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Melbourne School of Design

Thrive Research Hub

About Projects Publications People News

Thrive is the new hub, based at the University of Melbourne, for industry-relevant research on design and innovation for sustainable, thriving built environments. Its mission is to carry out applied trans-disciplinary research that will investigate thriving in cities and develop real world solutions for the built environment.

Thrive’s key focus is to develop new knowledge in the theme areas of buildings, people and ecosystems in cities. The central focus of the hub is on applied research and visible outcomes that create a better world. We ask a central question: what will support sustainable city development in the 21st century – and how can cities thrive through future challenges?

Address
Melbourne School of Design
Glyn Davis Building (133)
The University of Melbourne
Parkville Victoria 3010 Australia
Email
thrive-research@unimelb.edu.au
Phone
+61 3 8344 4230

View Projects by Capability

  • People

  • Buildings

  • Ecosystems

All Projects

  • Low Energy Building Assembly Selector

    The Low Energy Building Assembly Selector allows building owners and designers to compare the life cycle energy demand associated with floor, wall and roof assemblies for proposed building projects. Developed in partnership with Williams Boag Architects, the tool facilitates early-stage decision making to improve building life cycle performance.

  • Urban green space and sense of place

    There is increasing recognition of the substantial role of urban green space in placemaking for cities. Green spaces provide the physical locations for community participation, social cohesion and neighbourhood exchanges.

  • The Living Pavilion

    The Living Pavilion is a collaboration between the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub, Thrive Research Hub, The Living Stage, AILA Vic and The University of Melbourne’s New Student Precinct. It will be a temporary event space for CLIMARTE’s ‘ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2019’ festival (23rd April - 19th May 2019).

  • The Living Stage (Lorne)

    The Living Stage is a recyclable, biodegradable, edible and biodiverse installation and performance space. Part theatre, part garden and part growing demonstration, the work features a portable plant-lined stage amongst a corridor of suspended botanical sculptures.

  • Green Lemons? Energy efficiency disclosure and house prices

    This research provides a comprehensive analysis of property transactions in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) that demonstrates people are paying a premium for more energy efficient homes. This research found that energy efficiency ratings (EER) are reflected in house sale prices and rental transactions, suggesting a premium is associated with an upgrade in start ratings.

  • Place Week Melbourne

    Place Week is a week‐long series of activities that support and celebrate the work of those seeking to transform our public spaces into places where communities can come together.

  • Plant Life Balance Meta-analysis and App Process

    For over 50 years research has demonstrated that plants deliver benefits for urban citizens by reducing air pollution and supporting well-being. As cities in Australia increase their density it is important to understand how plants can benefit people in denser spaces, such as apartments.

  • Restorative Yarra

    Contestation in cities is a stubborn and complex problem that both reflects and impacts upon planning and on the lives of those in neighbourhoods.

  • Placemaking Sandbox

    Placemaking Sandbox is a collaborative project focused on the theory and practice of placemaking. The project aims to build capacity, test theory, experiment with processes and identify methods to evaluate placemaking decisions in order to create vibrant, citizen engaged, public spaces and ultimately, better cities.

  • Quantifying indoor airbourne particle exposure through monitoring and modelling

    The design of the present study emerged from i) the increased concern related to air pollution events and associated health impacts due to extreme weather conditions (e.g. thunderstorm particulates and bush fire smoke); and ii) the influence of buildings on its occupants during the air pollution event are not well characterized for the Australian context.

  • Living Well – Apartments, Comfort and Resilience in Climate Change

    Everyone has the right to live well, living in a place that is safe and comfortable. As we move into the uncertainty of climate change the increase in weather extremes, especially heat in Melbourne, is expected to have significant negative impacts on comfort for existing apartments. For these homes to be able to stay comfortable, without significant cooling energy, will be a challenge.

  • Advancing new home sustainability through demand-side empowerment: investigating home buyer decision-making

    This research will provide a unique understanding of how the new home volume builders' operate as a market, acting effectively as a demand-side stakeholder, changing the concept of who is the empowered consumer in the new housing sector.

  • Living Shorelines: Innovative Design Topologies for Coastal Landscapes

    This project challenges current ‘adaptation measures’ and planning strategies for sea-level rise, inundation and coastal erosion. The site of focus is the Bellarine Peninsula, stretching from Point Henry East of Geelong to Port Arlington, In Victoria, Australia.

