Architecture and Design
Creativity, innovation and exploration are the strengths of Victoria’s design and architecture researchers, who work from a campus in the creative Cuba quarter of downtown Wellington. Our industry connections, with local practices and national organisations, bring a practical focus to our research.
Our architecture researchers lead projects in urban design, green and sustainable architecture, architectural theory and criticism, cultural influences in architecture, contemporary New Zealand architecture, lighting design and technology, concrete applications, earthquake resilient design, affordable design for Pacific communities, building performance, construction and project management, energy efficiency and rooftop apartment design.
Researchers from throughout the University collaborate with architecture researchers on interdisciplinary projects on the economics of sustainability, landscape planning and design, urban resilience, post-disaster design responses, Latin American architecture and on award-winning design projects and installations in New Zealand and abroad.
Our design school has an emerging and vibrant research culture, with individual and group research projects covering topics in design and culture, design history, design led futures, digital fabrication, physical computing and wearable technologies, game design and theory, interaction design, human factors in design research and live theory.
Our researchers are working with Victoria’s engineering and computer science researchers and internationally acknowledged industry partners Weta Digital, Sidhe and Unlimited Realities to build expertise in computer graphics.
Find out more about specific research projects in architecture and design:
A typical house in the small town of El Carmen. Damage from an earthquake fifteen months earlier is yet to be repaired.
Reinforced Adobe Buildings Could Save Lives
An innovative new building technique, designed by Victoria University seismic engineer Andrew Charleson, could save the lives of millions of people living in adobe brick houses.
Charleson, an Associate Professor from the School of Architecture, has developed a technique that uses rubber straps spiral-cut from used tyre treads.
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What at first glance appear to be black lines ruled on yellow paper are actually micro-printed names, dates and locations of Iraqi civilian deaths between 2003 and 2006.
Hidden Messages in Artwork Acknowledge Iraqi Deaths
An artwork protesting against the deaths of Iraqi civilian casualties, devised by a Victoria University academic and his US collaborator, is currently showing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
The work consists of a large stack of seemingly innocuous yellow notepads. However, the lines of each page, when magnified, reveal micro-printed text listing all Iraqi civilian casualties since 2003.
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