Researcher biography
My research on Australian topics follows two themes: Australian university campus design, and architecture in Australian cultural policy. More broadly, my research on the history and contemporary practice of architecture and urban design engages with Australian work as a subject matter. Most recently, I have been involved in an ARC funded Discovery project as part of a national team looking at the history and future of the Australian university campus. A major outcome of this project is the forthcoming book Campus: Building Modern Australian Universities (UWA Publishing, 2021) to which I am a contributing author. I am also part of an ARC funded Discovery project looking at the place of architecture in contemporary arts and culture. As part of this project I have been researching Australian cultural policy, and the commissioning, curating and collecting of architecture by Australian cultural institutions. My research also informs teaching and curriculum development in the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology at UQ. In 2021 I am involved in two projects to develop Indigenous and inter-cultural content for built environment and design education, as part of teams led by indigenous experts.
Publications
Book
Macarthur, John, Holden, Susan, Paine, Ashley and Davidts, Wouter (2018). Pavilion propositions: nine points on an architectural phenomenon. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Valiz.
Book Chapters
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Holden, Susan (2012). In the moment: the timeliness of Tinguely. Shakin: the contemporary kinetic aesthetic e-catalogue. (pp. xx-xx) Surfers Paradise, QLD, Australia: Gold Coast City Gallery.
Journal Articles
Holden, Susan and Daw, Olivia (2023). Watershed or whimper? The Australian Year of the Built Environment, 2004. Interstices, 22, 46-56. doi: 10.24135/ijara.v22i22.714
Holden, Susan and Volz, Kirsty (2023). The value of architects in government. Architecture Australia, 112 (2), 53-69.
Holden, Susan and Volz, Kirsty (2023). Design governance: leveraging the value of architects. Architecture Australia, 112 (2), 54-55.
Holden, Susan and Volz, Kirsty (2023). Roundtable: government architects in Australia. Architecture Australia, 112 (2), 56-59.
Holden, Susan (2023). Fostering a commissioning culture. Architecture Australia, 112 (2), 64-65.
Holden, Susan (2021). The new curator: exhibiting architecture and design. Architecture Australia, 110 (6), 19-19.
Holden, Susan and Paine, Ashley (2020). Curating architecture and the city: recent Australian pavilions. European Journal of Creative Practices in Cities and Landscapes, 3 (1), 117-138. doi: 10.6092/issn.2612-0496/10140
Holden, Susan and Volz, Kirsty (2020). Leah Lang on public design leadership. Parlour: Gender, Equity, Architecture.
Paine, Ashley and Holden, Susan (2019). The pavilion returns: The Holy See’s Vatican Chapels at the 16th International Venice Biennale of Architecture, 26 May–25 November 2018. Fabrications, 29 (1), 109-111. doi: 10.1080/10331867.2019.1539892
Holden, Susan (2019). Nicolas Schöffer's SCAM: an aesthetic perturbation in the urban field. Leonardo, 52 (1), 60-61. doi: 10.1162/leon_a_01702
Holden, Susan (2019). The kinetic architecture of Jean Tinguely’s culture stations. The Journal of Architecture, 24 (1), 51-72. doi: 10.1080/13602365.2018.1527385
Holden, Susan and Paine, Ashley (2018). Breaking Ground: Muir and Openwork. NGV Magazine, 13, 68-73.
Holden, Susan and Paine, Ashley (2018). Looking back, seeing through: contemporary Australian pavilions. Architecture Australia, 107 (2), 104-108.
Holden, Susan (2018). Refiguring the Pavilion: Garden Wall, 2017 National Gallery of Victoria Architecture Commission by Retallack Thompson and Other Architects. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, 18 (1), 154-157. doi: 10.1080/14434318.2018.1481338
Paine, Ashley and Holden, Susan (2017). The art of reverence. Architecture Australia, 106 (4), 73-76.
Holden, Susan (2016). Fragile Monuments. Design Online State Library of Queensland
Macarthur, John and Holden, Susan (2016). Is architecture art?. Architecture Australia, 105 (2), 46-50.
Holden, Susan and Bird, Jared (2015). Bush civics. Architecture Australia (4), 68-70.
Holden, Susan (2015). Possible Pompidous. AA Files, 70, 33-45.
Holden, Susan (2012). Megastructures and monuments: the dilemma of finding a “permanent image of change” in the Plateau Beaubourg Competition, 1970-71. Fabrications : The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand, 21 (2), 82-111.
