John Macarthur

Architecture and Cultural Policy in Australia

Architecture is absent from national cultural policy in Australia despite being a significant part of the cultural economy and the way that civic identity is formed. Taste, civic norms and the economy come together in buildings and urban spaces, but there is little understanding about how they interact at personal, community and national levels. Recent econometric accounts of culture include architecture, forcing the issue of its place in cultural policy. This project aims to study architecture as a matter of culture that overcomes the gaps between concepts and administrative categories. Its goal is to inform better policy formation, increased public engagement with architecture, and growth in the creative economy.

PhD topics within this wider project include: architecture in public interest broadcasting; architecture in school curricula; non-professional architectural and building culture on the WWW; architecture and cultural citizenship; architecture and liberalism.

Picturesque Australasia

The aesthetic concept of the picturesque and, to a greater extent, the cultural practices associated with it were significant in the history of the European settlements in present day Australia and New Zealand. Projects suitable for Phd investigation include: the circulation of books of designs and advice on architecture and gardening; the role of mid 19th century publications on the aesthetic and agricultural potential of the colonies in powering immigration and expanded settlements; and the role of nature aesthetics in town planning.

Architecture as an art: aesthetic theory, taste and the institutions of the arts

Architecture has been considered an art, or not, for different reasons which follow two main branches. The first branch is the consideration of architecture's place among ‘the arts’ understood as an institution of cognate knowledges and practices. The alternative track is to consider architecture through the concept of aesthetics which a human orientation to beauty in all of the material world both natural and artifactual and a faculty anterior to the social institution of art and the arts. PhD projects within this stream might include: the intellectual history of art, architecture and philosophical aesthetics since the 18th century; the place of building and architectural representation in contemporary art practice; and how standards of taste were formed historically and are today.

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.

Opportunities for PhD topics within this research project will include both empirically and conceptually focused studies:

• The economy of professional expertise in urban development
• The role of expertise in aesthetic judgements about the built environment and architecture
• Post-professionalism and lay-expertise
• Concepts of quality in regulation and review of design
• Gender equity in professional participation