Cities have an invisible architecture. Beneath the streets, buildings and public spaces that define urban life are the ideas, institutions, histories and values that shape what is prioritised, enabled and ultimately made possible.

My research explores this invisible architecture: how societies translate their values into urban decisions, how those decisions become embedded in institutions and systems, and how these processes influence the places people inhabit and the lives they are able to lead.

Working across urban planning, public policy and practice, I examine the relationship between knowledge, governance and urban form. My work investigates how evidence, professional cultures, policy frameworks and decision-making processes shape city-making, and how concepts of public value are interpreted and embedded through urban processes.

My practice experience provides the foundation for this inquiry. Through work spanning place-based initiatives, advocacy, public space and strategic planning, I have observed how aspirations for better cities are negotiated through complex institutional environments. These experiences have informed my research interest in understanding why particular urban outcomes emerge, how they are sustained, and what conditions enable different possibilities.

My current research focuses on the relationship between city shaping, institutional decision-making and public value. I am particularly interested in how inherited ideas, dominant narratives and organisational systems influence urban change, and how greater understanding of these forces can support more reflective and informed approaches to shaping cities.

At the centre of my work is an enduring question:

How do the ideas and institutions that shape cities influence the lives people are ultimately able to live within them?