Shirin Pourafkari
Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Architecture, Urban Design
Biography
Shirin holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture and completed her master’s in urban design. She has professional experiences in architectural sector in Australia. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. research at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne.Her PhD research is focused on understanding the liveability of urban spaces for vision impaired people and their interactions within public spaces. Her research interests in general include behavioural design, inclusive cities, urban morphology, placemaking and urban design theory.
Thesis
Exploring the Liveability of Urban Space for Visually Impaired People
This research explores the liveability of urban spaces for visually impaired people. Liveability is a broad concept that generally refers to quality of life in a particular place. Liveability has become a buzzword with global city rankings aiming to quantitatively assess the liveability of cities. However, such rankings are not inclusive and reflective of differences between various social groups. Visually impaired people as a group of citizens due to lack of vision, can have different experiences. Research on visually impaired people’s experiences as well as urban design and planning practice have a deep focus on wayfinding aspect and infrastructure to overcome this issue. Nevertheless, without undermining the importance of wayfinding aspect, the liveability of an urban space for visually impaired people cannot be defined by focusing on one aspect. This research aims to reveal a deeper understanding of urban liveability for vision-impaired people.