Diego Ramírez-Lovering is Professor of Architecture of the Faculty of Art Design and Architecture. His research examines the contributory role that architecture and urbanism can play in addressing the significant challenges facing contemporary urban environments: climate change, resource limitations and rapid population growth with a key focus on the Global South. As an award-winning architectural practitioner and researcher, Ramírez-Lovering has been commissioned to design a range of projects including affordable housing, commercial projects and public art projects and has completed a number of urban resilience projects with State and Local Government groups and industry.

Ramírez-Lovering is the director of the Informal Cities Lab (ICL) in the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Monash University. The Lab undertakes design-based research exploring and speculating on the conditions of informality in developing cities. ICL research – designed and conducted in collaboration with government and industry – strives for impact, purposefully and strategically targeting implementation at the intersection of academic research and international development.

Ramírez-Lovering has developed a body of design research examining the issues and processes involved in delivering best-practice water-sensitive urban design from the scale of the dwelling to the scale of the catchment. This research involves climate, and local catchment issues including ecology, water quality, and flood risk.

This research has been explored in the developing city context of the Global South. An exemplar of this research approach, Ramírez-Lovering is leading the development of design and engagement models for a multi-million dollar international research project aiming to advance human health and well-being in informal settlements by transforming housing, water infrastructure, water management, and sanitation practices in 24 communities in Fiji and Indonesia. The project, titled Revitalising Informal Settlements and Their Environments, includes an AUD$14 million grant from the Wellcome Trust’s “Our Planet Our Health” program and funding from the Asian Development Bank for capital works.