Research

Through our research labs and focus areas, Monash Art, Design and Architecture researchers work together to undertake vibrant, innovative, creative research that addresses the social, economic and human issues facing Australia and the world. Explore our latest research below, and download R:ADAR - Review: Art, Design and Architecture Research to learn more.

Reimagining Cities
Health and Human Experience
Expansive Visions and Technologies
Additional research
Graduate research

Our research transforms cities, in all of their complexity.

Creative and critical research empower us to reimagine the needs, challenges and aspirations that enliven cities. Working with diverse communities and cultures, and across constructed and ecological environments, our research helps to propel us all towards greater sustainability, understanding and equity.

20-minute neighbourhoods post-Covid: Impacts of ‘Remote working’ in Sunshine West

Exploring how an increased work from home population changes the impacts, needs, and opportunities for 20-Minute Neighbourhoods.

20-Minute Neighbourhoods: Living Locally Research Project

Creating 20-minute resilient neighbourhoods and building community connectedness in Melbourne’s outersuburban growth areas.

A Design Guide for Older Women’s Housing

Considering older women’s housing needs through an architectural perspective.

Adaptable Housing for People with Disability

Demonstrating how dwellings can be creatively designed and modified to adapt to people’s changing needs and circumstances.

Advancing a Design Approach to Enriching Public Mobility

A collection of design related research projects from around the world.

AIC Urban Water Cluster

Developing leapfrogging pathways towards water sensitive cities in Indonesia.

Asian Art Publics

Understanding new art and museum participation in Asia.

Atmosphere, authenticity, vibrancy

Investigating how the distinctive ‘feel’ - or atmosphere - of the Queen Victoria Markets is linked to its design and built environment.

Australia’s new cities: past, present and future

Examining the history, current state, and future prospects of purpose-built and strategically planned new cities in Australia.

Benchmarking data for housing research

Sourcing a new ‘big dataset’ to identify, visualise, and monitor informal housing practices in Australia.

Building 4.0 CRC

Better buildings, new efficiencies through technology and collaboration.

Characterising Bicycle Types: Towards a taxonomy

This study proposes to differentiate bicycles to provide a clear language for further research. It introduces differentiation by wheel count as a distinguishing variable.

Co-designing future smart urban mobility systems

Establishing new ways of developing modern vehicles and smart cities for a sustainable social environment.

CoDev Townhouse Model

Enhancing the quality and viability of townhouse redevelopment on small lots.

Commemoration reframed

Investigating how people make sense of and perceive national commemorative events and what meanings are ascribed to them.

Consenting Cities

Consenting Cities endeavours to reveal gender-specific safety data to its audience through an interactive augmented reality triggered by the iconography of geometric shapes, images and icons that cover the wall of the Palazzo Mora passageway.

Contentious Cities: Design and the Gendered Production of Space

Unique interdisciplinary approaches to understanding gendered spatial equity in the urban environment.

CRC-P LCA of Mass Timber Construction

Quantifying the embodied emissions and carbon sequestration potential of mass timber construction materials in Australia.

Drawing on Architecture: The Object of Lines, 1970-1990

How architectural drawings emerged as aesthetic objects, promoted by a network of galleries, collectors, and institutions, and how this changed the understanding of architecture.

E-Scooter docking stations

Research that responds to the problem of providing re-charge docks for e-scooters when left outside stations and transportation hubs.

Evaluating Neighbourhood Sentiment during Melbourne’s Covid-19 lockdowns

Assessing Melbournian’s neighbourhood sentiment through social media and the influence of the built environment on this satisfaction during Melbourne’s Covid-19 lockdowns.

Evaluation and learning in public housing urban renewal

Analysing how evaluation and learning from public housing urban renewal informs current policy and delivery.

Exploring community participation with the Melbourne digital city model

Investigating how a dynamic visualisation platform can help to better inform and enable our community to participate in city planning.

From mixed tenure development to mixed tenure neighbourhoods

Demonstrating how mixed tenure dwelling design can enhance outcomes for individuals, neighbours and the community more broadly.

