Research – SILVIA TAVARES

Implementation of urban climate-responsive design strategies: an international overview

This article was published last February in the Journal of Urban Design. It is the third publication from an international study led by Professor Sanda Lenzholzer in which I have the privilege of taking part.

The full article can be read here; and the other two articles are available here and here.

The art of finishing (and publishing) research projects

This slide is from a presentation delivered last year by Professor Maria Raciti at the UniSC Research Conference.

As so many academics I’ve had many (many!) publications in the pipeline to be (just) finished. The main challenge is when they really just depend on me and no one is waiting for feedback or relying on it to carry on with their life plans – like when my PhD students need me to read their work, for example.

Urban design and planning for extreme heat: an empirical study of built environment professionals’ perceptions in South East Queensland, Australia

This paper was published by our brilliant (now) PhD student Ryan McNeilly Smith. This project, now published in this article, was his Honours project.

The full article is available here.

Preparing for a heating future in ‘the Sunshine State’: It is getting hot in here

When you think Queensland, you think heat. It’s right there in the nickname ‘The Sunshine State’. Yet one of the curiosities of the state is that minimal governance exists to ensure Queensland homes, towns and cities protect occupants from threats posed by heat.

Urban Design Solutions for Ameliorating Urban Heat Island Effect in Townsville, Queensland

Along with Professor Karine Dupre from Griffith University, and in collaboration with Townsville City Council, we are undertaking a research project investigating urban microclimates in Townsville (Queensland, Australia).

Implementation of the New Urban Agenda on a local level: An effective methodology for human-centred urban design

In 2018 David Sellars and I, along with Planz Town Planning, Milford Planning, Cairns Regional Council, Townsville City Council, Richard Briggs, and Chuck Wolfe, as our Fulbright expert, organised and hosted an Urban Thinkers Campus, a UN-Habitat World Urban Campaign initiative (I wrote about it here and here).

We recently reported our engagement method in a publication in the Journal of Urbanism, as per abstract below.

Urban design and planning policy to mitigate heat-related health risks

A recent USC media release featured one of my PhD students’ work. Ryan McNeilly Smith has been working in the BASC Lab for just over one semester. He is investigating what urban planning and design policy for heat and urban climates may look like in Queensland.

Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 Lockdown on Public Spaces through a Systems Modelling Approach

Even though we have had already a few publications out of our Urban Design and Town Planning in response to COVID-19 project, I realised I failed to publish here about this one. This paper came out a while ago in the Special Issue 2020: A Year without Public Space under the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BASC Lab on the news

USC has recently published a media release about the Bioclimatic and Sociotechnical Cities (BASC) Lab which is led by Dr Nicholas Stevens and myself, and is part of the university’s School of Law and Society and the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems.

The BASC Lab is focused both on teaching and research, and will help us to enhance a human-centred approach to urban design and town planning by considering the many factors of the physical environment that impact on people.

Australian Urban Design Guidelines: What do we know and what can we learn?

I have recently co-authored an article focused on existing Urban Design Guidelines in Australia. The article has been recently published in the Australian Planner.

About Dr Silvia Tavares

Urban designer with a background in architecture, urbanism, and building and city science. Brazilian national. Senior Lecturer in Urban Design and Town Planning at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. Affiliate member of PIA and registered architect and urbanist in Brazil.

Passionate about interfaces between urbanism, landscape and architecture. Interested in providing evidence through research to produce public open spaces that are thermally comfortable and economically effective, while promoting the good health of users and the natural environments that surround them.

For more information see the 'about' page on the menu above.

All opinions and points of view expressed in this website are my own and do not reflect employer or colleagues' opinions.