Dr Ian Weir

Biography

Bushfire Architecture Research Ian is a research architect (consulting) with QUT and a registered practicing architect specialising in designing for bushfire prone, biodiverse landscapes. Ian’s building designs have been featured on special episodes of ABC Television’s ‘The New Inventors' and SBS ‘Insight’. In 2012 Ian was selected by the Australian Institute of Architects to represent innovative forms of practice at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Ian has designed homes and advised survivors of Victoria’s Black Saturday and contributed to the Royal Commission into that disaster. His recent built works have been in Shires of Denmark and Jerramungup in WA – the majority of which respond to the higher levels of bushfire attack: BAL-40 and Flames Zone (BAL-FZ).  These built works present a means of not only reconciling biodiversity conservation with bushfire safety – but also how to reduce the costs associated with building in bushfire prone areas by unifying energy efficiency with bushfire mitigation features.

Landscape Visualisation Research - Ian's PhD - entitled Transformative Mappings - investigates the applicability of using high-end land surveying technolgy (terrestrial laser scanning, RTK GPS, Digital Total Stations) for the visualisation of botanically rich, fire prone heath landscapes. This research commenced in 2001 with assistance from Curtin University of Technology, and marked the first time such technology was applied to the spatial measure of vegetation.