Future Cities

Helping City of Melbourne policymakers understand how residents perceive, value, and use emerging technologies in the urban environment.

Global Buildings Performance Network (GBPN)

Monash partnering to develop policy strategies for decarbonising the buildings sector in India and Southeast Asia.

Greater Cities Commission: Women’s Safety Charter Workshop

The Commission engaged the Monash University XYX Lab to deliver an impact workshop as part of the June 2022 Community of Practice.

Hobart Smarter Bus Stop and Shelter Competition

Design for a modular bus stop and shelter that promotes connection, reducing waiting anxiety and enhancing the overall travel experience.

HyperSext City

Drawing attention to the experiences of women, girls and LGBTQI+ communities by presenting data and intersectional narratives of gender.

HyperSext City 2

Re-designed to amplify the experiences of women*, girls and LGBTQI+ communities through new mediums revealing existing data sources globally and locally to spectacular effect both inside the gallery and on the streets of Fremantle.

Industrial Revolution

An evidence-based framework for capturing the tacit + future values of Melbourne’s ‘National Employment and Innovation Clusters’.

Infill Design

Promoting better quality apartment living in the middle suburbs

Infrastructure Governance Incubator: From Strategic Planning to Project Delivery

Developing a governance model to build connections between infrastructure planning and strategic urban planning.

JIBE: Joining Impact models of transport with spatial measures of the Built Environment

Reducing non-communicable diseases and health inequities for English city regions and Melbourne.

Keep Running

Keep Running is a call to action for communities to develop an understanding of safety and risk in our city and an opportunity for audiences to consider their own lived experience and/or to develop understanding and empathy.

Lighting Cities: Creating Safer Spaces for Women and Girls

Deferring to more lights and brighter cities does not create safer spaces for women and girls. Lighting design is vital for gender-sensitive cities.

Live, Drive, Ride like a local

Improving road sharing in the Alpine Shire through human stories.

Measuring the benefits of reuse in the circular economy

Developing insights relating to reuse commodity chains, their societal benefits and contributions to nurture a more future-forward inclusive, circular economy.

Merri Creek, Coburg Safety Audit

Women’s Safety Audits: A transformative approach to safety in the city.

Navigating Economic Uncertainty in Post-Covid Cities

Assisting policymakers in assessing the risk of employment vulnerability as the impacts of Covid-19 evolve.

Net zero precincts: An interdisciplinary approach to decarbonising cities

Helping cities and urban regions reach net zero emissions by taking the precinct as an optimal scale for urban transition.

Net zero precincts: Citizen data commons and technological sovereignty

Engaging users of Net Zero Precincts to have a say on the privacy of their data.

OPEN SPACE!

A contemporary installation situated in Curtin Place, a public laneway adjacent to Harry Seidler’s iconic Australia Square in Sydney’s central business district.

Painted Light

A major installation activating the eastern façade of the Geelong Arts Centre.

Parked bicycles in Australia

Understanding the bikes people park, and how they park them.

Peninsula Pearls

A dynamic sculpture to be sited along the Peninsula Link freeway in Melbourne’s South East.

Predictive Personalisation in Chile

Harnessing informal construction to improve the environmental performance of mass housing.

Rail passenger boarding, alighting and dispersal experiments

Investigating how rail carriage interior design influences passenger boarding and alighting times using agent-based modelling techniques.

Reformulating the Movement and Place framework

Making the urban environment safer and more liveable.

Remaking post-industrial plans: urban industrial zoning past and future

Examining the complex, changing functions and roles of urban industrial land

Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE)

Improving sanitation, mitigating flooding, and improving dwelling and open space provision for informal settlements.

Safe Spaces: Understanding and enhancing safety and inclusion for diverse women

Strategies to improve safety must come from women’s experiences.

Safer Cities

Highlighting alarming levels of harassment and abuse of girls and young women in cities.

Solar Bike Project

Designing the world’s fastest solar bicycle – running purely on sunshine.

Speaking of Buildings: Oral History in Architectural Research

A new book providing the first comprehensive account, and theorization, of oral history as a method in architectural research.

