25/05/2026
RMIT ARCHITECTURE STAFF AND PHD STUDENTS PARTICIPATE IN CAADRIA 2026
RMIT Architecture staff and PhD students recently participated in the 30th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA 2026), held at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Hsinchu, Taiwan.
Two research papers from RMIT Architecture were accepted and presented at the conference, which are co-authored by RMIT Architecture Senior Lecturer Dr Nic Bao and PhD students Harlan Zhaonan Guo, Jason Zhan, and Yang Yu. The presentations were delivered both in person and online, reflecting the team’s ongoing research across computational design, timber construction, artificial intelligence, and advanced fabrication. Dr Nic Bao also chaired the online session “Additive Manufacturing at Scale” on the second day of the conference.
The team also led the CAADRIA workshop, “Human-Machine Collaborative Assembly Using a Relative Robotic System.” Due to travel issues, the workshop was delivered in a hybrid format. Led by Dr Nic Bao, Prof. Mike Xie, Harlan Guo, Jason Zhan and Yang Yu, the workshop explored new approaches to human-machine collaborative construction. During the workshop, participants assembled two timber structures through a hybrid workflow that combined AR-assisted on-site assembly with a self-developed robotic system operated remotely under the supervision of the instructors.
Dr Nic Bao was re-elected as CAADRIA Secretary for another term, having served in this role over the past two years. He also served on the Awards Committee for the Young CAADRIA Award and Best Paper Award.
Congratulations to the RMIT Architecture team on their active participation and contributions to CAADRIA 2026.
Image credit: Nic Bao
25/05/2026
PRS AU JUNE 2026 - RMIT DESIGN PRACTICE PhD PROGRAM - EXAMINATIONS NEXT WEEK! – PROGRAM OUT NOW!
Design-practice PhD candidates from the Schools of Architecture and Urban Design, Design, Art, Fashion & Textiles and Media and Communication will present their research to panels of academic researchers and expert critics and the event will hold a number of examination presentations.
Full details of the event, including information on all milestone and work in progress presentations, can be found at the Practice Research Portal
https://practice-research.com/symposia/prs-australia-june-2026
Image 1: Michael Chapman: The Fictional Architecture of Fictional Architects whose first name is Michael
Supervisors: Dr. Michael Spooner, Assoc. Prof. Anna Johnson
EXAMINATION DATE: Tuesday 2nd June 2026
TIME: 9:30am - 11:30am AEDT
WHERE: RMIT Design Hub Gallery. Please arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the start time.
LINK: https://events.rmit.edu.au/event/3fbff884-abce-4078-af99-3e94b66a84ec/register
Image 2: Alan 'Ho Kyeong' Kim: Fibrous Tectonics | Amalgamation
Supervisors: Prof. Roland Snooks, Prof. Stuart Bateman, Dr. Phillip Crothers
EXAMINATION DATE: Thursday 4th June 2026
TIME: 2:00pm - 4:00pm AEDT.
WHERE: RMIT Design Hub Gallery. Please arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the start time.
LINK: https://events.rmit.edu.au/event/0e63859e-4624-43ac-bba9-a05c00c79ba9/register
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25/05/2026
JOIN US FOR PRS AUSTRALIA JUNE 2026! PRS - RMIT DESIGN PRACTICE PhD PROGRAM - PRS AUSTRALIA JUNE 2026 EXAMINATIONS, MILESTONE AND WORK IN PROGRESS PRESENTATIONS (01 June – 06 June) – PROGRAM OUT NOW!
The School of Architecture and Urban Design, School of Design, School of Fashion & Textiles, School of Media and Communication and the School of Art at RMIT University would like to invite our Practice Research Symposium Australia and broader PRS community to participate in the upcoming candidate milestone and work in progress presentations.
Candidates are practitioners from a range of career stages, many of whom have already developed a substantial and distinctive body of work. The design practice research undertaken by candidates is through reflective or generative modes of practice research, or a hybrid of these. Commencing at RMIT Architecture over 35 years ago it is an enduring and sustained body of research: empirical, evidence-based and surfacing evidence about design practice.
RMIT Architecture and Urban Design PhD candidate milestone presentations will take place on June 5 – 6 at the RMIT Design Hub.
Upcoming PRS AU EVENTS:
Sovereignty and Sonic Resistance: Raven Chacon, Hayden Ryan, Kimberley Moulton
DATE: Thursday 4th June 2026
TIME: 12:15pm – 13:15pm AEDT
LOCATION: Lecture Theater, Level 3, Building 100 (Design Hub), RMIT University
Examination Exhibition Opening
DATE: Thursday 4th June 2026
TIME: 17:30pm – 18:30pm AEDT
LOCATION: Design Hub Gallery, Level 2 RMIT Design Hub
Design Practice Research and the Examination Exhibit
DATE: Saturday 6th June 2026
TIME: 12:20pm – 13:20 pm AEDT
LOCATION: Building 100 (Design Hub), Level 10, Pavilion 1
Practice Research Portal and event registrations:
https://practice-research.com/symposia/prs-australia-june-2026
Image 1: An ideogram for Openwork’s bollard seating at RMIT Design Hub. Image: Openwork
20/05/2026
RMIT School of Architecture & Urban Design invites you to a public lecture led by Brendan MacFarlane co-founder of Jakob+MacFarlane
DATE: Friday 5 June 2026
TIME: 1:00pm- 2:00pm
LOCATION: RMIT Design Hub Building 100, Level 3, Ground Level Lecture Theatre, 150 Victoria St, Carlton VIC 3000
POSTER: https://tinyurl.com/4p3phyzh
Register: https://tinyurl.com/yhb9x932 (Link in Bio)
In this lecture presenting the recent work of Jakob+MacFarlane, Brendan MacFarlane explains the Paris-based office’s approach to creating new architecture out of existing environments. “Creating With” is an attitude that rejects demolition in favour of maintaining, adapting, altering, and transforming. To use what’s already there – as a source, a material, a starting point – is a way of working in a world defined by waste and exhaustion of resources.
How can we grow with the existing in mind? How do we adapt to an increasingly challenged world while being as creative and innovative as possible in the face of these challenges?
In their project for the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, Jakob+MacFarlane proposed adding a temporary scaffolding structure to the historic French pavilion during its renovation, challenging our ideas about protection and shelter in a world more and more exposed. Using this structure as a new exhibition space, they invited architects from around the world to show works responding creatively to climate disturbance, resource scarcity, and conflict. This project is now touring the world as a nomadic structure – seeking to provoke, convince, and ultimately prove that architecture can meet the challenge..
Image Credits:
Renovation of the Renaud-Barrault Library,
Photography by Roland Halbe
Brendan MacFarlane,
Photography by Alexandre Tabaste
