Find an expert

Dr Charlotte Kessler is a transdisciplinary Design Researcher and Lecturer in Design. She sees design as a powerful change-making tool relevant to addressing complex issues, and applicable across a variety of contexts.

Charlotte holds a Bachelor & Master in Product & Service Design (ENSAAMA & Ecole Boulle, France), a Master in Design Futures (Griffith University), and a PHD (Queensland University of Technology) completed in 2022. Her thesis, Developing curricula that equip designers with capabilities to enact sustainable futures: A matter of ethos, draws from the voices of academics and graduate designers from four sustainability-focused design programs internationally to propose theoretical guidelines supporting design educators to develop, enable and sustain design programs that are responsive to a rapidly changing world, in turn equipping design graduates with relevant capabilities to create change towards sustainable futures.

Charlotte has worked on a range of sustainability-focused design and design research projects internationally. Her research is situated at the nexus between design, education, and sustainability. She believes that design education has an important role to play in situating design as key, change-making practice, in the context of sustainability transitions. She is interested in research that informs academics as they develop and implement sustainability-centred curricula and pedagogies, and that supports sustainability transitions in design practice. Charlotte has recently become involved in a research project on climate literacy in architecture in partnership with the Australian Institute of Architects, and the Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia.

Charlotte is currently working as Lecturer in Design in the School of Architecture, Design, and Planning at The University of Queensland. Previously, she was the Program Convenor for Design and Educational Design Lead at Griffith College, where she coordinated the accreditation and curriculum development processes for the new design program. Charlotte has developed and coordinated sustainability-focused higher education courses in the design field across multiple universities. She has taught in award winning courses including Impact Lab 3 Studio - Planet (QUT) awarded Vice Chancellor Award for Excellence and Wharton - QS (London) Re-Imagine Education Award for Design for Transformative learning through transdisciplinary collaborations, along with the Spatial History Unit awarded QUT Faculty of Creative Industries Teaching Award for Teaching Innovation and Excellence. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). She specialises in developing sustainability-centred Higher Education curricula and professional development resources for academic staff.

Dr Brydon Wang is a lawyer and scholar researching at the confluence of technology, law and architecture. He is passionate about flood-resilient smart cities and has 19 years in the construction industry. His PhD was on the Role of Trustworthiness in Automated Decision-making Systems and the Law.

Brydon has practised as a technology and construction lawyer with top-tier law firm Allens, and has had a previous career in architecture and contract administration on award-winning construction projects. He currently teaches undergraduate Contract Law, Responsible Data Science in the Master of Data Science course, and the design and automation of climate-resilient cities (including amphibious settlements) in the Master of Architecture course. Brydon was recently featured on ABC Radio National's 'Future Tense' where he discussed offshore architecture and marine urban sprawl, and on Seeker's popular documentary, 'How close are we to Living in the Ocean?'. He is passionate about regulating to enhance trustworthiness in the design and deployment of automated decision-making systems in cities (BIM, Digital Twins). He is currently researching in trustworthy AI, automation of infrastructure delivery and design governance. Brydon recently co-edited a book, 'Automating Cities: Design, Construction, Operation and Future Impact' (Springer, 2021), wrote for the Centre for Digital Built Britain (operating out of the University of Cambridge) and in The Conversation. Brydon previously co-edited 'Large Floating Structures', a book exploring environmentally-sustainable technologies that allow cities to expand onto adjacent water bodies.