Deborah van der Plaat is a Senior Research Fellow with the School of Architecture, The University of Queensland. She was formerly a Senior Research Fellow and Manager of the Architecture Theory Criticism History Research Centre (ATCH), UQ (2015-2019). Her research examines the architecture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and its intersection with theories of artistic agency, climate, environment and race. Writing histories of Queensland architecture is also a focus within her work and, with John Macarthur, she continues to develop and expand the Digital Archive of Queensland Architecture (DAQA, launched in 2014, https://qldarch.net/)
Her most research outputs include:
With John Macarthur, Jane Hunter, Andrew Wilson and industry partners State Library of Queensland, Conrad Gargett Architecture, Bligh Voller Nield, Wilson Architects and Riddel Architecture, Plaat wrote the successful Australian Research Council Linkage application "Architectural Practice in Post-war Queensland: Building and Interpreting an Oral History Archive" (2011-2013). This project resulted in the first comphrensive history on Queensland modernism and outputs included: a major exhibition, Hot Modernism: Building Modern Queensland 1945-1975 (State Library of Queensland, July- October 2014 curated with Janina Gosseye, Kevin Wilson and Gavin Bannerman); the creation and ongoing development of the Digital Archive of Qlueensland Architecture qldarch.net; and a book, Hot Modernism: Queensland Architecture 1945-1975 (London: Artifice Press, 2015 co-edited with John Macarthur, Janina Gosseye and Andrew Wilson). In 2017, the project was awarded the John Herbert Memorial Award and the Gold Heritage Award, Interpretation and Promotion by the National Trust of Australia, Queensland Branch. See also: http://www.uq.edu.au/research/impact/stories/hot-modernism-cool-resource/
From 2009-2011 Plaat was the recipient of the UQ Postdoctoral Fellowship for Women to work on her nominated project, "Tropical environments and Queensland architecture (1850-1914): building historical understandings of the culture of architecture and climate change." This project resulted in a symposium titled Architecture at the Ragged Edge of Empire: Race, Taste and Place and the Colonial Context (State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, 27-28 June, 2013) and a series of papers which explore the insection of architecture, climate and race in Queensland architecture. This research is ongoing.
Plaat has edited 5 books including: Skyplane: What effect do towers have on urbanism, sustainability, the workplace and historic city centres? (with Richard Francis Jones, Lawrence Nield, Xing Ruan, Sydney: UNSW Press 2009); Hot Modernism: Queensland Architecture 1945-1975 (with John Macarthur, Janina Gosseye and Andrew Wilson, London: Artifice 2015); Speaking of Buildings: Oral History in Architectural Research (with Janina Gosseye and Naomi Stead, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2019); Karl Langer: Modern Architect and Migrant in Tropical Australia (with John Macarthur, London: Bloomsbury, 2022) and Light, Space, Place: the architecture of Robin Gibson (with Lloyd Jones, Melbourne: URO Publications, 2022). From 2010 to 2014 she was editor, with Paul Walker and Julia Gatley, of Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand. She has also published extensively in national and international journals.
Awards
American Society of Environmental Historians (ASEH) Travel Award 2019.
Graham Foundation Grant 2018.
John Herbert Memorial Award for the Most Outstanding Nomination, Hot Modernism: Exhibition, Digital Archive and Book, National Trust, Queensland, 2017.
Gold Heritage Award, Interpretation and Promotion, Hot Modernism: Exhibition, Digital Archive and Book, National Trust, Queensland, 2017.
Annual Conference Senior Scholar Fellowship, Society of Architectural Historians 2013.
Postdoctoral Fellowship for Women (University of Queensland) 2009-2012.
Memberships
Member, Society of Architectural Historians (SAH)
Member, European Architectural History Network (EAHN)
Member, the Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA)
Member, COST Action ISO904 European Architecture Beyond Europe
Member, Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ)
Member, Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ)
Hot Modernism Research Impact: http://www.uq.edu.au/research/impact/stories/hot-modernism-cool-resource/
Hot and Bothered Film Competition: http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/whats-on/awards/hot-and-bothered
Hot Modernism: Building Modern Queensland 1945-1975: http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/hot-modernism
Kirril Shields,“Cold Change: Queensland’s Modernism at Risk”, Architecture Australia, October 2014. http://architectureau.com/articles/hot-modernism-building-modern-queensland
Book: Karl Langer: Modern Architect and Migrant in The Australian Tropics
Deborah van der Plaat and John Macarthur eds. (2022). Karl Langer: Modern Architect and Migrant in The Australian Tropics. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Book: Light, space, place: the architecture of Robin Gibson
Deborah van der Plaat and Lloyd Jones eds. (2022). Light, space, place: the architecture of Robin Gibson. Melbourne, VIC Australia: URO Publication.
Book Chapter: The psychology of selling and the selling of architecture: Robin Gibson's early retail projects (1959-1970)
van der Plaat, Deborah (2022). The psychology of selling and the selling of architecture: Robin Gibson's early retail projects (1959-1970). Light, space, place: the architecture of Robin Gibson. (pp. 258-271) edited by Deborah van der Plaat and Lloyd Jones. Melbourne, VIC Australia: URO Publications.
Edited Outputs: Narrative of disease, discomfort, development and disaster: Reconsidering (sub) tropical architecture and urbanism (conference stream)
Deborah van der Plaat, Vandana Baweja and Tom Avermaete eds. (2019). Narrative of disease, discomfort, development and disaster: Reconsidering (sub) tropical architecture and urbanism (conference stream). iNTA2019: Urban Tropicality, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 5-8 December, 2019.
Book: Speaking of buildings: oral history in architectural research
Janina Gosseye, Naomi Stead and Deborah van der Plaat eds. (2019). Speaking of buildings: oral history in architectural research. New York, NY, United States: Princeton Architectural Press.
van der Plaat, Deborah, Sully, Nicole and Wilson, Andrew (2018). Recollecting Home, curated by Deborah van der Plaat, Nicole Sully and Andrew Wilson. In Home: A Suburban Obsession, curated by Chenoa Pettrup and Adam Jefford. Brisbane, Queensland, Australia: State Library of Queensland.
Book: Hot modernism: Queensland architecture 1945-1975
John Macarthur, Deborah van der Plaat, Janina Gosseye and Andrew Wilson eds. (2015). Hot modernism: Queensland architecture 1945-1975. London, United Kingdom: Artifice.
