Current Research Topics
Graduate Research Students — Current Thesis Topics
| Student Name | Thesis Topic | Degree | Supervisor/s |
| Toby Adams | Taming an urban frontier? Urban expansion, metropolitan spatial plans and the land development industry in Perth 1970-2005 | PhD | Professor Kevin O'Connor, Professor Sun Sheng Han |
| Richard Aitken | Delineating the Australian Garden | PhD | Professor Philip Goad, Professor Roger Cousens |
| Kate Alder | Role of physical changes in activity centres in facilitating mode shifts from car to public transport | PhD | Professor Nick Low |
| Angela Alessi | Occupant Comfort in Naturally Ventilated and Mixed-Mode Spaces within Air-Conditioned Offices | PhD | Associate Professor Scott Drake |
| Essam Almahmoud | Project performance diagnostics: enhancement for the project health check tool | PhD | Dr Hemanta Doloi |
| Michael Anderson | The Architecture of Alistair Knox | PhD | Professor Philip Goad |
| Arash Arbab | Rethinking Higher Education Learning Environments | PhD | Professor Kim Dovey, Dr Kenn Fisher |
| Kate Archdeacon | The potential of urban agriculture in Melbourne: Using systems thinking and design methodology to propose networks of sustainable food production | MPhil | Chris Ryan |
| Morteza Asgarzadeh | Study of urban sustainability: urban heat islands, Kawasaki City, Japan | PhD | Boonlay Ong |
| Mohammed Bazldjou | Iran and the West: Conflicting Perceptions of Architcture and Culture | PhD | Professor Miles Lewis |
| Tanja Beer | The paradigm and practice of ecological design in the performing arts | PhD | Dr Dominique Hes and Dr Alex Selenitsch |
| Juan Blanco | Emergent Frontiers In Urban Design: Operative Sustainability for Central Areas in Regeneration | PhD | Associate Professor Justyna Karakiewicz, Professor Tom Kvan |
| Anne Bourke | Hospital Grounds, Healing and Nature: A Landscape of Melbourne Hospital Sites 1848-1950 | PhD | Professor Catherin Bull, Dr Margaret Grose |
| Myles Bunning | The life cycle performance of responsive shading systems: Simulation of the impact of responsive shading systems of refurbishments of glazed office buildings | PhD | Associate Professor Eckhart Hertzsch, Dr Robert Crawford |
| Victor Bunster | Tropism-oriented generative design for context sensitive energy efficient architecture | MPhil | Associate Professor Bharat Dave |
| Daniela Casanello-Frisius | Creative Play in Designed Urban Open Spaces Based on Children's Preferences for Natural Environments in Santiago, Chile | PhD | Associate Professor Ray Green |
| Hing-Wah Chau | "Avant-Garde" Architects in China? A Critique of Selected Chinese Architects in Contemporary China (1990s-2000s) | PhD | Associate Professor Jianfei Zhu |
| Feng Feng (Helen) Chen | Everyday Contemporary China: A Case of Changing Huayuan in Wuhan | MPhil | Associate Professor Jianfei Zhu |
| Ted Yu-Shen Chen | Tsunami recovery and resilience in Sri Lanka - Tzi chi and habitat for humanity apporaches to post-disaster housing reconstruction |
PhD | Professor Richard Tomlinson, Dr David O'Brien |
| Sung Jin Choi | Study of the Changing of the residential environment due to the influx of immigrants and the practical effects on neighbourhood planning in Asian countries, Australia and Korea | PhD | Professor Sun Sheng Han |
| Chen-Yu Chui | Jorn Utzon and China: The role of traditional Chinese Art and Architecture in the work of Jorn Utzon | PhD | Professor Philip Goad |
| Simon Chui | How can design processes and tools be made to enable sustainable community-led urban design of neighborhoods in a way that improves the urban built environment and reduces governance gaps? | PhD | Associate Professor Ray Green, Professor Catherin Bull |
