Lab Leader

Dr Silvia Tavares

Dr Silvia Tavares is the founder and leader of UniSC’s Bioclimatic and Sociotechnical Cities Lab (BASC Lab). She is an urban designer with 20 years of experience in architecture, urbanism, and building and city science. Silvia is also chief investigator in several projects focused on improving urban climate through design and planning. These projects aim to inform strategies related to human thermal comfort, green infrastructure, public health, and climate change impacts.

Before UniSC, Silvia worked at James Cook University in Australia, Lincoln University in New Zealand, the Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development in Germany, and at the Universidade Federal do Tocantins in Brazil.

Email: stavares@usc.edu.au

Phone: +61 7 5456 5884

Lab Investigators

Research Members

Dr Gregor Mews

Dr Gregor Mews is a multiple award-winning urban designer and academic. His philosophy is based on sustainment of healthy urban development with humanities collective bio-history in mind. Mews has led local, national and international research projects in the nexus of urban design and health, place-making, public space, co-design with impact. He has been an Urban Thinker voice for UN-Habitats World Urban Campaign and strategically advocates for vulnerable population groups with impact transcending boundaries across the Global North and South.

Email: gmews@usc.edu.au 

Phone: +61 7 5459 4683

Dr Nayomi Kankanamge

Dr. Nayomi Kankanamge is a Lecturer in Urban Design and Town Planning at the University of the Sunshine Coast. She holds a PhD in Built Environment with a special focus on Urban Informatics and Smart Cities from Queensland University of Technology (QUT). She earned her bachelor's degree from the Department of Town & Country Planning at the University of Moratuwa (SL), with a strong background in urban informatics and spatial planning. Her research focuses on urban big data analytics, thermal comfort, disaster resilience, and the integration of citizen science in urban planning. Dr. Kankanamge has published widely on urban big data, social media analytics, and disaster resilience. She is the co-author of the book Urban Analytics with Social Media Data (CRC Press, 2022) and has served as a guest editor for a special issue on sustainable urban technologies in Sustainable Cities and Society (Elsevier). She is also a member of the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA). 

Email: nkankanamge@usc.edu.au 

Associate Professor Javier Leon

Associate Professor Javier Leon is a geographer with broad interests in geomorphology and is particularly interested in the study and management of coastal systems including sandy beaches and coral reefs. He has developed and collaborated in multidisciplinary research projects combining field data, geospatial techniques and modelling in study sites across the Great Barrier Reef and Eastern coast of Australia and Pacific Islands including Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. His aim is to answer questions related to links between morphology, ecology and management in the current changing climate and sea-level rise context.

Email: jleon@usc.edu.au 
Phone: +61 7 5456 3405 

Adjunct Researchers

Dr Majed Abu Seif

Majed is an architect and landscape architect with an intensive background in urban planning, interior design, and building and city science (Registered chief of architects in Jordan, graduate architect in Australia, and international landscape architect in the American society of landscape architect). His research focuses on green infrastructure, energy and environmental performance, indoor and outdoor thermal performance, and smart technology applications in the built environment. Majed is also developing a smart green infrastructure technology to connect the green infrastructure with smart city models and increase its sustainability and performance.

Email: mabuseif@usc.edu.au

Associate Professor Kelen Dornelles

Kelen Dornelles is currently an Associate Professor at the Institute of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo (IAU-USP) in Brazil. She is a member of the teaching board for the Post-Graduate Program in Architecture and Urbanism, specializing in Design, Innovation, and Sustainability. In this role, she has advised numerous Master’s and PhD students and teaches courses on Architecture and Climate in the Built Environment. As the leader of the Tropicus Research Group, Kelen is also involved in the scientific boards of several national and international conferences and serves as a referee for various academic journals. In 2020, she was a Visiting Professor at the University of Perugia in Italy, associated with the CIRIAF Research Center, and has been a visiting scholar at multiple international universities and research centers. Her research interests primarily focus on two areas: the thermal performance of materials used in building envelopes, which includes thermo-physical characterization, and the study of indoor-outdoor microclimates for environmental comfort and energy savings. She pays particular attention to strategies aimed at mitigating the urban heat island phenomenon.

