Dr Louise Dorignon

Dr Louise Dorignon is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies.

Louise is a social geographer with a keen interest in apartment living and in the politics of verticality in westernised cities. Her research so far has focused on the meanings and practices of “home”, social relations across difference, emotions, belonging and socio-materialities in housing.

She is currently researching the consequences of apartment design regulations and guidelines on housing outcomes as part of ARC Linkage Project HOME, based at CUR. This project explores what “good” design means for infill multi-household developments, and analyses both apartments themselves, and the lived experience of their occupants.

Louise is also involved in several housing-policy-related projects. This includes the AHURI-funded project Building materials in a circular economy. This project is part of a larger Inquiry into housing in a circular economy, which aims at establishing an evidence base and framework to support a transition to circular economy housing in Australia.

In 2020, she participated in an AHURI-funded research project entitled: The lived experience of COVID-19: housing and household resilience. The outcomes of this research were linked to the need for better standards in high-rise living.

Louise’s doctoral degree (awarded in 2019) focused on the micro-politics of high-rise living, analysing the relationship between social class relations and housing change in Melbourne inner-suburbs using qualitative methods.

For her doctoral thesis, Louise fostered research collaboration between French and Australian geography institutes, working with Emeritus Prof. Ruth Fincher and A/Prof Ilan Wiesel at The University of Melbourne, and with Prof. Christian Montès and Prof. Manuel Appert at Université de Lyon.

Previously she participated in two other international research projects (ANR projects SKYLINE and HIGH-RISE) on the socio-political impacts of high-rise developments in Europe and South America. As part of project HEVD (Habiter Ensemble la Ville de Demain), Louise helped coordinate interdisciplinary research activities addressing the production of apartment living for better and more inclusive housing practices and urban strategies.

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Projects

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

Infill Developments: Housing Outcomes Metrics and Evaluation (Project HOME)

2016–2022

The project links housing outcomes to metrics and evaluation of housing design in the rapidly growing infill multi-residential sector.

News & Blog

News

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.

News

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.

News

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.

Publications