Study: the new bicycles

Field work in the Mobility Design Lab has revealed that there are bicycle types not represented in AS2890.3. This document provides information about these new vehicles.

Sydney After Dark

Creating a city for women living and working in Sydney.

The long-term effects of autonomous cars on land use, access and travel

Modelling autonomous vehicle-induced urban growth and inform land use based policy measures to minimise their effects on transportation.

The Rightsize Service

Increasing housing density and diversity through DIY development activity.

The Wheelie

Easier bike parking means easier bike transport.

TramLab Toolkits

Improving the safety of women and girls on public transport.

Triabunna Tomorrow

An ongoing post-industrial urban revitalisation project on Tasmania’s east coast.

Unlocking Shared Mobility

Assessing the potential, opportunities and challenges facing cities in regard to shared mobility, in particular free-floating car sharing (FFCS) and its related parking issues.

Urban Mobility Design

A comprehensive review of cutting-edge design work addressing key contemporary themes in mobility.

Urban Policy and Cultural Production

International research around the changing dynamics among the creative industries and urban manufacturing.

Vanuatu Pathway to Ownership

Creating a pathway to home ownership in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

Volgren EV roof design

A new look for Australia’s transition to electric route buses.

Warracknabeal Creative Circuit

Creating a makerspace for regional Victoria that fuses low-cost technology and craft.

Washington Monument

Winning competition entry for the Embassy of Australia, Washington USA.

Water Sensitive Cities: Integrated Urban and Water Planning

Exploring how urban development can achieve water sensitive outcomes through planning at a range of scales.

Water sensitive outcomes for infill developments

Developing a tested catalogue of typologies for new infill development.

WAYOUT: Codesign in Kandos

Contemporary art practices into architectural design.

YourGround

Making recreational areas safe for women, girls and gender-diverse people.

Past projects

18 Innovation Walk

A new entryway for 18 Innovation Walk, on the Clayton campus of Monash University.

An Autonomous Driverless Public Transport

A wide study on the advent of an intelligently connected driverless public transport system.

Built Upon By Design Symposium

A three-day intensive symposium to engage with issues of gendered spatial equity in the urban environment.

CRC for Rail Innovation: Station Design

Guidelines and principles for the design and configuration of urban passenger rail stations.

CRC-P Capstone Prototype

Showcasing the potential of industrialised construction through innovative full-scale prototypes.

CRC-P Future Living System

Creating a real-scale prototype apartment from a range of prefabricated and modular elements.

CRC-P Innovation in Advanced Multi-Storey Housing Manufacture

Transforming the housing construction industry towards an innovative, advanced manufacturing future.

Designing Affordable, Sustainable Housing (DASH)

High-quality, innovative architecture and urban design provides great living places.

Free to Be: Design Thinking Workshop

Prioritising thinking through concepts that could have real world impacts for women and girls.

Furniture, Structure, Infrastructure: Making and Using the Urban Environment

A collection of urban research and architectural projects.

Gender Equality Map

Providing a new picture of gender equality in Victoria to inform policy and urban design changes.

Gender Equity in Landscape Architecture

The participation of women in Australian landscape architecture, mapping and strategies.

Girl Walk: Identity, Crowd-mapping and Safety in the City for Women and Girls

Creating a culturally vibrant city that is inclusive for women and girls.

Habitat 21: Adaptable House

Flexible design as home owners’ needs change.

Immigration Place

A nationally significant commemorative place in the Parliamentary Zone in Canberra.

Improved Passenger Dispersal on Commuter Trains

Quicker and safer trains for all.

Independent Housing for Young People Recovering from Mental Illness

Infill Opportunities

Improving small-scale residential infill development in Melbourne's middle suburbs.

Intensifying Places: Transit-Oriented Urban Design for Resilient Cities

Investigating how design research approaches can contribute to guiding the intensification of Australian cities.

Japanese Architecture & Urbanism

Projects built on experiences working and researching in Japan.

Just So F***ing Beautiful

Telling a story of female harassment in a public space – a new work for the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale: European Cultural Centre.

