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In 2023 our researchers received $11.9m in grant funding to develop new knowledge and tackle some of the most significant challenges in our fields, from 3D printing housing to increase provision in regional communities, to developing a national heat vulnerability observatory to improve urban health and well-being. Our academics curated multiple exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, made the front cover of esteemed journals such as L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui and Casabella and delivered invited lectures at Yale, MIT and Berkeley.

2023 was also a wonderful year for our students, who won prestigious Architecture Awards, the Australian Design Graduate of the year and NSW Young Planner of the Year. An annual highlight for me is attending our end of year student exhibitions, where I am in awe of their work and their ambition to create more sustainable, equitable and resilient designs for our future cities.  

While we have many different disciplines at UNSW Built Environment, there are commonalities that define our collective values as a School. We seek a more equitable built environment for the health, safety and comfort of all. We recognise that the built environment is one of the biggest contributors to the climate crisis, and we’re committed to developing the research, technologies and designs to tackle this, reducing carbon emissions, and creating biodiverse and sustainable buildings and places. For this reason we’re delighted to be recognised as 2^nd in the world for SDG13: Climate Action (in the 2023 THE Impact Rankings).

We’re also committed to our research having societal impact, that’s why we hosted a Housing Roundtable with the NSW Premier the Hon. Chris Minns MP, Minister for Housing the Hon. Rose Jackson MP, and Minister for Planning and Public Spaces the Hon. Paul Scully MP in August 2023, to set the evidence base to tackle the housing crisis. We also firmly believe that education should be for all, which is why I’m delighted to see the establishment of the Margaret Elias Equity Scholarship, which will provide greater access to our degrees and impactful careers in the built environment.

All of this, and more, is captured in this edition of BE In Review. I do hope you enjoy the stories, videos and links within.

I would like to end by thanking our incredible staff at UNSW Built Environment for another remarkable year, and to wish everyone reading this a restful end to 2023, and a great start to 2024.

Philip Oldfield

Head of School, UNSW Built Environment