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Professor Chris Ryan
Program Coordinator
Chris Ryan is Professor Urban Eco-Innovation, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia 3010. Chris was founding Director of the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab ( www.ecoinnovationlab.com) and is co-director of the Eco-Acupuncture International program catalysing urban transformation (www.ecoacupuncture.com). He was national director of Visions and Pathways 2040 project (www.visionsandpathways.com). He is a Visiting Professor at TU Delft, the Netherlands.
Professor Jane Burry
Professor Jane Burry is an architect and Dean of the School of Design at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne. Jane is lead author of book The New Mathematics of Architecture, editor of Designing the Dynamic, and co-author of Prototyping for Architects, and author of well over a hundred other publications. She has practiced, taught, supervised and researched internationally, focusing on use of data and computation to understand and shape a more liveable and sustainable built environment.
Professor Justyna Karakiewicz
Justyna Karakiewicz is professor in architecture and urban design. She researches urban design and architecture through design in practice globally and by publication, including numerous design awards and an extensive record of exhibitions. Her work in sustainability was recognised by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2008 in the Housing Design Awards 2008 Historic Awards for the design of Spinney Garden, constructed in 1986. Her books include Promoting Sustainable Living: Sustainability as an Object of Desire, (Routledge, 2015).
Professor Michael Trudgeon
Michael Trudgeon is professor of design in the School of Design at RMIT University, and is responsible for delivering the Master of Design Innovation and Technology final design studio program. He has taught masters and undergraduate students in architecture, interior design, industrial design and graphic design since1983 at RMIT, the University of Melbourne, Swinburne and Monash University. He was deputy director, of the Victorian Eco Innovation Lab and co-director Eco-acupuncture International (www.ecoacupuncture.com).
In practice he is the founding design director at Crowd Productions, a Melbourne based architecture and industrial design studio, incorporated in 1983. His practice background is focused on developing strategies to prototype new technology and spatial solutions for commercial architecture projects and sustainable servicing systems.
Catherine Murphy
Catherine Murphy is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Architecture at Monash, where she teaches in the new Master of Urban Planning and Design.
She is currently doing her PhD on integrated design and planning processes that foreground water as a driver of urban form. She has worked as a program manager, curator and writer/editor, and started her work life in book publishing.
Dr. Ian Woodcock
Ian is Senior Lecturer & Course Director Urban Design, School of Design, Swinburne University of Technology. Ian is the designer who made the phrase ‘sky-rail’ a household term in Melbourne. With over 30 years’ experience in teaching, research and practice, including at the University of Melbourne and RMIT. Ian has worked with community, government and private sector clients and industry.
Associate Professor
Charles Anderson
Charles is Senior Lecturer and Program Director of the Masters of Landscape Architecture RMIT University and is the coordinator of the Professional Practice stream. He is a Landscape Architect and Artist with over thirty years of experience making and exhibiting work in Australia and around the world. He has a distinguished reputation as an artist and designer, and has received numerous awards for his work, from both within and without the landscape architectural profession. Charles’ research foregrounds the fertile character of collaborative, interdisciplinary, and process-based modes of practice.
Dr. Pirjo Haikola
Pirjo is Industry Fellow and Lecturer Masters of Design Innovation RMIT. She is a designer, researcher, educator and scuba diving instructor. Her research focuses on regenerative design and conservation technologies for marine ecosystems. As an ‘underwater designer’ she is passionate about contributing to environmental design, nonhuman-centred design and ocean literacy through public engagement and teaching. She has held faculty positions at Aalto University (FI), IADE University (PT) and at the Why Factory future cities research group at Delft University of Technology (NL).
Ross Brewin
Ross Brewin is a Melbourne based architect and a senior lecturer in the Department of Architecture Monash University which he helped establish in 2008. Ross’s practice, teaching and research is engaged with culturally, socially and environmentally responsible projects across a range of architectural and urban scales. Ross’s work is currently concentrated on research related to the role and value of contemporary architecture in the ongoing transformation of Australian regional towns and places. Ross’s practice gilby + brewin architecture / urban design has a growing portfolio of built projects in Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.
