Associate Professor Kate Bishop

My Expertise

Children, youth and their environments:

Children, young people and cities
Play and inclusive playground design

People and place:

Smart social places movement
Social urban and regional design

Keywords

Environment and behaviour

Children, youth and environments

accessibility

smart cities

Environmental Psychology

Fields of Research (FoR)

Urban and regional planning, Urban sociology and community studies, Environmental sociology, Urban design

Biography

Dr Kate Bishop is an Associate Professor in the School of Built Environment, UNSW Sydney. Her background in environment-behaviour studies underpins her teaching and research. Her work focuses on the relationships between people and place. Kate has a special interest in environments for children and youth, particularly those with special needs. She is well-known for her work on child and youth friendly urban planning and design, and participatory methodologies used with children and youth. Since 2017 Kate has also specialised in working with interdisciplinary academic teams, government and industry to design, plan and research smart social spaces, creating new smart street furniture to support social well-being. She has been a Chief Investigator on grants totalling ~$4 million AUD. The smart outdoor furniture and project resources created have been recognised by multiple industry and government awards at both state and national levels. The work has also been featured by the World Bank and the Wall Street Journal.

My Grants

2022 Digital Restart Fund as part of the Smart Places Acceleration Program

Grant Title: Smart Regional Spaces: Ready Set Go!

UNSW CIs: Dr Kate Bishop, Dr Christine Steinmetz

Project Partners: USyd and Regional NSW

Grant Value: $2.24 million

2021 Randwick Health Innovation Precinct

Project Title: RHIP Green Infrastructure Strategy

CIs: Dr Kate Bishop, Dr Paul Osmond, E/Prof Linda Corkery

Grant Value: $75,000

2021 ADA Innovation Hub/UNSW Health Translation Hub

Project Title: Moment-Us: Translating Green into Good Health

CIs: Dr Paul Osmond, Dr Kate Bishop, Dr Rebecca Green, E/Prof Linda Corkery, Dr Cathy Sherry, Dr Felicity Rawlings Sanaei

Project partner: Majed, Abu Seif

Grant Value: $8,000

2019 UNSW Data Publishing Grant for Smart Social Spaces: Smart Street Furniture Supporting Social Health

Grant value: $15,000

2018 Australian Government, Department of Industry, Innovation and Science: Smart Cities and Suburbs Program.

Grant Title: ChillOUT: Smart Social Spaces Creating Connected Green Places

CIs: Georges River Council (Lead)

Project Partners: Street Furniture Australia and UNSW: A/Prof. Nancy Marshall (lead), Dr Christian Tietz , Dr Kate Bishop, Prof. Linda Corkery, Dr Miles Park, Dr Christine Steinmetz, Prof. Susan Thompson

Grant Value: $879,338

2018 ACT Government: Capital Works, Transport Canberra and City Services.

Grant Title: Nature Play Space Study

CIs: Dr Cathy Hope, Canberra University (lead), Dr Kate Bishop

Grant Value: $13,403

2017 Australian Government, Department of Industry, Innovation and Science: Smart Cities and Suburbs Program.

Grant Title: Smart Social Spaces: Smart street furniture supporting social health.

CIs: A/Prof. Nancy Marshall, Dr Christian Tietz (leads), Dr Kate Bishop, Prof. Linda Corkery, Dr Miles Park, Dr Christine Steinmetz, Prof. Susan Thompson

Project Partners: Georges River Council, Street Furniture Australia

Grant Value: $657,742

Media: 1: http://theconversation.com/sensors-in-public-spaces-can-help-create-cities-that-are-both-smart-and-sociable-93473

2: https://www.foreground.com.au/technology/using-smart-furniture-data-shape-public-space

2017 ACT Government: Land Development Agency.

Grant Title: City to the Lake Project, Canberra Play Space Study, Phase 2

CIs: Dr Cathy Hope, Canberra University (lead), Dr Kate Bishop

Grant Value: $16,816

Media: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberras-playgrounds-have-evolved-since-the-safetyobsessed-80s-and-90s-20180315-h0xiwb.html

2016 ACT Government ACT Government, Land Development Agency.

Grant Title: City to the Lake Project, Canberra Play Space Study, Phase 1

CIs: Dr Cathy Hope, Canberra University (lead), Dr Kate Bishop

Grant Value: $13,838

2015 Built Environment Research Start Grant:

Grant Title: Social Enterprise + Youth Connection to Place: Examining links with environmental and creative industries
CIs: Dr Kate Bishop, Dr Nancy Marshall
Grant Value: $1,500

