Research projects

Our world-leading research explores cutting-edge technologies and innovative solutions for a sustainable and equitable built environment.

Designing the Future: A snapshot of our recent projects

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Our projects

Indigenising the Built Environment in Australia

This project aims to Indigenise discourse between Indigenous Communities and built environment professions, promote greater cultural competency and advocate for considerations of First Nations specific Performance Criteria in other registered built environment professions across Australia.

An interaction model for human–machine creative collaboration

How can we enhance creative work through interacting with artificial intelligence (AI)? This project aims to show that interactive systems can enhance creative productivity and demonstrate how this can happen through the development and evaluation of a model for the ways in which humans and AI might interact while creating.

Developing accessible playgrounds for children with vision impairment

This project seeks to develop an evaluation framework for auditing existing playgrounds and design guidelines for creating or retrofitting playgrounds that support the unique challenges of BLV children and carers.

Smart regional spaces: Ready, set, go!

This project partners with three regional NSW councils to develop a spectrum of ‘smart’ digital resources and strategies soon to be available to all regional NSW Councils. These tools will support Councils to assess and design smart places and strategies for local community benefit.

Parenting and private car use in Australian cities

This project seeks to untangle the role of infrastructure, cultural attachment and emotional wellbeing on the perpetration of private car use.

Trust and Safety in Autonomous Mobility Systems: A Human-centred Approach.

This project aims to develop new interfaces for autonomous vehicles to communicate with the people around them, and how this is linked to perceived trust and safety.

The university and the city

This project aims to investigate the changing relationship of the university with the contemporary city.

Locating Giurgola: From Philadelphia School to Global Practice.

This research focuses on the life and work of Italo-American architect Romaldo Giurgola, situating his work in its architectural, historical and biographical contexts across the second half of the twentieth century.

Hacking housing: technologies, processes and practices of housing futures

Digital technologies and computational logics are reshaping housing futures. Can they address current issues surrounding the Australian housing landscape and devise new policies?

Shared-space interactions between people and autonomous vehicles

The project investigates whether people are more likely to trust the technology and feel safe if they are able to understand how the system makes decisions and to directly influence its behaviour.

Socio-spatial implications of smart city development in India

Learning from the smart cities of the South to inform the global smart urbanism discourse in post-pandemic recovery—with significant benefits in strengthening existing, and building new connections between India and Australia in an area of bilateral national significance.

The precarious city: the suburban settlement in an age of uncertainty

Transforming Ageing Housing through Co- and Re- Design

This research project aims to create a ‘how to’ guide for building renewal, providing concepts and tools to assist owners, residents and professionals. The Co-Design Guide will assist in adapting and upgrading ageing apartment buildings to better meet changing needs

Reducing the energy consumed by lighting with gaze-dependent illumination.

This project seeks to identify how building systems can be further augmented to reduce light energy consumption without dimming tenants’ visual experience.

Using acoustic retroreflection in architecture to improve rooms for speech

This project aims to discover how a novel form of acoustic treatment can improve acoustics for speech in rooms such as classrooms and open-plan offices.

Digital technologies and the private rental sector in Australia

Working in partnership with the Tenant Union, this project evaluates the potential for innovation among the new digital technology companies targeting the private rental sector in Australia

Hidden housing crisis? Urban planning and informal housing supply

This project aims to uncover how ‘hidden’ housing arrangements are produced within formal systems of urban regulation and risks or benefits for residents

Circularity by design

This project aims to identify opportunities and barriers for the adoption of circular economy strategies in the Australian construction industry, leading to systemic-radical innovation.

Impact of Work-From-Home Environment on Comfort and Productivity

This project aims to investigate and quantify the effect of indoor climate on occupant comfort, productivity and residential energy use in Work-From-Home settings.

Brain, Mind, and Mallett Street

Working with the Brain and Mind Centre to better understand the role of spatial design in the delivery of clinical services and research in mental health, neurology, and neuroscience.

Increasing Building Envelope Resilience to Moisture Damage

This projects aims to develop clear guidelines for the design and construction of resilient building envelopes to address mould and condensation issues.

The New South Wales private property frontier

Contributing to the Time-Layered Cultural Map of Australia, this pilot study explores the history of land alienation over a series of parishes in New South Wales

Microtimber: Advanced Building Elements Made from Waste

This project aims to demonstrate that timber and plastic waste are a valuable resource and can be transformed into smart sustainable building elements, using advanced manufacturing technologies in the form of 3D printing.

Infrastructure Governance Incubator

The Infrastructure Governance Incubator investigates the planning and delivery of urban infrastructure in Australian cities, identifying strengths and gaps in current practices as well as developing integrated infrastructure governance approaches for Australian cities.

Transforming the palliative care patient journey using emerging technologies

Through the immersive virtual reality platform, this project will address the need to harness personalised, technology-enhanced interactive experiences among palliative care patients

Making the Sustainable Development Goals Feasible at Planetary Scale, One City at a Time

This project will track urban growth across the planet, breaking new ground to enable big data and evidence-driven planning for an urban planet that is sustainable and equitable.

Seeding the Urban

This project focuses on socially and ecologically strained urban environments. In particular, the focus falls on the capacity for small-scale tactical urban interventions to generate large scale ripples of positive change.

Governing the city in the age of AI

We are using qualitative and digital ethnographic methods, essential for capturing the complex, context-specific ways AI is embedded in urban governance.

Future of Australia's Industrial Regions

Empowering regional communities and industries at the forefront of Australia’s energy transition by tracking investments on the ground, and uncovering overlooked local skills, initiatives and First Nations’ perspectives.