Mena Kubba thinks about cities the way an ecologist thinks about ecosystems: as living, interdependent systems whose health depends on the quality of their connections. It is a perspective shaped by working on both the design and consulting sides of the table and by rejecting the idea that technical complexity and design quality are in competition.

“Transport is a catalyst for change,” says Kubba. “If you get the right arteries, the foundations correct, you can build really great things around them. You can create nodes that are alive and become the hearts of the places they are in.”

From the outset, Kubba’s formation as an architect was oriented toward public spaces. Her early practice in Scotland centred on social projects and masterplanning, including commissions linked to the Commonwealth Games, where briefs required designs that reshaped places while serving existing communities.

London provided a different kind of education. Working in commercial architecture for high-end clients, she encountered a discipline demanding both design excellence and rigorous technical delivery.

“That’s where the technical restraint came in,” she says, “getting things to work, testing the feasibility, working with engineers.”

Australia sharpened that vocabulary considerably. When Kubba joined the Melbourne Metro Tunnel project with Weston Williamson + Partners and Hassell, she was part of the winning bid team, went on to lead the design of Arden station and then to oversee the architectual fitout across all five underground stations.

From there, she moved to Architectus as Rail Market Leader, working with government on the Suburban Rail Loop East across six station precincts.

Before joining Woods Bagot, Kubba ran her own consultancy, working directly with government on transport and urban design while collaborating with the Melbourne practice on infrastructure pursuits. After relocating to Sydney, formalising the relationship felt like a natural next step.

“The working relationship made the move to Woods Bagot feel organic,” says Kubba.

Rail architecture sits within one of the most constrained design environments in the profession. Safety codes, procurement frameworks, government approval processes, the requirements of engineers and contractors. The list of competing authorities is long, and the margin for design ambition can feel thin. Kubba is candid about this tension, and equally candid about why it appeals to her.

She points to the work at Woods Bagot on Central and Crows Nest stations as evidence of what is possible within those constraints.

“To be able to distil the architecture and help channel the way people move through space,” she says, “is where the real design challenge lies. Not in spite of the constraints, but because of them.

“Rail is civic infrastructure. It serves everybody equally. It allows you to tap into networks outside of those metropolitan areas, to communities that really need that connection, which rolls into better housing, better schools.”

Kubba’s practice extends well beyond billable hours. She is more broadly a cross-sector architect who delivers award-winning schemes through a rigorous, process-driven approach that blends strategic thinking with creative innovation. Not only does she strive for design excellence, but she advocates for the profession as a whole.

Up until recently, she chaired the Australian Institute of Architects Victoria Regional Committee and curated its inaugural symposium in Geelong, bringing together practitioners, government and industry to examine the pressures of regional density, housing and built environment practice beyond the capital cities.

She sits on the Ballarat City Council and South Australian State Design Review Panels, holds adjunct academic positions at several universities, and has led studio programs at Monash University exploring humanitarian displacement and social issues in spatial practice.

On gender equity in the profession, she is measured and direct. Women remain underrepresented in the technical leadership of major infrastructure projects, and Kubba regards that not merely as an equity issue but as a design problem.

“If you have that diverse voice in the room, you can address some of the issues that come with public transport projects, such as safety for women and girls as well as those from the most marginalised communities,” she says.

As a mother and advocate of women working in architecture, she brings both lived experience and long-term thinking to the question “who does infrastructure serve, and how?”

“Transport is one of the defining challenges of this generation,” says Global Transport Leader John Prentice. “Mena’s expertise and talent will strengthen our ability to design and deliver projects that are technically robust, socially responsive and enduring. We are very excited to welcome Mena to the Woods Bagot team.”

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Adrien Moffatt
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