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Research in UTS: Design, Architecture and Building (DAB) seeks to lead the development of the academic disciplines of design, architecture and the built environment. Our researchers use theoretical, historical and philosophical approaches in order to understand how we assign value and meaning to space, objects, materiality and the management of the built environment. We explore the agency of the designer and architect in making all aspects of the 21st century city. We investigate the financial, social, and institutional contexts that mediate urban development and regeneration.
The design and built environment professions are currently in flux, confronting the effects of a digital and globalised world, changing financial markets, volatile ecologies, social transformation, and the subsequent increasing complexity of design thinking and development practice. We must create more sustainable urban environments that value place and traditions without nostalgia. In developing new professional practices we also create new critical frameworks that evaluate and reflect on the role of these disciplines in broader cultural, social and historical contexts.
The Australian Research Council’s Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) 2012 National Report assessing research quality within Australia's higher education providers ranks the Faculty’s research (For 12 Built Environment and Design) as being at world standard.
Research supervised within the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building extends across theoretical and practice-informed investigations, historical contextualisations and interdisciplinary approaches. Higher Degrees offered through the Faculty afford sustained engagement with the many issues that arise in relation to the creation, production, management and understanding of design and its role in our complex world.
The Centre for Design Thinking and Innovation
The Designing Out Crime (DOC) Research Centre (opens an external site)
The Asia-Pacific Centre for Complex Real Property Rights (APCCRPR)
Applied Research in the Built Environment
These centres support the dynamic research culture of the faculty, and are at the forefront of its linkage to industry, the professions, and the broader community.
Contact us for faculty-specific information, advice and support for prospective research students.