The AERC is a centre for academic research on Indigenous culture, environments and architecture. The centre has gained widespread recognition from Architecture and Anthropology Departments within Australian Universities, as well as from a range of government agencies and Indigenous organisations.
Do you wish to develop specialist knowledge or skills in Indigenous architecture or settlement design, to address challenging physical and social planning problems in Indigenous communities?
Do you see the need for a reconciliation between Indigenous landscape values and commercial development processes?
Are you interested in cross-cultural design issues?
These are some of the topics being researched in the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre.
AERC research is focused on the following areas:
Geographic Environment
Indigenous geography
Indigenous constructs of place
Cultural landscapes
Indigenous cultural heritage (site/landscape specific)
Native Title practice
Land Claim practice
Built Environment
Traditional Aboriginal Architecture
Aboriginal housing design and management
Aboriginal settlement history, classification & design
Public architecture - culturally appropriate design
Hospital environments for Indigenous people
Correctional environments for Indigenous people
Indigenous museums and cultural centres
Environmental health
Vernacular architecture
Artifactual Environment
Material culture studies
Cultural change and artefacts
Fish trap ethnography
Social Environment
Social groups and identity
Violence occurrence and prevention
Household studies
Crowding
Homelessness
Urban public place dwelling
Social problems and governance
Dispute Resolution (mediation) between Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples and institutions
Sociospatial strutures and territoriality
Sociocultural regions and residential mobility
Behaviour setting theory
Environmental control theory
Indigenous tourism
Transactional models of behaviour/environment
Indigenous place and social identity
Social capital
Conceptual Environment
Indigenous geographic knowledge
Space and time constructs
Semiotics and environment
Religious constructs
Spatial perception and environmental meanings
Aboriginal environmental psychology
Exemplar Research Projects:
Gunyah, Goondie + Wurley: The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia
Intertidal Rock-Wall Fish Traps, Wellesley Islands Region
Mining & Indigenous Tourism in Northern Australia
Inner-City Sydney Aboriginal Homeless Project
Catalogue
Selected Publications and Reports:
co-authored by Dr Paul Memmott and others:
http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/list/?cat=quick_filter&sort_by=searchKey0&search_keys[0]=Memmott