AHURI Adelaide

ACHR has a strong research partnership with the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), and is the home of the AHURI Adelaide node.

AHURI is a national independent research network whose mission is to develop high-quality, policy-relevant research for better housing and urban outcomes. Through AHURI’s national network of university research partners, the Institute undertakes research leading to the advancement of knowledge on key policy and practice issues in the areas of housing, homelessness, cities, and related urban research.

The AHURI node at the University of Adelaide comprises researchers from across multiple disciplines and research backgrounds, all working across a diverse range of housing and urban planning areas. Our researchers work on AHURI projects led within the University of Adelaide, and also have strong collaborative with other research institutions. Research training in the AHURI Adelaide node is achieved through a strong postgraduate program, with many students receiving additional support from AHURI.

AHURI informs and influences policy development on housing, homelessness, cities and urban issues through the delivery and dissemination of relevant and authoritative research.

AHURI research is delivered through a suite of Inquiries and standalone projects that focus on strategic priorities for national housing, cities and urban issues.

Currently-funded projects

Precarious housing, housing assistance and wellbeing: a multi-dimensional investigation

Professor Emma Baker

(Led by Professor Rachel Ong, Curtin University).

Sustainable social housing: solutions for large-scale retrofit

Professor Emma Baker

Support project for "Inquiry into housing in a circular economy" (Professor Ralph Horne, RMIT).

The impact of the pandemic on the Australian rental sector

Professor Emma Baker

(Led by the University of Adelaide)

Mapping where older low-income renters live

Mr. Jarrod Lange

(Led by Dr Helen Barrie, The University of South Australia)

Recently completed projects

Rental insights: A COVID-19 collection

Editors: Emma Baker, Lyrian Daniels

Contributing Authors: Hal Pawson; Michelle Baddeley; Akshay Vij; Mark Stephens; Peter Phibbs; Amy Clair; Andrew Beer; Emma Power; Rebecca Bentley; Carol T. Kulik; Ruchi Sinha; Wendy Stone; Joel Dignam; Kerry London; Steven Rowley; Kath Hulse; Christian A. Nygaard; Heather Holst; Chris Leishman; Dallas Rogers; Keith Jacobs

 

Supporting Australia’s housing system: modelling pandemic policy responses

Authors: Chris Leishman; Rachel Ong; Laurence Lester; Weidong Liang

Post pandemic landlord-renter relationships in Australia

Authors: David Oswald; Trivess Moore; Emma Baker

Renting in the time of COVID-19: understanding the impacts

Authors: Emma Baker; Rebecca Bentley; Andrew Beer; Lyrian Daniel

Social Housing exit points, outcomes and future pathways: an administrative data analysis

Authors: Emma Baker, Chris Leishman, Rebecca Bentley, Ngoc Thien Anh Pham, Lyrian Daniel

Warm, cool and energy-affordable housing policy solutions for low-income renters

Authors: Lyrian Daniel; Trivess Moore; Emma Baker; Andrew Beer; Nicola Willand; Ralph Horne; Cathryn Hamilton

Professor Emma Baker

Emma Baker is Professor of Housing Research at the University of Adelaide where she leads the Housing and Healthy Cities Research Group and is Director of the Stretton Institute’s ‘Building a City for the Future’ research program. Emma's research examines the cumulative effects of housing, environmental, locational and socioeconomic vulnerabilities on wellbeing, with particular interests in utilising large longitudinal, administrative datasets to create knowledge that responds to real policy problems.

Professor Jon Kellett

Jon Kellett recently retired from his position as Professor of Planning & Property at the University of Adelaide and is now focusing on research into cities, housing and climate change as Adjunct Professor. Jon has particular research interests in energy and the environment, climate change impacts on cities and regions and urban sustainability. He has an extensive publication record in urban research and is currently active in critiquing the application of the new South Australian Planning and Development code.

Professor Javen Shi

Professor Javen Shi is the Founding Director of Probabilistic Graphical Model Group at the University of Adelaide, Director in Advanced Releasing and Learning of Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML), and the Chief Scientist of Smarter Regions. Javen has transferred his research in probalistic graphical models and counterfactuals to diverse industries including agriculture, mining, sport, manufacturing, bushfire, water utility, health and education.

Professor Jian Zuo

Professor Jian Zuo is a construction manager and environmental engineer based in the School of Architecture and Built Environment, the University of Adelaide. Jian's main research interest is around achieving good health, safety and sustainability and both building and urban levels through using alternative construction methods (e.g. prefabrication), technologies (smart technologies) and policy interventions to achieve better environmental and economic sustainability of development projects.

Associate Professor Michele Slatter

Associate Professor Michele Slatter’s research interests have focussed on issues of Housing Law and Policy, particularly ‘housing risk’, precarious tenancies and homelessness. Her research has explored eviction, discrimination, anti-social behaviour, tenant support, tenure change, affordable housing and philanthropic funding. She has contributed as a consultant to a wide range of housing policy, including South Australian government projects on tenancy dispute processes, community housing, boarding house law, hoarding interventions and housing assistance.

