STAFF PROFILE
Professor Esther Charlesworth
Research
Research areas
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Architecture after disaster
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Sustainable Urban Design
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Architecture and Social Justice
Research awards
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2010 Architecture on the Edge: Designing Sustainable Housing Systems for Vulnerable Communities. ARC Future Fellowship 2011–2015. $601,000
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2009 Building the Community Project. Hoi An, Vietnam: Stage 2. LTIF, RMIT. $60,000
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2009 Architecture Without Frontiers. Lonely Planet Foundation. $50,000
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2008 Architecture Without Frontiers. Lonely Planet Foundation. $66,000
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2008 Building the Community Project. Hoi An, Vietnam: Stage 1. LTIF, RMIT. $53,000
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2008 Design of Indigenous Culture Centres, Oenpelli and Maningrida. Thomas Foundation. $17,000
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2008 Design Like you give a damn. Emerging Researcher Grant. RMIT. $15,000
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2008–2011 More than a roof overhead: Improving remote Indigenous Housing. ARC Linkage. $420,000
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2007 A Decision-Support tool for remote Indigenous housing Northern Territory Government. $53,000
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2007 Establishment of CODE Office. RMIT. $24,000
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2006–2007 Flexible Guidelines for the Design of Remote Indigenous Community Housing. AHURI, with John Fien (RMIT), Doug Baker (QUT) & Gini Lee (UniSA). $155,000
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2003 REDR Post-Disaster training workshop for architects. Griffith University Multi Faith Centre. $15,000
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2000 No Man’s Land: A Spatial Anatomy of War Divided Cities. Macarthur Foundation Security and Sustainability Research Scheme (USA). US$85,000
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1999 Architects without Frontiers: Community Engagement. American Federation of University Women. US$17,000
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1996 MIT International Symposium on Post-War Reconstruction. Aga Khan Trust for Culture. US$10,000
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Australian Research Council Future Fellow – Architecture on the Edge Designing Sustainable Housing Systems for Vulnerable Communities
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Director, RMIT – Architects Without Frontiers Design Research Bureau
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PhD Supervisor
B.Arch, MAUD (Harv), D.Phil (York)
Dr Esther Charlesworth is the founding Director of Architects without Frontiers (Australia), a design non-for-profit organization who have undertaken over 20 projects in 12 countries for communities affected by disaster. Esther has lectured in architecture at QUT, Brisbane and the University of Melbourne was Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the American University of Beirut between 2000–2002.
Between 1995 and 1999 Esther was Senior Urban Designer with the City of Melbourne. She completed her Masters Design of Architecture and Urban Design at Harvard University in 1995 and her Doctorate of Philosophy at the University of York (UK) in 2003. She has published widely on the theme of social justice and architecture including: ‘CityEdge: Contemporary Case Studies in Urbanism’ (2005), ‘Architects Without Frontiers, War, Reconstruction and Design Responsibility’ (2006), ‘Divided Cities’ (2009) and ‘The EcoEdge’ (2011).
Awards
2003
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President’s Award. Royal Australian Institute of Architects (Victoria) for CITYEDGE International Urban Design Conference Series.
2000–2002
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Scholarships for Doctoral studies.
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Commonwealth-British Council Fellowship
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American Federation of University Women International Fellowship
1993–1995
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RJ Menzies/Harvard Club Scholarship
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Harvard University Snitzler Scholarship
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Australian Federation of University Women (AFUW) Commemorative Award
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Dyason Bequest (Trustees of the NSW Art Gallery)
1994
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Harvard University Community Service Fellowship
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Aga Khan Foundation for Islamic Art and Architecture Travel Award
1991
- Dulux Architectural Colour Award
Professional memberships
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Australian Institute of Architects – Reconciliation Action Plan Committee
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Architects Sans Frontiers (ASF) International – Committee Member, 2003–present
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ARBV (Architects Registration Board Victoria) – Registered Architect, 1993–present
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Committee member Harvard Club of Melbourne, 1995–2000
Professional work
- Charlesworth, E. (2018). Walking The Talk: from theory to practice in delivering community based design education In: International Journal of Art and Design Education, 37, 253 - 264
- Charlesworth, E. (2018). A Day in the Life of a Humanitarian Architect In: Workaround: Women, Design, Action Melbourne, Australia
- Charlesworth, E.,Ahmed, I. (2017). Toward sustainable disaster recovery by seeing it as ''more than a roof overhead' In: Urban Planning for Disaster Recovery, Butterworth-Heinemann, United Kingdom
- Ahmed, I.,Charlesworth, E. (2015). An evaluation framework for assessing resilience of post-disaster housing In: International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, 6, 300 - 312
- Charlesworth, E.,Ahmed, I. (2015). Sustainable Housing Reconstruction: Designing Resilient Housing After Natural Disasters, Routledge, Abingdon, United Kingdom
- Charlesworth, E. (2015). Humanitarian architecture: seeking spatial solutions for complex global challenges In: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Building Resilience, Newcastle, Australia, 15 - 17 July 2015
- Ahmed, I.,Charlesworth, E. (2014). Housing and resilience: Case studies from Sri Lanka In: Recovery from the Indian Ocean Tsunami: A Ten-Year Journey, Springer, Japan
- Charlesworth, E. (2014). Humanitarian Architecture: 15 stories of architects working after disasters, Routledge, Abingdon, United Kingdom
- Ahmed, I.,Charlesworth, E. (2014). Post-disaster housing reconstruction to enable resilient communities In: Open House International, 39, 4 - 6
- Ahmed, I.,Charlesworth, E. (2014). Urban disaster management toolkit In: World Vision Geneva, Switzerland
- Architecture on the Edge: Designing Sustainable Housing Systems for Vulnerable Communities. Funded by: ARC Future Fellowships Grant pre-2014 from (2011 to 2015)
- More than a Roof Overhead: Meeting the Need for a Sustainable Housing System in Remote Indigenous Communities. Funded by: ARC Linkage Project 2008 Round 2 from (2009 to 2012)
- Design like you give a damn: Sustainable design responses to humanitarian crises. Funded by: RMIT Emerging Researcher Grants from (2008 to 2010)
- All Centres - Consultancy - Innovations in Indigenous Housing - Decision Support Tool. Funded by: Department of Local Government, Housing and Sport Territory Housing Contract from (2007 to 2008)
- Flexible housing design for Indigenous communities. Funded by: AHURI National Housing Research Program Grants pre-2014 from (2006 to 2007)
3 PhD Completions and 1 Masters by Research Completions4 PhD Current Supervisions