Our People
We are an internationally and culturally diverse team of world-class researchers, award-winning practitioners, and academics at the forefront of industry innovation.
We collaborate across disciplines to provide best-in-class teaching which mirrors the world of work in Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Civil Engineering, Construction Management and Environmental Engineering across the globe.
Professor Jane Burry
Head of School of Architecture and Civil Engineering
Professor Jane Burry is an architect, Deputy Director of the ARC Training Centre for Next Gen Architectural Manufacturing, director of the international Smartgeometry Organisation, and President of the Deans of Design and Built Environment in Australia. A co-chair of IASS 23, FABRICATE 2020, and co-curator of the 2018 International Exhibition Dynamics of Air, she has served on the Hong Kong University Grants Committee (UGC). From 2017 to 2023, Professor Burry was Dean, Design and Architecture at Swinburne University and from 2012 -17, Director of the Spatial Information Laboratory at RMIT University. She has held visiting positions at IAAC and University of Oregon. She is a recent recipient of an Australian Timber Design Award, Australian Good Design Award, Gold, ACADIA Excellence in Teaching Award and Robots in Architecture Pioneer Award.
Her recent research investigates architectural geometry and materiality in tandem with rich environmental data gathering to fine tune the acoustic, thermal and air flow design of high quality, human-centric environments. She is lead author of The New Mathematics of Architecture, T&H, editor of Designing the Dynamic, Melbourne Books, and co-author of Prototyping for Architects, T&H and has well over a hundred other publications. She has practiced, researched and taught internationally, including involvement as a project architect in the technical office at Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família Basilica with partner Mark Burry.
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Deputy Head of School
Dr Urs Bette
Dr Urs Bette is Program Director of the Master of Architecture and Principle of urs bette : studio. Urs leads practice-based research at the School of Architecture and Civil Engineering. He holds a Masters degree in architecture from the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, and a PhD from RMIT University Melbourne. His design works have been shown at the Architectural Biennale Venice, the AEDES Architecture Gallery Berlin and the FRAC Centre Orléans.
His research investigates the role of ‘the unreasonable’ in the design process, revealing strategies that facilitate the poetics of architecture within a professional discourse dominated by expectations of quantifiable performance. The context of this research is set by the relationship between existing urban fabrics and a secondary layer of architectural form. The work contributes to the discourse on sustainable models of urban growth, by developing strategies for urban densification that tap into local histories and voices, including those of the seemingly inanimate - the architecture itself and the ground it sits up-on - to inform the site-related production of architectural character and space.
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Associate heads
Professor Dmitri Kavestski
Associate Head, Learning & Teaching
Associate Professor Mark Thyer
Associate Head, Research
Dr Scott Hawken
Associate Head, People & Culture
Professor Jian Zuo
Associate Head, International
Navodana Rodrigo
Associate Head, Outreach & Engagement (joint)
Dr Athanasios ('Nasi') Lazarou
Associate Head, Outreach & Engagement (joint)
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Discipline leads
Associate Professor Katharine Bartsch
Architecture and Landscape Architecture
Professor Martin Lambert
Civil Engineering
Professor Jian Zuo
Construction Management
Dr Michael Leonard
Environmental Engineering
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School contacts