Research Assistants Needed

Approximately 4 research assistants are required to support a new project exploring the future of Lismore.

Over the last two decades Lismore has seen a series of devastating floods that have caused massive financial and social damage. Lismore is now at a tipping point in which the once radical idea of relocating the entire city to another location away from flood prone areas is now being considered. While this remains a complex, expensive and unlikely scenario, the accelerating pace of climate change, and the ongoing damage that repeated flood events cause made it more likely.

RMIT Architecture Urban Lab has been invited to contribute visions of what a relocated Lismore could look like. This project will imagine, for this more distant future, new modes of occupation, alternative economies, and, even, new life forms, for its vacated heart. With most of its houses, schools, both its hospitals, its university, and many businesses outside of the CBD and the flood zone, any move of Lismore’s current commercial and civic centre would not mean the end of the township. But what is done with the vacated centre will have social and planning repercussions beyond the historic central blocks. The project will posit ways of re-occupying the existing CBD that not only deal with regular flooding (such as transient, portable or robotic modes of occupation), but envision what sort of governance, ownership, economies and technologies enable these new ways of occupying. In short, we are seeking creative, radical, and utopian alternatives to the demolition and ‘parkland’ scenario.

Students will be working under close supervision of researchers from Architecture, Landscape Architecture and potentially Interior Design to develop a series of drawings, models, animations or other rich content that explore these scenarios. This work will be exhibited in the Lismore Regional Art Gallery in July 2023.

We will meet weekly for 1-2 hours face to face. The time for meetings can be negotiated. It is expected that the engagement will last for the semester, however there may be periods of greater intensity - particularly through the first half of the semester.

The project will be led by John Doyle

These positions will not be listed on the electives balloting form. If you are interested in joining the team please email john.doyle@rmit.edu.au