As Professor of Urban Futures I lead Swinburne’s Sustainable Built Environment Initiative. Since January 1st 2023 I have been working across the university helping foster a unique dual sector vocational education and training (VET) and higher education collaboration: combining applied research with exemplary construction and manufacturing trade practice. Our current focus is the quest for novel solutions for assisting financially stretched remote and communities closer to home gain access more affordable dwellings and community buildings. The originality of our approach is bottom-up community participation focussing on local skills development. This role, along with directing iHUB, Swinburne’s urban research platform (lead for a national network) complements my former role as Founding Director of Swinburne University of Technology’s ‘Smart Cities Research Institute' from May 2017.
I am a consulting architect and fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA) published internationally on two main themes: putting theory into practice with regard to procuring ‘challenging’ architecture, pioneering digitalisation strategies for professional practice, and the life, work and theories of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí.
I have been Senior Architect to the Sagrada Família Basilica Foundation for 37 years commencing in 1979 inventing analogue design strategies to help unravel the mysteries of Gaudí’s final design for his magnum opus. Through this remarkable living laboratory, a decade later I led the introduction of digital design to the project office. As a consequence, I am the only architect to have interpreted Gaudí’s design strategies initially through hand drawing before investigating opportunities for the entry of design computation. I started experimenting with parametric design software in 1992, and with scripting (coding) in 1993. In 2000 I became a founder member of Gehry Technologies advisory board.
I have been Senior Architect to the Sagrada Família Basilica Foundation for 37 years commencing in 1979 inventing analogue design strategies to help unravel the mysteries of Gaudí’s final design for his magnum opus. Through this remarkable living laboratory, I led the introduction of digital design to the project office from 1989. I started experimenting with parametric design software in 1992, and with scripting (coding) in 1993. In 2000 I became a founder member of Gehry Technologies advisory board.
In 2001 I was the founding director of the Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (SIAL) at RMIT University before establishing the Design Research Institute (DRI) in 2008. I held an ARC funded Federation (now Laureate) Fellowship in ‘Complex Architecture and Convergent Design’ 2007-2012. I joined the University of Melbourne in 2014 as Professor of Urban Futures at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning where I helped develop the faculty’s capacity to consolidate research in urban futures, drawing together and augmenting expertise in urban visualisation, urban analytics, and urban policy.