Associate ProfessorDagmar Reinhardt

How do you communicate with someone who does not share your language, sensory framework, or motion apparatus?

This question underpins my research. I lead and deliver original, innovative research that bridges architecture, computational design, and human-centred technology, robotics, acoustics and architecture; working across two distinct but interconnected areas: design and architecture robotics, and accessibility and universal design for Blind, Low Vision, and DeafBlind communities. Across both, I develop translational, practice-oriented research that moves from computational and material experimentation into built, tested, and community-validated outcomes.

Accessibility and Universal Design for Blind/Low Vision and DeafBlind Communities

In this area, I lead research that develops new knowledge and translational design practices for accessible and inclusive environments, working directly with Blind and Low Vision (BLV) and DeafBlind communities to make cultural, educational, and public spaces more equitable, joyous, and easy to navigate. This work grew out of my earlier research into acoustic and material perception in robotic fabrication, extending it into questions of spatial cognition, tactile and haptic communication, and narrative design for people who experience the built environment through senses other than sight. I currently lead two ARC Discovery Projects in this space, including DP240100824, Designing Accessible Playgrounds for Visually Impaired Children, an interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral project with early childhood educators, vision teachers, and accessibility specialists, and community partners including Guide Dogs, Vision Australia, NextSense, SASSVI, and the Wollongong and Tarrawanna councils. 

A parallel strand is the Museum of Touch initiative, a collaborative, co-designed research program with BLV communities and partner institutions including the Natural History Museum Copenhagen, the Chau Chak Wing Museum, and Macquarie and Monash Universities, developing tactile models, multimodal tours, and open-access 3D resources for museum accessibility. This research is grounded in lived experience: I work directly with BLV and DeafBlind adults, children and families, vision teachers, orientation and mobility experts, and museum and accessibility professionals to ensure design outcomes are genuinely co-created and translate into real improvements in participation and everyday life.

Robotics (Design Robotics, Construction Robtics, Human-Robot Collaboration, plus+)

My second research area investigates how architects can shape cultural, spatial, and material environments through computational design, robotic fabrication, acoustic performance, and human-robot collaboration. I established the robotics research and fabrication laboratory at the Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning in 2013, and have since built an international reputation in construction robotics, chairing the Rob|Arch 2016 conference (Robotic Fabrication in Architecture, Art and Design) and co-editing its Springer proceedings, and continuing as Associate Editor for Springer's Construction Robotics journal. My work examines how robotic and computational fabrication processes can produce new material, structural, and acoustic properties for architecture, and how human-robot collaboration can be developed as an engaging, performative, and multisensory design practice rather than a purely industrial one.

This includes an ARC Discovery Project (DP230101357, with Cabrera) using acoustic retroreflection in architecture to improve rooms for speech, and long-standing collaborations with international robotics and interaction design groups, including ICD Stuttgart, CITA Copenhagen, RWTH Aachen, and Princeton.

A defining strand of this work is my leadership in supporting women in robotics and STEM: I conceived and produced the SHErobots exhibition and symposium series (Tin Sheds Gallery, Sydney, 2022; TU Delft, 2024), the first international platform dedicated to female leadership in construction, social, and creative robotics, which has since grown into a network connecting scholarship, practice, and public engagement across more than eight countries.