Professor Alan Pert
Alan Pert was appointed Director of Melbourne School of Design in October 2012. He was previously Professor of Architecture and Director of Research at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. Alan is an acclaimed architect and Director of NORD (Northern Office for Research by Design) that carries out practice-based research, analysing and forging propositions across writing, discourse, exhibitions, education and building.
Dr. Andrew Haig
Andrew Haig has over three decades of design experience divided equally between academia and design practice. Andrew is the Department Chair of Communication Design, and a lecturer in this course at Swinburne University’s School of Design and Architecture. Andrew also researches wayfinding. He recently was a partner in a Melbourne-based communication design consultancy where he worked with clients from the media, environment, education and museum sectors. His background is in identity design, print publication, web and exhibition design.
Dr. Jane Connory
Jane Connory is an experienced communication design lecturer with a demonstrated history of leading and convening subjects at degree and masters’ levels. Skilled in practice-based design research, data visualisation, design history and using design as a tool for activism. Strong design educator whose research focuses on the visibility of women, diversity in design and gender equity from women in Australian graphic design. She is Associate Editor of Design and Culture.
Dr. Siqing Chen
Siqing is Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of Bachelor of Design Landscape Architecture Pathway at the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. His background is in ecology, landscape architecture, and geodesign. Siqing has over 20 years of experience of applying geospatial technology in broader scale landscape planning and urban development projects, where GIS-based spatial analysis is used to inform design and planning strategies. Siqing’s research interests lie in regional landscape assessment and planning, digital landscape architecture, and sustainable regionalism.
Professor Ray Green
Professor Ray Green of the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne undertakes research focused on the socio-environmental dimensions of coastal land development and conservation. He is the author of the book Coastal Towns in Transition: Local Perceptions of Landscape Change (2010) and co-authored Planning Housing and Infrastructure for Smart Villages (2019); Towards Low Carbon Cities in China (2015); The Green City: Sustainable Homes, Sustainable Suburbs (2005), and Design for Change (1985). He has been the recipient of various research grants and consultancies, including from the Australian Research Council (ARC). Prior to focusing on research, he spent over a decade in landscape architecture and planning practice. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and is credited with numerous master planning and design projects in the United States, Mexico, Asia, and Australia, primarily within the context of coastal settings.
Dr. Christopher Waller
Christopher Waller is a Lecturer in Communication Design at Swinburne University of Technology, School of Design and Architecture. He has a background as an award-winning design professional with over forty years experience in the visual communication field, including branding, advertising, magazine and publication design, information and interface design for clients in corporate, government, publishing and education sectors.
His experience as an academic in the field of Communication Design includes teaching in courses at several institutions – from undergraduate to postgraduate levels. Over the past fourteen years at Swinburne, Chris has taught across areas of strategic areas of visual communication, typography, publication, and information design, including masters and capstone projects. He has participated in research involving semiotics and co-design with local government.
Chris was awarded the Dean’s Award for Emerging Researcher (2017). He holds Graduate Certificates in Applied Business and Learning and Teaching. His research investigates in design semiotics and explores the Peircean interpretation of visual signs, which is highly relevant to branding and visual communication design.
Markus Jung
Markus Jung is a multi-award-winning German architect and urbanist. He is the Course Director Master of Urban Design, School of Design and Architecture at Swinburne University of Technology, and co-director of XPACE architecture + urban design.
His research investigates strategies of metropolitan transformation, incorporating resources and the existing built and social fabrics as drivers for resilient City-Making. Markus has held permanent academic positions at ETH Zurich, Monash University and was a visiting professor at Southwest Jiaotong University Chengdu.
Academic Advisors
Dr. David Turnbull
Research Fellow at Deakin University, Alfred Deakin Institute, in Culture Environment and Science, and at University of Melbourne. Current research interests: Narratives of prehistory, wayfinding and storied landscapes, decolonising rock art, the Designing Futures for the Great Ocean Road Project.
Industry Advisors