Other Outputs: Hot Modernism: Building Modern Queensland, 1945-1975
van der Plaat, Deborah, Gosseye, Janina and Bannerman, Gavin (2014). Hot Modernism: Building Modern Queensland, 1945-1975. State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia:
Other Outputs: Digital Archive of Queensland Architecture
Macarthur, John, Hunter, Jane, van der Plaat, Deborah, Gosseye, Janina and Bannerman, Gavin (2014). Digital Archive of Queensland Architecture. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: ATCH Research Centre UQ.
Book: Skyplane
Richard Francis-Jones, Lawrence Nield, Xing Ruan and Deborah van der Plaat eds. (2009). Skyplane. Content, Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales Press.
The architectural career and work of Robin Gibson.
(2018–2022) Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works
Intercultural architectural and material culture heritage and conservation in Moreton Bay
(2012–2014) UQ FirstLink Scheme
(2011–2014) ARC Linkage Projects
Frank Leo Cullen - A Modernist Education Legacy
Doctor Philosophy
The Architecture of Robin Gibson & Partners (c1958-2013)
Doctor Philosophy
Women Architects in Post Modern Queensland (1975-1995): Building and Interpreting a digital archive.
Doctor Philosophy
Karl Langer: Modern Architect and Migrant in the Tropics
Despite a European training, and an early career managing the Vienna office of architect Peter Behrens, a migration (necessitated by the circumstances of WWII) to the Australian state of Queensland positioned the emigre architect Karl Langer (1903-1969) at the very edge of both European and Australian modernism. Confronted by [sub]tropical heat and glare, the economics of affordable housing, fiercely proud and regional architectural practices, and a suspicion of the foreign, Langer moulded the European language of international modernism to the unique climatic and social conditions of Queensland to produce a number of the State’s architectural highlights. This book will tell Langer’s story through a series of edited essays focused on key themes and projects. Studying the architect’s built and proposed work, both regional and metropolitan, the scale and geographical reach of Langer’s practice will be considered for the first time. A genuine architect of the Shadow Canon and one that has continued to influence the contemporary culture of Queensland design—the Karl Langer Award given out each year by the Queensland Institute of Architects—Langer has been largely ignored by the historiography of both Australian and Queensland architecture. This book seeks to close this gap.
Narratives of Disease, Discomfort, Development, and Disaster: Reconsidering (sub) Tropical Architecture and Urbanism
Hurricanes Irma and Maria (2017) have demonstrated the urgent need for architecture in the tropics to be resilient to tropical cyclones, storms, sea surges and floods. Yet, in architectural historiography, tropical architecture has been viewed as a colonial construct acting in response to disease and discomfort – factors that needed to be conquered, overcome, and tackled. The correlation between anthropogenic climate change and the increasing intensity of hurricanes and sea level rise has led to the dominance of the trope of disaster in contemporary tropical architectural discourses. In addition, as it became apparent that buildings, as one of the key consumers of fossil fuels contribute significantly to climate change; the relationship between architecture and climate has gone through a paradigmatic shift—from one in which climate was a determinant of architectural metrics, to one in which architecture is seen as an active agent in the transformation of global climatic systems. As a consequence, tropical architecture, which began as discourse founded on the relationship between architecture and climate to ensure the well-being of the human body in a localised context, is now seen as a discourse where the production and operation of architecture have global planetary impact.
The idea of tropical and subtropical architecture and urbanism initially developed through a particular connection between discourses on disease, spatial practices and optimum architectural typologies, which were believed to circumvent the spread of tropical diseases and to maintain the comfort of the white settler. After the Second World War, the focus shifted from the European settlement of the colonial tropics to the self-development and governance of the world’s tropical regions; a phenomenon necessitated and propelled by post-war decolonization and global regimes of development aid. Accompanying this change was a shift away from the physiological comfort of the colonial settler to a new focus on indigenous cultures, vernacular building traditions, use of local materials, and increasing appreciation for the psychological value of cultural conventions, including superstition and taboo.
The aim of this project is to examine how “triumph” in the tropics was imagined across multiple geographies, by various subjects, through diverse discourses, and at different times and to critically investigate the roles architecture and urban planning played in this process. How are particular attributes of the (sub) tropics – climatic, environmental, social, ideological, spatial, and developmental – constructed through the discipline of architectural history? What role has architecture played in the imagination of tropicality through acclimatization, hygiene, comfort, development, and resilience; and how was this represented? How has architecture’s role in the imagination of the tropics shifted over time as political regimes transformed from colonization-settlement to decolonization-development debates? Is there a core set of ideas or values that constitute the imagination of the built environment in the tropics? How do these compare to indigenous understandings? What is the relation between the imaginaries of tropical architectures and cities by colonizers and colonized, or by transnational development experts and the receivers of this aid?
Race, Place, Taste and the Colonial Context.
The aim of this research is to consider factors or contingencies of the colonial experience that challenged, worked against, or sat alongside the more formal (governmental) representations of colonisation (in Australia and beyond). While colonial architecture is often assumed to approximate that of home, especially in formal and material terms, a question regarding architecture’s disciplinarity, it’s conceptual framing as an aesthetic or a high art, is often difficult to reconcile with the climatic, geographical, ethnic and racial complexity of the colonial context.
Climate: The deterministic role of climate and landscape on colonial architecture is commonly argued. The disciplinary positioning of architecture within the colonial context is, however, rarely considered. How was the practice of architecture framed or viewed by architects working in colonial settings? Could the entanglement of taste (architecture as a cultivated rather than mechanical art, painting instead of engineering) be maintained? What effect did the topographical and climatic diversity revealed by colonisation have? Was it possible to cultivate an artistic practice or architectural culture within tropical/sub-tropical/arid settings? Did the aspiring artist/architect need to leave for more temperate climes in order to develop an aesthetic sense or could these concerns be addressed locally (southern versus northern colonies, or east versus west)? Or, from a slightly difference perspective, was climate viewed by colonial communities as degenerate or redemptive and did climate theorists explicitly address the arts/ architecture alongside the problems of labour and national character?
Race: While British colonial institutions governed the early penal and settler societies of Australia, the populations of these new communities were often heterogeneous, ethnically diverse, and racially conflicted. In Australia, this is made most explicit by the imbalance of settler and indigenous populations and the conflict and dispossession that resulted. It is complicated further by the ethnic diversity of settler populations, one that is often mirrored in colonial settlements the world over.
