Rate My Professor Crystal Olin

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.