| Benjamin Cleveland | Engaging spaces: an investigation into middle school educational opportunities provided by innovative and sustainable built environments | PhD | Dr Sue Wilks, Dr Dominique Hes |
| Robyn Clinch | The places we keep; The Heritage Studies of Victoria and outcomes for urban planners | PhD | Dr Peter Raisbeck, Dr David Nichols |
| Andrea Cook | The relationship between children's independent mobility and social/physical connectedness to place | PhD | Associate Professor Carolyn Whitzman, Associate Professor Paul Tranter (UNSW) |
| Rosemary Cousin | The Voice of Nature: Ecological Sustainability in Australian Water Governance | PhD | Professor Nick Low, Dr Peter Christoff |
| Isabella Czerniakowski | Dynamics of informal settlements: Informing architectural interventions | PhD | Justyna Karakiewicz |
| Raed Dawood | Public Open Space: Youth Recreation in Jedda, Saudi Arabia | PhD | Dr Margaret Grose |
| Karen Daws | The built response to infectious diseases: paradox in practice | PhD | Associate Professor Julie Willis |
| Rowena Delgado | Process and Outcome of Local Housing in Ecotourist Destinations: The Case of Camarines Sur, Philippines | PhD | Dr Sidh Sintusingha, Professor Catherin Bull |
| Kitapatr Dhabhalabutr | The Poor as a Low-Cost Housing Agent: Case Studies of Slum Upgrading in Thailand | PhD | Professor Catherin Bull, Dr Sidh Sintusingha |
| Christina Dyson | A comparative and critical analysis of Australian landscape design between 1950 and 1970 | PhD | Dr Andrew Saniga, Dr Peter May (Faculty of Land and Food Resources) |
| Mohammed Fageha | A Framework for the Life Cycle Management of Architectural Design Projects in Developing Countries - Saudi Arabia | PhD | Dr Hemanta Doloi |
| Sophie Foo | Rhetorical Space and Kahn: In Search of Schopenhauer's Sanctuary of The Psyche | MPhil | Dr Alex Selenitsch, Dr Greg Missingham |
| Michael Easson | Off the rails: Transport and urban planning" with reference to Sydney, Melbourne and London | PhD | Professor Nick Low, Dr Alan March |
| Matthew Ford | Creating Sustainable Housing Choices | PhD | Dr Alan March, Associate Professor Hannah Lewi |
| Luciana Fornari Colombo | Theoretical Projects of Architecture: Nature and Significance through the Exemplars of Mies van der Rohe | PhD | Associate Professor Julie Willis |
| Valerie Francis | Women and their career progression in the Australian Construction Industry | PhD | Professor Jon Robinson, Associate Professor Julie Willis |
| Jim Georgiou | Legislative control and quality of housing | PhD | Dr Peter Raisbeck, Professor Jon Robinson |
| Philip Goldswain | Photographic Cities: Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, 1893-1917 | PhD | Associate Professor Hannah Lewi |
| Victoria Gurr | Inter-war 1919-1940, industrial architecture in Australia | PhD | Associate Professor Julie Willis |
| Marjan Hajjari | Improving urban life through urban public spaces, comparison between Iranian and Australian cases | PhD | Assoc. Professor Justyna Karakiewicz |
| Nafiseh Hamidi | Association between naturally ventilated spaces in air-conditioned offices, improvement in employee health and productivity, reduction in energy usage and thermal boredom | PhD | Associate Professor Scott Drake, Dr Dominique Hes |
| Rochus Hinkel | Enabling Initiative and Creating Relationships in Public Space: Micro Architecture for a Multifaceted Public | PhD | Associate Professor Paul Walker, Dr Janet McGaw |
| Solmaz Hosseinioon | Designing Resilient Cities, understanding the links between resiliency via risk reduction and New Urbanism principles | PhD | Dr Alan March |
| Philipa Howard | Future-proofing Schools | PhD | Dr Dominique Hes |