While racial and ethnic diversity and conflict are acknowledged as attributes of the colonial condition, their impact on the architecture of white settlement is less considered. How did issues of race, ethnic heterogeneity, hybrid populations or racial conflict impact on colonial architectural practice? Did architecture participate in broader agendas of cultural representation, racial division and/or “reform”? Did ethnic and racial diversity challenge the authority of colonial institutions and/or Enlightenment and humanitarian values of universality and equality? Were “hybrid” communities viewed, in accordance with nineteenth century theories on race—as potentially infertile, unproductive and lacking in character— or did they make explicit alternative models, such cosmopolitanism?
Taste: Within Australia, colonised initially under a penal system and later through free settlement and migration schemes, significant proportions of early populations were often illiterate or semiliterate, valued for their physical labour rather than their intellectual capacity. Cultural refinement, as Evan has suggested, though not entirely lacking, often remained somewhat at a discount—at best a luxury and at worst a distraction. What role did the concept of ‘taste’ play in Colonial societies? What was the impact on the practice of architecture of such a demographic mix? How was architecture viewed by such communities (technical practice or higher art) and was it valued? Did architecture, and the broader arts, play a role in the lives, education and ‘improvement’ of such communities or was it the sole domain of government and a wealthy elite? Was a culture of architectural taste developed and if so how and by whom?
Karl Langer: Modern Architect and Migrant in The Australian Tropics
Deborah van der Plaat and John Macarthur eds. (2022). Karl Langer: Modern Architect and Migrant in The Australian Tropics. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Light, space, place: the architecture of Robin Gibson
Deborah van der Plaat and Lloyd Jones eds. (2022). Light, space, place: the architecture of Robin Gibson. Melbourne, VIC Australia: URO Publication.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2022). The psychology of selling and the selling of architecture: Robin Gibson's early retail projects (1959-1970). Light, space, place: the architecture of Robin Gibson. (pp. 258-271) edited by Deborah van der Plaat and Lloyd Jones. Melbourne, VIC Australia: URO Publications.
Deborah van der Plaat, Vandana Baweja and Tom Avermaete eds. (2019). Narrative of disease, discomfort, development and disaster: Reconsidering (sub) tropical architecture and urbanism (conference stream). iNTA2019: Urban Tropicality, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 5-8 December, 2019.
Speaking of buildings: oral history in architectural research
Janina Gosseye, Naomi Stead and Deborah van der Plaat eds. (2019). Speaking of buildings: oral history in architectural research. New York, NY, United States: Princeton Architectural Press.
van der Plaat, Deborah, Sully, Nicole and Wilson, Andrew (2018). Recollecting Home, curated by Deborah van der Plaat, Nicole Sully and Andrew Wilson. In Home: A Suburban Obsession, curated by Chenoa Pettrup and Adam Jefford. Brisbane, Queensland, Australia: State Library of Queensland.
Hot modernism: Queensland architecture 1945-1975
John Macarthur, Deborah van der Plaat, Janina Gosseye and Andrew Wilson eds. (2015). Hot modernism: Queensland architecture 1945-1975. London, United Kingdom: Artifice.
Hot Modernism: Building Modern Queensland, 1945-1975
van der Plaat, Deborah, Gosseye, Janina and Bannerman, Gavin (2014). Hot Modernism: Building Modern Queensland, 1945-1975. State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia:
Digital Archive of Queensland Architecture
Macarthur, John, Hunter, Jane, van der Plaat, Deborah, Gosseye, Janina and Bannerman, Gavin (2014). Digital Archive of Queensland Architecture. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: ATCH Research Centre UQ.
Richard Francis-Jones, Lawrence Nield, Xing Ruan and Deborah van der Plaat eds. (2009). Skyplane. Content, Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales Press.
Karl Langer: Modern Architect and Migrant in The Australian Tropics
Deborah van der Plaat and John Macarthur eds. (2022). Karl Langer: Modern Architect and Migrant in The Australian Tropics. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
Light, space, place: the architecture of Robin Gibson
Deborah van der Plaat and Lloyd Jones eds. (2022). Light, space, place: the architecture of Robin Gibson. Melbourne, VIC Australia: URO Publication.
Speaking of buildings: oral history in architectural research
Janina Gosseye, Naomi Stead and Deborah van der Plaat eds. (2019). Speaking of buildings: oral history in architectural research. New York, NY, United States: Princeton Architectural Press.
Hot modernism: Queensland architecture 1945-1975
John Macarthur, Deborah van der Plaat, Janina Gosseye and Andrew Wilson eds. (2015). Hot modernism: Queensland architecture 1945-1975. London, United Kingdom: Artifice.
Richard Francis-Jones, Lawrence Nield, Xing Ruan and Deborah van der Plaat eds. (2009). Skyplane. Content, Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales Press.
Introduction: Modern Architect and Migrant
van der Plaat, Deborah and Macarthur, John (2022). Introduction: Modern Architect and Migrant. Karl Langer: Modern Architect and Migrant in the Australian Tropics. (pp. 1-12) edited by Deborah van der Plaat and John Macarthur. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2022). The spell of the sunny south, the urge for 'Light, Sun and Air': the 'Human Aspect' and other ideas in Langer's Australian writings (1944-69). Karl Langer: Modern Architect and Migrant in the Australian Tropics. (pp. 104-141) edited by Deborah van der Plaat and John Macarthur. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Robin Gibson: architecture in everyday pursuits
van der Plaat, Deborah and Jones, Lloyd (2022). Robin Gibson: architecture in everyday pursuits. Light, space, place: the architecture of Robin Gibson. (pp. 13-21) edited by Deborah van der Plaat and Lloyd Jones. Melbourne, VIC Australia: URO Publications.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2022). The psychology of selling and the selling of architecture: Robin Gibson's early retail projects (1959-1970). Light, space, place: the architecture of Robin Gibson. (pp. 258-271) edited by Deborah van der Plaat and Lloyd Jones. Melbourne, VIC Australia: URO Publications.
Casting shadows and seeking shade
Sully, Nicole and van der Plaat, Deborah (2022). Casting shadows and seeking shade. Drawing climate: visualising invisible elements of architecture. (pp. 120-149) edited by Daniel Ryan, Jennifer Ferng and Erik G. L'Heureux. Basel, Switzerland: Birkhäuser. doi: 10.1515/9783035623611-007
Wireless architecture: Robert Cumming's early radio broadcasts
Macarthur, John and van der Plaat, Deborah (2022). Wireless architecture: Robert Cumming's early radio broadcasts. Architectural education through materiality: pedagogies of 20th century design . (pp. 221-234) edited by Elke Couchez and Rajesh Heynickx. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003201205-17
Alternative facts: towards a theorization of oral history in architecture.
