Research
My research explores facets of architectural design creation, and its making, through human and computer interactions.
PhD thesis
Title: The Architectural Designer and Their Digital Media: an investigation into the extent to which it is advantageous to include digital media as part of the designers’ ‘toolset’ in the early stages of design.
My practice-based action-research study was one part of a larger Embedded Practice Research ARC Grant at RMIT SIAL, which placed PhD scholars within existing architectural and engineering practices to explore the implications of integrating advanced digital media. My thesis presented an expose of contemporary collaborative designing and demonstrated creative gains, disturbances, and evolutions in integrating digital media in the early stages of design and within practice.
Link to Thesis Online: http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20081126.155609/
Current Research Projects
Digital Architecture Education
Premise of the Research:
Digital Architecture Education is relatively new to architecture schools, both locally and internationally, and is a frontier discipline. The intended project aims to further our belief that effective and appropriate teaching of Digital Architecture is absolutely critical to the architectural studies and preofessional future of our students. The quality of this teaching depends on both the direction of the curriculum, and on the facilities that are available within the Faculty. This research aims to collate clearer definitions and education programmes within this field based on information gathered from Australian Univeristies.
Ultra_FAB Pavilion for Sydney Design 09
Premise of the Pavilion:
‘Has anyone ever checked the toxicity levels of 3D printers, or the gases given off during the laser-cutting of a piece of plywood?’ (Steele 2008) Digital modelling and digital fabrication enables virtual form-making and the direct output to physical artifacts. Nevertheless, what are the environmental impacts of these Ultra_Fab tectonics? University of Sydney Architecture staff and students will demonstrate the creative potential, and the impact, of digital fabrication through the ultra_fab pavilion. Waste and re-use will feature alongside the new and improved, to demonstrate that architecture is as much about the final object, as it is about the sustainable choices designers make along the way.
Publications
2009
reForming ; responding to our land in crisis. ACADIA 09: reForm( ) - Building a Better Tomorrow [Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) ISBN 978-0-9842705-0-7] Chicago (Illinois) 22-25 October, 2009), pp. 226-233
2008
The Architectural Designer and Their Digital Media. Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory, Melbourne, RMIT University Doctor of Philosophy.
2007
Mediating between Architectural Design Ideation and Development through Digital Technology: Dynamic Animation Toys and Mediation Methods in Designing. Predicting the Future Ecaade 25 2007 Conference, September 26-28 2007, FH Frankfurt Germany.
Modelling ideas. Homofaber Conference Proceedings, August 13 - September 16 2007, Melbourne.
Digital Modelling in the Elastic Band Installation. Homofaber Conference Proceedings, August 15 - September 14 2008, Melbourne Museum