Dr I-Ting Chuang is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Director of Urban Design at the University of Auckland’s School of Architecture and Planning. She holds a B.Arch (First Class Honours) from the University of Auckland and an M.Des from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, and has practised architecture and urban design in New York and Taiwan. Her academic work bridges design informatics, urban geography, and the spatial quality of public spaces. Leveraging large geo-located datasets, including mobile phone traces and geo-tagged social media, she explores both bottom-up perspectives of social landscapes and top-down assessments of urban space ‘performance’. Her research focuses on identifying overlooked “special” places that traditional methods often miss, understanding the environmental characteristics of urban parks, and mapping socio-spatial patterns across cities. By integrating quantitative analytics with spatial design thinking, she aims to provide policymakers and designers with richer, place-sensitive insights for building inclusive, vibrant, and resilient urban environments.

Walking for Pleasure: The Next Frontier in Auckland’s Mobility

Even in walkable areas, Aucklanders often drive. Most walking happens where it’s unavoidable, yet functional trips are shrinking with remote work, online shopping, and digital services. Using Gehl’s tripartite framework, we examine how the environment shapes leisure walking and why understanding perceptual barriers is vital to creating cities people want to walk in.

Dr Yusef Patel is a Senior Lecturer and Academic Programme Manager at Unitec’s School of Architecture. He oversees Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Interior Design programmes. His research focuses on architectural prototypes, modular manufacturing, and upcycled prefabrication. His teaching integrates design-build workflows and socially engaged, community-driven building practices.

Social Fabrication Studio Projects 

Architecture students collaborate with Auckland communities on fabrication projects that foster innovative design strategies and social impact. These initiatives encourage students to develop research methodologies focused on community engagement, connecting with design professionals, industry experts, and stakeholders to address the diverse needs of Tāmaki Makaurau’s urban population.

Iman Khan is an architectural graduate from the University of Auckland, co-founder of Side Walk, and a Lecturer at Unitec’s School of Architecture. She engages in practice-based research, teaching, and postgraduate supervision, with prior experience spanning UoA, AUT, and Unitec. With a background in cultural heritage, climate-responsibility, and community design and fabrication, Iman’s research explores how the intersection of these disciplines informs both personal and broader architectural practice.

on collective sense making: through 'other architecture

Crises, problems, and issues often arise from recurrently disrupted patterns recognised by the plural person. Addressing these challenges does not solely rely on architecture as a physical or formal practice, but rather on the social relations and processes it enables. This talk describes other ways of practising ‘architecture’,  one that is grounded in collective sense-making as a means of responding to issues we face.

Bhaveeka Madagammana is an educator and PhD candidate at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland’s Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning, and a part of MĀPIHI Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre.

Hope and Space: Wandering through Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka holds a multiplicity of meanings for the country's diaspora and its complexity can be directly related to the variety of intersectional journeys Sri Lankans have taken from there. This talk reflects on hope as an emotive spatial quality which permeates Sri Lankan diasporic places and events.

Ben Everitt is an Architectural Designer at Mellow Architects, and Lecturer at the School of Future Environments at AUT. He is focused on sustainability topics such as circular economy, transit oriented design, and regenerative systems. He works between Japan and New Zealand, and his built environment research is inspired from the intersections between the two volcanic, seismically active countries within opposite sides of the hemisphere, that relies on timber as a building material.

Rebuilding a Region Post-Earthquake: A Cross-Cultural View of Public Buildings in Tohoku, Japan, and Canterbury, New Zealand.

This presentation explores how two Pacific Rim nations, both vulnerable to natural disasters, have approached architectural design and rebuilding. We'll delve into themes of displacement, migration, belonging, and the impact of the climate crisis on the built environment, examining projects that showcase radical, speculative, and care-based architectural responses. Discover insights from revitalising transit-oriented development in Japan and the influence of shared cultural values on design, offering a unique perspective for architects, students, and the public alike.

IN ABSENTIA

Sameh is a Palestinian-Jordanian lecturer at the Unitec School of Architecture. We recognised his important work, Windows of Palestine, an installation-based collision of architectural models and performance art.

 Shamout’s work aims to challenge traditional media and give Kiwis a real-time perspective on the material impact of the atrocities in Gaza, by inviting participants to assist in creating a model of the city, replicating landmarks, many of which are now lost, like churches, hospitals. 

Whilst co-creating the city, participants are invited to share songs and memories, with the performance of each installation culminating in its destruction; a small-scale reflection of the very real loss of culture and humanity faced by Palestine today.