About
About the Future Cities Research Hub
The Future Cities Research Hub brings together researchers from disciplines concerned with the built environment and its relation with natural environments and ecosystems. With a future focus, the aim is to better understand the complexities of cities, also in relation to the interface between built and natural environments, and find innovative solutions across the building, neighbourhood, city and regional scales.
The Hub promotes research collaborations and cross-disciplinary approaches leading to evidence-based understandings and design innovations for future cities. The research domains broadly include:
- Responding to climate change through integrated processes;
- Enhancing sustainability and resilience at different scales;
- Improving health and well-being through built environments;
- Maintaining and enhancing the health of ecosystems during and after urbanisation;
- Integrated, innovative and disruptive technologies;
- Passive design, Renewable Energy Sources integration and low-carbon communities;
- Circular economy and regenerative design;
- Materials efficiency through pre-fabrication and life-cycle thinking;
- Policies, governance and stakeholder engagement.
We welcome doctoral expressions of interest in relevant fields of research.
Mission
The mission of the Future Cities Research Hub is to promote cross-disciplinary research supporting evidence-based policy, planning and design of the built environment and its relationships with natural environments, with a view to fosters innovation at a range of spatial scales, enhancing individual and community well-being, quality design, building and urban sustainability and resilience, as well as the health of ecosystems.
The purpose of the Hub is to foster cross-disciplinary research and research team building, support researcher development, identify research opportunities, build external stakeholders involvement, support success in external research funding, enhance the profile of the School and that of the researchers associated with the Hub on matters relevant to the building, urban and the larger ecosystem scales, and improved research outcomes and outputs.