Email: kelend@usp.br 

Dr Renata Bovo Peres 

Dr Renata Bovo Peres is an architect and urban planner from University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Since 2013 she has been Senior Lecturer at Department of Environmental Sciences at Federal University of São Carlos, UFSCar, Brazil. She is a senior lecturer in landscape and town planning and she has active research interests in the fields of land use; green infrastructure; planning regulations; governance; public policies and climate change. Renata leads the Workgroup on Planning of Urban Parks of São Carlos and co-leads the Observatory for Cities - diffusion of knowledge for transformative actions. She is currently supervising environmental urban planning PhD and Masters students. She was coordinator of the Bachelor's Course Environmental Analysis and Management in 2020/2021. She was the Official Member of UFSCar at the City Council of Urban Development during 2021/2022. Between January and December 2023 Renata was a Research Fellow at University of the Sunshine Coast developing the research: “Novel evidences and perspectives on green infrastructure planning for cities: correlations between Brazil and Australia” (Capes and FAPESP funding). Renata's professional connection with the BASC Lab remain active and ensure collaboration between academics and HDR candidates between UniSC and UFSCar.

Email: renataperes@ufscar.br 

Research Fellows

Dr Jiawei Fu

Dr. Jiawei Fu is currently a visiting scholar at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Her research focuses on the impact of vegetation on microclimate and human thermal comfort in urban streets. As a landscape architect and lecturer, she has extensive professional and teaching experience in urban planning and landscape design, including developing urban green strategies in Macau and mentoring students to win landscape design awards. Dedicated to designing with nature for optimal outcomes, her research interest lies in urban green infrastructure for sustainable city development. 

Email: jfu@usc.edu.au 

Dr Soha Matour

Soha is a sustainability and building science professional with a PhD in architecture, specialising in building physics. Her work focuses on passive design, parametric modelling, and building and microclimate simulation. She has experience with sustainability frameworks like Green Star and the NCC and is committed to creating high-performance, climate-responsive built environment. At the BASC Lab, Soha collaborates on interdisciplinary projects addressing urban design, climate resilience, and human comfort. She also contributes to teaching in the Bachelor of Urban Design and Town Planning (Honours), particularly in Urban Climate Theory and Science (ENP203), and mentoring future built environment professionals. In doing do, she contributes to bridging research and practical application for sustainable outcomes.

Email: smatour@usc.edu.au  

Research Assistants

Sean Batley

Sean Batley is an urban designer and emerging town planner with over seven years of experience in Local Government, currently completing a Bachelor of Urban Design and Town Planning (Honours) at the University of the Sunshine Coast. His professional background spans placemaking, streetscape design, and development reports, with a strong focus on delivering practical, people-centered urban outcomes. Sean has managed and supported complex public realm projects, including streetscape and plaza upgrades, as well as landscape and built form outcomes that enhance the quality and functionality of urban environments. He has also contributed to large-scale strategic projects, including local place analysis and assessments to inform future planning in the lead-up to the 2032 Olympics. Sean has a strong interest in the relationship between urban design, climate, and human wellbeing. With a personal passion for health and fitness, he is particularly interested in how bioclimatic design, urban systems, and public spaces can enhance thermal comfort, support physical activity, and improve overall quality of life. His work and research interests focus on creating climate-responsive urban environments that prioritise both environmental and human outcomes.

Email: sbatley@usc.edu.au  

Lab Students

PhD Candidates

Olivia Herrmann 

Olivia is a full-time PhD student with UniSC, studying the ways in which urban climate knowledge can best be communicated to built environment professionals. Her research interests are urban design, planning and urban climate, with a focus on providing a practical explanation of important climate science. She has research experience across sociotechnical urbanism, placemaking and design and is currently also working as a research assistant at the BASC Lab. 

Email: oherrmann@usc.edu.au 

Visiting Scholar

Ms Kamyla Barros

Kamyla is a PhD Candidate at the University of São Paulo (USP, Brazil), and Visiting Scholar at the University of the Sunshine Coast (CAPES funding – Oct/2025 to Jun/2026). She works with green infrastructure, cool pavements, urban parks, and climate change. Kamyla has a Master of Science in Architecture, Urbanism, and Technology from the University of São Paulo, a Specialisation in Architectural and Urban Environmental Rehabilitation from the University of Brasília (UnB, Brazil), and a Bachelor in Architecture and Urbanism from the Federal University of Alagoasm (UFAL, Brazil). She has experience in environmental comfort in urban spaces, urban climatology, climate change, urban open spaces, and urban planning with a focus on local climate conditions.

Student members

Ms Thais Fanan

Thaís Fanan Peres is a PhD Candidate in Environmental Sciences at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar, Brazil), within the research field of Landscape Management and Geosciences. She holds a degree in Architecture and Urbanism and a Masters in Health Promotion. In 2024, she was a Visiting Scholar at BASC Lab. She is also a member of the research group “SUSTENTA – Sustainability and Environmental Management” at UFSCar. Her research focuses on open space systems, public space, urban planning, sociotechnical urbanism, and nature-based solutions (NbS). 

Research internship students