Dr Joe Gattas is an Associate Professor and structural engineer in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland, and lead of the Folded Structures Lab.

Joe’s research began with his doctoral scholarship proposal on post-disaster housing: to design a temporary house that could go anywhere, cost almost nothing, and be built by anyone. Pursuing those idealised goals has produced the Lab’s three research themes: timber and bio-based construction, computational design and fabrication, and origami-inspired design. Much of this work is tested through full-scale prototypes, and its applications increasingly centre on low-cost, low-carbon housing.

Joe obtained his Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Queensland in 2009 and completed his Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford in 2013, funded by a John Monash Scholarship. He remains an active participant in the John Monash Scholar community.

Research Leadership

Joe leads a research programme supported by national competitive, government, and industry funding. He has been lead investigator on Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery and Linkage Projects, and on industry-supported projects through the NSW Decarbonisation Innovation Hub and Australian Forestry and Wood Innovations (AFWI) schemes.

From 2016 to 2021, Joe led the Manufacture and Digital Design project stream within the ARC Future Timber Hub, which supported the development of tall timber buildings in the Pacific region.

Since 2022, Joe has led two research nodes of the ARC Advance Timber Hub:

• Manufacturing Innovation: projects on the digital design and fabrication of structures and building systems.
• Value Chain Innovation: projects that improve resource use across the forest-to-building timber value chain.

Joe’s research is connected with more than 30 industry and government partners, and he has collaborated with researchers at more than 20 universities in Australia and internationally.

Get in Touch

Please visit the UQ Researcher Page for current contact information. Prospective research students are welcome to make contact with a short outline of their research interests and how they relate to the Lab’s themes.