Rate My Professor Crystal Olin

Dr. Crystal Victoria Olin is a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head of School (Engagement) in the School of Architecture at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington. She serves as Research Associate at the New Zealand Centre for Sustainable Cities, University of Otago, Wellington, a position held since July 2021. Previously, she was Research Fellow at the University of Otago, Wellington, affiliated with the same centre, and specialized in urban design and placemaking. Her professional career includes serving as Urban Design Manager at Wellington City Council from 2019 to 2021 and at Dunedin City Council from 2016 to 2018, where she led urban design strategies, design reviews, public space delivery, masterplanning, revitalization efforts, and building design. Olin earned her PhD in Human Geography and Urban Design from the University of Otago between 2013 and 2017. She also holds an M.ADU and M.Arch from the University of Notre Dame from 2007 to 2010, as well as a B.Envd.

Olin's academic interests center on urban design processes and outcomes concerning identity, belonging, spatial justice, resilience, and the empowerment potential of urban environments, particularly housing and urban settings in relation to wellbeing. Her research examines placemaking in public and community housing, social connectedness among social housing tenants, community infrastructure, and urban environments that support Māori wellbeing, health, and identity, including the development of a Whakawhanaungatanga Māori wellbeing model for housing and urban environments. She is Deputy Director of the Public Housing & Urban Regeneration: Maximising Wellbeing programme, an MBIE Endeavour-funded initiative partnering with housing providers across Aotearoa New Zealand, and serves as the sole Victoria University of Wellington Principal Investigator for the Toitū he Kāinga programme funded by Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. Notable publications include "Advancing rigour in solicited diary research" (2018), "He Kāinga Oranga: reflections on 25 years of measuring the improved health, wellbeing and sustainability of healthier housing" (2024), "Placemaking and public housing: the state of knowledge and research priorities" (2024), "A Whakawhanaungatanga Māori wellbeing model for housing and urban environments" (2024), and "Placemaking for tenant wellbeing: Exploring the decision-making of public and community housing providers in Aotearoa New Zealand" (2025). Her scholarship has garnered over 370 citations and she has co-edited a special edition of Spunti e Ricerche. Olin has presented seminars on public housing and urban regeneration at the University of Otago's School of Surveying.