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Mediating Meanings: Critique, Framing, Proposition

Architecture and Design Research Theme

Overview

Our researchers aim to develop the disciplines of architecture and design through material, technological, conceptual and critical means as we are dedicated to exploring the spatial, cultural and social possibilities of design. This means we are involved in the creative and rigorous exploration of alternative futures for product design, architecture, and urbanism. This is based on issues of understanding architectural and design histories and the role of archives, diverse ways of thinking about historicity and modernity, and the influence of socio-political environments at local, regional and global levels. We reflexively apply this knowledge to understanding the challenges faced in teaching and assessing creativity in design and architectural education.

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Impact and Engagement

Our explorations employ methods that range from the historiographic to the digital, from archival research to philosophical propositions and socio-cultural speculations. We are also conducting investigations of how robotic fabrication and augmented reality technologies might help us reinterpret historical artefacts, buildings, and environments, or be sustainably deployed in the future of product design, architecture and urbanism. In these investigations, our researchers also critically examine the methodologies or design processes, including the teaching of creativity in design and architecture studios to reflexively connect research with outcomes that will benefit future generations of innovative practitioners.

Our location of Tasmania is itself a key area of research. We are especially interested in exploring the history, present characteristics and future of Tasmanian architecture and design, not only for its intrinsic interest, but as a laboratory and vehicle for exploring broader themes of history, indigeneity, modernity, housing affordability, social value and cultural identity.

Our researchers are also developing research projects across Australia and globally, tackling questions of design and architecture in relation to demographic change, migration, globalisation and alternative views of modernity and heritage. In this, we have a particular interest in Australia’s engagement with Asia. This includes explorations of architecture and design in relation to identity and difference. Subjects for these explorations include designing for difference in Australia’s multicultural built environments, as well as investigations into the alternative modernities represented by design, architectural and urban developments in Japan and Southeast Asia.

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