Kristian is an urban and economic geographer. His research interests centre on issues of urban governance, housing and planning. Kristian's research has explored social housing provision in New South Wales, in particular residents' experience of their neighbourhood and the evaluation of policies tied to urban renewal and community regeneration. Kristian has been involved in a number of projects conducted by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and authored numerous planning and housing studies for state government departments and local councils.

Before moving to Macquarie University Kristian worked as a Research Fellow at the City Futures Research Centre, UNSW, and the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, The University of Newcastle.

Kristian is currently undertaking research projects:

1. Urban regeneration planning and governance - examining the complex ways urban regeneration projects are planned, funded and managed across different urban contexts. 
2. Formal and everyday assemblages of urban regeneration - exploring urban regeneration and renewal at the city-wide scale and tracing the complex assemblages which mediate urban change.
3. Impacts of planning reform on development and assessment - tracing the capacity of state governments, local councils and developers to enact development in the context of changing planning regulations
4. Social/affordable housing construction and management - explore residents' concerns over new social/affordable housing construction, the planning regulations directing development and the viability of new management structures (such as Community Housing).
5. Resident resistance to urban consolidation - tracing the role and impact of community groups in challenging strategic planning and local planning decisions which promote densification.

Current ARC projects:

- Universities as entrepreneurial urban actors: how universities shape Australian cities, ARC Future Fellowship (FT210100357)

- Reassembling the city: understanding resident-led collective property sales, ARC Discovery Project (DP200101744) 

Past ARC projects:

- Building a more sustainable city: official and everyday practices of regeneration, ARC Discovery Project (DP130100582)

Completed HDR students:

- Wayne Williamson – Community and government planning authority use of social media in planning practice: A mixed methods analysis from Sydney (PhD)

- Zahra Nasreen - Shared room housing in Sydney: An exploration of housing informality, platform technology and home making (PhD)

- Mahdiyeh Bagherzadeh Khosroushahi – Neoliberal Inspired Infrastructure Governance and Planning Reform in NSW (PhD)

- Lois Towart - The Geographic Supply Drivers of Australian Retirement Communities (PhD)

- David Fingland – Manufacturing certainty: the purpose of planning in New South Wales? (PhD)

- Pamela Box – What does ‘Shared Responsibility’ mean for flood risk management in Australia? (PhD)

- Byambadorj Tseregmaa – Urban transition in informal settlements in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (PhD)

- Carolyn Thompson – Master-planned estates and the politics of urban revitalisation (PhD)

- Kerstin Hermes – A comparative study of community linkages  (PhD)

- Khandakar Al Fair Uddin – Post-politics and Council Amalgamation in NSW (MRes)

- Anthonia Soligbo - Home Making and Sense of Community in Sydney Apartments (MRes)