OR

Browse By

Dr Susan Holden

Senior Lecturer in Architecture

School of Architecture, Design and Planning
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
s.holden@uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 53958

Overview

Susan is an architect, educator and researcher at the University of Queensland with expertise in architectural design histories and theories, heritage and sustainability, and design governance and policy. Susan has experience in leading cross-disciplinary research involving stakeholders in academia, industry and government. She has been involved in large-scale national and international funded research projects and has ongoing collaborations at the University of Ghent, supported by the UQ-UGhent Strategic International Partnership. At UQ she is a member of the ATCH Research Centre (Architecture, Theory, Culture, History).

Prior to her academic career Susan worked in architectural practice for over 10 years in Australia and the UK, gaining experience on a range of project scales and types including community, civic, housing and urban design. She maintains strong connections to industry and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects and has contributed to its education and gender equity committees, and regional and state awards programs in urban design, public architecture, residential design and art-architecture. She currently contributes to the AIA National Gender Equity Committee Research and Publication Taskforce.

Susan’s current research follows three themes, which are explained further under Available Projects:

  • Material Values of the Built Environment: Heritage, Maintenance, Demolition, Salvage, Storage;
  • Design Expertise, Design Governance and the Architecture Profession; and
  • Quality in Architecture: Statements, Settings, Substance.

Susan is an author, editor or contributing author to 9 books. Her research and criticism is widely published in academic, professional and industry journals including Journal of Architecture, Interstices, European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes, AA Files, Leonardo, Fabrications and Architecture Australia. She regularly presents her research in national and international forums, including academic and industry conferences, at cultural institutions, and for continuing professional development. Susan has been an invited guest lecturer, guest critic and RHD guest critic at Ghent University, Monash University, and Griffith University. She has also been an invited chair and contributor to expert panels at the SCCI Architecture Hub Sydney, Museum of Brisbane, the UQ Art Museum and for the Committee for Brisbane. In 2012 Susan was a Visiting Professor in the VAMA (Visual Arts Media and Architecture) Masters Programme at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In 2013 she was an invited scholar at the Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte in Paris. In 2018 and 2023 Susan was a visiting researcher at UGhent. Susan has extensive experience in research collaboration, research mentorship and research leadership, and she regularly co-authors with academic and industry collaborators and students.

Susan has been the recipient of a number of competitive awards and grants for her research. She was a Chief Investigator on the ARC funded Discover Project Is Architecture Art?: A history of categories, concepts and recent practices(2016-2022) which analyses the changing place of architecture in culture and cultural administration. This project produced three books: Pavilion Propositions: Nine Points on an Architectural Phenomenon (2018), Trading Between Architecture and Art: Strategies and Practices of Exchange (2019) and Valuing Architecture: Heritage and the Economics of Culture(2020), numerous academic and industry publications, and convened two conferences. Susan was also a Chief Investigator on the ARC funded Discovery Project Campus: Building Modern Australian Universities (2016-2020), which brought together experts from five Australian Universities in an inter-disciplinary team to research the landscape, architecture, planning and heritage of modern univeristy campuses in Australia. She is a contributing author to Campus: Building Modern Australian Universities (UWA Press, 2023). In 2021-24 Susan is leading research on the participation and career experience of women in design leadership roles in Australia, with support from the Australian Institute of Architects. Her ongoing research with UGhent collaborators has recieved support from the UQ Global Strategy and Seed Funding Scheme.

Susan has contributed extensively to the leadership of the Architecture, Design and Planning School at UQ, most recently as Chair of Research (2022), Chair of Teaching and Learning (2018-21) and Academic Advisor for the Master of Urban Development and Design Program (2021). Her research also informs teaching and curriculum development in the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology at UQ. In 2021 Susan contributed to two projects to develop Indigenous and inter-cultural content for built environment and design education, as part of teams led by indigenous experts.

