Six books by esteemed academics in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning are among the publications to be celebrated at the 2024 SAHANZ Conference in December.
The publications share diverse research findings and explore themes ranging from the aesthetics of architecture to environmental design, vernacular architecture, and history, politics and media in postmodern architectural discourse. The books will be celebrated as part of the three-day conference, on the afternoon of Tuesday, 3 December at UQ’s Brisbane City Campus. Visit the SAHANZ website for further details.
Queensland Architects 1823–1895: A Biographical Dictionary (forthcoming)
Authors: Donald Watson and Judith McKay
Publisher: Uro (forthcoming)
Queensland Architects 1823−1895: A Biographical Dictionary is a major revision of Donald Watson and Judith McKay’s earlier biographical dictionary published in 1994. It incorporates new material and has a wider range of entries than its predecessor, not only for architects but also for related practitioners. While the book is about Queensland architects, these practitioners also worked elsewhere in Australia, as well as much further afield, before or later, making the book useful to biographical researchers of Australian architecture outside Queensland’s borders.
The authors have undertaken years of research to identify hundreds of architects and the like who practised in what is now Queensland from the beginning of European settlement until the economic downturn of the late nineteenth century, highlighting their widespread presence in a sparsely settled colony and the challenges they faced. Their lives and many of their buildings are recorded in succinct entries illustrated with mostly contemporary images. This book transforms our understanding of the Queensland built environment and those who helped to shape it over many years.
Is Architecture Art? An Introduction to the Aesthetics of Architecture
Author: John Macarthur
Publisher: Bloomsbury (2024)
This fascinating new book examines a provocative, complex question posed by its title: Is Architecture Art? The volume not only interrogates the question but also the relevance of philosophical aesthetics to the practice of making buildings, and why this relationship matters to the discipline of architecture.
Now available for pre-order, Is Architecture Art engages the work of thinkers ranging from Hume and Kant to Adorno, Tafuri and Rancière. It draws on accessible and thought-provoking accounts of historical and contemporary architectural and art theory, and encourages a new understanding of the purpose of architectural practice in the contemporary era as the concepts of “art,” “the arts” and of the creative economy continue to shift and blur.
Design and the Vernacular: Interpretations for Contemporary Architectural Practice and Theory
Editors: Paul Memmott, John Ting, Tim O’Rourke and Marcel Vellinga
Publisher: Bloomsbury (2023)
Design and the Vernacular: Interpretations for Contemporary Architectural Practice and Theory explores the currency of vernacular architecture, and its intersection with modernity and globalisation in local cultures across Australia and Oceania. It examines the relevance and role of vernacular architecture in contemporary urban planning, landscape and architectural design in the context of rapid political, economic, technological, social and environmental changes.
The book presents sixteen chapters by design practitioners and scholars who explore questions about the contribution of vernacular architecture and landscapes to contemporary design practice. The questions and case studies offer lessons for design disciplines in other global regions and demonstrate how vernacular architecture can influence contemporary design practices that support local cultures and influence representations of regional and state identities.
Paolo Portoghesi: Architecture between History, Politics and Media
Authors: Silvia Micheli and Léa-Catherine Szacka
Publisher: Bloomsbury (2023)
Paolo Portoghesi: Architecture between History, Politics and Media offers a new perspective on postmodern architecture, exploring the dynamic interplay of history, politics, and media through the work of one of its most intriguing protagonists, the Italian architect Paolo Portoghesi (1931–2023).
Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, the book explores how Portoghesi's personal “postmodern project” was based on the triangulation of a renewed interest in historical architectural language, unprecedented use of media and intertwined links between architecture and politics. Organised in a sequence of critical chapters supported by the analysis of Portoghesi's most significant architectural projects and publications, the book unfolds around Portoghesi’s academic, professional and institutional networks and cultural trajectories.
John Dalton: Subtropical Modernism and the Turn to Environment in Australian Architecture
Author: Elizabeth Musgrave
Publisher: Bloomsbury (2023)
Architect John Dalton (1927–2007) was an important voice in mid-century modernism in Australia whose work, despite it being exhibited and published nationally and internationally and winning several awards, is little known. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, this book draws on previously unpublished archival documents, including Dalton's drawings and paintings, transcripts of lectures, letters and articles, plans and photographic images of built works, to characterise the architect not only as a very talented designer, but also as a pioneer of environmentalist thinking in Australia.
John Dalton: Subtropical Modernism and the Turn to Environment in Australian Architecture is not only an important contribution to the existing scholarship on 20th-century modernism, but also to the current renewed interest in environmental design across the globe.
Karl Langer: Modern Architect and Migrant in the Australian Tropics
Editors: Deborah van der Plaat and John Macarthur
Publisher: Bloomsbury (2021)
In Karl Langer: Modern Architect and Migrant in the Australian Tropics, the scale and reach of Karl Langer’s practice is considered for the first time. The book studies Langer’s built and proposed work, both regional and metropolitan, and shows how, given his continued influence on the contemporary culture of tropical design, the architect has been unjustly ignored by the historiography of both Australian and modernist architecture to date.
Langer’s story is told through a series of edited essays focused on key themes and projects. Published as part of the Bloomsbury Studies in Modern Architecture series, it is both an examination of the architect's work and international legacy, and a case study in the trans-global dissemination of design ideas.
