James Kapaniris never imagined his time at the University of Sydney would see him working on a project extracting methane from recaptured animal waste.

Initially enrolling to study law and commerce, the Dalyell Scholar took an interdisciplinary course that gave him the opportunity to work from Australia with Engineers Without Borders in Cambodia.

Soon after, he listened to his gut and swapped law for civil engineering, where his Barcelona-inspired ‘superblock’ housing design later saw him land the 2019 Lendlease Bradfield Urbanisation Scholarship.

“The scholarship allowed me to focus more on my studies and take up internship opportunities as well as a summer exchange program at the London School of Economics, and from there I travelled to Barcelona,” James said.

“It was special and exciting to be in the city that inspired me. I love Sydney, it’s one of the best places on earth, but we can still learn from other cities to to take us from a 9-out-of-10 to an 11-out-of-10.”

Since graduating with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) and Bachelor of Commerce last year, James has put both his degrees to good use with his role in Aurecon’s infrastructure advisory team. He’s currently working on the Namabunda Farm Cultural Centre on behalf of the Bundjalung Tribal Society, which was recently awarded Project of the Year by the NSW Indigenous Chamber of Commerce.

Similarly thriving is Bachelor of Design in Architecture (Honours) and Master of Architecture graduate Caleb Niethe, who is working on a modular construction project at Cox Architecture.

He modelled a similar (albeit more futuristic) prefabricated “building block” design that saw him awarded the Lendlease Bradfield Urbanisation Scholarship in 2017.

“The scholarship shaped my university experience and my career. My role at Lendlease exposed me to a range of complex challenges in the construction industry and gave me the opportunity to work on innovative solutions,” Caleb said.

“The financial support enabled me to travel to Asia, the United States and Europe, which wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. It changed my perspective and gave me an increased appreciation of Sydney and a greater understanding of the unique culture here, and how that impacts our architecture.”

The fellow scholarship recipients remain idealistic about Sydney’s potential for increased housing density and improved affordability without sacrificing the city’s high standards of living.

For James, the answer is balance: “Our current approach is all-or-nothing. We have 50-storey apartment buildings in one suburb and single-storey homes 100 metres from a train station the next suburb over.

“We need to make it more attractive for developers to build medium density, multipurpose projects with family-friendly apartments, not just studios and one-bedders. It’s about getting the right type of housing built in the right places,” James said.

Caleb believes a broader cultural shift is needed to see housing as public infrastructure rather than just an investment vessel.

“The Sydney Metro is a powerful example of a city seeing the benefits of major public infrastructure realised from long-term vision. Public housing stock and public transport go hand in hand, and there’s room in our current climate to shift our thinking about housing as public infrastructure,” he said.

Caleb is also passionate about retaining spaces for culture and the arts, and creating public spaces that amplify rather than distract from Sydney’s natural beauty.

“Sydney is a great city by almost every metric, but the risk of all modern cities is we create a hermetic smoothness. We need to protect local spaces for culture and the arts, which are so important for the community, social cohesion, the local economy and enjoyable living.”