Awards

2023 UQ Global Strategy and Partnerships Seed Funding (with Ashley Paine and John Macarthur)

2019 UQ Promoting Women Fellowship

2010 David Saunders Founders Grant Award (SAHANZ) (with Jared Bird)

2000 QIA Medallion (Australian Institute of Architects, Qld Chapter)

2000 Board of Architects Prize (Board of Architects, Queensland)

Memberships

Registered Architect, Board of Architects Queensland

Fellow, Australian Institute of Architects (FRAIA)

Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ)

Research Interests

  • Architecture and Design Policy
  • Design Governance, Quality Discourses and the Architecture Profession
  • Cultural Heritage and Sustainability
  • Material Value of the Built Environment
  • Architecture and Urban Design Histories
  • Campus Design
  • Australian Architecture
  • Contemporary Architecture and Design Practice

Research Impacts

Susan has been the recipient of a number of competitive awards and grants for her research, including two ARC Discovery grants. The Is Architecture Art? project has brought together an international network of researchers to explore intersections between architecture and art as a way to better understand the place of architecture in contemporary culture and cultural policy. The Campus: Building Modern Australian Universities project produced the first comprehensive account of the development of the modern campus in Australia and connects this knowledge with discourses and practices concerned with the future of campus design.

Susan's research on design governance was showcased in the Architecture Australia 112/2 Research Dossier which featured a roundtable with Australia's State Government Architects and an interview with the Vlaams Bouwmeester (Flemish Government Architect). Her research on the heritage and sustainability values of concrete was presented in 2023 at the ICOMOS 23rd General Assembly and Scientific Symposium, in Sydney.

Susan’s expertise in the area of art and architecture has led to invitations to contribute to expert panels at the SCCI Architecture Hub Sydney, the Museum of Brisbane, the UQ Art Museum and for the Committee for Brisbane. Her analysis of contemporary architecture and practice has been published in Architecture Australia, NGV Magazine, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, Design Online and The Conversation. In 2016 Susan was part of the ABC commissioned documentary series Streets of Your Town which examined the architecture of the Australian suburbs.

Susan’s doctoral research on the design of the iconic Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the cultural significance of the international competition held for its design in 1971, was recognised by an invitation in 2012 to contribute to the Métamatic Research Initiative, an international research project involving academics, artists and curators, hosted by the Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam.

Susan is a recipient of the UQ Promoting Women Fellowship and a SAHANZ Saunders Founders Grant award.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Architecture (Hons), The University of Queensland
  • Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland

Publications

View all Publications

Grants

View all Grants

Supervision

  • Avian-Human Architecture

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Situating architecture within aesthetics

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Historic Urban Landscape as an Effective Model for Achieving Sustainable Heritage Management: The Case of Al-Balad Historic Centre of Amman

    Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • Quality in Architecture: Statements, Settings, Substance

    This research investigates quality discourses as they are deployed and negotiated in the production of architecture. It explores the different ways that design quality is articulated, advocated, and evaluated, within and beyond the design professions, and how a qualitative understanding of the value of good design has been co-opted by management discourses (for example through quality assurance and quality control) and, at the same time, resists assimilation into quantitative measurement regimes. Drawing on infrastructure, management, and science and technology studies, it aims to situate quality in relation to other operative concepts in the design disciplines such as standards, standardisation, excellence, consensus, authorship, and taste. It identifies international examples and case studies of quality statements (such as design guidelines and policy statements), settings (such as design review panels, competitions, and city rooms) and substance (such as how spatial and material qualities convey civic and environmental worth).

  • Architecture as a Matter of Culture

    This research seeks to understand the significance of architecture beyond the construction and property economies, and to explores what it means to think of architecture as a matter of culture. It takes several approaches to this larger inquiry, placing architecture in relation to the history of cultural categories and hierarchies; the cultural and creative economies; the GLAM sector (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums); and the heritage sector. Specific research topics include the collection, curation, and commissioning of architecture by institutions in the GLAM sector; innovations in museum and art gallery design; architecture as a subject of cultural policy and cultural administration; the support of architecture by the Australia Council for the Arts; and data rich heritage futures.

