Tohu Paerua, WaihangaMaster of Architecture—MArch

Daniel is a Fellow of the Asian Studies Institute, 2015 – present, the New Zealand India Research Institute, 2012 – present, and the Akon Aotearoa Academy of Tertiary Teaching Excellence, 2008 – present. He has been awarded nine international Research Fellowships: New Zealand India Research Institute Fellowship, India, 2012, plus 2014, Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, Nepal, 2011, Centre for Art, Science, Technology, France, 2010, La Muse Fellowship, France, 2010, Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Humanities Fellowship, Italy, 2009, US Congressional Fulbright Fellowship, 1999, Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, Nepal, 1997, American Institute of Indian Studies Fellowship, India, 1997.

Daniel's ongoing research investigates how neglected urban sites can be strategically revitalised by re-establishing critical links to lost cultural and historical imperatives. It transforms dilapidated urban sites into rejuvenated public spaces by reconnecting them to their historical and cultural contexts. The resulting narratives are designed to challenge our perception of our built environment as well as its inhabitants. The impact of his annual collaborative research in Rome since 2005 played a significant role in convincing the regional council that strategic application of cultural and historical imperatives is a viable cost-effective approach to culturally revitalising derelict or neglected public spaces. As a result of his collaborative research relating to a neglected half-kilometre stretch of the Tiber River between the Sisto and Mazzini bridges, the Rome City Council began transforming this site of our research into a permanent public arts space.

The significance, originality, and international esteem of his research outputs have been particularly evidenced by the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale exhibiting a 5-year retrospective of his research in the host Italy Pavilion, as part of the exhibition "Reflections from the Future", curated by Luca Molinari, one of Italy's leading

• Sustainable design and practice,
• Environmental engineering systems,
• Sustainable engineering systems design,
• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for buildings,
• Carbon-neutral construction pathways,
• BIM for sustainability integration,
• Human behaviour in energy use,
• Passive and active building systems,
• Sustainable material development,
• Practice-based architectural research,
• Industry-academic research collaboration,
• EPD creation and standardisation,
• Decarbonization design tools.

Kaupapa Māori design,  digital design technologies, 3D printing, Robotics in architecture and its increasing convergence with aspects of Indigenous customary knowledge and craft.

Modern architecture, Modern American architecture, Architectural history, 19th and 20th centuries, Architectural theory, Urban history, History of Urban design and planning, History and theory of Interior Architecture, History and theory of Interior Design, Urban Interiors

Tane’s research examines Real-Time Virtual Environments, ecological digital twins, computational imaging, and the environmental intelligence of cities. His work investigates how immersive media, geospatial data, UAV photogrammetry, environmental sensing, and game-engine technologies can reshape how architects, designers, communities, and decision-makers understand spatial and ecological change.

A central strand of his current research focuses on the relationship between smart cities, intelligent cities, and ecological digital twins. Rather than treating smart-city systems as tools for urban optimisation alone, Tane’s work asks how cities might become more environmentally self-aware: able to observe, model, and respond to their own impact on coastal, marine, and riverine ecosystems. Through projects such as WetLabs and The Sea at Scale, he is developing public-facing digital twins that integrate real-time environmental data, hydrological sampling, UAV-based geospatial intelligence, point-cloud modelling, and Real-Time Virtual Environments.

His research also advances long-standing work on Real-Time Virtual Environments in architectural design and education. His doctoral project, The Entangled Studio: A Sociomaterial Study of Real-Time Virtual Environments in Architectural Education (submitted 2025), examines how RTVE-enabled studio environments shape collaboration, leadership, peer learning, and community formation within architectural education. This work contributes to architectural pedagogy, digital design culture, and the study of immersive learning environments.

Tane maintains active industry-facing and applied research partnerships with organisations including Trimble, Aurecon, NZ Wood, local government partners, and environmental collaborators. These partnerships have supported funded and sponsored projects across virtual reality, mixed reality, augmented reality, serious games, parametric and procedural design, visual

My core research interests can be summarised as:

• Accelerating sustainable change in architecture
• Sustainable building materials in terms of absolute sustainability which includes nature-positive, material flow justice, responsible sourcing, and regenerative and transparent economy 
• Bio-based building materials and their role in transition to bioeconomy 
• Fostering better understanding of toxicity of building materials and transition away from social and environmental harms these create
• Sustainability Transition Framework (STF) and its applications
• I am also interested in examinations of sufficiency and post-growth and degrowth strategies for architecture and built environment