ACAHUCH
The Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage provides an international perspective on research and teaching in architectural history and heritage with a particular emphasis on Australia and the Asia-Pacific.
News and Events
ACAHUCH fosters important research in architectural, planning, cultural and urban history and heritage conservation. It also contributes to and produces a range of research publications.
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Citizen Heritage: Digital and Community-based Histories of Place
This project explores new digital technologies to enhance the visibility of lesser-known precincts of urban heritage.
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Designing Australian Schools: A Spatial History of Innovation, Pedagogy and Social Change
Designing Australia’s Schools is an historical, cross disciplinary study of innovations in the design of Australian primary and secondary schools across the twentieth century.
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Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture
The first comprehensive reference text to be published on Australian architecture. Unique in its breadth and depth, and revealing new knowledge on architects, their buildings and the ways they designed and built them.
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Making Landscape Architecture in Australia
This book on the history of landscape architecture in Australia, the first of its kind, profiles the people who have shaped the nation's landscape.
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Migration Cultural Diversity and Television
This project documents the evolving history of popular television and its contribution to national discussions about migration, cultural diversity and citizenship across six decades. Now hosted at UTAS.
Co-directors
Academic Staff
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Dr Amanda Achmadi, Melbourne School of Design -
Dr AnnMarie Brennan, Melbourne School of Design -
Dr Karen Burns, Melbourne School of Design -
Professor Qinghua Guo, Melbourne School of Design -
Associate Professor Alison Inglis, Faculty of Arts -
Dr Andrew Jamieson, Faculty of Arts -
Professor Gini Lee, Melbourne School of Design -
Stuart King, Melbourne School of Design -
Dr Susan Lowish, Faculty of Arts -
Dr Giorgio Marfella, Melbourne School of Design -
Dr Kate MacNeill, Faculty of Arts -
Dr David Nichols, Melbourne School of Design -
Associate Professor Anoma Pieris, Melbourne School of Design -
Dr Alberto Pugnale, Melbourne School of Design -
Associate Professor Andrew Saniga, Melbourne School of Design -
Professor Robyn Sloggett, Faculty of Arts -
Dr Sara Wills, Faculty of Arts
Post-Doctoral Researchers
Advisory Board
HDR students
| Name | Topic | Supervisors |
|---|---|---|
| Allan Willingham | The Tennis Court: An Architectural History | Philip Goad |
| Ammon Beyerle | Participation in Architecture : Agonism in Practice | Karen Burns |
| Andrew Murray | The Influence of British Émigré Architects on Western Australian Architecture and Planning, 1945-1975 | Hannah Lewi and Phillip Goad |
| Anneke Prins | Actualising the Virtual: Re-engaging the Sensing Body through the Manipulation of Atmospheres | Paul Walker |
| Annette Warner | Systems of performng beauty: the aesthetic agency of Gordon Ford's natural garden | Gini Lee |
| Anthony Worm | Free and Architecture and Goff | Paul Walker |
| Astrid Andrea Ortega Esquivel | Managing urban and landscape heritage through the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) approach: the case study of Valparaíso, Chile | Anna Hurlimann |
| Claire Miller | How does society become complicit in its own oppression through the mechanism of spatialised fear and politics? | AnnMarie Brennan and David Nichols |
| Claire O'Boyle | Buildings for Curious Minds: An Investigation of Architecture and Design Practices for the Finnish Kindergarten Setting | Hannah Lewi |
| Elizabeth Musgrave | John Dalton: Architect of Sunlight, Shade and Shadow | Phillip Goad |
| Fiona Johnson | A Comparative Study of Civic Space Design in the Contemporary Settler Societies of Australia and New Zealand | Jillian Walliss and Hannah Lewi |
| Hamid Khalili | Re-Investing Reciprocity between Moving Image (Cinema), Design and Architecture through the 'Architect's Gaze' | AnnMarie Brennan and Greg Missingham |
| John Castles | The Impact of Building Standards on Contemporary Construction | Giorgio Marfella |
| Jonathan Lovell | Dogma to Data: Ritual and Transcendental Experiences in immersive Multimedia Environments | AnnMarie Brennan |
| Kristal Buckley | Understanding Global Heritage: Key Issues | Kate Darian Smith and Philip Goad |
| Libby Richardson | Ornament and Surface Decoration in Contemporary Melbourne Architecture | Hannah Lewi and Philip Goad |
| Lu Zhang | Abstract Tradition and Its Potential in Theorised Design: A Critical Analysis of Contemporary Practice in China and Japan since 1990. | Jianfei Zhu |
| Marcus Fajl | The Fate of Ornament in Early Twentieth Century Architecture | Hannah Lewi and Karen Burns |
| Nesha Naidoo | Parks, playgrounds, promenades, pageants and piazzas: the changing ideas of designed public spaces in Melbourne 1850–2000 | Richard Gillespie and Julie Willis |
| Philip Goldswain | Photographic Cities: Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, 1893-1917 | Hannah Lewi and Andrew Saniga |
| Rebecca Clements | Sustainable and Policies: Japanese Vicinity Parking | David Nichols |
| Ruth Redden | Heritage and sustainability: how to ensure historic buildings are culturally, environmentally and economically sustainable. | Hannah Lewi and Philip Goad |
| Scott Woods | Face: An Aesthetico-Political Paradigm in American Architectural Theory 1984-2009 | Paul Walker and Phillip |
| Sharon Shafer | The Utopian Paradox of High-Rise Housing in Australia between 1945-2010 | Peter Raisbeck and Julie Willis |
| Simona Castricum | What if Safety became Permanent? Gender Nonconforming Experiences of Architecture - Space and Practice | Karen Burns |
| Soon-Tzu Speechley | The Classical Language of Architecture in British Malaya, 1786-1941 | Paul Walker and Julie Willis |
| Tania Davidge | Encountering Architecture | Karen Burns |
| Timothy Moore | The instruments of transitional architecture: locating the value of short-term temporary projects in long-term urban frameworks | Karen Burns |
| Victoria Kolankiewicz | A Social History of Quarrying in Melbourne | David Nichols |
| Yinrui Xie | Architecture as a Sign System: A Semiotic Study of China's Christian Universities | Paul Walker and Julie Willis |
Our ACAHUCH researchers are actively involved in teaching across the undergraduate and graduate programs here at the Faculty.
