Current research projects

Advancing new home sustainability through demand-side empowerment

Investigating homebuyer decision-making. Monitoring of energy efficiency and sustainability communication on volume home builder websites and social media.

Architecture and Industry: The migrant contribution to nation-building

Linking immigrant social histories to industrialisation through an explicitly spatial analysis, this project explores the post-war architectural, rural and industrial landscapes of Australia as shaped by the labour of displaced persons.

Australia/China Research Network on Planning Global City-Regions

A three-year Melbourne School of Design project is facilitating international research in global city-regions.

Australia’s new cities: past present and future

To conceptualise Australia’s urban future, we must not only look beyond metropolitan boundaries, but also to successful—and failed—past projects and visions for population relocation, placement, and growth.

Bauhaus Australia

Bauhaus Australia: Émigrés, Refugees and the Modernist Transformation of Education in Art, Architecture, and Design, 1930 to 1970

Building an Integrated System for Australian Bushfire Prevention

This project aims to work closely with researchers, practitioners, the community and Crime Stoppers to develop a comprehensive approach to prevent arson.

Campus: Building Modern Australian Universities

The commitment to the environmental quality of university campuses is central to the modern contemporary tertiary experience and represents a growing multi-million dollar public investment in higher education infrastructure.

Citizen Heritage: Digital and Community-based Histories of Place

This project explores new digital technologies to enhance the visibility of lesser-known precincts of urban heritage.

Community Activated Placemaking Spaces (CAPS)

The project harnesses community-based participatory research to evaluate existing use patterns of playgrounds and ancillary public spaces as intergenerational spaces to inform improved design for social inclusion and community wellbeing.

Cross-cultural analysis and capacity building in construction management

Practices focusing on housing and infrastructure sectors in Assam and Australia – An initiative of ‘Smart Villages” research

Development and trial of a low-carbon living co-benefits calculator

The aim of this project is to develop and trial a prototype low-carbon precinct co-benefits calculator for use by urban planners and designers.

Effects of feedback and incentive-based insurance on driving behaviours

The broader funded project is the first experimental study to examine the extent to which direct-feedback and incentive-based insurance modify a driver's behaviour.

Environmental Performance in Construction (EPiC)

Experiential, Adaptive Learning Tools for a Resilient Built Environment

Globally, the annual frequency of recorded disasters has increased fourfold since the 1960s. The effects of climate change, inappropriate use and management of natural and human made resources, have combined with increases in urban populations interacting with natural hazards.

Exploring the contribution of Indigenous Cultural Practices for Health and Wellbeing in Indigenous young people

This project is developing an Elder-led model of health care that includes reclamation of Indigenous cultural practices, guided by Indigenous artists, to improve mental health and wellbeing.

Improving Environmental Performance in Construction

Dr. Robert Crawford is the Chief Investigator on a 2015 ARC Discovery project, Improving the Environmental Performance of Australian Construction Projects.

Innovative Learning Environments and Teacher Change (ILETC)

An Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project funded for four years from 2016 to 2019 led by The University of Melbourne.

Integrating climate change adaptation and mitigation in built environments

This project aims to facilitate climate change adaptation and mitigation across Australia’s built environment: progressing climate change action, informing investment decisions and reducing harm and cost of climate change impacts.

An International Comparative Assessment On Public Transport Safety

A Case Study Of Metro Manila

Nested Phoenix: a multi-scale model for life cycle environmental performance in the built environment

This projects aims to develop one of the most advanced computer models to measure and improve life cycle environmental performance in the built-environment, across its scales, from construction materials, to cities.

Peripheral Centralities: Lost, Past, Present and Future

A series of four seminars exploring the role of suburban peripheries in the expansion of cities, and their perception in the public imagination.

Planning the driverless city

Autonomous vehicles may improve road safety, reduce car ownership, and reduce the need for parking. They may also entrench car dependency, encourage sprawl and shift investment away from vital public transport systems.

Parametric Adjustable Mould (PAM)

PAM is a computer numerically controlled (CNC) mould frame design which produces double curvature concrete panels.

Plans to Pedagogy

A research and consultancy project funded for three years from 2018 to 2020 led by The University of Melbourne.

Public transport safety for tertiary students

An international study

Global South Research and Pedagogy

ROOM: Digital design to fabrication in temporary accommodation options for youth homelessness

ROOM harnesses digital design to digital fabrication and building optimisation to produce a customised performance-efficient, low cost ‘self-build’ unit - offering training opportunity - in producing external living space as reusable temporary accommodation.

Safer cycling in the urban road environment

The study is the first comprehensive study in Australia that combines academic, government and community efforts to enhance cycling activity while addressing safety concerns.

Tourism development and local resilience: self-organisation and community empowerment perspectives

How can tourism development affect community resilience to natural hazards in different self-organisation and regulatory contexts? How should policy-making address these relationships?

Transforming Building Environmental Design

Buildings are responsible for significant environmental impacts. Only with considerable improvements to the design, construction and operation of buildings can ambitious national environmental goals be achieved.

Transforming Housing: Affordable Housing for All

Transforming Housing: Affordable Housing for All is an action-research project focused on influencing and supporting the transformation of the housing policy and delivery environment in Victoria.

Temporal Cities, Provisional Citizens: Architectures of Internment

The expedient design, assembly and erection of WWII internment facilities, and their subsequent transformation for post-war detention and commemoration has produced a legacy of camp environments associated with citizenship.

Urban planning for natural hazard mitigation

Integrating urban planning and disaster risk reduction

Wave Hill Walk Off Trail

The Wave Hill Walk Off Route is a National Heritage Listed site that is associated with the events that took place in 1966 -1975 which saw the Indigenous Gurindji people, led by Vincent Lingiari, take a stand against oppressive working conditions and maltreatment.

Wildfire Disaster Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Recovery in Coastal Tourist Destinations: the case of Wye River, Australia

From a regional resilience perspective, what were the outcomes of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery strategies in place for the 2015 Wye River wildfires? How does tourism help shape these?

Women in Transport Leadership in Australasia Knowledge Network

Creating knowledge, fostering partnerships and empowering women and women leaders in transport for positive change in Australasia

Innovation Infrastructure: Planning for Growth

This project aims to identify policy and practice actions to achieve effective innovation infrastructure planning in Australia.