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. The project will generate new knowledge on the theory, design, and effects of acoustically retroreflective surfaces in room acoustics. Expected outcomes include solutions for effective acoustic retroreflectors, knowledge on how retroreflection influences people’s voice r ....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. The project will generate new knowledge on the theory, design, and effects of acoustically retroreflective surfaces in room acoustics. Expected outcomes include solutions for effective acoustic retroreflectors, knowledge on how retroreflection influences people’s voice regulation and sound quality perception, and guidelines and simulation tools for integrating retroreflective treatments to improve speaking comfort. This should provide significant benefits including opportunities to resolve seemingly intractable design dilemmas in the acoustics of education and workplace environments.Read moreRead less
Urban interiors: architectural change and the city since the 1960s. This project aims to examine architectural and urban change since the 1960s. Increasingly, urban lives are spent indoors as we move from the concourses of transport interchanges through commercial lobbies, shopping malls and the atriums of hotels and museums. Using new methods for visualising and analysing urban interiors, this project will show how these spaces have changed understandings and experiences of public and private s ....Urban interiors: architectural change and the city since the 1960s. This project aims to examine architectural and urban change since the 1960s. Increasingly, urban lives are spent indoors as we move from the concourses of transport interchanges through commercial lobbies, shopping malls and the atriums of hotels and museums. Using new methods for visualising and analysing urban interiors, this project will show how these spaces have changed understandings and experiences of public and private space in cities. Outcomes from the project will aid the professional and public understanding of urban change in Australia.Read moreRead less
Place and parametricism: Provocations for the rethinking of design. This project aims to explore whether quantitative methods of digital and parametric design can adequately encompass place. Quantitative digital and parametric approaches increasingly dominate contemporary architecture, but people assume architectural design should be essentially oriented to questions of place. The project will operate through a set of studio provocations based on the fictional places of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghas ....Place and parametricism: Provocations for the rethinking of design. This project aims to explore whether quantitative methods of digital and parametric design can adequately encompass place. Quantitative digital and parametric approaches increasingly dominate contemporary architecture, but people assume architectural design should be essentially oriented to questions of place. The project will operate through a set of studio provocations based on the fictional places of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels. The project is expected to clarify the nature of place and parametricism, and rethink what design itself might be.Read moreRead less
Locating Giurgola: From Philadelphia School to Global Practice. This project aims to conduct the first major systematic assessment of the architectural career of Romaldo Giurgola (1920-2016), the principal architect of Australian Parliament House. It will review all known archives relating to his life and works, including significant collections in North America and Australia, and it will survey the full range of his architectural projects. The project expects to result in a new and complete ass ....Locating Giurgola: From Philadelphia School to Global Practice. This project aims to conduct the first major systematic assessment of the architectural career of Romaldo Giurgola (1920-2016), the principal architect of Australian Parliament House. It will review all known archives relating to his life and works, including significant collections in North America and Australia, and it will survey the full range of his architectural projects. The project expects to result in a new and complete assessment of Giurgola's architecture, figuring important Australian buildings into an international landscape of professional practice. The primary outcome of this project will be a large critical catalogue, presenting the full extent of his career for the first time and locating APH in that career in new terms.Read moreRead less
Stage acoustical quality in auditoria: measurement, simulation, prediction and design. This project asks what acoustic qualities make a concert hall stage outstanding for musicians, and how can these qualities be achieved? It involves a collaboration between acoustics researchers in Australia and Korea, with complementary expertise in lab and field studies of auditorium stages.
Assessing Architectural Aesthetic Character: An ‘Intelligent’ Approach. This project aims to develop ground-breaking insights and software to improve the assessment of architectural aesthetic character by Australia’s designers, councils and courts.
Combining empirical, neurophysiological and machine-learning approaches, this project expects to provide a new level of robustness and repeatability in administrative and legal assessments of building aesthetics.
Planned outcomes include: (i) a uni ....Assessing Architectural Aesthetic Character: An ‘Intelligent’ Approach. This project aims to develop ground-breaking insights and software to improve the assessment of architectural aesthetic character by Australia’s designers, councils and courts.