  • Histories of Architecture and Urban Design

    This theme collects several strands of research on modern architecture and urban design. It includes research on key cultural and civic buildings of the twentieth century; concrete modernism; intersections between art and architecture in expanded forms of creative practice; the evolution of campus design; and the history of environmental and built environment education. It has a sub-focus on Australia and Queensland.

View all Available Projects

Publications

Featured Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Campus core: architecture and civic form

    Holden, Susan and Logan, Cameron (2023). Campus core: architecture and civic form. Campus: building modern Australian universities. (pp. 111-143) edited by Andrew Saniga and Robert Freestone. Crawley, WA, Australia: UWA Publishing.

  • Charting landscape: identity and ethos

    Saniga, Andrew and Holden, Susan (2023). Charting landscape: identity and ethos. Campus: building modern Australian universities. (pp. 145-183) edited by Andrew Saniga and Robert Freestone. Crawley, WA, Australia: UWA Publishing.

  • Universities in Australia: idea and realpolitik

    Garnaut, Christine and Holden, Susan (2023). Universities in Australia: idea and realpolitik. Campus: building modern Australian universities. (pp. 37-73) edited by Andrew Saniga and Robert Freestone. Crawley, WA, Australia: UWA Publishing.

  • Fugitive Architecture

    Holden, Susan and Paine, Ashley (2022). Fugitive Architecture. The spoken object: a collector's journey in fashion, jewellery, design and architecture. (pp. 341-377) edited by Gene Sherman. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Images Publishing.

  • Mainstream Modern: the campus commissions of Robin Gibson and Partners

    Holden, Susan (2022). Mainstream Modern: the campus commissions of Robin Gibson and Partners. Light, space, place: the architecture of Robin Gibson. (pp. 296-317) edited by Deborah van der Plaat and Lloyd Jones. Melbourne, VIC Australia: Uro Publications.

  • Parallel narratives of disciplinary disruption: the bush campus as design and pedagogical concept

    Holden, Susan (2022). Parallel narratives of disciplinary disruption: the bush campus as design and pedagogical concept. Architectural education through materiality: pedagogies of 20th century design. (pp. 164-188) edited by Elke Couchez and Rajesh Heynickx. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003201205-13

  • For what it’s worth: the value of architecture as heritage and culture

    Macarthur, John, Holden, Susan and Paine, Ashley (2020). For what it’s worth: the value of architecture as heritage and culture. Valuing architecture: heritage and the economics of culture. (pp. 8-20) edited by Ashley Paine, Susan Holden and John Macarthur. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Valiz.

  • Value on display: curating Robin Hood Gardens

    Holden, Susan and Willink, Rosemary (2020). Value on display: curating Robin Hood Gardens. Valuing architecture: heritage and the economics of culture. (pp. 96-117) edited by Ashley Paine, Susan Holden and John Macarthur. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Valiz.

  • Assemble's Turner Prize: utility and creativity in the cultural economy

    Holden, Susan (2019). Assemble's Turner Prize: utility and creativity in the cultural economy. Trading between architecture and art: strategies and practices of exchange. (pp. 51-62) edited by Wouter Davidts, Susan Holden and Ashley Paine. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Valiz.

  • The terms of trade of architecture and art

    Davidts, Wouter, Holden, Susan and Paine, Ashley (2019). The terms of trade of architecture and art. Trading between architecture and art: strategies and practices of exchange. (pp. 9-15) edited by Wouter Davidts, Susan Holden and Ashley Paine. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Valiz.

  • Torbreck

    Holden, Susan (2019). Torbreck. Australia modern: architecture, landscape & design 1925–1975. (pp. 158-159) edited by Hannah Lewi and Philip Goad. Melbourne, VIC Australia: Thames and Hudson.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

Possible Research Projects

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.

