STAFF PROFILE
Dr Nicola Willand
Dr Nicola Willand is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Property, Construction and Project Management, and a housing researcher who is interested in the interplay of housing, energy, health and equity.
As an architect by background, Nicola Willand approaches sustainability in the built environment holistically.
She finds that initiatives towards a more sustainable built environment tend to focus on environmental and economic outcomes, while the social aspects are often neglected.
To facilitate triple bottom line sustainability, Nicola aims to develop strategies for the built environment that will minimise environmental impacts and life cycle costs while maximising productivity, health and social equity.
Nicola's PhD explored the intersection of climate change mitigation as an opportunity for health and housing as a social determinant of health, and contributed to a better understanding of residential energy efficiency and health as a socio‐technical system. Subsequent qualitative and quantitative works have fnicolocussed on energy vulnerability, retrofit justice as the inequity of access to home energy efficiency improvements and articulating pathways of mitigation these social injustices
Nicola has also led teams who investigated how energy assistance could be integrated into the In-Home-Care system and how hidden energy poverty could be tackled through trusted intermediaries and interdisciplinary initiatives. Her British Academy Visting Fellowship explored the perceptions of essential energy in six European housing contexts. A current project uses mixed methods to understand how households balance electricity and gas use and how these practices are shaped. And the ongoing 'Towards climate resilient families…' project is aims to inform place-based, gender and culture informed approaches to protecting families during heat events.
Nicola regularly writes and talks about her research in the media and presents in public events to raise awareness of energy vulnerability in Australia and to advocate for better homes for all. Nicola is also a Trustee of the Fuel Poverty Research Network (https://www.fuelpovertyresearch.net/ ) that fosters collaborations among researchers, policy makers and practitioners on tackling energy poverty worldwide.
With regards to student education, Nicola is the course coordinator for the postgraduate 'Building Modelling and Simulation' course and the postgraduate transdisciplinary 'Housing & Health' elective. She also supervises 4th Year Construction Management students in writing their Honours thesis.
Nicola belongs to the following RMIT research groups:
- Lecturer in Construction Management and Masters of Energy Efficient and Sustainable Buildings.
- Research on energy efficiency, housing and health.
- Senior Lecturer in Construction Management and Masters of Energy Efficient and Sustainable Buildings.
- Research on housing, energy efficiency, health and equity.
- PhD Supervision
- PhD (Built Environment), RMIT University, Australia
- BArch, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
- Horne, R.,Willand, N.,Dorignon, L.,Middha, B. (2023). Housing inequalities and resilience: the lived experience of COVID-19 In: International Journal of Housing Policy, 23, 313 - 337
- Willand, N.,Torabi, N.,Horne, R. (2023). Recognition justice in Australia: Hidden energy vulnerability through the experiences of intermediaries In: Energy Research and Social Science, 98, 1 - 12
- Middha, B.,Willand, N. (2023). It's not as easy as ‘heat or eat’ - Exploring the intersecting vulnerabilities of energy and food in domestic practices in Australia In: Energy Research and Social Science, 105, 1 - 10
- Middha, B.,Robertson, S.,Willand, N.,Horne, R. (2022). Man caves, granny flats and alternative living spaces: Low carbon home retrofit and implications for policymaking In: Energy Research and Social Science, 87, 1 - 10
- Willand, N. (2022). Opportunity, ideal or distraction? Exploring stakeholder perceptions of tackling energy poverty and vulnerability among older Australians In: Energy Research & Social Science, 94, 1 - 11
- London, K.,Willand, N.,Zhang, P. (2021). Development of a Building Information Modelling Threshold Capability Framework to Enable Global Curriculum Co-Integration In: Driving Transformational Change in the Digital Built Environment, Engineering Science Reference, Hershey, PA
- Sandri, O.,Holdsworth, S.,Hayes, J.,Willand, N.,Moore, T. (2021). Hydrogen for all? Household energy vulnerability and the transition to hydrogen in Australia In: Energy Research & Social Science, 79, 1 - 11
- Willand, N.,Middha, B.,Walker, G. (2021). Using the capability approach to evaluate energy vulnerability policies and initiatives in Victoria, Australia In: Local Environment, 26, 1109 - 1127
- Daniel, L.,Moore, T.,Baker, E.,Beer, A.,Willand, N.,Horne, R.,Hamilton, C. (2020). Warm, cool and energy-affordable housing policy solutions for low-income renters In: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) Melbourne, Australia
- Horne, R.,Willand, N.,Dorignon, L.,Middha, B. (2020). The lived experience of COVID-19: housing and household resilience In: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Limited Melbourne
3 PhD Completions4 PhD Current Supervisions
- Towards climate resilient families - mapping intersections of vulnerability to summer heat responses. Funded by: Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation - Seed Innovation Grant from (2024 to 2025)
- Mapping cross-national conceptions of essential energy to advance housing energy justice. Funded by: British Academy Visiting Fellowship - 2023 from (2023 to 2024)
- Healthy Environments And Lives (HEAL) - National Research Network on Human Health and Environmental Change (administered by Australian National University). Funded by: NHMRC 2020 SPECIAL INITIATIVE IN HUMAN HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE from (2022 to 2027)
- Mapping vulnerability to Future Fuels – A Scoping Review (RP2.1-06). Funded by: Future Fuels CRC from (2020 to 2020)
- The lived experience of housing affordability stress under COVID-19.. Funded by: Australian Housing & Urban Research Institute (AHURI) - Competitive from (2020 to 2020)