Sara Ballah

I am a 2025 graduate of the Master of Architecture and Urban Design, driven by a passion for creating meaningful, innovative spaces for users and the public. Throughout my studies, I have continually pushed for the highest level of design, developing both technical skills and an open, creative approach to architecture.

My work has been recognised through the 2025 Boroondara Urban Design Award for Camberwell Central, a project that exemplifies my commitment to thoughtful, people-focused design. I believe architecture is a unique form of expression shaped differently by every designer, and I strive to bring that individuality and purpose into every project I undertake.

The Re-Ground

A design response to the ongoing homelessness crisis in Victoria, this project proposes a building in Cremorne that gives people the opportunity to feel safe, supported, and connected. It creates a place to gather, grow, and begin again, offering spaces for community, personal development, and a fresh start.

The Re-Ground

The sectional perspective highlights the two main accommodation zones, separated to support both female and male residents, with a dedicated family area positioned at the rear for privacy and safety. The design integrates a variety of accommodation types: short-term, transitional, and long-term, allowing residents to move through different stages of support. The existing warehouse structure becomes a shared hub for development and communal programs, providing spaces for learning, connection, and personal growth.

Erbil Tajdid: Master Plan

This masterplan proposes a visionary urban renewal strategy for Erbil, Iraq, one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities. Using projected 2099 climate and water data, the project introduces a network of water management strategies to address future scarcity. By reviving ancient water sources and linking them with new systems, the proposal creates a continuous, citywide water network that supports resilience, sustainability, and cultural continuity.

Camberwell Central

2025 Boroondara Urban Design Award Winner
Located in the heart of Camberwell, this award-winning project reimagines Camberwell Central as a vibrant, car-free mixed-use precinct. Rooted in its urban context, the proposal transforms the site into a walkable urban village that supports living, working, and playing. Through thoughtful urban retrofitting, it creates a place where public life and built form intersect in meaningful, accessible, and people-focused ways.

PROV Housing

This project reimagines the Public Record Office Victoria by exploring new ways of storing and experiencing data. The sectional model introduces an interactive yet private circulation and level system, transforming how users navigate and engage with the archive. Housing is integrated into the proposal to support new residents moving into North Melbourne. Using data as an expression of networking, the design investigates how information can shape spatial experiences and create dynamic, interconnected environments.

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.