2012 Built Environment Faculty Research Grant Program:

Grant Title: BE Place Centred
CIs: Dr Nancy Marshall, Dr Kate Bishop, Prof. Jon Lang
Grant Value: $20,060

2012 Built Environment Research Link Grant:

Grant Title: BE Place Centred Services for MOU Partners
CIs: Dr Nancy Marshall, Dr Kate Bishop
Grant Value: $1,500

2011 Built Environment Research Link Grant:

Grant Title:Young people’s sense of place in urban landscapes
CI: Dr Kate Bishop
Grant Value: $2,000

My Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy (University of Sydney)

Bachelor of Visual Arts (Sydney College of the Arts)

Bachelor of Arts (University of Sydney),

My Awards

2024 NSW Planning Excellence Award: Technology and Innovation: for Smart Regional Spaces: Ready, Set, Go! Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) NSW, 2024 Awards for Planning Excellence

2024 NSW Landscape Architecture Award: Research, Policy and Communications: for Smart Regional Spaces: Ready, Set, Go! AILA 2024, Landscape Architecture Awards NSW

2023 National Landscape Architecture Award: Research, Policy and Communications: Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct Living Infrastructure Strategy, AILA 2023, Landscape Architecture Awards National

2023 NSW Landscape Architecture Award: Research, Policy and Communications: Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct Living Infrastructure Strategy, AILA 2023, Landscape Architecture Awards NSW

2022 Good Design Awards: Gold award for the ChillOUT Tree for outstanding innovation in the Product Design, Commercial and Industrial category.

2021 Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture (NSW): NSW AILA President's Award was given to the two Landscape Architecture programs in NSW

2021 National Planning Institute of Australia Awards: Best Planning Ideas Small Project: ChillOUT Hubs: Smart Social Spaces Creating Connected Green Places

2020 NSW Planning Institute Awards: Best Planning Ideas Small Project: New South Wales: ChillOUT Hubs: Smart Social Spaces Creating Connected Green Places

2019 Committee for Sydney, Smart City Awards Highly Commended: Best Cross Sectorial Collaboration Initiative; Finalist: Best Emerging Idea

2018 UNSW Faculty of Built Environment: Learning and Teaching Excellence Award 2018 for Design Excellence

2017 UNSW President's Award for People's Choice: Awarded to the Women In Research Network Executive Committee

My Research Activities

Kate's own areas of research reflect her interests in the relationship between people and place. Drawing on the theoretical traditions of environment-behaviour research, Kate explores the relationship between the physical environment and social experience. She has a particular interest in the experience of children and young people. Additional areas of research interest include: smart social spaces; people, place and urban design; landscape urban research.

Books recently released:

2024: The Routledge Handbook on the Influence of Built Environments on Diverse Childhoods co-edited with Dr Katina Dimoulias, Routledge New York
2023: The Routledge Handbook of Landscape Urban Research, co-edited with Professor Emeritus, Linda Corkery, Routledge New York
2020: The Routledge Handbook of People and Place in the 21st Century City, co-edited with Dr Nancy Marshall, Routledge, New York
2017: Designing cities with children and young people: Beyond playgrounds and skate parks, co-edited with A/Prof Linda Corkery, Routledge, New York

My Research Supervision

Areas of supervision

Children, youth and environments; Social inclusion and design; People and place; Paediatric design

Currently supervising

PhD Completions:

2022: Xintian Wang: Shared Neighbourhood Spaces and Place Attachment in Urban China: Two Case studies in Qingdao.
2021: Gunawardana Samaratunga: Development of an evidence-based post-occupancy behaviour framework for energy consumption in BASIX-compliant dwellings in Sydney, Australia.
2020: Parisa Kalali: Ethnic and cultural representations in the built environment and their relationship with place identity: A case study of Cabramatta, Sydney
2018: Fatemeh Aminpour: Exploring the role of children's use of in-between spaces in school environments in Australia in their development of their sense of agency

My Engagement

Engagement

Recent International Engagement

From 2020: Co-Chair: Children, Youth and Environments (CYE) Working Group: Association of the Pacific Rim Universities (APRU)
2012-2022: Co-Chair: Children, Youth and Environments (CYE) Research Network: Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA, USA)
From 2012: Committee member of the CYE Research Network for the International Association People Environment Studies (IAPS)

Recent Leadership and Engagement at UNSW

2019-2022: Discipline Director, Landscape Architecture, School of Built Environment, UNSW
From 2017: Convenor: Children and Youth Research Network (CYRN), UNSW
From 2011: BE Higher Degree Research Review Committee member