Our climate commitment
Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) is committed to making a fundamental and critical contribution to an ethical, equitable, healthy, biodiverse, fair and prosperous future for life on our planet.
We believe that climate aware creative and critical practice contributes to improved planetary health. Framed by Indigenous Ways of Knowing and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we aim to transform our ways of working and address the climate crisis through cross-disciplinary research and education.
Our Climate Action Taskforce was formed in 2020 and has developed action plans and priorities across the 4 key portfolios of research, education, operations and engagement, with ongoing implementation across each area.
At MADA, we work to imagine and articulate alternative futures and through transdisciplinary research partnerships, collect the most pertinent evidence, technology, behaviours and policy frameworks to help coalesce pathways for transition.
In order to support new, high quality and impactful research in this area, we are pleased to offer funding for one PhD stipend commencing 2022, as well as Climate Action Research Project seed funding designed to incentivise climate focused research across the Faculty.
Learn more
In our premiere issue of R:ADAR - Review: Art, Design and Architecture Research we explore how a number of researchers are confronting our climate emergency. Download the PDF.
Through our climate-related research, we are addressing the climate crisis and driving meaningful change in the areas of decarbonisation, adaptation, transition and re-imagination. 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: Living Locally Research Project
Creating 20-minute resilient neighbourhoods and building community connectedness in Melbourne’s outersuburban growth areas.
AIC Urban Water Cluster
Developing leapfrogging pathways towards water sensitive cities in Indonesia.
Building 4.0 CRC
Better buildings, new efficiencies through technology and collaboration.
The Citarum Program
Creating clean, healthy and productive rivers and communities.
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.
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.
Predictive Personalisation in Chile
Harnessing informal construction to improve the environmental performance of mass housing.
Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE)
Improving sanitation, mitigating flooding, and improving dwelling and open space provision for informal settlements.
Solar Bike Project
Designing the world’s fastest solar bicycle – running purely on sunshine.
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.
Wendy Christie
Future Housing in Vanuatu: A design framework for contextually appropriate urban housing in Vanuatu
Mohaimeen Islam
Integrating Computational Design and Digital Fabrication Strategies in Mass Timber Construction (MTC) for Mass Customization in the House Building Industry.
Nnenna Okore
Exploring concepts related to waste, bioplastic and ecology as a means of generating learning, artistic experience and sustainable living.
Erich Wolff
Can infrastructure systems operate within social-ecological dynamics?