Combining empirical, neurophysiological and machine-learning approaches, this project expects to provide a new level of robustness and repeatability in administrative and legal assessments of building aesthetics.
Planned outcomes include: (i) a unique quantitative understanding of aesthetic assessment and (ii) a world-first method for measuring and comparing the character of buildings.
This research has the potential to reduce the substantial cost of disputes and provide more certainty and efficiency in the architectural design, approval and appeal processes.
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Architectural Design Across Spaces and Cultures: Technology and Language. This project addresses two significant productivity barriers facing Australia’s architectural practices; designing in spatially distributed and culturally diverse teams.
While design practices are central to sustaining Australia’s creative export sector, growing concerns associated with online, multilingual design teams have been identified.
Directly responding to Australia’s COVID-19 recovery plans, this research seeks ....Architectural Design Across Spaces and Cultures: Technology and Language. This project addresses two significant productivity barriers facing Australia’s architectural practices; designing in spatially distributed and culturally diverse teams.
While design practices are central to sustaining Australia’s creative export sector, growing concerns associated with online, multilingual design teams have been identified.
Directly responding to Australia’s COVID-19 recovery plans, this research seeks to develop new knowledge about the cognitive, social and technical factors that shape the effectiveness of online international design teamwork. Its goal is to leverage the opportunities provided through technological advances and multicultural practices, to remove barriers to design productivity and enhance creativity.Read moreRead less
Adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating for buildings . This project aims to develop an adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating technology suitable for the for the reduction of the energy consumption in buildings for the mitigation of the urban overheating in the built environment. The project expects to generate new knowledge in this area to exploit adaptive strategies in the development of future cooling and heating solutions for buildings. Expected project outcomes consist of th ....Adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating for buildings . This project aims to develop an adaptive daytime radiative cooling and heating technology suitable for the for the reduction of the energy consumption in buildings for the mitigation of the urban overheating in the built environment. The project expects to generate new knowledge in this area to exploit adaptive strategies in the development of future cooling and heating solutions for buildings. Expected project outcomes consist of the establishment of the new adaptive daytime radiative technology for use on building envelopes to support cooling requirements in hot weather and heating needs under cold conditions. This should lead to significant benefits for the Australian building and construction industry. Read moreRead less
Developing Accessible Playgrounds for Children with Vision Impairment. Children who are blind or have low vision (BLV) often have difficulties accessing and interacting with playgrounds, most of which are not equipped to support them. Through consultation, collaboration and co-creation with the BLV community, foundational knowledge on the user experience of playgrounds, an evaluation framework for auditing existing playgrounds and design guidelines for creating or retrofitting playgrounds will b ....Developing Accessible Playgrounds for Children with Vision Impairment. Children who are blind or have low vision (BLV) often have difficulties accessing and interacting with playgrounds, most of which are not equipped to support them. Through consultation, collaboration and co-creation with the BLV community, foundational knowledge on the user experience of playgrounds, an evaluation framework for auditing existing playgrounds and design guidelines for creating or retrofitting playgrounds will be developed that support the unique challenges of BLV children and carers. Importantly it will promote access, orientation, physical and social play for BLV children, with improved cognitive, physical and social development, thus enabling a more inclusive and healthy society.Read moreRead less
Designing offices well. This project aims to describe, quantify and analyse the impact of workspace design on workers’ satisfaction, productivity and health. The Australian market is the fastest adopter of Activity-Based Working (ABW) in the world and impacts arising from this workspace typology on workers will be significant now and in the next decade. This project will develop benchmarking for ABW offices, techniques for monitoring cognitive performance in situ, and design guidelines for healt ....Designing offices well. This project aims to describe, quantify and analyse the impact of workspace design on workers’ satisfaction, productivity and health. The Australian market is the fastest adopter of Activity-Based Working (ABW) in the world and impacts arising from this workspace typology on workers will be significant now and in the next decade. This project will develop benchmarking for ABW offices, techniques for monitoring cognitive performance in situ, and design guidelines for health promotion. By shifting attention to design features that actually perform well, this project will provide the empirical basis needed to transform the way workspaces are designed now and in the future. It will therefore lead to greater productivity in and among workplaces.Read moreRead less