Background

Kenn is recognised as one of the leading learning environment specialists practising internationally. As a consultant to the OECD (where he held the post of Head of the Program on Educational Building in Paris in 1997/8) and UNESCO he has practised in Australia, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. He is multi-skilled in a range of disciplines having practiced in all education sectors as a teacher and academic, a strategic facility and campus planner and as a project, facility and design manager.

Through his specialist practice in campus masterplanning and educational facility strategic consulting and architectural briefing, Kenn acts as the prime interface between designers and teachers to co-create learning environments for new and emerging teaching, learning and research paradigms. He has been engaged by more than 30 universities in Australia and overseas, over a dozen vocational training and community college clients, a number of State and National Government Ministries of Education, many school organisations and Government and corporate entities.

In recognition of his work one of his doctoral examiners wrote that ‘the dissertation has helped to shape the direction of critical pedagogy for the next decade. I am highly impressed with this dissertation and believe it has made a unique contribution to the field of critical education. It will surely become a book, and a highly influential one. I hope this work serves to influence not only education, but art, architecture and design as well’. Kenn was recently awarded a Doctor of Science (honoris causa) from Deakin University as further recognition of his work in this specialised field.

Personal and Specialist Comptencies

- Personal and commissioned research into latest trends in education and information technology & communications and impact on physical space

- Interpreting academic and student space needs and translating these into architectural specifications to guide designers

- Campus masterplanning, strategic facility planning & learning placemaking

- Collaborative and consultative processes, including facilitating workshops, design charettes and public meetings

- Creating customised professional development programs to assist academics and teachers to understand how space (and its interaction with ICT) can enhance learning

- Leading multi-disciplinary teams on complex educational projects covering all sectors of learning in primary & secondary schools, vocational & community colleges, university and research institutes, and learning in the workplace

- Researching and writing complex reports and publications

- Understanding the culture of learning organisations and developing customised collaborative strategies to deliver projects

- Specialist in library planning and design

- Current holder of current general builders licence

Relevant Project Experience

Kenn has directed a wide range of consulting and master planning, strategic briefing and learning environment planning and design studies internationally.

A selection includes:

- Deakin University Burwood & Waterfront Campus Masterplans

- Stamford University College, campus masterplan and facility plan

- University of New South Wales Masterplan Educational Overlay

- University of Melbourne Library ten year Strategic Plan

- University Tunku Abdul Rahman Campus Masterplan, Strategic Facility Plan and Architectural Brief, Malaysia

- Australian Catholic University, Melbourne campus, masterplan and architectural brief

- Monash University, Berwick campus, masterplan and architectural brief

- QUT Gardens Point SE Precinct redevelopment study for Faculties of Engineering and ICT

- Australian Science & Mathematics School Flinders University (A$18m)

- Doha College of Technology, Qatar (A$180m)

- United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain (A$700m)

- Singapore Republic Polytechnic (A$380m)

- Bank Negara Corporate University Campus, Kuala Lumpur (A$200m)

- Al Faisal University, Riyadh, Planning and Design of Problem-Based Learning Environments Buildings

- ANU, Griffith, Flinders, Monash & Victoria Universities collaborative flexible learning research project

- University of Adelaide strategic facility planning for collocation & reorganisation of Science Faculty

- Bank Negara Malaysia – new office design: relocation, briefing, planning and design review, Kuala Lumpur

Additional and Related Experience

University of Adelaide, Deputy Buildings and Estates Officer responsible for the university's capital works program.

Projects included the full range of eleven Faculty disciplines spread over 12 years

- University of Adelaide, project director for the $65m redevelopment of the Waite Campus including the collocation of the University’s Faculty of Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, the CSIRO, and the State Department of Agriculture and Australian Wine Research Institute

- Appointed Head of the Program on Educational Building at the OECD in Paris, 1997/8. Controlled a program of educational building research and development involving 26 national Ministries of Education, convened six international conferences, executive editor of four books and five issues of the PEB Exchange journal and co-authored a number of other publications.