Gosseye, Janina, Stead, Naomi and van der Plaat, Deborah (2021). Alternative facts: towards a theorization of oral history in architecture.. Architecture thinking across boundaries: knowledge transfers since the 1960s. (pp. 136-148) edited by Rajesh Heynickx, Ricardo Costa Agarez and Elke Couchez. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Visual Arts. doi: 10.5040/9781350153202.ch-008
Ways to listen anew: what next for oral history and architecture?
Stead, Naomi, Van der Plaat, Deborah and Gosseye, Janina (2019). Ways to listen anew: what next for oral history and architecture?. Speaking of buildings: oral history and architectural research. (pp. 268-284) edited by Janina Gosseye, Naomi Stead and Deborah van der Plaat. New York, NY, United States: Princeton Architectural Press.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2019). West's Furniture Store 1953. Australia modern: architecture, landscape & design 1925–1975. (pp. 135-135) edited by Hannah Lewi and Philip Goad. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Thames and Hudson.
Stead, Naomi, van der Plaat, Deborah and Macarthur, John (2017). Building flagships: regionalism, place branding, and architecture as image in the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. Images of the art museum: connecting gaze and discourse in the history of museology. (pp. 261-286) edited by Eva-Maria Troelenberg and Melania Savino. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2017). Climatic discomforts: [sub]tropical climates, racial character and the nineteenth-century Queensland house. On discomfort : moments in a modern history of architectural culture. (pp. 51-63) edited by David Ellison and Andrew Leach. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315598826
van der Plaat, Deborah and Wilson, Andrew (2015). Bringing architecture to the people: defining architectural practice and culture in post-war Queensland. Hot modernism: Queensland architecture 1945-1975. (pp. 15-29) edited by John Macarthur, Deborah van der Plaat, Janina Gosseye and Andrew Wilson. London, United Kingdom: Artifice.
van der Plaat, Deborah, Wilson, Andrew C. and Musgrave, Elizabeth (2015). Twentieth-century (sub) tropical housing: framing climate, culture and civilisation in post-war Queensland. Hot modernism: Queensland architecture 1945-1975. (pp. 75-99) edited by John P. Macarthur, Deborah van der Plaat, Janina Gosseye and Andrew Wilson. London, United Kingdom: Artifice.
‘Shabby’ careers? Women working in architecture in post-war Queensland
van der Plaat, Deborah (2015). ‘Shabby’ careers? Women working in architecture in post-war Queensland. Hot modernism: Queensland architecture 1945-1975. (pp. 183-199) edited by John P. Macarthur, Deborah van der Plaat, Janina Gosseye and Andrew Wilson. London, United Kingdom: Artifice.
Critical [re] connections: Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Critic as Artist’ (1891)
van der Plaat, Deborah (2012). Critical [re] connections: Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Critic as Artist’ (1891). Semi-detached: Writing, representation and criticism in architecture. (pp. 211-220) edited by Naomi Stead. Melbourne, Australia: Uro Media.
Macarthur, John and van der Plaat, Deborah (2012). Cummings, Robert. The encyclopedia of Australian architecture. (pp. 184-185) edited by Philip Goad and Julie Willis. Port Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Cambridge University Press.
European subtropical projections: Humboldt, Segalen, and the Musee qui Branly
de Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah (2011). European subtropical projections: Humboldt, Segalen, and the Musee qui Branly. Sweat: The Subtropical Imaginary. (pp. 17-27) edited by Andrew McNamara. Brisbane, Australia: Institute of Modern Art.
Architectural wit: Aesthetics, spectacle and ideology in the Griffins' proposed Capital Building
van der Plaat, Deborah (2009). Architectural wit: Aesthetics, spectacle and ideology in the Griffins' proposed Capital Building. Skyplane : What Effect Do Towers Have on Urbanism, Sustainability, the Workplace and Historic City Centres.. (pp. 174-185) edited by Richard Francis-Jones, Lawrence Nield, Xing Ruan and Deborah van der Plaat. Sydney, NSW: University of New South Wales Press.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2009). Disciplinary contrasts science, art and the imagination in the nineteenth-century writings of William Lethaby, John Ruskin and Alexander von Humboldt. Architecture, Disciplinarity and the Arts. (pp. 61-74) edited by Andrew Leach and John MacArthur. Louvain, Belgium: A & S Books (University of Ghent).
cloud in Musee du quai Branly: Photography in Architecture
De Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah (2009). cloud in Musee du quai Branly: Photography in Architecture. Back to the City: Strategies for Informal Urban Interventions. (pp. 84-93) edited by Steffen Lehmann. Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag.
Comfort in Australia’s unproductive North and the attendant anxiety of tropical cyclones
van der Plaat, Deborah (2021). Comfort in Australia’s unproductive North and the attendant anxiety of tropical cyclones. ABE Journal, 18 (18). doi: 10.4000/abe.9243
The Auckland School: 100 Year of Architecture and Planning, 1917-2017
van der Plaat, Deborah (2019). The Auckland School: 100 Year of Architecture and Planning, 1917-2017. Fabrications-The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand, 29 (3), 438-443. doi: 10.1080/10331867.2019.1667557
Architecture, environment, history: questions and consequences
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
van der Plaat, Deborah (2018). An Oriental Continent: Climatic Determinism, Race and Identity in the Interwar Writings of Australian Architect William Hardy Wilson (1881–1955). Fabrications : The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand, 28 (1), 67-87. doi: 10.1080/10331867.2017.1413703
van der Plaat, Deborah (2014). Visualising the critical: artistic convention and eclecticism in Oscar Wilde’s writings on the decorative arts. Australasian Journal of Victorian Studies, 19 (1), 5-19.
Climatic crisis: place, taste and race in Hardy Wilson’s Dawn of a New Civilization (1929)
van der Plaat, Deborah (2013). Climatic crisis: place, taste and race in Hardy Wilson’s Dawn of a New Civilization (1929). Architectural Histories, 1 (1), 22.1-22.11. doi: 10.5334/ah.aw
van der Plaat, Deborah and Gatley, Julia (2013). Editorial. Fabrications, 23 (1), 1-3. doi: 10.1080/10331867.2013.793145
van der Plaat, Deborah and Gatley, Julia (2013). Disciplinarity. Fabrications, 23 (2), 133-135. doi: 10.1080/10331867.2013.860671
van der Plaat, Deborah and Gatley, Julia (2012). Editorial. Fabrications : The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand, 22 (2), 137-139. doi: 10.1080/10331867.2012.733158
van der Plaat, Deborah and Walker, Paul (2012). Cosmopolis. Fabrications : The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand, 21 (2), 4-7.
