Meet the 2027 Mayfield Cohort

We’re delighted to welcome 16 professionals to Learning Environments Australasia’s 2027 Mayfield Project, affectionately known as our “Mayfielders”!

Bringing together a range of disciplines and perspectives, this cohort shares a commitment to improving how contemporary learning environments are designed, delivered and used. Over the coming months, they’ll connect, challenge ideas and learn from one another through LEA’s collaborative research experience.

Their starting question couldn’t be more timely: in an age of rapid change, what in learning actually endures? Together, they’ll explore what young people need from their learning environments to meet the challenges ahead, and what already works that we must protect.

We warmly thank the employers supporting our Mayfielders to take part, making space for their professional growth and the ideas they’ll bring back to their workplaces.

The project begins with an online start up session on Wednesday 11 November, followed by their first face to face gathering at the 2026 Regional Day Out EMPOWER in Hobart. Research activities and a February 2027 workshop in Sydney will help turn their shared questions into a collective project.

The cohort will share their findings at the 25th Annual LEA Conference, 2027 BELONGING, in Sydney | Gadigal Country from 5 – 7 May 2027. We look forward to seeing where their curiosity takes them!

The 2027 Mayfield Project Provocation

In an age of rapid change, what in learning actually endures?

What if the best learning environments aren’t about the
latest trend – but about what we choose to protect?

What does education today actually demand
of the spaces we design and teach in?

About The Mayfield Project

Past participants have credited the Mayfield Project with their expansive growth in professional development and have gone on to build successful careers designing, managing, and teaching in learning environments.

The program aims to expand participants’ knowledge, meet like minded people across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, work together towards an authentic shared goal, and have the opportunity to share their new-found knowledge.  

The Mayfield Project is Learning Environments Australasia’s collaborative research experience for emerging professionals. Running every two years, it brings together early career educators, architects, interior designers, landscape architects, planners, education administrators, consultants and policymakers.

Check out the video for a taste of what it means to be a ‘Mayfielder’.