The Master of Urban and Cultural Heritage (MUCH) is an industry-focused, cross-disciplinary program open to graduates who are passionate about the social and cultural dimensions of the built environment in the twenty-first century.
The program focuses on heritage in a global context, with key features including the exploration of new approaches to digital technologies and heritage, issues of heritage significance as well as the social and economic impact of cultural heritage in relation to reconstruction and across the tourism industry.
Graduate profile: Amanda Valenzuela Pallamar
What was your favourite subject in the program to date and why?
I loved “Representing and Remembering place”. It was a very interesting subject that allowed me to look into the concept of “place” from so many different perspectives.
What attracted you to the Melbourne School of Design?
I wanted a Master that combined strong practical and theoretical approaches to heritage and doing research about the different Master programs the one that MSD had to offer was the most attractive one.
So far, what are the most valuable skills that you have learnt?
The most important skill the Master has given me has been to be critical, reflective and to understand the complexity of the concept of “heritage” today.
PhD supervision
Many of our researchers offer PhD supervision across a broad range of research areas. Get in touch to enquire about supervision opportunities.
Distinguished international scholars in the field of architectural history will visit the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning and deliver a public lecture as part of a new Fellowship created in recognition of renowned architectural historian Professor Miles Lewis AM. The Miles Lewis Fellowship has been made possible by the generous support of the Vera Moore Foundation
The Miles Lewis Fellowship will support in perpetuity a series of annual or biennial fellowships for visiting scholars or practitioners in a field concerning architectural history, including; architectural and industrial archaeology but excluding art history, conservation, architectural theory or current architecture.
An international authority on urban conservation, Professor Miles Lewis has received several prestigious architecture and planning awards. Lewis studied architecture at The University of Melbourne, where he gained his doctorate in 1972. A professor of architecture at The University of Melbourne, Lewis' contribution has been acknowledged through several awards, including the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Robin Boyd Environment Award, the Walter Burley Griffin Award and the Royal Australian Planning Institute Award for Excellence.
Lewis was a founding member and later Chairman of the Australian National Committee to the International Council on Monuments and Sites. His expertise in urban conservation has been sought internationally. In 2001 he received the Centenary Medal for his contribution through the study of architectural history and the following year was honoured as a Member of the Order of Australia for his service to architectural history, heritage protection and urban planning.
The Fellowship funds travel to and from Australia, a professorial salary for a period between three weeks and three months, and other appoved expenses. The Fellow undertakes to deliver the Miles Lewis Oration, and to engage in an agreed program of research, teaching, or other activities.
The Miles Lewis Fellowship is by invitation only, though expression of interest may be sent to Theo Blankley at theo.blankley@unimelb.edu.au. A Fellow is appointed by the Dean on advice of a Committee including representatives of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning; the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand; and the Vera Moore Foundation.
Recipients of the Miles Lewis Fellowship for 2020/2021
Dr Alex Bremner
Hailing from Daylesford, educated at Deakin University and reading for his PhD at the University of Cambridge (Gates Scholar 2001-04), Dr Alex Bremner joined the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Edinburgh in 2005.
His research specialty, history and theory of Victoria architecture, is interspersed with studies in architecture and empire, national identity and its relationship to the broader built environment, and religious architecture (particularly Anglican and Nonconformist cultures in Britain and its 19th c. colonies).
Author of Imperial Gothic: Religious Architecture and High Anglican Culture in the British Empire c.1840-70 (Yale University Press), which received the Alice Davis Hitchcock Medallion for 2013 from the Society of Architectural Historian of Great Britain, the William M. B. Berger Prize for British Art History (2014), the Historians of British Art Book Prize (2015), and was shortlisted for the Whitfield Prize, Royal Society (2014), Alex is also a recipient of the Hawksmoor Medal (Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain) and the Founders’ Award (Society of Architectural Historians, USA) for outstanding scholarship in the field of architectural history.
Currently, Alex currently serves as an editor for ABE Journal (Architecture Beyond Europe) and has serves as Editorial Advisory Committee member of the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2015-2019)and a Deputy Editor of Architectural History, the journal of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (2012-2014). He is the recent recipient of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship (2019-2021) to complete a monograph study of Edwardian civic and state architecture.
Dr Alex Bremner will be the Miles Lewis Fellow for 2020.
Dr Rosemary Hill
Dr Rosemary Hill Dr Rosemary Hill is a writer, historian and independent scholar with an interest in biography, material culture and the connections between them.
She has written two prize-winning books: God’s Architect, a life of the Gothic Revival architect, A W N Pugin and Stonehenge, a history of one of Britain’s greatest and least understood monuments. Her last book, Unicorn: The Poetry of Angela Carter, was published in 2015. She is currently completing a study of antiquarianism in the Romantic period.
She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Society of Antiquaries, a member of English Heritage's Blue Plaques Panel, a trustee of the Pugin Society and a Quondam fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.
Dr Rosemary Hill will be the Miles Lewis Fellow for 2021.