Gatley, Julia and van der Plaat, Deborah (2012). Editorial. Fabrications, 22 (1), 1-3. doi: 10.1080/10331867.2012.685632
Walker, Paul and van der Plaat, Deborah (2012). Editorial. Fabrications, 21 (1), 2-4.
van der Plaat, Deborah and Walker, Paul (2011). Editorial. Fabrications, 20 (2), 4-5. doi: 10.1080/10331867.2011.10539679
Cosmopolitan interiors: Oscar Wilde and the House Beautiful
van der Plaat, Deborah (2011). Cosmopolitan interiors: Oscar Wilde and the House Beautiful. Interstices: Journal of Architecture and Related Arts, 12, 48-58.
Walker, Paul and van der Plaat, Deborah (2011). Editorial. Fabrications, 20 (1), 4-5.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2010). 620 Wickham Street. Architecture Australia, 99 (1), 72-76.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2009). Architectural ignorance and public indifference: Harold Desbrowe-Annear's lecture on "Some methods of Architectural criticism" (1893). Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, 19 (1), 163-175.
Van der Plaat, Deborah (2008). Review of: Shifting views: Selected essays on the architectural history of Australia and New Zealand, Andrew Leach, Antony Moulis & Nicole Sully (eds), St Lucia, Queensland: UQP, 2008. Fabrications, 18 (2), 122-124.
Southern geographies and the domestication of science in the photography of J. W. Lindt
de Lorenzo, C. and van der Plaat, Deborah Anne (2006). Southern geographies and the domestication of science in the photography of J. W. Lindt. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, 6/7 (2/1), 143-166.
Sublimity and amenity at Lindt's Hermitage
van der plaat, Deborah and de Lorenzo, Catherine (2006). Sublimity and amenity at Lindt's Hermitage. Studies in Australian Garden History, 2, 3962-3985.
More than meets the eye: Photographic records of Humboldtian imaginings
De Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah (2004). More than meets the eye: Photographic records of Humboldtian imaginings. Mosaic : A Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature, 37 (4), 237-253.
'Our Australian Switzerland': Lindt, Humboldt and the Victorian landscape
De Lorenzo, C and Van der Plaat, D (2004). 'Our Australian Switzerland': Lindt, Humboldt and the Victorian landscape. Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, 24 (2), 133-149.
‘Our Australian Switzerland’: Lindt, Humboldt and the Victorian landscape
de Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah (2004). ‘Our Australian Switzerland’: Lindt, Humboldt and the Victorian landscape. Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes, 24 (2), 133-150.
The significance of the "temple idea" in William Lethaby's Architecture, Mysticism and Myth (1891)
van der plaat, Deborah (2004). The significance of the "temple idea" in William Lethaby's Architecture, Mysticism and Myth (1891). Nineteenth-Century Art World-Wide: A Journal of Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture, 3 (1)
Navigating the sea of diversity: Multicultural place-making in Sydney
Stewart, Susan, Hanna, Bronwyn, Thompson, Susan, Gusheh, Maryam, Armstrong, Helen and Van der Plaat, Deborah (2003). Navigating the sea of diversity: Multicultural place-making in Sydney. International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations, 3, 233-246.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2002). (FAB12_1_002) 'Would you know the new, you must search the old': William Lethaby's 'Architecture, Mysticism and Myth' (1891) and the 'Hypnerotomachia Poliphili' (1499). Fabrications : The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, 12 (1), 1-26.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2002). Seeking a 'symbolism comprehensible' to 'the great majority of spectators': William Lethaby's Architecture, Mysticism, and Myth and its debt to Victorian Mythography. Architectural History, 45, 364-385.
Van der Plaat, D (2002). Seeking a 'symbolism comprehensible' to 'the great majority of spectators': William Lethaby's architecture, mysticism and myth and its debt to Victorian mythography. Architectural History, 45, 363-385. doi: 10.2307/1568789
van der Plaat, Deborah (2021). Unrecognised actors and multiple networks: Balwant Singh Saini and teaching tropical architecture in mid-twentieth century Australia. EAHN2021 Sixth International Meeting, Edinburgh, Scotland, 2-5 June 2021. Edinburgh, Scotland: University of Edinburgh .
van der Plaat, Deborah (2019). Disease, discomfort and development: The physiological study of climate as scientific method in twentieth century Australia. iNTA 2019: Urban Tropicality, The University of Queensland Brisbane, 5-8 December 2019.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2019). The Anxiety of Acclimatisation in the Architecture and Urban Planning of 19th Century Queensland (Australia). American Society of Environment History, Columbio, Ohio United States, 10-14 April 2019.
Tropical comfort in the unproductive north. Commonwealth Bank Building, Cairns, 1922-1952.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2019). Tropical comfort in the unproductive north. Commonwealth Bank Building, Cairns, 1922-1952.. iNTA2019: Urban Tropicality, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 5-8 December 2019.
Robert Percy Cummings Radio Talks
Macarthur, John and van der Plaat, Deborah (2018). Robert Percy Cummings Radio Talks. Objects & Technologies of Schooling. Rethinking 20th Century Architectural Pedagogies, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 17 April 2018.
Robert Percy Cummings Radio Talks
van der Plaat, Deborah and Macarthur, John (2018). Robert Percy Cummings Radio Talks. 100 Year of Architectural Education in Queensland, QUT, Brisbane, 22-23 November 2018.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2018). The New Exhibition Building (1891): Liberalism, Settler Colonialism and Empire in 19th Century Queensland. Liberalism in the Built Environment: Then and Now, State Libary of Queensland, Brisbane, 17-19 May 2018.
A Quiet Revolution: Robert Percy Cummings’ unpublished talks (1930-1970)
van der Plaat, Deborah and Macarthur, John (2017). A Quiet Revolution: Robert Percy Cummings’ unpublished talks (1930-1970). Educating Architects and Planners, 1917-2017, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, 8-9 September 2017.
Alternative Facts: Towards a Theorisation of Oral History in Architecture
Gosseye, Janina, Stead, Naomi and van der Plaat, Deborah (2017). Alternative Facts: Towards a Theorisation of Oral History in Architecture. Theory's History 196X-199X - Challenges in the Historiography of Architectural knowledge, Ghent Belgium, 8-10 February 2017.
Climatic Anxieties: Climate and Comfort in the Historiography of Australian Architecture
van der Plaat, Deborah (2017). Climatic Anxieties: Climate and Comfort in the Historiography of Australian Architecture. Environmental Histories Workshop, The University of Sydney, Sydney, 9-10 March 2017.
