Aurecon Design Academy named Best in Class at Australian Good Design Awards
Aurecon Design Academy wins Best in Class at the 2026 Australian Good Design Awards, celebrating the company's decade-long investment in developing its people.
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Asia Pacific engineering consultancy Aurecon received multiple honours at the recent state and territory Engineers Australia (EA) Excellence Awards, including winning South Australia’s Project of the Year for Adelaide Aquatic Centre and Northern Territory's Emerging Professional of the Year.
The state and territory events were held across Australia during September 2026, with winners progressing to the national award ceremony to be held at the Melbourne Town Hall on Thursday 12 November. The Engineers Australia Excellence Awards celebrate engineering excellence, highlighting innovation, leadership, and impact of individual projects and engineering professionals across the nation.
Spearheading Aurecon’s success, the company took top honours in the prestigious Project of the Year (South Australia) category for Adelaide Aquatic Centre, one of Australia’s first large-scale, all-electric aquatic facilities.
“Aurecon has been a trusted and highly effective partner on this project. Their strong technical capability, practical problem solving and collaborative approach contributed significantly to the project’s technical quality, sustainability outcomes and overall success," said Terry Kildea, Senior Project Manager, Sarah Constructions.
Aurecon's Shannon Kieran also claimed the top honour as Northern Territory's Emerging Professional of the Year.
These results were further bolstered with several Aurecon leaders receiving commendation accolades, including:
"These awards are a great reflection of what our people can make possible when they bring their expertise, optimism and commitment to the challenge."
Todd Battley, Aurecon Chief Executive – Australia
Aurecon Chief Executive – Australia Todd Battley said acknowledgement from Australia’s top engineering body is the highest of honours.
“Receiving these accolades at the Engineers Australia Excellence Awards is a significant achievement and reflects the positive impact our people and projects are making across the engineering profession,” Battley said.
“We believe the world needs people who can engineer possibilities. These awards recognise our people for embracing complex challenges, bringing together technical excellence, human judgement and technology, and taking ownership of the outcomes that matter to our clients.
“Congratulations to everyone across Aurecon who has contributed to these fantastic results. It is a great reflection of what our people can make possible when they bring their expertise, optimism and commitment to the challenge,” he said.
Find out more about Aurecon’s winning and commended projects and people:
Winner: Project of the Year – South Australia
The $135 million Adelaide Aquatic Centre is one of Australia’s first large-scale, all-electric aquatic facilities, demonstrating a practical pathway for decarbonising one of Australia’s most energy-intensive public building types. Replacing an ageing, gas-reliant asset, the project demonstrates how integrated building services and façade engineering can significantly reduce operational energy demand while enhancing user comfort, accessibility, resilience and long-term asset performance.
Aurecon led the building services and façade engineering design, developing a fully electrified solution underpinned by integrated heat recovery, water reuse and adaptive environmental control strategies. These innovations reduce long-term operational costs, improve energy efficiency and support year-round performance, while creating an inclusive, accessible destination for recreation, rehabilitation and elite sport.
Winner: Emerging Professional of the Year – Northern Territory
As a Senior Structural Engineer in Aurecon’s Northern Territory buildings team, Shannon Kieran has delivered engineering outcomes that create lasting community and economic value across nationally significant infrastructure. From heritage restoration to remote and geotechnically complex builds, Shannon combines technical rigour with a sustained commitment to sustainability and the profession's future workforce.
Key contributions include: leading structural design on the Commonwealth heritage-listed Banksian House restoration, developing proof-testing methodologies to verify original 1940s fabric where compliance couldn't be shown by calculation alone, minimising intrusive works while meeting modern NCC requirements; deriving a site-specific design wind speed for the Macquarie Island Research Station Modernisation Project from 72 years of Bureau of Meteorology data and defending that evidence-based methodology against pressure to adopt less conservative loads; and developing a site-specific risk assessment for the concept design of four active transport bridges on the Logan-Gold Coast Faster Rail Project, demonstrating collision risk around ten times lower than Queensland Rail's standard base case and enabling a less conservative, more efficient design.
Shannon also lectures at Charles Darwin University and serves on the Engineers Australia Northern Division Committee amongst other volunteer industry leadership engagements. Her combination of technical judgement and profession-building has strengthened engineering practice and workforce pipelines across the Northern Territory and beyond.
Commended: Outstanding Nominee for Professional Engineer of the Year – Victoria
Over the past decade, Aurecon’s Power Systems Practice Leader, Victoria & South Australia, Majid Fard, has helped shape the transition of Australia's electricity sector towards a more sustainable, resilient, and technology-driven future through leadership in grid-forming technologies, power system standards, and emerging large-load integration – such as data centres.
Key contributions include: advancing the application of grid-forming inverter technologies, capable of providing system support traditionally delivered by synchronous generation; and developing engineering methodologies for assessing large inverter-dominated loads and contributing technical feedback during the development of VicGrid's emerging data centre connection framework.
Fard has advised governments, regulators and clients to support the connection and integration of more than 10 GW of renewable energy, battery storage, and major electrical loads. Collectively, these contributions have influenced how future power systems are modelled, regulated, connected, and operated, creating enduring benefits for Australia's energy transition and digital economy.
Commended: Outstanding Nominee for Emerging Professional Engineer of the Year – South Australia
Aurecon Design Manager Aliy Pehlivanides brings over seven years of engineering experience, with a proven track record of managing complex projects through proactive problem-solving. She draws on her multifaceted experience spanning structural, geotechnical and facade engineering to inform her leadership as a Design Manager on significant public projects including Adelaide's New Women's and Children's Hospital, SA Netball Centre, and Adelaide Aquatic Centre.
As her career has progressed from specialist engineer to Design Manager, Aliy has expanded her influence beyond technical delivery. She now leads multidisciplinary teams, mentors emerging engineers, and champions sustainability and inclusive design while remaining grounded in strong engineering fundamentals.
National results will be presented at the Excellence Awards Gala Dinner held at the Melbourne Town Hall on Thursday 12 November, where Adelaide Aquatic Centre will vie for Project of the Year and Shannon Kieran will be in the running for Emerging Professional of the Year.
To learn more about the Engineers Australia Excellence Awards, visit their website: https://aeea.engineersaustralia.org.au/
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