Liveable Compact Cities Project

Principles for designing sustainable medium density infill housing for subtropical South-East Queensland.

Moreland City Council Workshop

Using gender-sensitive design thinking to support of Moreland City’s future growth.

Optimus

Improving Volgren’s route bus manufacturing, performance and user experience using holistic design.

Passenger Boarding and Alighting Simulations

Exploring new techniques in agent based modelling.

Perceptions of Safety – pilot project

Another approach for improving safety for women and girls.

Preventing Sexual Harassment in Australian Public Transport Spaces

Uncovering how the safety of women and girls is challenged in public transport spaces.

Processes for Developing Affordable and Sustainable Medium-density Housing Models for Greyfield Precincts

Sustainable regeneration for Melbourne’s middle suburbs.

PTUX – Public Transport User Experience

Creating a practical working knowledge of the user experience in public transport.

Redcliffe Connect and Urban Renewal

Testing a diversity of low- and medium-rise dwelling models for precinct-scaled infill redevelopment.

Rethinking Design’s Contribution to Assisted Living Environments

Stage One: Best Practice Discussion Paper

Revitalising Central Dandenong

Exploring the kinds of mixed-buildings that might work in Central Dandenong.

River Derwent Heavy Metals Project

Tackling the problem of heavy metals pollution in the River Derwent.

Safe Access to Reproductive Health Care in Australia

Formulating proposals for changes in law and policy at both the federal level and State level to remove barriers to access.

Stawell Steps

A site-specific piece of flood mitigation infrastructure.

The numbers in a nutshell: Women in Architecture, Australia

A data analysis of the shape of the profession and the participation of women within it.

The SHEcity Exhibition

Bringing together experts to reimagine and redesign how our city could be more inclusive for women and girls.

The Victorian Pride Centre

Celebrating, bolstering and protecting equality, diversity and inclusion.

Towards a New Development Model for Housing Regeneration in Greyfield Regeneration Precincts

Improving the effectiveness of infill development.

Urban Intensification & Green Infrastructure: Towards a Water Sensitive City

Striving for the highest sustainability standards makes sense environmentally and economically.

uTecture Industry Test Group Report

Single dwelling design tools for improved customer outcomes.

Yours. Mine. Ours - Melbourne Art Tram 2019

“Yours, mine, ours” is a design that celebrates the ambitions for diversity and inclusion within the city of Melbourne.

Our research helps to create safer, healthier communities and transform the way medical treatment is experienced.

Creative practice research involves investigating how health practices and environments affect people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and asking how things might be done differently. Taking an integrated approach to human health, we work closely with stakeholders to create safer, more efficient and more comfortable environments and health systems.

Architectural Work Cultures

Addressing the question of how workplace cultures and professional identity affect subjective wellbeing in architecture.

Asthma nebuliser / PALM

Breathing new life into asthma treatment using the PALM of their hand.

Benchmarking data for housing research

Sourcing a new ‘big dataset’ to identify, visualise, and monitor informal housing practices in Australia.

Child protection and social distancing

Exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ways social workers help families and keep children safe.

Co-design for Healthy Ageing

Inspired by Singapore, a cross-cultural, cross-generational student project.

Emergency Waiting Rooms

A co-design investigation into Emergency Department waiting rooms.

Fire to Flourish

An agenda for change: community-led disaster resilience.

Future Healthcare

This Monash-led interdisciplinary initiative is at the intersection of university, healthcare, community, government and industry.

Goal Management Training: A treatment for methamphetamine addiction

Addiction treatment through collaborative design.

Hand Hygiene Compliance

Positive behaviour change through design.

Intelligent Footware

Creating an intelligent shoe to monitor the symptoms of people with diabetes.

Intelligent home solutions for independent living

Trialling ‘smart’ home technologies with older participants who are living at home to greater understand their accessibility and utility.

Lifeblood

Improving blood donor retention through design.

Mobile Stroke Imager

A lightweight mobile stroke imager designed to fit into standard ambulances and provide faster stroke diagnosis at the point of care.