Empty and Unproductive Australia: Migration, Race and Architecture in Twentieth Century Australia
van der Plaat, Deborah (2017). Empty and Unproductive Australia: Migration, Race and Architecture in Twentieth Century Australia. Aesthetic Anxiety or Performative Subjectivity: National Narratives Encountering migrant architecture in Australia, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia, 16-17 November 2017.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2017). Triumph in the Tropics (1959): The physiological study of climate, Queensland architecture, and the development debate. iNTA2017: 6th International Network of Tropical Architecture Conference: Tropical Storms as a Setting for Adaptive Development and Architecture, Florida, United States, 2-4 December 2017.
Re-evaluating the Australian dream: narratives of high-rise living in Torbreck
van der Plaat, Deborah, Holden, Susan, Stead, Naomi and Greenop, Kelly (2015). Re-evaluating the Australian dream: narratives of high-rise living in Torbreck. Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 7-10 July 2015. Sydney, NSW, Australia: SAHANZ.
Architecture of sun and soil. European architecture in tropical Australia
van der Plaat, Deborah (2014). Architecture of sun and soil. European architecture in tropical Australia. EAHN Turin 2014: European Architectural History Network Third International Meeting, Turin, Italy, 19-21 July 2014. Turin, Italy: Politecnico di torino.
Building and living north of the 28th parallel: climate, character and the Queensland house
van der Plaat, Deborah (2014). Building and living north of the 28th parallel: climate, character and the Queensland house. Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 2-5 July 2014. Gold Coast, QLD, Australia: SAHANZ.
Architecture at the ragged edge of empire: the problems of race, place and taste
van der Plaat, Deborah (2013). Architecture at the ragged edge of empire: the problems of race, place and taste. Architecture at the Ragged Edge of Empire: Race, Place, Taste and the Colonial Context, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, 27-28 June 2013.
van der Plaat, Deborah, Hunter, Jane, Gosseye, Janina, Macarthur, John and Wilson, Andrew (2013). Digital stories and semantic web technologies: new practices in developing and interpreting an architectural archive. 66th Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Buffalo, NY, United States, 10-14 April 2013.
Oral history: abusive widow of [architectural] historiography?
van der Plaat, Deborah (2013). Oral history: abusive widow of [architectural] historiography?. Lost in Conversation: Constructing the Oral History of Modern Architecture, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 1 November 2013.
Hunter, Jane, Macarthur, John, van der Plaat, Deborah, Gosseye, Janina, Wilson, Andrew and Bannerman, Gavin (2012). A Web 3.0 approach to building an online digital archive of architectural practice in post-War Queensland. 17th International Council of Archives (ICA) Congress, Brisbane, Australia, 20-24 August 2012. Munich, Germany: De Gruyter Saur. doi: 10.3828/comma.2012.2.5
Hunter, Jane, Macarthur, John, van der Plaat, Deborah, Wilson, Andrew, Muys, Andrae and Bannerman, Gavin (2012). A Web 3.0 approach to building an online digital archive of architectural practice in post-war Queensland. International Council on Archives Congress 2012, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 20 - 24 August 2012. Eagle Farm, QLD, Australia: International Council on Archives Congress.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2012). A state of critical becoming: colour, convention (Orientalism) and eclecticism in the aesthetic interior. Interior: A State of Becoming: An IDEA Symposium, Perth, WA, Australia, 6-9 September 2012. Perth, WA, Australia: Curtin University.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2012). A ‘style of architecture peculiarly suited to our requirements and climate’: physical, moral and disciplinary discomfort in Queensland architecture. Discomfort, Brisbane, Australia, 27 November 2012.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2012). Contrasts (agency and difference) in nineteenth-century writings on architecture and design: Pugin, Ruskin and Wilde. Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, Launceston, TAS, Australia, 5-8 July 2012. Launceston, TAS, Australia: University of Tasmania.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2012). Formal vocabularies. Cosmopolitanism, analogy and orientalism in Oscar Widle’s writings on art and architecture,. Victorian Vocabularies, AVSA 2012,, Griffith University, Brisbane, 11-14th April, 2012.
Labour (productive and unproductive) and the economic landscape
van der Plaat, Deborah (2012). Labour (productive and unproductive) and the economic landscape. UWA-UQ Workshop/ Historical and Cultural Studies of WA/QLD Goldfields and arid lands, Gwalia, Western Australia, 28 September 2012.
A taste for place: The cultivation of an audience for climate-responsive architecture in Queensland
Stead, Naomi, van der Plaat, Deborah and Macathur, John (2011). A taste for place: The cultivation of an audience for climate-responsive architecture in Queensland. Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 7-10 July 2011. Brisbane, Australia: Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ).
van der Plaat, Deborah (2010). The emancipated imagination and Victorian cosmopolis: Models of eclecticism in the work of GHM Addison. Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, Newcastle, NSW, Australia, 30 June-2 July 2010. Newcastle, NSW, Australia: Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ).
Leach, Andrew and van der Plaat, Deborah (2010). Towards a nineteenth century architectural history of Australia and New Zealand: A post-national, post-colonial perspective. 1st International Meeting of the European Architectural History Network (EAHN 2010), Guimaraes, Portugal, 17 - 20 June 2010. Lisbon, Portugal: CHAM Centro de Historia de Alem-Mar.
Harold Desbrowe-Annears: Some Methods of Architectural Criticism
van der Plaat, Deborah (2008). Harold Desbrowe-Annears: Some Methods of Architectural Criticism. Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Annual Conference (AAANZ 2008), Brisbane, Australia, 4-6 December 2008. Brisbane, Australia: AAANZ.
Tropical Sublime in Jean Nouvel's "Musee Quai Branly"
de Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah (2008). Tropical Sublime in Jean Nouvel's "Musee Quai Branly". Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Annual Conference (AAANZ 2008), Brisbane, QLD Australia, 4-6 December 2008. Brisbane, QLD Australia: AAANZ.
Modernity, photography and the contemporary museum
de Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah (2007). Modernity, photography and the contemporary museum. 9th International Symposium: Pacific Arts Association (PAA), Paris, France, 5-7July 2007.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2007). The emancipated imagination and disciplinary reunification in nineteenth Century writings on art, architecture and science. Colloquium of the Architecture Theory, Criticism & History Research Group, Institute of Modern Art, Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Brisbane, 17-18 August, 2007. Ghent, Belgium: A & S/books.
