Dr Lee-Anne Khor

Lee-Anne is a key member of Urban Lab at Monash University, where she works with academic, industry and government partners to develop design models for more affordable, sustainable housing and urban precincts.
Her research focuses on the transformation of the established city and operates across the scales of building, precinct and region. She employs speculative design as tool for navigating the complex, and often conflicting, imperatives of urban regeneration and to enable complex stakeholder-inputs to be synthesised into integrative and strategic spatial policies. Lee-Anne’s PhD, for example, examined new architectural and urban design possibilities for small-scale housing infill in Melbourne’s middle suburbs, with the aim of advancing policies for ‘greyfield redevelopment’.
She has taught design and communication subjects at RMIT and Monash Universities and, prior to joining the Urban Lab, gained her professional registration working on a range of education, civic and residential projects. Most recently, she has been leading an inter-disciplinary study into the spatial morphology and potential for precinct-scaled renewal of suburban industrial centres with colleagues in the Departments of Economics, and Urban History.
Lee-Anne is accepting PhD candidates who are interested in employing multi-scalar and design-led research approaches to address the various social and environmental challenges confronting our cities.
Additional research
Greyfield Precincts
Funded by AHURI, in collaboration with Swinburne University.
Dual occupancy redevelopment is rapidly transforming our suburbs lot by lot. The greyfield precinct design model proposes an alternative development approach that operates across several non-contiguous allotments. ‘Dispersed’ precincts of this kind offer an economy of scale associated with large consolidated projects, while responding to the realities of small scale building practices prevalent in these regions of our cities.
architectureau.com/articles/renovating-the-suburbs-1/
Greyfield Precincts
Funded by AHURI, in collaboration with Swinburne University.
Dual occupancy redevelopment is rapidly transforming our suburbs lot by lot. The greyfield precinct design model proposes an alternative development approach that operates across several non-contiguous allotments. ‘Dispersed’ precincts of this kind offer an economy of scale associated with large consolidated projects, while responding to the realities of small scale building practices prevalent in these regions of our cities.
architectureau.com/articles/renovating-the-suburbs-1/
Greyfield Precincts
Funded by AHURI, in collaboration with Swinburne University.
Dual occupancy redevelopment is rapidly transforming our suburbs lot by lot. The greyfield precinct design model proposes an alternative development approach that operates across several non-contiguous allotments. ‘Dispersed’ precincts of this kind offer an economy of scale associated with large consolidated projects, while responding to the realities of small scale building practices prevalent in these regions of our cities.
architectureau.com/articles/renovating-the-suburbs-1/
An evolving (sub)urbanism – PhD
This thesis argues that Melbourne’s suburbs could better adapt to changing environmental and social needs if residential areas were considered with the same level of spatial complexity as more urbanised centres. By shifting the typical frame of spatial inquiry from the private dwelling to the physical thresholds in between dwellings, the research examines the lived qualities of contemporary suburbs at a collective level. Design speculations investigate how the assembly of semi-public spaces in residential areas could facilitate a range of social economies as catalysts for ongoing transformations. The capacity of the residential fabric to adapt to, and potentially affect, broader suburban change reveals new design possibilities in an evolving (sub)urbanism.
An evolving (sub)urbanism – PhD
This thesis argues that Melbourne’s suburbs could better adapt to changing environmental and social needs if residential areas were considered with the same level of spatial complexity as more urbanised centres. By shifting the typical frame of spatial inquiry from the private dwelling to the physical thresholds in between dwellings, the research examines the lived qualities of contemporary suburbs at a collective level. Design speculations investigate how the assembly of semi-public spaces in residential areas could facilitate a range of social economies as catalysts for ongoing transformations. The capacity of the residential fabric to adapt to, and potentially affect, broader suburban change reveals new design possibilities in an evolving (sub)urbanism.
An evolving (sub)urbanism – PhD
This thesis argues that Melbourne’s suburbs could better adapt to changing environmental and social needs if residential areas were considered with the same level of spatial complexity as more urbanised centres. By shifting the typical frame of spatial inquiry from the private dwelling to the physical thresholds in between dwellings, the research examines the lived qualities of contemporary suburbs at a collective level. Design speculations investigate how the assembly of semi-public spaces in residential areas could facilitate a range of social economies as catalysts for ongoing transformations. The capacity of the residential fabric to adapt to, and potentially affect, broader suburban change reveals new design possibilities in an evolving (sub)urbanism.