| Tullia Jack | Environmental Prosperity: The Fashion Question in Design for Sustainability | MPhil | Professor Chris Ryan |
| Fiona Johnson | Contemplating landscape: towards a theory of temporality | PhD | Dr Jillian Wallis, Associate Professor Hannah Lewi |
| Aisan Kazerani | Mental sustainability in placemaking | PhD | Associate Professor Ray Green |
| Mahdi Khansefid | The conceptional and practical frameworks to design landscape infrastructure in a holistic landscape ecological approach | PhD | Dr Siqing Chen, Dr Sidh Sintusingha, Professor Catherin Bull |
| Hyung Min Kim | Emerging foreign land ownership in a global city: The case of Seoul | PhD | Professor Sun Sheng Han, Professor Kevin O'Connor |
| Sung Jun Kim | Smart homes for the elderly: Recent developments in Korea | PhD | Associate Professor Bharat Dave |
| Byron Kinnaird | Methods for affecting change in architecture education: authority and subversion in the discipline and profession | MPhil | Associate Professor Paul Walker |
| Kattika Kittiprasan | Sacred Landscapes and the Role of Religion in the Sustainability of Phetbury City | PhD | Dr Boon Lay Ong |
| Mohammad Javad Koohsari | Examining the Impacts of Public Open Spaces and their Surrounding Built Environments on the Level of Walking by Local Residents | PhD | Professor Justyne Karakiewicz |
| Peter Lawther | Post tsunami housing reconstructionin the Maldives | PhD | Professor Paolo Tombesi |
| Jorge Leon | Which systematic planning assessment and information spreading tools can Chilean cities and towns apply to support subsequent proposed development and implementation of natural risk mitigation actions? | PhD | Dr Alan March |
| Dan Li | Volumetric Urbanism | PhD | Associate Professor Barrie Shelton |
| Siah-Chuan Lim | Analysis of Melbourne’s Alleged Housing Deficit: Causes and Remedies |
PhD | Dr David Nichols and Dr Alan March |
| Chia Hui (Francis) Lin | Constructions of identity through architecture in Taiwan (1994-2002): Interactions between political ideology and architectural discourse. | PhD | Associate Professor Jianfei Zhu, Professor Philip Goad |
| Xin Liu | The Clustering Mechanisms and Spatial Policies for Metropolitan Creative Industries: A case study of Beijing | PhD | Professor Sun Sheng Han |
| Patrick Love | Social Capital and Children's Independent Mobility in Catholic Schools in Victoria | PhD | Associate Professor Carolyn Whitzman |
| Brooke Madill | Adaptive landscape, tourism infrastructure and creative practice: as guiding conditions for expanded landscape experience in the arid lands of Central Australia | PhD | Professor Gini Lee |
| Giorgio Marfella | 40 x 40: The genesis, diffusion and extinction of square plan skyscrapers in Melbourne (1955-1995) | PhD | Professor Paolo Tombesi, Professor Philip Goad |
| Igor Martek | The Localisation of Foreign Constructors in China | PhD | Dr Chuan (Victor) Chen, Dr Toong-Khuan Chan |
| Ann Maudsley | Adaptability and Flexibility and the Grid: A study of Infrastructure in 19th Century British Colonial Grid Planned Cities | PhD | Dr David Nichols |
| Emily McGuire | Comparison of carbon emissions and energy consumption of low emission geopolymer concrete technology vs portland cement based concrete. | PhD | Dr John Provis, Associate Professor Scott Drake |
| Jennifer Mitchelhill | Japanese architecture and the modern movement: significant events in the transfer of Japanese themes to the west 1920-1970 | PhD | Professor Philip Goad, Associate Professor Hannah Lewi |
| Boonanan Natakun | Social and Spatial Processes during Community Upgrading Programs in Bang-bua, Bangkok | PhD | Professor Ross King, Associate Prof Darko Radovic |