Art consuming architecture? Photography in Branly
de Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah (2006). Art consuming architecture? Photography in Branly. 23rd Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand, Freemantle, WA, Australia, 29 September - 2 October 2006. Freemantle, WA, Australia: Society of Architectural Historians - Australia & New Zealand.
de Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah (2006). Contested Terrains. The 23rd annual conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, Fremantle, Western Australia, Sep 29 - Oct 2 2006. Freemantle , Western Australia: Notre Dame University.
Interoperability and the photograph
de Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah (2006). Interoperability and the photograph. Beyond Mimesis and Nominalism: Representation in Art and Science, London, United Kingdom, 22-23 June 2006. London, United Kingdom: London School of Economics.
De Lorenzo, Catherine and Van der Plaat, Deborah A. (2006). Realising Riley in Branly. Photography and the City, Dublin, Ireland, 29 June - 1 July 2006.
Ruskinian Readings: James Smith and John Lindt's representation of Victoria's Alpine forests
de Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah (2005). Ruskinian Readings: James Smith and John Lindt's representation of Victoria's Alpine forests. AAANZ 2005: Annual Conference of the Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Eril Baily; Roger Benjamin, Sydney, NSW Australia, 30 November - 2 December 2005. Sydney, NSW Australia: AAANZ.
European imaginings of wilderness in late nineteenth-century Australian photography
de Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah (2004). European imaginings of wilderness in late nineteenth-century Australian photography. Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference (aaANZ Conference 2004), Auckland, New Zealand, 1-4 December 2004. Auckland, New Zealand: University of New Zealand.
De Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah A. (2004). Redefining the urban limits: European readings of wilderness, photography and late nineteenth century Australia. 21st Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand, Melbourne, Vic., 26-29 September, 2004. Melbourne, Vic.: Society of Architectural Historians Australia & New Zealand.
van der Plaat, Deborah and Gusheh, Maryam (2004). The idea of the liberated imagination in Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffins' Capitol Building (1912). 21st Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand, Melbourne, Australia, 26 - 29 September 2004. Melbourne, Australia: Society of Architectural Historians Australia & New Zealand.
de Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah (2003). The emancipation of the untutored mind: The role of the exotic in Alexander von Humboldt’s aesthetic theory of nature. Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference 2003, Canberra, ACT Australia, 5-6 December 2003.
Von Humboldt, Lindt and deCastella
de Lorenzo, Catherine and van der Plaat, Deborah (2003). Von Humboldt, Lindt and deCastella. SSLA Conference 2003; Sydney Society of Literature and Aesthetics, Sydney, NSW Australia, 1-3 October 2003. Sydney, NSW Australia: Sydney Society of Literature and Aesthetics.
van der Plaat, Deborah (2000). 'The ambivalence of English modernism: Matthew Arnold’s theory of cultural perfection and the search for a modern architecture, 1890–1920'. 17th annual conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand, 13-17 November, 2000.
Beyond Ruskin: Arnoldian themes in William Lethaby's concpetion of architecture
van der Plaat, Deborah (1999). Beyond Ruskin: Arnoldian themes in William Lethaby's concpetion of architecture. 16th annual conference of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand, Launceston and Hobart, Tasmania, 28 September - 1 October, 1999.
Desire not delight: William Lethaby’s Architecture, mysticism, and myth (1891)
van der Plaat, Deborah (1998). Desire not delight: William Lethaby’s Architecture, mysticism, and myth (1891). 15th annual conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand,, University of Melbourne, Victoria, 1998. Melbourne: Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand.
Deborah van der Plaat, Vandana Baweja and Tom Avermaete eds. (2019). Narrative of disease, discomfort, development and disaster: Reconsidering (sub) tropical architecture and urbanism (conference stream). iNTA2019: Urban Tropicality, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, 5-8 December, 2019.
Fabrications. (2013). 23 (2)
Fabrications Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand
Fabrications Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand. (2012). 21 (2)
Fabrications Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australian and New Zealand
Fabrications Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australian and New Zealand. (2011). 20 (2)
Antony Moulis and Deborah van der Plaat eds. (2011). Audience: Proceedings of the XXVIIIth International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand. Audience: International Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (28th, SAHANZ, 2011), Brisbane, Australia, 7 -10 July 2011. Brisbane, Australia: Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ).
Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand
Fabrications: The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand. (2011). 20 (1)
Fabrications: The journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand
Fabrications: The journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand. (2011). 20 (1)
Antony Moulis and Deborah van der Plaat eds. (2011). Proceedings of the 28th Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand. 28th Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, Brisbane, Australia, 7-10 July 2011. Brisbane, Australia: School of Architecture, The University of Queensland.
Fabrications The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand. Special Issue titled "About Asia".. (2010). 19 (2)
van der Plaat, Deborah, Sully, Nicole and Wilson, Andrew (2018). Recollecting Home, curated by Deborah van der Plaat, Nicole Sully and Andrew Wilson. In Home: A Suburban Obsession, curated by Chenoa Pettrup and Adam Jefford. Brisbane, Queensland, Australia: State Library of Queensland.
Hot Modernism: Building Modern Queensland, 1945-1975
van der Plaat, Deborah, Gosseye, Janina and Bannerman, Gavin (2014). Hot Modernism: Building Modern Queensland, 1945-1975. State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia:
Digital Archive of Queensland Architecture
Macarthur, John, Hunter, Jane, van der Plaat, Deborah, Gosseye, Janina and Bannerman, Gavin (2014). Digital Archive of Queensland Architecture. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: ATCH Research Centre UQ.
The architectural career and work of Robin Gibson.
(2018–2022) Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works
Intercultural architectural and material culture heritage and conservation in Moreton Bay
(2012–2014) UQ FirstLink Scheme
(2011–2014) ARC Linkage Projects
(2010–2011) UQ FirstLink Scheme
ResTeach 2010 0.1 FTE School of Architecture
(2010–2011) UQ ResTeach
Architectural eclectism in the nineteenth century writings of John Ruskin and Alexander von Humbolt
(2010) UQ Early Career Researcher
(2009–2011) UQ Postdoctoral Fellowships for Women
Frank Leo Cullen - A Modernist Education Legacy
Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
Other advisors:
The Architecture of Robin Gibson & Partners (c1958-2013)
Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
Women Architects in Post Modern Queensland (1975-1995): Building and Interpreting a digital archive.
Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor
Other advisors:
Square Transformations: Reading Frank Lloyd Wright¿s Plan in the Australian House of the 1950s and 1960s
Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Architect and Ceramist: Nell McCredie's architectural works
(2021) Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
(2018) Master Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
(2015) Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
The Houses of Hayes and Scott (1946-1984)
(2015) Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor
Other advisors:
Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.
