Dr Catherine Keys
Senior Lecturer
School of Architecture, Design and Planning
Researcher biography
Dr Cathy Keys completed her doctoral studies in the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre in 1999. Her doctoral thesis 'The Architectural Implications of Warlpiri jilimi' was concerned with the People Environment relations of Aboriginal women living in Central Australia. She is committed to exploring the social and cultural properties of architectural space. Cathy has taught in Aboriginal Environments and architectural research and design making subjects in the School of Architecture, The University of Queensland.
Publications
Book Chapters
Go-Sam, Carroll and Keys, Catherine (2018). Mobilising Indigenous agency through cultural sustainability in architecture: are we there yet?. The handbook of contemporary indigenous architecture. (pp. 347-380) edited by Elizabeth Grant, Kelly Greenop, Albert L. Refiti and Daniel J. Glenn. Singapore: Springer Nature. doi: 10.1007/978-981-10-6904-8_14
Steele, Wendy and Keys, Cathy (2016). Interstitial housing space: no centre just border. Housing and home unbound: intersections in economics, environment and politics in Australia. (pp. 204-217) edited by Nicole Cook, Aidan Davison and Louise Crabtree. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315669342
Keys, C. (2000). The House and the Yupukarra, Yuendumu, 1946-96. Settlement: A History of Australian Indigenous Housing. (pp. 118-129) edited by P. Read. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Journal Articles
Keys, Cathy (2023). House elevation and the British military settlement of Port Essington in Northern Australia. ABE Journal (22). doi: 10.4000/abe.15204
Burke, Heather, Kerkhove, Ray, Wallis, Lynley A., Keys, Cathy and Barker, Bryce (2021). Nervous nation: fear, conflict and narratives of fortified domestic architecture on the Queensland frontier. Aboriginal History, 44, 21-57. doi: 10.22459/ah.44.2020.02
Keys, Cathy (2020). Sharing the Waterways: Shark-Proof Swimming, Penal Detention and the Early History of St Helena Island, Moreton Bay. Queensland Review, 27 (2), 121-136. doi: 10.1017/qre.2020.11
Keys, Cathy (2020). Shifting priorities of shade and northern Australian architecture: Colonial settlement prior to the 1920s. ABE Journal Architecture Beyond Europe, 17 (17). doi: 10.4000/abe.8008
Kerkhove, Ray and Keys, Cathy (2020). Australian settler bush huts and Indigenous bark-strippers: origins and influences. Queensland Review, 27 (1), 1-20. doi: 10.1017/qre.2020.1
Kerkhove, Ray and Keys, Cathy (2020). On the lookout: defensive surveillance of convicts and foreigners as a defining element of early Queensland architecture (1820s-1880s). Queensland History Journal, 24 (5), 476-485.
Keys, Cathy and Kerkhove, Ray (2019). 'Lighthouse Communities' and Indigenous-Settler Cultural Entanglements: The Early Architectural History of Southern Queensland's Lighthouses and Pilot Stations. Queensland History Journal, 24 (2), 213-229.
Keys, Cathy (2019). Diversifying the early history of the prefabricated colonial house in Moreton Bay. Queensland Review, 26 (01), 86-106. doi: 10.1017/qre.2019.5
Barber, Daniel A., Stickells, Lee, Ryan, Daniel J., Koehler, Maren, Leach, Andrew, Goad, Philip, van der Plaat, Deborah, Keys, Cathy, Karim, Farhan and Taylor, William M. (2018). Architecture, environment, history: questions and consequences. Architectural Theory Review, 22 (2), 249-286. doi: 10.1080/13264826.2018.1482725
Memmott, Paul and Keys, Cathy (2017). The emergence of an architectural anthropology in Aboriginal Australia: the work of the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre. Architectural Theory Review, 21 (2), 218-236. doi: 10.1080/13264826.2017.1316752
Keys, Cathy and Steele, Wendy (2017). Valuing “under the house”: women’s knowledge and the architectural history of the stumped Queensland house. Fabrications, 27 (1), 100-119. doi: 10.1080/10331867.2016.1262713
Keys, Cathy (2016). Designing hospitals for Australian conditions:The Australian Inland Mission's cottage hospital, Adelaide House, 1926. The Journal of Architecture, 21 (1), 68-89. doi: 10.1080/13602365.2016.1141790
Keys, Cathy (2015). Preliminary Historical Notes on the Transfer of Aboriginal Architectural Expertise on Australia's Frontier. Fabrications, 25 (1), 48-61. doi: 10.1080/10331867.2015.1009413
Memmott, P. and Keys, C. (2015). Redefining architecture to accommodate cultural difference: designing for cultural sustainability. Architectural Science Review, 58 (4), 278-289. doi: 10.1080/00038628.2015.1032210
Steele, Wendy and Keys, Cathy (2015). Interstitial space and everyday housing practices. Housing, Theory and Society, 32 (1), 112-125. doi: 10.1080/14036096.2014.938866
Keys, Cathy (2009). The new Fusions Gallery - an Installation by Luke Wright. The Journal of Australian Ceramics, 48 (1), 86-89.