| Marianna Nigra | From Sydney to Canberra: The impact of the Sydney Opera House on the Construction of the New Parliament House | PhD | Professor Paolo Tombesi, Mr Andrew Hutson |
| Leonardo Nogueira de Moraes | Inheriting Sustainability: World Heritage Enlistment, Complex Adaptive Systems and the Design of Tourism Development in Small Oceanic Islands | PhD | Dr Alan March (principal supervisor), Associate Professor Ray Green (co-supervisor) |
| Helen Norrie | Site, route, context: Museums and the public realm of the city | PhD | Associate Professor Paul Walker, Associate Professor Hannah Lewi |
| Siripoon Nutanong | Sustainable Houses in Northern Thailand | MPhil | Dr David O'Brien |
| Abdul Jalil Omar | Strategic Marketing of Corporate Real Estate Management (CREM) in the Corporate Organisation | PhD | Associate Professor Greg Missingham, Dr Chris Heywood |
| Marsita Omar | Bringing Planning to Community: Paving way to realise sustainable development objectives in land use planning policy. | PhD | Alan March |
| Elek Pafka | Urban density and quality of life in Australian planning | PhD | Professor Kim Dovey |
| Kelum Palipane | The sensory production of urban space - exploring the role of 'intimate sensing' in the regeneration of inner city suburbs and urban centres in Melbourne | MPhil | Dr Janet McGaw, Associate Professor Paul Walker |
| Jong Jin Park | The representation of design knowledge based on computational associative design methodology | PhD | Associate Professor Bharat Dave, Dr Jules Moloney |
| Stephen Pascoe | A History of Student Housing Policy at The University of Melbourne Since World War II | PhD | Dr David Nichols |
| Timothy Petersen | Public Transport for Dispersed Urban Settlements | PhD | Dr Leigh Glover, Dr John Stone |
| Christine Phillips | New Interpretations of Modern Hydro Architecture | PhD | Dr Peter Raisbeck, Associate Professor Hannah Lewi |
| Abdul Rauf | The Effect of Material Durability on Building Life-Cycle Embodied Energy | MPhil | Dr Robert Crawford |
| Mirjana Ristic | Ethnic Nationalism in Architecture and Urbanism in the Former Yugoslavia. | PhD | Professor Kim Dovey |
| Emma Rowden | Gateways to justice: improving video-mediated communications for justice participants | PhD | Associate Professor Greg Missingham |
| Sharon Shafer | The problem of modernism: A comparative study of Australian modernist architecture that denotes the architecture of Le Corbusier and Mies van de Rohe and socialist and capitalist ideals | PhD | Dr Peter Raisbeck, Associate Professor Julie Willis |
| Asheem Shrestha | Developing a go/no go decision model for local government regarding public private partnership (PPP) in China's water sector | PhD | Dr Victor Chen, Dr Toong-Khuan Chan |
| Ling-Ye She | Building Co-operative Inter-organisational Relationships in Construction | PhD | Dr Ajibade Aibinu, Dr Lester Johnson (MBS) |
| Yina Sima | The Evolution of Melbourne: A Morphological History | PhD | Professor Philip Goad |
| Ross T. Smith | Phenomenology and Architecture: Sensuous Contact with an Interior World | PhD | Dr Greg Missingham, Associate Professor Hannah Lewi |
| André Stephan | Assessment of building life-cycle and spatial environment to quantify energy footprint | PhD | Dr Robert Crawford |
| Rupert Summerson | Assessment of wilderness and aesthetic values of Antarctica | PhD | Professor Catherin Bull, Professor Ian Bishop (Geom) |
| Patrick Sunter | Evaluating the potential of open-source integrated land use and transport modelling software to improve outcomes for sustainable development in Australian cities | PhD | Professor Nick Low, Dr Jennifer Day |
| Mojgan Taheri Tafti | Sustainable Reconstruction after Disasters | PhD | Professor Richard Tomlinson |
| Catherine Tate | The Architectural Program of the Royal Melbourne Hospital 1934 - 1944 | PhD | Dr Christopher Heywood |