  • Smart Villages Assam Workshop 1

    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

  • Mapping embodied environmental requirements of urban building stocks

    The energy associated with the construction and operation of buildings could represent more than 50% of the total energy demand (Anderson et al. 2015) and associated environmental impacts. Reducing building energy use and related environmental impacts is therefore critical in order to mitigate climate change and global warming at both the city and global scales (IPCC 2014).

  • Bull Street Terraces

    Bull Street Terraces by Crosby Architects is a medium density development in the Victorian town of Castlemaine. It has been designed to achieve the Living Building Challenge certification.

  • Co-seeding the future

    How can co-creating community green spaces with children enhance wellbeing and generate custodianship?

  • Smart Villages

    Construction of affordable housing and related infrastructure for ‘Smart Villages’ Communities in Assam, India

  • Seacombe West – Australia’s First Regenerative Community

    Seacombe West, located to the southern edge on Lake Wellington, Gippsland Lakes system, aspires to become a Regenerative Community for all of the future stakeholders of the area.

  • Improving the Environmental Performance of Australian Construction Projects

    This project aims to investigate the environmental impacts of construction in Australia through the development of a sophisticated hybrid environmental assessment model.

  • Running Wild

    Running Wild was conducted in collaboration with Polyglot Theatre and Mahogany Rise Primary school to reveal social and ecological narratives of ‘place’. The project culminated in a collaborative and interactive art installation and performance in the children’s local reserve and examined how ecological values and stewardship can be communicated through art and science.

  • Regenerative development in action

    Regenerative development creates the capacity within a system for it to be vital, viable and able to constructively adapt to change. Critical to this is the engagement of people. This series of five short videos made by award winning videographer Alexander Melck demonstrates regenerative development in action in design, business and education.

People | Buildings | Ecosystems

The seven lamps of planning for biodiversity in the city

Kirsten M. Parris | Marco Amati | Sarah A. Bekessy | Danielle Dagenais | Ole Fryd | Amy K. Hahs | Dominique Hes | Samantha J. Imberger | Stephen J. Livesley | Adrian J. Marshall | Jonathan R. Rhodes | Caragh G. Threlfall | Reid Tingley | Rodney van der Ree | Christopher J. Walsh | Marit L. Wilkerson | Nicholas S.G. Williams (2018)
Keywords: Architecture | Geddes | Landscape architecture | Planning | Ruskin | Urban ecology

Cities tend to be built in areas of high biodiversity, and the accelerating pace of urbanization threatens the persistence of many species and ecological communities globally. However, urban environments also offer unique prospects for biological conservation, with multiple benefits for humans and other species. We present seven ecological principles to ...

People | Buildings | Ecosystems

Impact of community engagement on sustainability outcomes

Dominique Hes (2017)
Keywords: Engagement | Sustainability | Custodianship | Regenerative Development

For the last 20 years, there has been an increase of emphasis on community engagement to achieve sustainability goals, for example in the recent United Nations’ agenda for sustainable development (of which Australia is a signatory) proposed 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Within many of these, there is a focus ...

People | Buildings

Working Paper – Green Lemons? Energy-efficiency Disclosure and House Prices

Franz Fuerst | Georgia Warren-Myers (2017)
Keywords: Energy Efficiency Ratings | Disclosure | House Prices | ACT

This paper seeks to elucidate whether high levels of non-disclosure lead to adverse market outcomes in the form of the well-known lemons problem. It also empirically tests whether energy-efficiency ratings (EERs) are reflected in both housing sales prices and rents in the Australian Capital Territory, the only Australian housing market ...

People | Buildings | Ecosystems

Towards Buildings that Thrive

Thrive team (2016)
Keywords: Health and Wellbeing | Resource Efficiency | Systems Approach | Economics | Buildings of the Future

This report outlines some of the key problems associated with the way in which we currently design, construct, operate and manage our buildings. The critical areas covered include health and wellbeing, natural resources, fragmented decision-making and economics. It then presents a range of strategies for addressing these problems and creating ...

