesworth AM, is the founding and Managing Director of Architects without Frontiers [AWF]. Since 2004, AWF has undertaken over 82 health, education and social infrastructure projects in 17 countries for vulnerable communities and has been described by ABC radio broadcaster Phillip Adams as ‘destined to develop into one of the greater forces of good on this battered planet’. 

Esther was also a Professor in the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University 2008-2025, where she founded the Master of Disaster, Design and Development degree [MoDDD] and the Humanitarian Architecture Research Bureau [HARB].

Charlesworth has worked in the public and private sectors of architecture and urban design in Melbourne, Sydney, New York, Boston and Beirut since graduating with a Masters in Architecture and Urban from Harvard University in 1995. In 2004 she was awarded her PhD from the University of York (UK).

She has published eight books on the theme of social justice and architecture, including: ‘Divided Cities’ (2011), ‘Humanitarian Architecture’ (2014) ‘Sustainable Housing Reconstruction’ (2015) and ‘Design for Fragility’ (2022).