| Lay Leng (Bryan) Teu | Shop houses of the Chinese diaspora clans in Johor Bahru | PhD | Associate Professor Greg Missingham |
| Puneeta Thakur | Searching for Barrier-Free Global Connections: An Ethnographic Study of physically Handicapped who Move between Australian and Indian Cities | MPhil | Associate Professor Scott Drake, Professor Ross King |
| Tuan Thieu | Monumental national buildings and ideology in the history of modern architecture in Vietnam | PhD | Associate Professor Julie Willis |
| John (Hwa Seng) Ting | Policy, Practice and Built Form: The Architecture and Urbanism of the Brooke Administration in Sarawak, 1849-1917 | PhD | Dr Anoma Pieris, Professor Ross King |
| Kate Tregloan | Epiphany - Design Explorations that generate moments of insight and correlation with the Myers-Briggs type Inventory | MPhil | Associate. Professor Greg Missingham |
| Viet Trinh Hong | Not so Transparent: The Use of Glass in Contemporary Vietnamese Architecture | PhD | Dr Derham Groves |
| Endang Triningsih | The role of outdoor cafes and restaurants as places for social interaction in creating livelier urban places in motorized societies | PhD | Dr Sidh Sintusingha, Associate Professor Darko Radovic |
| Andre Ullal | The Role of Building in Nation-Building - the development of construction practices in post-Taliban Afghanistan | PhD | Professor Paolo Tombesi |
| Jieqiong Wang | Eco-services for sustainable urban development: rhetoric and reality in China | PhD | Professor Catherin Bull, Dr Alan March |
| Matthew Webb | Progression or Biomimicry for Sustainable Building Design and Low Energy Facades | PhD | Associate Professor Eckhart Hertszch, Associate Professor Ray Green |
| Anila Weerakody | Integrating sustainable infrastructure in urban planning using sustainability rating systems, environmental legislation, fiscal models and policy directives | PhD | Dr Dominique Hes |
| Edan Weis | Design for social wellbeing: A case study of normative design thinking in industrial design | PhD | Professor Richard Tomlinson, Dr David O'Brien |
| John Weretka | The Roman church facade from Borromini to Galilei: The decision-making process | PhD | Dr David Marshall (Culture & Comm.), Professor Philip Goad |
| Steven Whitford | Immance, reference and compositon: Deleuze, complexity and urbanism | PhD | Professor Kim Dovey |
| Seng Fatt Wong | Walkability and community identity in the city centre of Kuala Lumpur: A case study | PhD | Professor Ross King |
| Kenneth Woodman | Flexibility and learning environments | PhD | Ms Clare Newton, Professor Kim Dovey |
| Anthony Worm | Describing Architecture: Language as Part of Intent and Projection | PhD | Associate Professor Paul Walker |
| Ming Wu | The People's Square in Central Shanghai: A Morphological and Social-historical Analysis, the 1840's - 2004 | PhD | Associate Professor Jianfei Zhu |
| Jia (Jane) Xu | Spatial Morphology of 'the Third Realm' in the City of Hangzhou: the Capital of Southern Song (1127-1279) China | PhD | Associate Professor Jianfei Zhu |
| Izyan Yahaya | Trust among client, consultant and contractor (3C) | PhD | Dr Ajibade Aibinu |
| Jia You | Developer's participation in the supply of affordable housing projects: evidence from Nanjing, China | PhD | Dr Hao Wu, Professor Sun Sheng Han |
| Benjamin Zagami | Operation of representative democracy within the process of neoliberal urbanisation | PhD | Dr Alan March |
| Luis Zapata Montalvo | Vernacular Architecture of the Sotavento Region | PhD | Dr Derham Groves |
| Yun Zhang | Place Delivery Through International Practice in Landscape Architecture: From Australia to China | PhD | Professor Catherin Bull |