Buildings | Ecosystems

Cool Roof Retrofits as an Alternative to Green Roofs

Hes, D. | Jensen, C. | Aye, L. (2016)
Keywords: Cool roofs | Urban Heat Island | Green roofs | Green roofs

Cool Roof Paint (CRP) is a practical, low cost and popular retrofit option for improving the thermal performance of buildings in locations where there are significant cooling loads. This chapter looks at their viability in a more cool-temperate climate where there is a higher heating load. The chapter presents the ...

People | Buildings | Ecosystems

Designing for Hope: Pathways to Regenerative Sustainability

Dominique Hes | Chrisna du Plessis (2015)
Keywords: Regenerative Development | Regenerative Design | Biophilia | Biomimicry | Positive Development | Contributive Practice | LENSES framework | Living Building Challenge | Ecological Worldview

A forward-looking book on sustainable design that describes problems and then, by providing a different way to conceptualize design and development, leads on to examples of regenerative solutions. Its aim is to move the discussion away from doing less, but still detracting from our ecological capital, to positively contributing and ...

Buildings | Ecosystems

Life Cycle Assessment in the Built Environment

Robert H. Crawford (2011)
Keywords: Life cycle assessment | Buildings | Built Environment | Case Studies | Sustainable Building

After outlining the framework for life cycle assessment, this book uses a range of case studies to demonstrate the innovative input-output-based hybrid approach for compiling a life cycle inventory. This approach enables a comprehensive analysis of a broad range of resource requirements and environmental outputs so that the potential environmental ...

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Results 1 - 7 of about 7

Researchers

  • A/Prof Robert Crawford
    A/Prof Robert Crawford, Associate Professor
  • Chris Jensen
    Chris Jensen, Lecturer
  • Dr Georgia Warren-Myers
    Dr Georgia Warren-Myers, Lecturer
  • Judy Bush
    Judy Bush, Research Associate
  • Xavier Cadorel
    Xavier Cadorel, Researcher
  • Adrian Chu
    Adrian Chu, Senior Tutor

Industry Inspirers

Thrive's Industry Inspiration Group brings together a broad range of experts with critical knowledge in areas relating to Thrive's core research program. Their purpose is to support Thrive in identifying opportunities for engaging with industry, government and other non-university bodies to bring about better outcomes for society.

  • Tanya Ha
    Tanya Ha, Associate, MSSI
  • Jeremy McLeod
    Jeremy McLeod, Director, Breathe Architecture
  • Paul Stoller
    Paul Stoller, Managing Director, Atelier Ten
  • Mary Papaioannou
    Mary Papaioannou, Experienced Landscape Architect and Urban Design Professional
  • Emily Wrigglesworth
    Emily Wrigglesworth, Communications Specialist
  • Warren Overton
    Warren Overton, Director Business and Built Environment, Sustainability Victoria
  • Jane Toner
    Jane Toner, Founder Biomimicry Australia
  •  Jeffrey Robinson
    Jeffrey Robinson, Technical Director, Built Environment for Aurecon
  • Kat Lucas-Healey
    Kat Lucas-Healey, Senior Policy Officer in Energy Efficiency at the Victoria DELWP
  • Jason Twill
    Jason Twill, Director, Urban Apostles/ Innovation Fellow, UTS

Associates

  • Dr Dominique Hes, Lecturer
  • Alan Pears
    Alan Pears, Energy efficiency and buildings mentor
  • A/Prof Chris Heywood
    A/Prof Chris Heywood, Senior Lecturer in Property and Management
  • Prof Janis Birkeland
    Prof Janis Birkeland, Honorary Professorial Fellow
  • A/Prof Masa Noguchi
    A/Prof Masa Noguchi, Associate Professor
  • Ash Buchanan
    Ash Buchanan, Director, Cohere
  • Dr Pippa Soccio
    Dr Pippa Soccio, Research Fellow, LEaRN
  • A/Prof Ole Fryd
    A/Prof Ole Fryd, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
  • Dr Franz Fuerst
    Dr Franz Fuerst, Visiting Scholar
    https://cms.unimelb.edu.au/central-site-management/content-templates/news-listing/v4-assets-dynamic-loading/v4-list-parent-id-new?rootnode=3029576&template=block-listing&numAssets=8&readMore=false
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