A/ProfPernille Christensen

Associate Professor Pernille H. Christensen received her Ph.D. in Planning, Design the Built Environment from Clemson University in South Carolina, USA. She also holds a Master of City and Regional Planning and Master of Architecture degrees from Clemson University, and a Professional Bachelor of Architecture from Mississippi State University. She has over twenty years of experience in the built environment, spanning a mix of planning and design practice, financial services, and academic research experience. She has conducted research projects for industry, professional bodies, government, and quasi-government agencies, domestically and internationally. Using a multidisciplinary approach, her research over the past decade has centred on urban sustainability and resilience, specifically focusing on strategies for improving community resilience to social and environmental disruptions and the role that the built environment plays in helping cities mitigate the impacts of these events, as well as meeting targets in these areas. 

Pernille currently collaborates with researchers around the world on projects investigating various aspects of built environment sustainability and resilience. Current projects include the investigation of the role of the built environment in protecting people in crowded places, developing a framework for integrating best practice protective security and risk assessment into the development process for major projects, developing strategic engagement strategies for disaster-affected communities to ensure inclusion of vulnerable population voices, developing a transdisciplinary participatory action research teaching strategy for universities, and investigating the impacts of flooding and heat island effect on the built environment. In each project, we have focused on developing more robust adaptation and mitigation decision-making strategies to enhance the resilience of urban communities. Previous projects involved the mapping the application of urban resilience theory in the development of the Resilient Sydney Strategy; developing strategies to enhance operational building management; developing a green building index for commercial property in the US; developing a best practice guide for End-of-Trip Facilities; the development of robust quantitative instruments to inform a new green building scoring instrument; and the development of alternative housing typology and financing solutions to address the affordable housing challenges facing global cities.

In her doctoral research, Pernille examined real estate stakeholders' conceptual understanding of the concepts of sustainability and sustainable real estate, and investigated the strategies being used to integrate sustainability concerns into corporate strategic policy and the assessment strategies being used to track progress towards sustainability targets/goals. A major contribution of the research was the development of a framework for decision-making and assessment for sustainable commercial real estate. Among her other research projects at Clemson University was a US EPA-funded project, which investigated the potential use of end-of-life shipping containers as an alternative post-disaster housing solution and community rebuilding strategy for hurricane-impacted areas. Her MCRP and MArch theses explored urban sustainability issues and the role of the built environment in developing urban resilience, while the BArch investigated the role of the built environment in developing social sustainability in disadvantaged inner-city neighbourhoods.

Pernille regularly presents her research at planning- and property-discipline-related conferences in countries around the world, and her research has been funded by grants from the NSW Reconstruction Authority, Landcom, the City of Sydney, the NSW Department of Communities & Justice, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Swedish International Cenre for Local Democracy, the Land Economics Foundation, and the CBRE Real Green Research Challenge, among others. She is currently a Regional Editor for Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (2024 Scopus CiteScore of 12.7, with 2,657 citations. The journal is ranked #2/1371 (99%) in Cultural Studies, #1/203 (99%) in Architecture, #5/288 (98%) in Urban Studies, #19/407 (95%) in Civil and Structural Engineering, and #15/239 (93%) in Building and Construction), and was previously a co-editor for the Journal of Sustainable Real Estate from 2012-2021. In addition, she sits on the editorial review board for three other international academic, refereed journals. Her first book, Developing Property Sustainably, was released July 2015. Her second book focusing on The Future of Real Estate Education: From Pedagogy to Technology, will be released in January 2026.