Adaptable and site-responsive, the framework aims to establish respectful modes of working on Country and with landscapes that inform our projects, while also expanding the boundaries of our respective practices and disciplines.

The case study report collates preliminary and baseline data investigating the work and workplace dynamics of a Far North Queensland IAC, Mirndiyan Gununa Aboriginal Corporation (aka MIArt), Mornington Island, as an embedded case study. The report presents the key outputs of the study and provides an overview of the IAC and its context to provide an historical and cultural overview.

What if Sydney’s empty office towers could hold the key to solving its housing affordability crisis? This research investigates how underused commercial buildings can be cost-effectively transformed into high-quality, flexible affordable housing.

This report responds to the critical shortage of social and affordable housing in Australia, where over 800,000 people live in 436,300 dwellings - 62% of whom are women.

The report offers a series of principles to guide a new era of affordable and social housing in Australia, helping to shape future housing policy and investment through the lens of good design.

A discussion on recent prefabricated houses in Australia with Trias, Fabprefab, Archier, Candour, Otetto, Alexander Symes, Vokes and Peters, and Blok Modular. The symposium featured four thematic sessions—CLT, systems, sustainability, and stereotypes—moderated by USYD faculty. 

Second Skin (aka. FlaxWing) is a research project that focuses on the possibilities of a more climate responsive architectural approach. Via concepts of adaptation, we consider the social and technical reuse of existing building stock; the transformation of prevailing construction practices via the uptake of bio-based and low-carbon building materials; and the very adaptation of buildings themselves in response to environmental and occupant influences enacted via cyber-physical systems. 

This research uses a case study approach to undertake a ‘deep dive’ into innovative and exemplary housing projects. The interviews and case studies identified nine key insights relevant to the entire design and delivery process, from housing policy, through to the ongoing operation and maintenance of buildings.

In the age of the Anthropocene, Heliotope seeks to explore the creative possibilities for glass gleaned from the circular economy.

St Albans Housing, a mixed-tenure social and specialist disability accommodation, underwent a POE to assess its economic and social impact through interviews, lived-condition drawings, and cost-benefit analysis.

Beyond Heritage is an emergent research project and online resource celebrating, recognising and supporting the development of Australian First Nations design, as frontline responses to the climate and biodiversity emergency.

Papulu-ku Nyinjjiki (seeing houses) exhibition set out to document the harsh realities of remote indigenous housing in the Northern Territory. It was about telling the story of Tennant Creek through housing injustice and art—revealing these lived realities to the broader public. The exhibition was also about meaningful engagement and collaboration; celebrating the homes at Emu Springs and the establishment of Wilya Janta housing collaboration.

This report, developed in collaboration with the University of Technology Sydney, City of Sydney, Loop Landscape Studio and research scientists, investigates how and where a habitat corridor for pollinators could be implemented in the City of Sydney local government. 

This guide, produced by Marra + Yeh Architects provides strategies for mitigation and adaption, acknowledging climate change as re-shaping the natural built environments. Including precedents that investigate methodologies to mitigate climate without energy-intensive technologies, providing historical context and wisdom for contemporary applications.

The project AT HOME transformed a suburban Melbourne home in Wyndham for three days in December in 2023 into a dramatic art intervention, which hosted a series of public talks, events and programs that interrogated the home.

This research investigates Indigenous approaches to working; collaboration in working environments, and the structure of working organisations in themselves to define a set of preliminary principles to encourage the next evolution of Australian workplace design and practice.

Phycoforms was created to explore the potential of utilizing biofouled content from the seaweed farming process to create rigid compressible seaweed biocomposites for the building industry. This material system exploration looks into the unique properties of alginate present in brown seaweed and how this can be utilized to make more resilient and fire-retardant building materials.

This case study reports findings from Mirvac’s Adaptive Workplace Pilot, an experimental work floor within the company’s Sydney CBD office designed to test spaces and tools most effective in supporting seamless hybrid work. The pilot targeted challenges of human connection, knowledge exchange, and community in a hybrid workforce, with observations, focus groups and utilisation measurements conducted from May to September 2022.

The high turnover of Australia’s commercial office space represents an often overlooked component of the built environment’s ecological footprint. Drawing upon circular-design strategies, Workplace Plasticity offers an approach to the design and fabrication of common workplace elements using recyclable Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol (PETG) plastic.

The project aims to showcase design and practice-based approaches to the sustainable, adaptive reuse of historic places in Australia. Supported by the Swayn Foundation grant, and building on our research, a series of 12 interviews have been conducted with leading architects and heritage practitioners in four Australian states.