Change is afoot at Monash University with the appointment of Erik G. L’Heureux, PhD, LEED AP BD+C as Professor of Architecture and Head of the Department of Architecture. As an architect, educator and academic leader, there is none better than L’Heureux who brings his wealth of experience to the much-fêted Australian university.

Now residing in Melbourne, there is a homecoming of sorts for L’Heureux as he earned his PhD in Architecture and Urban Design from RMIT University, where he received the RMIT Prize for Research Excellence in Design. He also holds a Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University and received his Bachelor of Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis.

L’Heureux was born in the USA and has worked as a registered architect in his home country and Singapore, recently moving from Singapore to take up the position at Monash University.

From 2003 to 2025 L’Heureux taught at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and held many leadership roles as Dean’s Chair Associate Professor, Vice Dean and Director of both the Undergraduate and Master of Architecture programs.

Reflecting on his move to Monash, L’Heureux comments: “Monash brings together an extraordinary faculty who merge research with practice and remain deeply engaged in the realities of the world – an ethos that is both compelling and urgent. It’s also how I navigate my own life as both architect and academic. If there is one dimension I hope to extend within this already rich curriculum here at Monash, it is the centrality of decarbonisation. In an age defined by climate catastrophe, carbon cannot remain peripheral; it must sit squarely at the heart of architectural discourse, pedagogy and practice as we move from a fossil-fuelled world to one that is genuinely planet-positive.”

Equally important is Monash’s clear commitment to the Indo-Pacific. With decades of experience in Singapore and Southeast Asia, I am eager to strengthen those regional networks while equipping our students with a deeper familiarity of the Indo-Pacific context. For many of them, this is where their professional lives will unfold. Expanding engagement – through research, teaching and design practice – across this vast and dynamic context is not only imperative, it is also tremendously exciting.”

During his 22-year tenure at NUS, not only was L’Heureux’s academic prowess in evidence but also his skill as a practitioner. In 2021, under his leadership, the School of Design and Environment 1, Special Projects, NUS School of Design and Environment with CPG Consultants was named the winner of The Learning Space category and also received the ultimate accolade of Best of the Best at that year’s INDE.Awards. L’Heureux, as Lead on the project, was integral and he oversaw the realisation of this exemplary and award-winning design.

As a practitioner and founder of Equator Works, L’Heureux’s portfolio of more than 40 projects includes the acclaimed Simple seriesand residential experiments, Hut House and Stereoscopic House. His work includes major institutional projects such as An Equatorial School of Architecture (SDE1 and SDE3) and the Equatorial Student Commons (Yusof Ishak House).

These projects have received recognition and awards from far and wide – the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction, the World Architecture Festival and a President’s Design Award (Singapore) – to name but a few.

He is also a widely respected author with a multitude of publications to his credit with the monograph Deep Veils (ORO, 2014) now held in multiple academic and museum collections.

With so many honours and awards, those mentioned above merely scratch the surface, and it is obvious that L’Heureux brings practical knowledge, deep understanding and honed expertise to his role at Monash University. However, it is in the realm of sustainability and his continuing exploration of decarbonisation where he truly makes a mark. His research is distinguished by its integration of design practice with historical and climatic inquiry.

L’Heureux’s investigations into mid-20th century equatorial architecture and its relationship to atmosphere, climate and the city, across Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Ghana, and Brazil was recognised with the Harvard Graduate School of Design Wheelwright Prize (2015–2017). 

While L’Heureux’s past achievements provide insight of the prodigious talent of the practitioner and educator, it is his passion for a more sustainable future, along with a deeper reach by Monash University to the Indo-Pacific region that are key drivers in this next chapter of his professional life.

“If we can spend the next few years decarbonising the curriculum – genuinely shifting away from a fossil-fuel world and exploring what that looks like – I think we can make a profound contribution. We don’t have all the answers, and no one does, but we can provide leadership in imagining how decarbonisation is expressed not only in design outcomes but embedded deeply in the curriculum itself. If we can achieve that collectively as a department, I would count that as an extraordinary success,” L’Heureux says.

As a person, L’Heureux is intelligent yet approachable, passionate, interesting and interested, with a great sense of humour – all the attributes of someone who can lead by example. His many years in Singapore, coupled with a deep understanding of practice, makes him the perfect choice for this new role.

Monash University has always been a trailblazer in the realms of architecture and design and, with Erik L’Heureux at the helm of the Department of Architecture, the future looks very bright indeed.

Monash University
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Photography
Photography Ong Chan Hao, Erik L’Heureux

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