  • Quality in Architecture: Statements, Settings, Substance

    This research investigates quality discourses as they are deployed and negotiated in the production of architecture. It explores the different ways that design quality is articulated, advocated, and evaluated, within and beyond the design professions, and how a qualitative understanding of the value of good design has been co-opted by management discourses (for example through quality assurance and quality control) and, at the same time, resists assimilation into quantitative measurement regimes. Drawing on infrastructure, management, and science and technology studies, it aims to situate quality in relation to other operative concepts in the design disciplines such as standards, standardisation, excellence, consensus, authorship, and taste. It identifies international examples and case studies of quality statements (such as design guidelines and policy statements), settings (such as design review panels, competitions, and city rooms) and substance (such as how spatial and material qualities convey civic and environmental worth).

  • Architecture as a Matter of Culture

    This research seeks to understand the significance of architecture beyond the construction and property economies, and to explores what it means to think of architecture as a matter of culture. It takes several approaches to this larger inquiry, placing architecture in relation to the history of cultural categories and hierarchies; the cultural and creative economies; the GLAM sector (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums); and the heritage sector. Specific research topics include the collection, curation, and commissioning of architecture by institutions in the GLAM sector; innovations in museum and art gallery design; architecture as a subject of cultural policy and cultural administration; the support of architecture by the Australia Council for the Arts; and data rich heritage futures.

  • Histories of Architecture and Urban Design

    This theme collects several strands of research on modern architecture and urban design. It includes research on key cultural and civic buildings of the twentieth century; concrete modernism; intersections between art and architecture in expanded forms of creative practice; the evolution of campus design; and the history of environmental and built environment education. It has a sub-focus on Australia and Queensland.

  • Design Expertise, Design Governance, and the Architecture Profession

    This research explores architecture in built environment governance, and more broadly the role of architecture and design in governing: in fostering civic engagement, demonstrating values, and defining a common good. It investigates the relatively recent establishment of design advisor roles in liberal democratic governments, and how this can be understood as a new site of professional production and an index of a changing profession. It explores the interrelationship between regulation, informal design governance processes, and processes that influence cultural change such as education. It draws on theories of governance and governmentality to understand the reliance of design governance processes on negotiated justifications of design quality and worth. This research has an international focus through collaborations with the University of Ghent and comparative analysis of European and UK design governance traditions and practices. A sub-theme focuses on women’s participation in design leadership, which builds on a pilot study undertaken in conjunction with the Australian Institute of Architects National Gender Equity Committee, to investigate women’s career experiences as design advisors in the public sector. The research aims to better understand the expertise involved in design governance and how it is changing the architecture profession.

  • Material Values of the Built Environment: Conservation, Maintenance, Demolition, Salvage, Storage

    There is growing demand to respond to wasteful building practices to address the climate emergency and zero carbon agendas. Adaptive reuse is a well-established strategy in architecture that sustains building fabric. The reuse of architectural salvage is another strategy focused at the material scale that is gaining traction, particularly for its potential to give local communities agency in managing their future environments. How best to support building and material reuse practices is a technical, logistical and governance challenge. However, it is also shaped by our cultural preferences, conventions, and taste. This research explores intersections of heritage and sustainability values in buildings, and the management of a building’s lifespan. It explores the cultural histories of building stewardship and material salvage in relation to concepts and categories of heritage conservation, such as mobile and immobile heritage; design, such as palimpsest, adhocism and umbaukultur; and sustainability, such as maintenance, retrofit and embodied carbon. It investigates how material management accounts for changing cultural values and, more literally, can change a material’s value. It analyses the institutional and economic contexts of material flows, and the cultural dimensions of material waste and reuse. Specific investigations include: the mediation of demolition; managing modern concrete; and the design of storage infrastructure for cultural heritage and material conservation.

For Media assistance please contact The Office of Marketing and Communications, (07) 3365 1120

Links

ORCID: 0000-0001-5201-7144

Scopus ID: 57205671435

Google Scholar ID: Sh_y_MQAAAAJ

Personal Profile: Link

Unit Links
Other Media
Social Media

Related Resources

Similar Staff
Researchers in Associated Units
Fields of Research