**About the Editors**

#### **Iftekhar Ahmed**

Dr Iftekhar Ahmed is an Associate Professor in Construction Management and Disaster Resilience, School of Architecture and Built Environment within the College of Engineering, Science and Environment. He was the former Program Convenor of the Master of Disaster Resilience and Sustainable Development, University of Newcastle, Australia. His teaching focuses on policy and social dimensions of disaster risk reduction, disaster resilience and management in the built environment and the UN's sustainable development goals. He conducts extensive research on disaster resilience, climate change adaptation, participatory development and urbanisation in the Asia-Pacific region. Dr Ahmed has written several books, professional reports and many peer-reviewed publications. Recently, he was the lead author of the book 'Disaster Resilience in South Asia'(Routledge UK, 2020). Dr Ahmed completed his Ph.D. at Oxford Brookes University, UK, Master of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA, and Bachelor of Architecture (Honours) from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), India. In the past, he worked as a project manager at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), Thailand, and as a shelter specialist at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bangladesh, and taught at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). Dr Ahmed serves widely as a consultant and technical advisor for international development and humanitarian agencies and an Editorial Board Member of a number of international journals including *Architecture*.

#### **Masa Noguchi**

Dr Masa Noguchi is an Associate Professor in Environmental Design at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, Australia. He is a Chartered Engineer, Environmentalist, and Technological Product Designer registered, respectively, with the Engineering Council, Society for the Environment, and the Institution of Engineering Designers in the UK. In 2002, he also became a member of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada, and today he serves as a Certified Passive House Designer registered with the Passive House Institute in Germany. Dr Noguchi is the founding global coordinator of ZEMCH (Zero Energy Mass Custom Home) Network, which consists of over 800 partners from nearly 40 countries and initiated several industry-academia knowledge transfer events. In ABP, he leads a ZEMCH Sustainable Design subject within the postgraduate program. Before coming to Melbourne, Dr Noguchi was a Reader at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, The Glasgow School of Art affiliated with the University of Glasgow, where he established a ZEMCH pathway within the Master of Architectural Studies program. His research is based on ZEMCH engineering design towards socially, economically, environmentally, and humanly sustainable housing unit and community developments in developed and developing countries. Serving as the Editor-in-Chief or Editorial Board Member of nearly 20 academic journals, Dr Noguchi is frequently invited to deliver keynote lectures on ZEMCH R&D global actions at national and international conferences.

#### **David O'Brien**

Dr David O'Brien is an Associate Professor at the Melbourne School of Design under the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, Australia. He is the director of the award-winning Bower Studio program—internationally recognised for its innovative work co-designing and co-building community infrastructure with remote, marginalised indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, New South Wales, Western Australia, and internationally in Papua New Guinea and Thailand. This program relies on innovative pedagogical and engagement processes to form positive relationships to develop tangible benefits to communities. Outcomes have included a range of culture, health, education, and arts facilities that have been developed alongside community groups, government agencies, aid workers, industry partners, engineers, and sociologists. Dr O'Brien's academic publications are focused on links between housing cultures and technology with a specific focus on mass-produced housing developed in the aftermath of disasters. He has a particular interest is the way residents self-modify this housing to suit their own aspirational and functional needs.

#### **Chris Tucker**

Dr Chris Tucker was the Head of Discipline (Architecture) within the School of Architecture and Built Environment, now under the College of Engineering, Science and Environment, University of Newcastle, Australia. He is also the Principal of the architectural practice, HERD architects. Dr Tucker has been awarded regional, state and international prizes for architecture, and his buildings and designs have been exhibited and published locally and internationally. Working between architectural practice and research, academic projects are broadly interested in social justice, our relationship to Country, minimalism, the public capacity of the street, and the needling of the privileged but vague and generic qualities of contemporary public space. Dr Tucker also runs architectural studios in Tokyo (from 2019) and the Town Camps of Alice Springs (from 2017), and collaborates with local government and First Nation communities.

#### **Mittul Vahanvati**

Dr Mittul Vahanvati is a Senior Lecturer in sustainability and urban planning at the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies under the College of Design and Social Context, RMIT University, Australia. Dr Vahanvati leads the design and development of a suite of Urban Design courses, core to the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) accreditation. She co-leads two research groups—Climate Change Transformations Research Group and Future Urban Researchers Network. Dr Vahanvati is also a co-founder of a Melbourne based design studio and social enterprise—Giant Grass. Her research focuses on climate change and disaster resilience of housing and communities in the Asia-Pacific region. Dr Vahanvati's's research adopts a co-design and co-production approach, whereby she works with people living in informal settlements and vulnerability. She engages with UN bodies and national and local governments in Australia and the Pacific, as well as NGOs. Dr Vahanvati completed her Ph.D. at RMIT University, Australia, Master of Sustainable Development in the Built environment from University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australian and Bachelor of Architecture (Honours) from Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad, India. Before moving into academia, Dr Vahanvati practiced in architecture and sustainability industry for eight years, across India, Switzerland, and Australia.
