CUDAS comprises three research themes: Urban Design, Architechtural Practice and Humanities, and Sustainable Environments and Practice, which constitute the main areas of research focus in the Department of Architecture and 3D Design. These investigations operate at many scales and levels, but a common thread throughout these investigations is a concern about the integration of architectural, environment and urban design. Accordingly, the overarching ethos of CUDAS is that design informs all aspects of academic research of the built environment, whether in the historical, cultural, theoretical or environmental contexts. 

Through its diverse community of researchers, the centre takes a broadly inter-disciplinary and integrated approach to key areas of focus in architecture and urban design that both build upon historical precedents and advance new theoretical possibilities for the built environment and the city-at-large.