Karl Langer: Modern Architect and Migrant in the Tropics
Despite a European training, and an early career managing the Vienna office of architect Peter Behrens, a migration (necessitated by the circumstances of WWII) to the Australian state of Queensland positioned the emigre architect Karl Langer (1903-1969) at the very edge of both European and Australian modernism. Confronted by [sub]tropical heat and glare, the economics of affordable housing, fiercely proud and regional architectural practices, and a suspicion of the foreign, Langer moulded the European language of international modernism to the unique climatic and social conditions of Queensland to produce a number of the State’s architectural highlights. This book will tell Langer’s story through a series of edited essays focused on key themes and projects. Studying the architect’s built and proposed work, both regional and metropolitan, the scale and geographical reach of Langer’s practice will be considered for the first time. A genuine architect of the Shadow Canon and one that has continued to influence the contemporary culture of Queensland design—the Karl Langer Award given out each year by the Queensland Institute of Architects—Langer has been largely ignored by the historiography of both Australian and Queensland architecture. This book seeks to close this gap.
Narratives of Disease, Discomfort, Development, and Disaster: Reconsidering (sub) Tropical Architecture and Urbanism
Hurricanes Irma and Maria (2017) have demonstrated the urgent need for architecture in the tropics to be resilient to tropical cyclones, storms, sea surges and floods. Yet, in architectural historiography, tropical architecture has been viewed as a colonial construct acting in response to disease and discomfort – factors that needed to be conquered, overcome, and tackled. The correlation between anthropogenic climate change and the increasing intensity of hurricanes and sea level rise has led to the dominance of the trope of disaster in contemporary tropical architectural discourses. In addition, as it became apparent that buildings, as one of the key consumers of fossil fuels contribute significantly to climate change; the relationship between architecture and climate has gone through a paradigmatic shift—from one in which climate was a determinant of architectural metrics, to one in which architecture is seen as an active agent in the transformation of global climatic systems. As a consequence, tropical architecture, which began as discourse founded on the relationship between architecture and climate to ensure the well-being of the human body in a localised context, is now seen as a discourse where the production and operation of architecture have global planetary impact.
The idea of tropical and subtropical architecture and urbanism initially developed through a particular connection between discourses on disease, spatial practices and optimum architectural typologies, which were believed to circumvent the spread of tropical diseases and to maintain the comfort of the white settler. After the Second World War, the focus shifted from the European settlement of the colonial tropics to the self-development and governance of the world’s tropical regions; a phenomenon necessitated and propelled by post-war decolonization and global regimes of development aid. Accompanying this change was a shift away from the physiological comfort of the colonial settler to a new focus on indigenous cultures, vernacular building traditions, use of local materials, and increasing appreciation for the psychological value of cultural conventions, including superstition and taboo.
The aim of this project is to examine how “triumph” in the tropics was imagined across multiple geographies, by various subjects, through diverse discourses, and at different times and to critically investigate the roles architecture and urban planning played in this process. How are particular attributes of the (sub) tropics – climatic, environmental, social, ideological, spatial, and developmental – constructed through the discipline of architectural history? What role has architecture played in the imagination of tropicality through acclimatization, hygiene, comfort, development, and resilience; and how was this represented? How has architecture’s role in the imagination of the tropics shifted over time as political regimes transformed from colonization-settlement to decolonization-development debates? Is there a core set of ideas or values that constitute the imagination of the built environment in the tropics? How do these compare to indigenous understandings? What is the relation between the imaginaries of tropical architectures and cities by colonizers and colonized, or by transnational development experts and the receivers of this aid?
Race, Place, Taste and the Colonial Context.
The aim of this research is to consider factors or contingencies of the colonial experience that challenged, worked against, or sat alongside the more formal (governmental) representations of colonisation (in Australia and beyond). While colonial architecture is often assumed to approximate that of home, especially in formal and material terms, a question regarding architecture’s disciplinarity, it’s conceptual framing as an aesthetic or a high art, is often difficult to reconcile with the climatic, geographical, ethnic and racial complexity of the colonial context.
Climate: The deterministic role of climate and landscape on colonial architecture is commonly argued. The disciplinary positioning of architecture within the colonial context is, however, rarely considered. How was the practice of architecture framed or viewed by architects working in colonial settings? Could the entanglement of taste (architecture as a cultivated rather than mechanical art, painting instead of engineering) be maintained? What effect did the topographical and climatic diversity revealed by colonisation have? Was it possible to cultivate an artistic practice or architectural culture within tropical/sub-tropical/arid settings? Did the aspiring artist/architect need to leave for more temperate climes in order to develop an aesthetic sense or could these concerns be addressed locally (southern versus northern colonies, or east versus west)? Or, from a slightly difference perspective, was climate viewed by colonial communities as degenerate or redemptive and did climate theorists explicitly address the arts/ architecture alongside the problems of labour and national character?
Race: While British colonial institutions governed the early penal and settler societies of Australia, the populations of these new communities were often heterogeneous, ethnically diverse, and racially conflicted. In Australia, this is made most explicit by the imbalance of settler and indigenous populations and the conflict and dispossession that resulted. It is complicated further by the ethnic diversity of settler populations, one that is often mirrored in colonial settlements the world over.
While racial and ethnic diversity and conflict are acknowledged as attributes of the colonial condition, their impact on the architecture of white settlement is less considered. How did issues of race, ethnic heterogeneity, hybrid populations or racial conflict impact on colonial architectural practice? Did architecture participate in broader agendas of cultural representation, racial division and/or “reform”? Did ethnic and racial diversity challenge the authority of colonial institutions and/or Enlightenment and humanitarian values of universality and equality? Were “hybrid” communities viewed, in accordance with nineteenth century theories on race—as potentially infertile, unproductive and lacking in character— or did they make explicit alternative models, such cosmopolitanism?
Taste: Within Australia, colonised initially under a penal system and later through free settlement and migration schemes, significant proportions of early populations were often illiterate or semiliterate, valued for their physical labour rather than their intellectual capacity. Cultural refinement, as Evan has suggested, though not entirely lacking, often remained somewhat at a discount—at best a luxury and at worst a distraction. What role did the concept of ‘taste’ play in Colonial societies? What was the impact on the practice of architecture of such a demographic mix? How was architecture viewed by such communities (technical practice or higher art) and was it valued? Did architecture, and the broader arts, play a role in the lives, education and ‘improvement’ of such communities or was it the sole domain of government and a wealthy elite? Was a culture of architectural taste developed and if so how and by whom?