Geographies of Land, Home and Place brings together our expertise in understanding the places and land systems on which we live, how we are housed and the social and cultural geographies of inclusion and belonging.  

Our research engages directly with geography as a discipline from a local to global scale, engaging with ideas like space, place, temporality and human-environment relations. Our disciplinary engagement with geography also extends to critical understandings of issues like governance, institutions and socio-ecological change. 

We interpret the ‘urban’ focus of the centre broadly, with an interest in the processes and relations across scales and over time that shape our lives.

Research focus areas include housing, land, urban policy, homelessness, displacement and dispossession, inclusion, urban ecologies, social and cultural issues and urban cultures.


Acknowledgement of Country

Research that is concerned with themes of land, home and place in the context of colonial systems and institutions has a responsibility to engage with First Nations sovereignty and self-determination.  

Members of the Geographies of Land, Home and Place research theme acknowledge that sovereignty over the land on which we conduct much of our work has never been ceded. We acknowledge the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation as the traditional owners and custodians of this land, and acknowledge unceded sovereignty over lands and water across the continent.  

We recognise Ancestors and Elders past and present, and their ongoing cultural responsibilities to Country and its care. We are committed to supporting caring for Country in our work and professional conduct. 

Key People

Associate Director & Deputies

Benjamin Cooke

Benjamin Cooke

Associate Director, Geographies of Land, Home and Place

Iris Levin

Iris Levin

Deputy Associate Director, Geographies of Land, Home and Place

David Kelly

David Kelly

Deputy Associate Director, Geographies of Land, Home and Place

Researchers

High Degree Research Students

Projects

Towards climate resilient families

2024–2025

Mapping intersections of gender and place-based responses to summer heat vulnerability.

Deep Timetable: A Noongar Rail History

2021–2025

The Project will advance a new relational logic and a history that enhances the capacity of regional planning and development authorities in their future relationship with Indigenous people.

Voicing First Nations Country, community, and culture in urban policy

2022–2024

This research project, funded by AHURI, collaborates with First Nations custodians in major urban centres to learn from and listen to their experience of attempting to engage with urban policymakers intervening on their Country.

Understanding The Drivers And Outcomes Of Public Housing Relocation

2022–2023

The project aimed to understand what drives the need for tenant relocation in public housing and how such drivers mediate practices and resident experiences.

Precarious Dwelling: Encounters with Housing Crisis

2023–2026

This project investigates contemporary conditions of dwelling precarity on stolen Indigenous land.

Housing temporary migrants: investigating challenges and policy opportunities

2023–2024

This Investigative Panel establishes the housing circumstances and experiences of temporary visa holders (TVHs) in Australia and provides critical evidence of challenges and opportunities in the development of housing policy and service provision.

Getting off the waiting list: Changing access to housing assistance

2022–2023

This project is part of the ‘Inquiry into supporting pathways in a social housing system’, led by Chris Martin (UNSW).

Rebuilding a Place to Call Home in Ukraine

2022–2024

More an ongoing effort than a 'project', CUR has a been a strong supporter and participant in the knowledge exchange for recovery, working intensely with Ukrainian housing and urban researchers, since the escalation of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Understanding the assumptions and impacts of the Victorian Public Housing Renewal Program

2018–2019

This research project aimed to evaluate the claims of the PHRP and its underlying model in order to establish an accurate evidence base and assess the anticipated impact of the model on public housing residents in Melbourne.

Digital innovations, PropTech and housing – the view from Melbourne

2019–2023

This research is concerned with the collection, digitisation and use of housing information in Australia.

Upper Stony Creek transformation: Impact on health, liveability, and connection to nature

2021–2023

This project will collect qualitative data after the transformation of the Upper Stony Creek, to better understand how urban greening projects impact resident perceptions of wellbeing, especially in disadvantaged areas with a lack of greenspace.

Building materials in a circular economy

2021–2022

This project uses a circular economy framing to investigate use and waste in material supply chains to contribute knowledge so that the housing construction sector can reduce, reuse, recycle and recover resources and rely much less on virgin material

Related Content

News & Blog

CUR Stories

Moving towards a circular economy for more sustainable housing

22 April 2021

RMIT urban researchers will lead a pioneering project examining how Australia’s housing sector can transition to a circular economy for more sustainable homes.

CUR Stories

Rethinking cities with ageing in mind

16 April 2021

From urban wellbeing and public health to urban planning and housing, RMIT researchers are helping to build age-friendly cities across Europe and Australia.

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Build-to-rent surge will change apartment living for Australians, but for better or worse?

12 March 2021

Australia’s emerging build-to-rent sector is growing — “booming” by some accounts with a 70% jump in value in the past year.

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Report shows our homes must change for better health and living

25 November 2020

A new study examining Victorians’ lived experience during COVID-19 points to the design and quality of homes and neighbourhoods as a key mitigating factor in people’s capacity to cope with disasters.

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RMIT experts call for rethink of how Australians finance their retirement

24 November 2020

RMIT economists are calling for a rethink in retirement financing in a new first of its kind report which reveals that more older Australians are using reverse mortgages to pay off debt.

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Future of age care must be built on better housing design: report

16 September 2020

Pragmatic housing design features are vital to enable older people to stay home longer, have greater independence and reduce the cost of age care services, according to new RMIT University research.

Stimulus that retrofits housing can reduce energy bills and inequity too

03 June 2020

Stay-at-home orders and the economic crisis have increased the burden of energy costs on lower-income Australians. Poor housing quality and unequal access to home energy efficiency are hurting our most vulnerable households.

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New project investigates how COVID-19 impacts housing stress

28 May 2020

RMIT urban researchers have received funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute to investigate COVID-19’s impact on housing stress in Melbourne.

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Reforming land policy for affordable and inclusive housing

13 May 2020

How policy makers regard and manage the ownership and use of land has profound consequences for the affordability of our homes and the inclusiveness of our neighbourhoods.

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Australia had rent control in wartime. War on coronavirus demands the same response

15 April 2020

In this coronavirus “war”, governments should take inspiration from the past and again implement rent control.

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Meet the women helping to improve how we live in cities and with nature

05 March 2020

As our cities evolve, so too should our approach to building and planning our urban habitats. Here, six RMIT urban researchers share how their work is shaping how we live in our cities and with nature.