Planning, Uses and Zoning Alexa Gower

Alexa is currently researching how the Covid-19 restrictions and other future shutdowns may reshape Melbourne’s urban form, focusing on implications for housing. This research forms part of The Melbourne City Experiment, a landmark Monash University research initiative investigating the effects of the Covid-19 shutdown. Alexa recently completed her PhD at RMIT on high density housing regulations and the functions and limitations of planning tools to improve design quality in policy and in practice. Her thesis tested apartments in Melbourne and London to better understand the impact housing regulations had on improving resident’s liveability. This was complemented by a qualitative inquiry into the power and politics that shaped Melbourne’s housing regulation policy that, together, produced a nuanced evaluation of the complex role and limitations for high density housing regulations.

She was the recipient of AHURI PhD Top-up Scholarship and contributed to the ARC linkage; Project HOME – a global research collaboration aimed at improving housing outcomes and quality. She has previously worked as an architect on various high-density apartment buildings in Melbourne and this spatial experience continues to inform and ground her research in planning policy.