Located in the heart of one of the world’s most dynamic and rapidly growing cities, the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, home to the Melbourne School of Design (MSD), offers a place where people can inspire, innovate and collaborate.
Our staff, students and partners bring diverse backgrounds and global perspectives. Through transformative research and educational excellence, we aim to catalyse progressive social change by nurturing future generations of built environment professionals.
The Faculty sits at the crossroads of many knowledge traditions– from the creative arts and humanities to the social and physical sciences – and is shaped by complex networks, including information flows, cultural and political systems, resource use, labour and supply chains. These forces come together in the places, spaces and structures we create each carrying cultural, environmental, social and economic impacts.
Faculty staff teach across six major disciplines: Architecture, Construction Management, Landscape Architecture, Property, Urban Design and Urban Planning; and their work also encompasses a network of research units led by internationally recognised experts. Course offerings cover the undergraduate Bachelor of Design degree, a comprehensive range of built environment graduate courses, and graduate research.
As a convenor and collaborator across community industry and academia, we work for the public good. Through free lectures, exhibitions and a vibrant events program, we foster new thinking, debate and connection beyond the University.
Welcome from the Interim Dean
Welcome to the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, home to the world-renowned graduate school, the Melbourne School of Design.
We are one of the few faculties internationally to bring together architecture, planning, construction, property, landscape architecture, urban design, heritage, interior design, game design and emerging spatial practices within a single intellectual and professional environment. That comprehensiveness is not accidental - it is one of our greatest strengths.
The challenges shaping the built environment today are deeply interconnected. Questions of housing, climate adaptation, circularity, Indigenous knowledges, infrastructure, cultural identity, ecological repair and urban transformation cannot be addressed through isolated disciplines. They require new forms of collaboration across fields, scales and ways of thinking.
At the Melbourne School of Design, we see the built environment as both a cultural and ecological project. Through our Designing Futures strategy and broader strategic initiatives in housing and urban research, the Faculty is advancing new approaches to teaching, research and engagement that respond to the profound environmental, social and technological transformations of our time. Our work spans regenerative and circular design, housing futures, spatial data and urban analytics, material innovation, Country-centred design practices, digital environments, and the social and cultural dimensions of cities, landscapes and interiors.
Increasingly, the built environment disciplines are concerned not only with the design of individual buildings and spaces, but with the shaping of complex social, ecological and technological systems. We live in a designed world, and the decisions made by architects, planners, landscape architects, designers, property specialists, game designers and construction professionals have long-term consequences for communities, economies and environments. Design has the capacity to improve lives, repair environments and strengthen communities - but history also reminds us that poorly conceived systems and environments can produce lasting social and ecological harm.
This awareness drives our commitment to rigorous research, critical inquiry and evidence-based practice. We believe the future of the built environment depends not only on imagination and creativity, but also on the ability to connect knowledge across disciplines and translate research into meaningful public impact.
What distinguishes our Faculty is not only the quality of our research and teaching, but the diversity of people who shape it. Our academic community includes internationally recognised scholars, emerging and established practitioners, distinguished honorary staff and industry leaders whose work is influencing policy, professional practice and public debate nationally and globally.
As a comprehensive Faculty situated within a leading research-intensive university, we are uniquely positioned to connect design imagination with technological innovation, ecological responsibility, public policy and lived experience. This enables us to ask larger questions about how we live, what we value, and how built and digital environments can contribute to more equitable, resilient and meaningful futures.
At a time when the built environment is central to conversations about climate, housing, health, culture and social resilience, we see this not simply as a period of challenge, but as an opportunity to rethink, recalibrate and imagine new futures with depth, intelligence and care.
We look forward to continuing these conversations through our teaching, research and engagement with communities locally and internationally. Keep an eye on our website for our events and exhibitions!