Dr. Ruidong Chang

Ruidong Chang is a senior lecturer of construction management at the School of Architecture & Built Environment. Ruidong’s research area is sustainability in Construction 4.0, with a recent focus on green Building Information Modelling. His research spans construction projects, corporate and industry level technological developments, and policy frameworks and impacts. Ruidong has participated in various research projects funded or supported by institutions such as the International Energy Agency and Building Construction Authority of Singapore.

Dr. Tracey Dodd

Dr Tracey Dodd is a lecturer with the Adelaide Business School. Her research expertise includes social impact measurement, affordable housing policy, and innovative approaches to end homelessness. Tracey has 20 years of industry experience in government policy, including developmental work on national agreements and state partnerships, including the National Housing and Homelessness Agreement and South Australian Government Aspire Social Impact Bond to end homelessness.

Dr. Lyrian Daniel

Lyrian Daniel is a Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at The University of Adelaide. Her research focuses on the relative risk of housing disadvantage, households’ lived experience of poor housing conditions, and their implications for population health and wellbeing. Lyrian has established an innovative research programme on housing precarity (across affordability and instability) and indoor cold (including upstream problems of energy hardship).  She has skills across all areas of research and project management, including scoping and project development, literature reviews, quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, and dissemination.

Dr. Linda Isherwood

Dr Linda Isherwood is a Senior Research Fellow with the Future of Employment and Skills research centre. Linda has research expertise in the fields of housing policy and practice (with a particular focus on Indigenous and remote housing), social inclusion, aged care, disability and healthcare. She is experienced in both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies including the evaluation of policies and programs. She is an experienced social worker who has worked extensively in the mental health and disability sectors.

Dr. Megan Moskos

Dr Megan Moskos is a Senior Research Fellow and Sociology Lead at the Future of Employment and Skills research centre. Megan’s research experience is in the fields of housing policy and practice, especially with disadvantaged groups and those living in rural and remote areas (including Aboriginal and CALD communities). She specialises in the methodologies that are necessary for social research, combining both qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Dr. Laurence Lester

Laurence has a Master’s Degree and PhD in the fields of applied economics and econometrics using both time-series and panel data.  His interests are the application of econometric modelling and analysis to social issues such as affordable housing and the effects of housing on mental health and general welfare, but he also has extensive experience in the application of econometrics in other fields. He is highly experienced with large cross-sectional, longitudinal and time-series data and has used such data in applying complex and varied econometric analysis.

Dr. Romy Wasserman

Romy is an early career researcher at the Hugo Centre for Population and Housing. She completed a PhD in Human Society in the Department of Geography, Environment and Population at the University of Adelaide in 2015, receiving the John Lewis Medal for Geography from the Royal Geographical Society for South Australia. Romy's research interests include population and migration issues such as international migration, transnationalism, and migrant settlement, with recent projects focussed on regional migration and migrant housing.

Ms. Laura James

Laura James is a PhD student at the University of Adelaide in the Department of Geography, Environment and Population. Laura currently researches housing inequality in neoliberal homeowner societies. Case study sites include: Australia, the United States, Europe and New Zealand. Her doctoral work is part of a larger international study funded by the ARC. Laura's broader research interests include economics; family and household studies; housing markets, development and management; sociology; and urban and regional planning.

Mr. Garry Goddard

Garry Goddard is currently working with the Stretton Institute of Public Policy at the University of Adelaide and is a Director of his own consultancy practice, specialising in policy analysis and commercial advice. Garry has a strong background in the application of economic analysis to public policy issues. Garry’s research interests include the efficiency and effectiveness of policy interventions in private housing markets, the interplay between the tax / transfer system and housing affordability, and funding models and inter-generational impacts relating to first home ownership.

AHURI offers a Housing Postgraduate Scholarship Top-up each year to assist postgraduate students undertaking housing and urban research.

The University of Adelaide's AHURI Funded PhD Scholars come from across the School of Social Sciences and the School of Architecture and Built Environment, representing the trans-disciplinary and varied research into housing, regional, and urban planning at the University. 

Current and Recent AHURI postgraduate researchers

  • Annette Bardsley -Demographic Change, Bushfire risk and Biodiversity Conservation: conflicting policy goals in peri-urban regions within Mediterranean Australia and France.
  • Rachel Bills - Cool or Cook: Thermal Comfort, Affordability and Health in Housing for Ageing Australians
  • Alhassan Ibrahim - Green infrastructure for decentralized flood management: re-conceptualizing rainwater as a resource
  • Laura James - Housing in the 21st Century: a discrimination lens
  • Martin Larbi - Green Urbanism: Towards an operational framework and application to cities
  • Larissa Martins - Understanding comfort and wellbeing of older Australians using occupant-centric models
  • Armin Mehdipour - Achieving the Sustainable Development of Brownfield Sites; an Application to the Iranian Context
  • Charmine Thredgold - Radical housing renovators and rule makers: the early days of rebellious retrofitting