Speakers
Kavan Applegate
Parallel Workshops
Situated within the ICPA 2026 theme 'Partnerships in a Modern Corrections Landscape', the talk positions design as part of a broader ecosystem requiring collaboration across disciplines to address growing population pressures and increasingly complex needs. Through a joint presentation, Liebling outlines the philosophical foundations of an “I / thou” culture, while Kavan Applegate demonstrates how GB‑A’s evidence‑based design practice can support these values through spatial decisions that promote fairness, personal agency and humane treatment.
The presentation illustrates this approach through strategies such as normalisation of daily life, trauma‑informed and biophilic environments, acoustic and sensory wellbeing, and controlled‑freedom movement systems that support autonomy within secure frameworks. Case examples show how human‑scaled, differentiated spaces can enable therapeutic, relationship‑based settings without compromising security.
Kavan is the Chair of the ICPA Planning and Design Network and Director of Guymer Bailey Architects, specialising in specialist in justice and correctional architecture – therapeutic environments that facilitate rehabilitation, empower behavioural change and create a sense of hope to ultimately reduce recidivism rates and create a better, safer community for all.
Knowing that our environment has a profound effect on us, his passion is in harnessing the transformative effects of architecture to help people live better lives. Through the creative and sustainable use of building form and materials and the rehabilitative effects of daylight, Kavan believes architecture can significantly change the quality of life for those inhabiting its space. It is this ‘architecture of hope’ that he seeks to provide each day by delivering well planned, operationally effective and delight-filled masterplanning and building solutions.
Over the last 25 years, Kavan has led the design of many of Australia’s most innovative and iconic justice and correctional projects alongside our team including Hopkins Correctional Centre, Ravenhall Correctional Centre, Western Plains Correctional Centre, Rivergum Residential Treatment Centre, Southern Queensland Correctional Centre (St2), Southern Remand Correctional Centre, and the Thomas Embling Forensic Hospital Expansion as well as works in numerous other secure facilities.
As a Director of Guymer Bailey Architects, Kavan leads the exceptional architecture, landscape architecture and interior design team across our Melbourne and Brisbane Studios and overseeing our large-scale correctional projects.