- Appointed Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, University of South Australia, 2003

- To keep up to date with trends in teaching and learning, Kenn continues to practise whenever possible.

- The University of South Australia Faculty of Education - Research Fellow

- University of South Australia and the University of Adelaide - Visiting lecturer in the Architecture Departments

- University of Adelaide - Lectured in project management in the MBA program

Affiliations

Kenn is a member of the following associations:

- The Australian College of Education (M.A.C.E.)

- The Society of College and University Planners (S.C.U.P., U.S.A.)

- The Australasian Association for Research in Education (A.A.R.E.)

- The Tertiary Education Facility Manager’s Association (T.E.F.M.A.)

Publications and Research Papers (Selection)

Kenn has published extensively, some recent ones include:

- Fisher, K. (2005). Editor, TEFMA Learning Environments Seminars Edited Proceedings, Brisbane and Christchurch, in print

- Fisher, K. (2004). Revoicing Classrooms: a Spatial Manifesto. Forum Vol 46, No. 1., Sept

- Fisher, K. (2003). ‘Clicks, Bricks and Spondulicks’. PEB Seminar Proceedings Summary. Program on Educational Building, OECD, Paris

- Fisher, K. (2003). Designs for Learning in the Knowledge Age. Architecture SA Journal, Adelaide

- Fisher, K. (2002). Innovations in Pedagogy, Curriculum and Facilities: The Australian Science and Maths School. PEB Exchange, OECD Paris.

- Fisher, K. (2002). Schools as prisons of learning, or, as a pedagogy of architectural encounters. Unpublished Doctoral dissertation, Flinders University, Adelaide

- Fisher, K., T. Gilding, et al. (2000). Place, space and the design of new learning environments. Higher Education Research and Development 19(2):221-236.

- Fisher, K. (2003). ‘Clicks, Bricks and Spondulicks’. PEB Exchange. OECD Program on Educational Building Journal

- Fisher, K. (2003). Designs for Learning in the Knowledge Age. Architecture SA Journal, Adelaide

- Fisher, K. (2002). Innovations in Pedagogy, Curriculum and Facilities: The Australian Science and Maths School. PEB Exchange, OECD Paris.

- Fisher, K. (Executive Editor) (1998b) Libraries and Learning Resource Centres. OECD-PEB, Paris.

- Fisher, K.; de Vries, CA. (1998c) Financing Capital Expenditure. Journal of Higher Education Management, Vol. 9 No. 2, OECD-IMHE, Paris.

- Fisher, K; Kelly, B; Deshon, J; Jones, R (1996) Disability Discrimination Act 1992: Providing Equity in Access to Tertiary Institutions, Self Published, ISBN 086776668.

- Fisher, K. (1991) Report of Findings: Overseas Study Tour of University Facility Management and Planning. The University of Adelaide.

Selected Referees

- Professor Mark Wainwright, University of New South Wales
(vc@unsw.edu.au)
- Professor Sally Walker, Vice Chancellor, Deakin University(vc@deakin.edu.au)
- Professor Peter Coaldrake, Vice Chancellor, Queensland University of Technology (vc@qut.edu.au)
- Professor Ian Davey, Pro Vice Chancellor, Research, University of South
Australia (ian.davey@unisa.edu.au)
- Ms Linda O’Brien, Principal, Information Division, University of Melbourne
- Professor John Smyth, Associate Dean of Research, Flinders University
(john.smyth@flinders.edu.au)
- Governor Tan Sri Dato' Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Bank Negara Malaysia (Federal Reserve Bank), (c/- ain@bnm.gov.my)
- Dr Aini Ibrahim, Director of Strategy, Bank Negara Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur
(ain@bnm.gov.my)
- Dr Ahmed Al-Mutawa, Deputy Vice Chancellor, United Arab Emirates
University, Al Ain, UAE (DVCP@uaeu.ac.ae)