Dr Silvia Tavares

Lecturer in Urban Design and Town Planning

Silvia is an urban designer with a background in architecture, urbanism, and building and city science (affiliate member of PIA and registered architect and urbanist in Brazil). Her research focuses on the production of high-quality, well-designed public spaces which enhance the quality of life of the people using them. She strives to provide evidence for the production of public open spaces that are thermally comfortable and promote the good health of users and the natural environments that surround them. Her interests are, therefore, climate-responsive design for urban thermal comfort and urban microclimates, the relationship between urban microclimates and people’s health, and the impacts of climate change on them all. Where appropriate she works with industry, stakeholders and citizens to understand where her research can provide useful evidence for contemporary pressing issues. Before USC, she worked at James Cook University (Australia), Lincoln University (New Zealand), as a visiting researcher at the ILS (Institut für Landes- und Stadtentwicklungsforschung gGmbH) (Germany), and at the UFT (Universidade Federal do Tocantins, Brazil).

Publications:

Tavares, Silvia G, and N.J. Stevens. 2020. “A Integração de Valores e Medidas de Segurança no Projeto de Espaços Públicos Resilientes: Lições de Desastres Rápidos e Lentos.” Projectare 1(10): 158–83. https://periodicos.ufpel.edu.br/ojs2/index.php/Projectare/article/view/19169.

Lenzholzer, Sanda et al. 2020. “Urban Climate Awareness and Urgency to Adapt: An International Overview.” Urban Climate 33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2020.100667.

Lenzholzer, Sanda et al. 2020. “Awareness of Urban Climate Adaptation Strategies: An International Overview.” Urban Climate 34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2020.100705.

Tavares, Silvia G. 2020. “Espaces Publics Sensibles au Climat Sous Les Tropiques: Une Approche Urbaine Bioclimatique / Climate Responsive Public Spaces in the Tropics: A Bioclimatic Design Approach.” In Architecture in Millieu Tropical: Construire Le Paysage, Entre Pratique et Recherche, eds. Pierre Rosier and Michel Watin. Montpellier, France: Éditions de l’Espérou, 142–67. http://www.lareunion-archi.fr/upload/files/actes_du_colloque_2019.pdf.

For further information email Silvia here, starvares@usc.edu.au