Holden, Susan (2008). Review of Deleuze and Guattari for Architects by Andrew Ballantyne, Thinkers for Architects Series, Routledge, 2007. Fabrications, 18 (1), 128-131. doi: 10.1080/10331867.2008.10539626
Holden, Susan (2004). Deep frame. Houses (39), 86-91.
Holden, Susan (2004). Open dialogue. Houses, 37 (37), 72-77.
Holden, Susan (2003). Surburban insight. Houses (35), 38-43.
Conference Papers
Holden, Susan and Volz, Kirsty (2022). Women and design leadership: a new era of architects in the public sector. Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 25-27 November 2022. Auckland, New Zealand: SAHANZ. doi: 10.55939/a5024piu1x
Holden, Susan and Daw, Olivia (2022). Watershed or Whimper? The Australian Year of the Built Environment 2004. Ngā Pūtahitanga / Crossings: A Joint Conference of SAHANZ and the Australasian UHPH Group, Auckland, New Zealand, 25-27 November 2022.
Holden, Susan and Willink, Rosemary (2019). Exhibiting Destruction: Looking back from Robin Hood Gardens: A Ruin in Reverse, 2018 to The Destruction of the Country House, 1974.. Distance Looks Back: A thematic conference of the European Architectural History Network, held in conjunction with the 36th annual conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, Sydney, Australia, 10-13 July 2019.
Holden, Susan and Logan, Cameron (2018). Core, courtyard, grid: civic form and the (late) modern campus in Australia. Australasian Urban History Planning History Conference, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 31 January - 2 February 2018. Melbourne, VIC, Australia: RMIT Centre for Urban Research.
Holden, Susan (2017). “To be with architecture is all we ask”: a critical genealogy of The Serpentine Pavilions. Quotation, Quotation: 34th Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, Canberra, 5-8 July, 2017. Canberra: SAHANZ: Society of Architectural Historians, Australia & New Zealand.
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.
Holden, Susan (2015). The institutionalisation of campus planning in Australia: Wally Abraham and the development of Macquarie University, 1964-1982. Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 7-10 July 2015. Sydney, NSW, Australia: SAHANZ.
Holden, Susan and Bird, Jared (2013). An open plan: The development of the Griffith University Nathan campus plan, 1966-1973. Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, 2-5 July, 2013. Gold Coast, QLD, Australia: SAHANZ: Society of Architectural Historians, Australia & New Zealand.
Holden, Susan (2013). A Double Disturbance: Kinetic movement in the ‘Culture Station’ projects of Jean Tinguely. Symposium: „Métamatic Reloaded“ Tinguelys Zeichenmaschinen und ihr Potential für die Kunst von heute, Tinguely Museum, Basel, Switzerland, 20-23 March, 2013.
Holden, Susan (2012). The antinomy of the ‘space-time’ concept in modern architecture. AAANZ Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Annual Conference 2012, Sydney, Australia, 12-14 July 2012. Camperdown, NSW, Australia: Art Association of Australia and New Zealand (AAANZ).
Holden, Susan (2009). Megastructure revisited: The Australian entries to the Plateau Beaubourg competition, 1970-1971. Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 2-5 July 2009. Auckland, New Zealand: SAHANZ.
Holden, Susan (2009). Cybernetics and ‘Temporal Architecture’: Nicolas Schöffer and the making of the Centre Pompidou. 17th Annual Conference of the Australian Society for French Studies: "Tekhne, Technique, Technologie", University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia, 15 - 17 July 2009.
Susan Holden (2008). Kinetic movement and the Centre Pompidou. Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) Annual Conference, Geelong, Victoria, 3-6 July, 2008. Geelong, Australia: Society of Architectural Historians, Australia & New Zealand.
Susan Holden (2007). Finding the architecture in Deleuze: Heinrich Wolfflin as a source of Deleuze's baroque. Panorama to Paradise: Proceedings of the XXIVth Annual Conference of SAHANZ, Adelaide, South Australia, 21-23 September 2007. Adelaide: Society of Architectural Historians, Australia & New Zealand.
Thesis
Holden, Susan (2014). The 'Beaubourg Moment': Movement and the Temporality of Architecture. PhD Thesis, School of Architecture, The University of Queensland.
Seminar Paper
Holden, Susan (2013). The disciplinary significance of Jean Tinguely’s ‘Culture Stations, 1959-1968'. Bewegung / Mouvement. School of Architecture, Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte (DKF)/ Centre Allemand d’Histoire de l’Art, Paris, France..
Newspaper Articles
Holden, Susan and Volz, Kirsty (2021, 06 20). Government architects and the value of leadership
Holden, Susan (2016, 10 05). Opening Doors and Minds: The Open House Phenomenon The Conversation