Monica Billger

Monica Billger is Professor of Architecture and Visualization at Chalmers University of Technology's Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, with over 20 years of research experience in visualization of the built environment. She directs InfraVis (Sweden's national visualization infrastructure since 2022) and previously led Visual Arena Research (2012-2022), a joint Chalmers-University of Gothenburg initiative. Her work bridges architectural research, urban planning, and data science through innovative visualization approaches.

Billger earned her 1999 PhD from Chalmers focusing on color and light perception in enclosed spaces. Her educational trajectory evolved from physical space studies to digital visualization leadership, establishing her as a pioneer in translating sensory experiences into computational frameworks.

Her research centers on visualization as a catalyst for urban transformation, specializing in environmental data representation (air quality, noise pollution), serious gaming for multi-stakeholder planning, and the psychological impacts of light/color in virtual environments. She develops dialogue tools that transform technical data into accessible formats for planners and citizens, particularly in sanitation resource recovery and construction logistics.

Analysis of her 50+ publications reveals consistent interdisciplinary integration: urban challenges are addressed through visualization techniques combining architectural insight with environmental science and computer science. Recent work (2020-2025) shows increasing focus on serious games for collaborative planning and national infrastructure development, moving from theoretical perception studies to applied urban solutions.

As Director of InfraVis and Visual Arena Research, Billger has secured major national funding for visualization infrastructure. Her projects—including VisLabs at Universeum science center (2020-2021) and the MIMIC construction logistics initiative—emphasize cross-institutional collaboration between academia, government, and industry to solve complex urban problems through visualization.

She leads Sweden's national visualization ecosystem through InfraVis while maintaining Visual Arena Research as a hub for Chalmers-University of Gothenburg collaboration. Her teams specialize in creating visualization tools that translate complex urban data into actionable insights for planners, policymakers, and citizens through exhibitions like VisLabs.