RESEARCH PROJECTS
INFORMAL SETTLEMENT
Most urbanization over the past 50 years has been accommodated through informal settlement in cities of the global South. Housing at least a billion people, such settlements have become permanent neighbourhoods of these cities. This project is a study of the morphology and morphogenesis of informal settlement - the forms through which urban informality emerges, infiltrates and insinuates itself into and around the formal city. It is also a study of the many ways such settlements become upgraded over time.
MORPHOGENESIS ATLAS
URBAN MORPHOLOGY
This is a series of studies of studies of density, functional mix, access networks - collectively understood as the urban DMA.
TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT
ARC Linkage Project
This project developed and tested a range of urban design frameworks and visions for urban intensification in Melbourne. The focus was on transit-oriented development, design quality and design issues. The project also investigated the forms of governance most suited to effective implementation of transit-oriented development to achieve community acceptance and quality outcomes. A series of case studies covering various types and scales of activity centre was investigated using design research approaches.
PUBLICATIONS RESEARCH REPORT
ASSEMBLAGE THINKING
Assemblage thinking, derived from the work of Deleuze and Guattari, has long been an inspiration for urban studies - often understood as relational thinking, new materialism, new realism or actor-network thinking. These publications outline my approach to understanding the city from an assemblage perspective.with a focus on the city as an 'intensive multiplicity'. What is urban intensity and in what ways is it geared to density, mix and access?
PUBLICATIONS URBAN DESIGN THINKING
CREATIVE CLUSTERS
ARC Discovery Project, 2009-11 $350,000
This project explores and maps the complex relationships between ‘creativity’ and place. Why are creative industries attracted to particular urban morphologies? What are the roles of derelict space, functional mix, formal mix, density, walkability and public/private interfaces in enabling the production and emergence of new ideas?
PUBLICATIONS