Dr Hurst has a distinctive and diverse research record developed over 20 years that exemplifies the creative and changing nature of research in the architectural discipline. Its unifying thread is an interest in how complex and profound spatial patterns of everyday life might productively bridge the divide between theory and practice, the academy and the profession. She has a prolific publication and exhibition background, including nearly 100 text works and curating and exhibiting locally and internationally in over 20 shows. Major themes include theories of the everyday, analogue practices, architectural curation, design pedagogy, and Australian modernism. An overview of her research can be seen at https://aad.unisa.edu.au/rachel-hurst/

Her current focus is on practice based methodologies and the expanded field, interrogated through creative and speculative artefacts. A recent series of drawings, paintings and textile works for example, exhibited in Copenhagen, Sydney and published in the Journal of Architectural Education, explores the use of the archive for projective architectural thinking and critique of architectural representation. Her PhD by project explored the multi-sensorial nature of everyday settings via analogue techniques and curatorial practices, producing over 500 publicly exhibited artefacts, and a portfolio of architectural journalism.

Rachel has a continuing practice of creative writing and critique, producing on average three to four writing commissions a year for monographs, design journals and exhibition catalogues. Notable in these are essays for the 2014 Venice Architectural Biennale Australian pavilion catalogue and This Building Likes Me [Thames + Hudson, 2016].

However she has an extensive catalogue of traditional research outputs that build upon over a decade in practice. Her early research followed two directions: firstly applied research in cross-disciplinary fields of urban design, planning and design education (particularly on architecture and gastronomy as a teaching and spatial metaphor); secondly in architectural history where a series of publications on Australian modernists, Dickson & Platten have led to her status as the leading scholar on their work. Significant achievements include chapters and creative works in publications by the University of New Mexico Press, Wiley-Academy Architectural Design, Ashgate and MIT Press.

She also contributes to the supervision of PhD, Masters of Research and Architectural Thesis students, and regularly referees for  scholarly organisations.