Rate My Professor Rochus Hinkel

Associate Professor Rochus Hinkel is Associate Professor in Architecture and Design at the Melbourne School of Design, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. He joined the University of Melbourne in 2020, after holding positions as Professor of Artistic Design at OTH Regensburg in Germany and Professor of Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Sweden. Hinkel earned his PhD by Creative Works from the Melbourne School of Design, with a thesis titled Expanding Architectural Agency in Public Space through Atmospheres, Actions. His academic interests encompass creative research practice, spatial design, atmospheres, urban interiors, and new media. As co-founder of Kit of Hearts and founder and co-director of the Advanced Digital Design + Fabrication (ADD+F) research hub, he leads explorations into emerging technologies including 3D scanning, CNC fabrication, AR/VR, and digital fabrication labs such as Fab_Lab, R_Lab, DF_Lab, Si_Lab, and Ex_Lab. He coordinates digital design and fabrication electives and oversees projects involving over 130 students annually. Current research collaborations include the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne and the Olkola Aboriginal Corporation at Cape York, addressing biodiversity loss, climate crisis, species extinction, industrial food production, and Indigenous knowledge systems through utopian design proposals.

Hinkel co-convenes the Politics and Utopia in Architecture conversation series (2020–2023), partnered with the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Design Week, and Aalto University. He serves as curatorial editor for Art Architecture Design Research (AADR) publisher, established in 2012. Key publications include 'From Analogue to Virtual: Urban Interiors in the Pandemicene' (2021), 'The Enduring Impact of the Bauhaus Experiment on Interior Design Education' (2020), 'Atmospheres and Occasions of Informal Urban Practice' (2011), the edited book 'The Society of Interiors: The Practice of Theory and the Theory of Practice' (2015), 'Occupation within Urban Conditions' (2014), and 'Spatial Hardware and Software' (2008). He has secured research funding, including $135,000 from the Royal Children's Hospital for situated ecologies projects and support from the Melbourne Social Equity Institute for the Getting Back on Country initiative. Hinkel was the inaugural recipient of the UniSA, SIDA, and David Roche Foundation Curatorial Research Fellowship for The Doppelgänger project, with works exhibited at Ars Electronica, Grainger Museum, and Melbourne Design Week.