An evolving (sub)urbanism – PhD
This thesis argues that Melbourne’s suburbs could better adapt to changing environmental and social needs if residential areas were considered with the same level of spatial complexity as more urbanised centres. By shifting the typical frame of spatial inquiry from the private dwelling to the physical thresholds in between dwellings, the research examines the lived qualities of contemporary suburbs at a collective level. Design speculations investigate how the assembly of semi-public spaces in residential areas could facilitate a range of social economies as catalysts for ongoing transformations. The capacity of the residential fabric to adapt to, and potentially affect, broader suburban change reveals new design possibilities in an evolving (sub)urbanism.
An evolving (sub)urbanism – PhD
This thesis argues that Melbourne’s suburbs could better adapt to changing environmental and social needs if residential areas were considered with the same level of spatial complexity as more urbanised centres. By shifting the typical frame of spatial inquiry from the private dwelling to the physical thresholds in between dwellings, the research examines the lived qualities of contemporary suburbs at a collective level. Design speculations investigate how the assembly of semi-public spaces in residential areas could facilitate a range of social economies as catalysts for ongoing transformations. The capacity of the residential fabric to adapt to, and potentially affect, broader suburban change reveals new design possibilities in an evolving (sub)urbanism.
An evolving (sub)urbanism – PhD
This thesis argues that Melbourne’s suburbs could better adapt to changing environmental and social needs if residential areas were considered with the same level of spatial complexity as more urbanised centres. By shifting the typical frame of spatial inquiry from the private dwelling to the physical thresholds in between dwellings, the research examines the lived qualities of contemporary suburbs at a collective level. Design speculations investigate how the assembly of semi-public spaces in residential areas could facilitate a range of social economies as catalysts for ongoing transformations. The capacity of the residential fabric to adapt to, and potentially affect, broader suburban change reveals new design possibilities in an evolving (sub)urbanism.
Infill Opportunities
Commissioned by the Office of the Victorian Government Architect.
This project investigated smaller and more flexible housing types design for suburban infill. The research demonstrated the regulatory and industry shifts that would be required to achieve better outcomes than typical dual occupancy redevelopment.
Report: OVGA website
Infill Opportunities
Commissioned by the Office of the Victorian Government Architect.
This project investigated smaller and more flexible housing types design for suburban infill. The research demonstrated the regulatory and industry shifts that would be required to achieve better outcomes than typical dual occupancy redevelopment.
Report: OVGA website
Infill Opportunities
Commissioned by the Office of the Victorian Government Architect.
This project investigated smaller and more flexible housing types design for suburban infill. The research demonstrated the regulatory and industry shifts that would be required to achieve better outcomes than typical dual occupancy redevelopment.
Report: OVGA website
Intensifying Places, ARC Linkage Project
Collaborative research project with Melbourne University and several government and industry partners.
Intensifying Places reconsiders, tests and develops a number of architectural and urban design proposals for more intensive redevelopment of activity centres, train stations and transport corridors within existing metropolitan areas.
Report
APO 20-minute cities paper
Intensifying Places, ARC Linkage Project
Collaborative research project with Melbourne University and several government and industry partners.
Intensifying Places reconsiders, tests and develops a number of architectural and urban design proposals for more intensive redevelopment of activity centres, train stations and transport corridors within existing metropolitan areas.
Report
APO 20-minute cities paper
Redcliffe Connect Precinct Design Research
Commissioned by the Government of Western Australia – Department of Communities, in collaboration with the University of Western Australia.
The state and local government were interested in promoting better housing intensification models than currently offered by the development market, and in implementing a regulatory regime that enables higher quality, more sustainable design outcomes.
Redcliffe Connect Precinct Design Research
Commissioned by the Government of Western Australia – Department of Communities, in collaboration with the University of Western Australia.
The state and local government were interested in promoting better housing intensification models than currently offered by the development market, and in implementing a regulatory regime that enables higher quality, more sustainable design outcomes.
Redcliffe Connect Precinct Design Research
Commissioned by the Government of Western Australia – Department of Communities, in collaboration with the University of Western Australia.
The state and local government were interested in promoting better housing intensification models than currently offered by the development market, and in implementing a regulatory regime that enables higher quality, more sustainable design outcomes.