Research - PhD in Architecture 2022-2025

Currently I am a PhD in Architecture candidate at the University of Cambridge. The working title of my thesis is; Between City and Sea: The Design of Coastal Urban Seascapes with Oysters as an Architectural Response to Climate Change. It’s about designing infrastructure for nature-based (i.e. oyster reef) interventions along the urban coast that will reduce coastal erosion, improve marine biodiversity and re-engage city dwellers with life beneath the water line.

After passing the First Year Paper and examination at Cambridge in 2023 I returned to Sydney where I have been conducting field work. This has included interviewing contemporary designers and marine-biologists, scuba-diving in the city to see life beneath the water line and visiting sites of urban coastal growth.

In November 2023 I travelled to New York where I visited some exciting projects by the Billion Oyster Project, the newly developed Brooklyn Bridge Park, SCAPE and Fishers Island Oyster Farm in addition to interviewing influential landscape architects, artists and aquaculture farmers.

I look forward to sharing more findings as they present themselves. It’s fantastically exciting research and I would love to hear if you have an inside scoop on all that is oyster, urban, coastal and design.