Rosangela Tenorio

Dr Rosangela Tenorio is an Associate Professor at the School of Design with over 20 years of experience as an academic and a practicing architect. She is also a co-founder of the Bio-Based Materials DESIGN Lab at UWA.

Born in the northeast of Brazil, she worked mostly in affordable housing and slum-upgrading projects before continuing her training as she undertook graduate jobs in New York (Peter Eisenman architects), Milan (Piero Lissoni Associati) and Recife (Borsoi architects). She conducted postgraduate studies in Tokyo (Nihon Daigaku) and received a PhD in Environmental Design at the University of Queensland under the supervision of Dr Steven V Szokolay. Before joining UWA she worked at the University of Auckland (NZ) and University of Nottingham (China–UK).

Rosangela is committed to design for development, in particular self-sufficiency in schools where affordability of resources (environmental and financial) are key aspects in providing better living conditions.

“The built environment is a major contributor towards carbon emissions. Design for development and affordability is not only needed, but expected, in the twenty-first century. As an academic and designer, I strive for inventive and creative solutions that use very few resources, are meaningful and bring quality to communities while being culturally appropriate.”

She is currently a project member in the study ‘Towards biophilic, resilient green infrastructure: Perth as a case study’, which argues for Urban Green Infrastructure as a foundation for a sustainable biophilic city. She is also involved on a pilot project in the island of Atauro-Timor-Leste, for the redesign of schools considering integration of curriculum and architecture to advance implementation of the Sustainable Development goals [SDGs].

She is also a registered architect in Brazil [CAU-Amazonas], and on the Design Institute of Australia’s WA brand Design Committee Jury.

“The UWA School of Design has an extremely diverse group of staff and students. The working ethics and level of professionalism from our staff and the engagement of our students is truly exceptional. This is where true academic innovation can flourish.”

Qualifications:

• BArch (Hons), Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil
• PGDip (Music Education), University of Waikato, New Zealand
• PhD (Environmental Design), University of Queensland, Australia

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