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Institute for Social Research

Professor Peter Newton


PhD (Canterbury) MA (Newcastle)

Professor Peter Newton holds a research appointment in the Cities, Housing and Enviroment Program in the Institute for Social Research at Swinburne University of Technology. Prior to joining Swinburne in December 2006, Peter held the position of Chief Research Scientist at CSIRO, where he led the Urban Systems Program; and since 2001 had been Program Director, Sustainability, in the CRC for Construction Innovation.

Current research interests encompass:

•  The sustainability of cities (Peter was the author of the 2006 Australian State of Environment: Human Settlements Reports for the federal government. He has recently completed a book, Transitions: Pathways to More Sustainable Development in Australia, to be published in early 2008 by CSIRO Publishing.

•  The determinants of resource consumption and the ability of behaviour change, technology and urban design to reverse an alarming trend of unsustainable consumption (project leader of a $220,000 ARC Discovery grant awarded in November 2007).

•  Urban deconstruction and redevelopment – a fundamental sustainability challenge for cities involving Swinburne, the Department of Planning and Community Development and several municipalities in eastern Melbourne.

•  Sustainable building – editing a book, Technology, Design and Process Innovation in the Built Environment, presenting key outcomes from 6 years of CRC research, to be published by Taylor & Francis in late 2008.

•  Strategic urban planning and development processes. Peter was commissioned by DSE in December 2006 to audit the Melbourne 2030 strategy; he also has articles appearing in the 2007 edition of the high impact journal Environment and Planning (article here) and The Environmental Design Guide (article here).

•  A range of invited positions on national and state committees (e.g. Banksia Foundation; Federal Action Agenda for the Built Environment Design Professions; International Council for Building and Innovation Research; Chair of the Scientific Committee for the 2008 International Conference for Sustainable Building).

Recent publications and presentations

Publications in the Swinburne Research Bank

Office: EW101
Telephone: +61 3 9214 4769
Email: pnewton@swin.edu.au

 

 

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