Prof. Joerg Baumeister (joergbaumeister.com) initiated and leads the SeaCities Lab (SeaCities.org) which develops and implements water-adapted urban solutions (aquacities) and floating structures (aquatecture). Its holistic research approach - which spans and includes the disciplines of architecture, engineering, and environmental sciences - develops new concepts for building with and for nature and creating ecosystem-based developments that respond to the current challenges in an adaptive and compatible fashion. He is an internationally awarded architect with a higher Doctorate in Engineering and attracted multi-million-dollar grants for transdisciplinary research projects with the industry and government institutions which have been published in books, government reports and journal articles. Ioana Corina Giurgiu is SeaCities Ph.D. researcher, currently developing a thesis on hybrid water-based urban system designs. She graduated with Honours from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, and as a certified Passivhaus designer and registered architect, she has worked on a number of Passivhaus and energy-efficient projects in UK and Romania. Her research focus is on decreasing the environmental footprint of the built environment via hybrid designs which create symbiotic relationships between natural and built environments. Despina Linaraki is an architect engineer. Despina Linaraki is a Ph.D. researcher at SeaCities, Cities Research Institute, Queensland. She has completed a Master of Science, 2015 from Columbia University in New York, at Advanced Architectural Design and the Development of Global Cities. Furthermore, she holds a Master's of Architectural Engineering, 2013 from Technical University of Crete, in Greece. Since 2014, she is a registered architect in Greece. Having lived experience in different coastal cities around the world, she is researching nature-based solutions for the adaptation of low-lying islands and coastal cities to sea level changes and floods through the interdisciplinary of architecture with the fields of biology and geology. Prof. Daniela A. Ottmann has a distinguished 20-year architecture and urban design career across Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Africa, and China. Her expertise in designing, researching and educating for diverse bio-climatic and socio-cultural environments has earned her leading expert status. Dr. Ottmann promotes sustainable urban development, collaborating with UN-Habitat and championing ‘Inclusive Sustainable Urban Development’. Beyond professorial affiliations in Germany, Australia and the UAE, she is an Associate Professor at Bond University, leading postgraduate research-enabled learning for Architectural Sustainable Development and Climate Design. Her notable publications, including “Urban Ecolution: Future solutions for healthy and ecologically integrated cities,” “Housing+ modular housing system,” “Ecological Materials for Deserts and Drylands,” and “Urban Correlator,” have contributed significantly to the field of architecture and urban design.
