My PhD

I’m working on a PhD at The University of Melbourne’s Melbourne School of Design, focusing on how the evaluation of placemaking practice in Australia can foster a deeper, more caring way of being in and with place.

This work sees placemaking as a practice concerned with adding layers of meaning into the urban environment, provoking stronger links between people and place.  For more on placemaking, you can start here.

The PhD is motivated by a recognition of the depth and importance of Indigenous place ontology, and its deep connection with landscape.  This is an existential question for Australia as a nation, and for Australian urbanism: Deepening our link to place is vital towards true stewardship, finding models of urbanism that are more in tune with this land and richer, more relevant placemaking practice.

The work is also motivated by the need for evaluation to contribute to the integrity of placemaking practice.  This starts with grounding evaluation in place, and the ways of knowing and making place.Through this site, and the progress of the work, I invite you to follow the thread of becoming.  It is my hope that this work might be useful, but also that it might be pulled apart, built on, adapted and used by others.My PhD research is funded through a scholarship provided by the Australian Government’s Research Training Program Initiative.