Mobility and Accessibility for Children and Adults (MACA)

Understanding the transport needs for children with disabilities to assist in their support of safe transport.

On My Life

Providing respect, engagement, and intergenerational understanding.

Project GLOOK

Exploring the feasibility and acceptance of a wearable device that monitors blood glucose in patients with diabetes and the effectiveness of real time physician feedback in modifying health behaviour.

Repairing Memory & Place

An Indigenous-led approach to urban water design.

RetroFit Kit

This project aims to increase the volume and supply of dignified and inclusive homes for people with disability through design-enabled strategies.

Spasim Pikinini: Marie Stopes Reaches Out in PNG

Family planning in Papua New Guinea.

The Body is a Big Place

Bio-art explores organ transplantation and the gift of life.

The Citarum Program

Creating clean, healthy and productive rivers and communities.

The Living Lab: Designing the future of aged care

Improving the lived experience of residents, families, and staff in the Aged Care sector.

Venous Access

Improving the efficacy and experience of Venous Access.

Visualising Queer Indie Games

Queer representation in the media is vital for promoting a respectful and knowledgable society.

Past projects

Independent Housing for Young People Recovering from Mental Illness

Rethinking Design’s Contribution to Assisted Living Environments

Stage One: Best Practice Discussion Paper

Safe Access to Reproductive Health Care in Australia

Formulating proposals for changes in law and policy at both the federal level and State level to remove barriers to access.

We create visionary and speculative research that considers not only what technologies can do, but what they make possible.

We go beyond predictive statements about how new technologies will impact society and individuals. Our experimental research explores how people will use technologies in our future cities, cultural practices, work, and homes, and advances a more equitable, responsible and sustainable future.

Building 4.0 CRC

Better buildings, new efficiencies through technology and collaboration.

Co-designing future smart urban mobility systems

Establishing new ways of developing modern vehicles and smart cities for a sustainable social environment.

CRC-P LCA of Mass Timber Construction

Quantifying the embodied emissions and carbon sequestration potential of mass timber construction materials in Australia.

Digital Energy futures

Understanding and forecasting changing digital lifestyle trends and their impact on future household electricity demand, including at peak times.

E-waste Futures

Transforming current e-waste problems into opportunities to design and research best practices for waste reduction toward a sustainable future.

Geographies of Commemoration in a Digital World

A significant, accessible, and interdisciplinary resource for researchers interested in the geographies of memory, nostalgia, and identity.

Hand Hygiene Compliance

Positive behaviour change through design.

iHUB

A smart urban research-synthesis-engagement platform for decision making.

Intelligent Footware

Creating an intelligent shoe to monitor the symptoms of people with diabetes.

Let’s Go Outside: Art in Public

An examination of creative practices in the public realm.

Re-humanising automated decision making

Bringing together academic colleagues from around the globe to discuss how we re-humanise automated decision making to the benefit of society and everyday lives.

Safe Spaces: Understanding and enhancing safety and inclusion for diverse women

Strategies to improve safety must come from women’s experiences.

Safer Cities

Highlighting alarming levels of harassment and abuse of girls and young women in cities.

Sydney After Dark

Creating a city for women living and working in Sydney.

Warracknabeal Creative Circuit

Creating a makerspace for regional Victoria that fuses low-cost technology and craft.

Past projects

An Autonomous Driverless Public Transport

A wide study on the advent of an intelligently connected driverless public transport system.

CRC-P Future Living System

Creating a real-scale prototype apartment from a range of prefabricated and modular elements.

Motorcycle Evolution

Investigating a range of issues addressing the motorcycle, from safety to new forms of manufacture.

Robots in Public Space

Improving how we understand the impact that robots have on the atmosphere of public space.

Termite Economies: Neural Nodes and Root Causes

Drawing on neural and biological systems to raise questions about labour, consumption, capitalism and its rifts.

Bold, ambitious and creative research comes in many forms, and unconventional thinking is critical to anticipate as yet unimagined futures. Creativity and coherence accordingly form a mutually supportive partnership at Monash Art, Design and Architecture, helping us to realise truly change-making, excellent research.