Keys, Cathy (2007). Oxide stains. Ceramics Technical (25), 18-22.
Keys, Cathy (2005). Do they hold water?. The Journal of Australian Ceramics, 44 (3), 66-68.
Keys, C. (2003). Housing design principles from a study of Warlpiri Women's Jilimi. TAKE 2: Housing Design in Indigenous Australia, 2, 64-71.
Keys, C. (2000). Warlpiri ethno-architecture and applied Aboriginal architectural design: Case study material from Yuendumu. People and Physical Environment Research: The Person-Environment and Cultural Heritage Journal of Australia and New Zealand, PaPER55-56, 54-68.
Keys, Cathy (1996). Defining single Aboriginal women's housing needs in central Australia: dealing with issues of culture, gender and environment. Architectural Theory Review, 1 (1), 69-77. doi: 10.1080/13264829609478263
Conference Papers
Keys, Cathy (2017). The 1950s elevation debate and the tropical Queensland house: tropical storms, ‘progressive architecture’ and the devaluing of the ‘under the house’. 6th International Network of Tropical Architecture Conference 2017, University of Florida, FL, United States, 1-3 December 2017. University of Florida, FL, United States: International Network of Tropical Architecture Conference 2017.
Memmott, Paul and Keys, Cathy (2014). Translating the design of behaviour settings for Aboriginal well-being. Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 2-5 July 2014. Gold Coast, QLD, Australia: SAHANZ.
Keys, Cathy (2014). Skin fabric iron shade. Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 2-5 July 2014. Gold Coast, QLD, Australia: SAHANZ.
Research Reports
Habibis, Daphne, Memmott, Paul, Phillips, Rhonda, Go-Sam, Carroll, Keys, Cathy and Moran, Mark (2013). Housing conditionality, Indigenous lifeworlds and policy outcomes: towards a model for culturally responsive housing provision. Melbourne, Australia: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute.
Memmott, Paul, Stacy, Rachael, Chambers, Catherine and Keys, Catherine (2001). Violence in Indigenous Communities. Canberra: Crime Prevention Branch, Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department.
Creative Works
Keys, Cathy (2013). Pine: Bunya. Bunya Mountains, QLD, Australia: Bunya Forest Gallery.
Keys, Cathy (2013). Pine: Pine(ing). Sydney South, NSW, Australia: Cathy Keys Website.
Keys, Cathy (2013). Pine: The Bunyas. Fortitude Valley, QLD, Australia: Artisan Gallery.
Keys, Cathy (2010). Typology. Waverley, NSW, Australia: Australian Ceramics website.
Keys, Cathy (2009). Silt. Fortitude Valley, QLD, Australia: Signature Brisbane.
Keys, Cathy (2008). Tidemark. Gympie, QLD, Australia: Cooloola Shire Public Gallery.
Keys, Cathy (2007). Remnant. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Micheal Signoures Galleries.
Theses
Keys, Catherine Ann (1999). The architectural implications of Warlpiri jilimi. PhD Thesis, School of Architecture, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/302732
Keys, Catherine (1993). Aboriginal women's birthing and architectural implications in central Australia. Honours Thesis, School of Geography, Planning and Architecture, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/uql.2020.397