Dr Nicole Lesley Gardner

Nicole is a design researcher, educator, and a Registered Architect (NSW ARB 7921) with industry experience in Australia and the United Kingdom. Her teaching and research in the School of Built Environment and computational design specialisation addresses the history, theory, and real-world impact of architectural design technology and urban technology. She has published research articles on digital transformation in the architecture industry through the lenses of design, organisational learning, labour, and gender. She has co-authored 3 book publications, and over forty peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers on digital technologies in design practice and is the sole-author of the forthcoming book Scaling the Smart City: The design and ethics of urban technology (Elsevier). She has won and led Commonwealth grants related to design technology innovation and digital heritage and was awarded an ADA Faculty Research Fellowship in 2021. Nicole is a chief investigator for the $9million (AUD) Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Next Generation Architectural Manufacturing awarded in 2022. She is a member of the Design Institute of Australia and the Computer Aided Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA) organisation. She is the Chair of the CAADRIA Paper Selection Committee for the 2024 conference on "Accelerated Design", and co-edited the CAADRIA “Post-Carbon” conference proceedings in 2022. Nicole is committed to modes of research and teaching that connect theory and practice and researchers and the AEC industry.