Current PhD research

Meet a selection of PhD students in the Wellington School of Architecture and learn about their research.

Rana Abdollahi Rizi

Rana Abdollahi Rizi’s research investigates buildings envelope design considering occupants' behaviour and their comfort for building energy efficiency

Olabisi Ololade Ajiferuke

Developing an Artificial Intelligence Cost Decision Support System for Construction Projects: Towards Improving Cost Management

Pelpuo Rashid Alhassan

An Integrated Low-carbon Building Material Environment Visibility Prototype

Jiaxiang Bai

Improving project management with artificial intelligence and knowledge management

Ian Bowman

The history of applied architectural paint colours and decorative schemes on the exteriors of New Zealand buildings 1840-1925

Xiaohui Chen

Revisiting Publicness: Navigating Spatial Justice in Public Open Spaces Under Private Development

Luca Caiaffa

Magical-Real Drawing: Speculative Architectural Cartographies of One Hundred Years of Solitude

Daniel Coombes

Witnessing Landscape Contemplation: Three arrivals of contemplation in Aotearoa re-enacted through a Pākehā landscape practice

Thathsarani de Silva

Towards Developing an Area-Based Landscape Character Assessment Methodology for Sri Lanka

Laura Dunham

Beyond Site and Screen: The Magic Lantern and Effecting Change in New Zealand’s Built Environment, 1880–1950

Maxwell Fobi Kontor

Confluence of Urban Informality and Climate Change: Examining the resilience of informal settlements to heat stress in Ghana

Cansu Inal Kaynar

Examining the Effect of Reusing Heritage Buildings on the Resilience of Small-Town Centres in New Zealand

Jie Jin

Enhancing Pedestrian Interaction in Public Spaces: Integrating Geo-located AR Technology with Street Performance

Yutong Jin

Exploring Awe and Spirituality in Virtual Reality: Integrating Buddhist Elements into Digital Monumental Architecture

Hirda Khalid

Indoor Overheating Risks: Window Design Framework for Multi-Unit Urban Dwellings

Raphaël Lambotte

WHAT IS COMING: Ce qui arrive

Yanxin Liu

Identify the role of urban agriculture in enhancing post-disaster food security through vegetable production in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington

Yunxi Liu

Optimising Low-Toxicity Material Selection: Enhancing BIM for Sustainable Commercial Design

Leandro López

Leandro's research investigates how hidden river features and characteristics can inform landscape architecture design methods.

Thirumarban Madhavaraman

AI in the cost planning of Project Management

Giulia Marchesini

Educational Marine Areas: when culture and nature interact through Education for Sustainable Development in Polynesia and beyond

Willy Missack

Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Adaption and Wellbeing in Vanuatu

Gehad Mohamed

Material Passport Adoption in New Zealand’s Construction Industry.

Negar Nazaralhouei

Constraints to The Adoption of Earth Building in New Zealand

Chaudhry Nouman Ali

A rule-based automated plan approval system of single-story timber homes according to the NZ building code using CNN and GAN

Ivy Peng

Enhancing Life Cycle Assessment Data Quality: A Framework for Toxicity Reporting in the Construction Sector

Asma Rashidi Mohammadi

Harmonising Timber life-cycle Informed by Kaupapa Māori: Unveiling Te Ako Torowhānui

Maria Rodgers

(Re)Planting te taiao in urban Aotearoa New Zealand

Masi (Masoumeh) Shiran

Environmental Impact Assessment of Retrofit Strategies for Residential Buildings in New Zealand: Focusing on Carbon Emissions, Moisture Risk, and Overheating

Sneha Shroff

Cost of circular construction in New Zealand

Wanfeng Si

Architecture as a proto-organism

Judith Heshani Silva

Investigating the role of Urban Heritage sites in fostering Sustainable Urban Development in Sri Lanka: a Community-Centered approach

Ryan Simpson

Returning Samoa to a low-carbon built environment

Saikumar Singh

Transnational Identity & Faith-Based Consumerism: an investigation into pilgrim identities & faith-based hospitality architecture in 21st century pilgrim towns

Alexis Sutherland

Retrofit of Buildings for Flood Resilience and Adaptability

Jinyi Tang

Optimizing the Walkability of Streets in Age-Friendly Neighborhoods from a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Sachithra Thilakarathne

Remote Work: Reshaping Physical Space in the Post-Pandemic Era

Johannes van der Wielen

Pushing the Envelope: Optimising building envelope design for the circular economy by quantifying the reutilisation prospects of building materials

Mengke Wang

Policy Impacts on the Spatiotemporal Evolution of Urban Villages: A Case Study of Zhengzhou

Ningfei (Shannon) Xiao

Healing Matrix

Qingqing (Stella) Yang

Bio-procedural 3D Printing: Applying Living Systems to Digital Fabrication for Symbiotic Architecture

Chengcheng Yin

Virtual Homelands: Examining the Potential of VR Landscapes to alleviate Homesickness for International Students

Xin Zhang

Enabling Digital Twin Cities to Better Support Social Dialogue on Urban Changes