Summary

The Handbook of Contemporary Indigenous Architecture provides the first comprehensive international overview of significant contemporary Aboriginal architecture, practice, and discourse, showcasing established and emerging Indigenous authors and practitioners from Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Canada, USA and other countries.

The handbook captures the breadth and depth of contemporary work in the field, establishes the historical and present context of the work, and highlights important future directions for research and practice.

The topics covered include Indigenous placemaking, identity, cultural regeneration and Indigenous knowledges.

The book brings together eminent and emerging scholars and practitioners to discuss and compare major projects and design approaches, to reflect on the main issues and debates, while enhancing theoretical understandings of contemporary Indigenous architecture.

The book is an indispensable resource for scholars, students, policy makers, and other professionals seeking to understand the ways in which Indigenous people have a built tradition or aspire to translate their cultures into the built environment. It is also an essential reference for academics and practitioners working in the field of the built environment, who need up-to-date knowledge of current practices and discourse on Indigenous peoples and their architecture.

About the Authors

Professor Elizabeth Grant is an architectural anthropologist, criminologist and academic with a distinguished record in the field of Indigenous architecture. From 2000–2017, Elizabeth was a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide. Elizabeth holds an adjunct Professorship at the University of Canberra and Associate Professorship at the University of Queensland and has published three books and over 70 papers. Elizabeth is a Churchill Fellow, a member of Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), and has been honoured with the International Prison and Correctional Association (ICPA) Excellence in Research Award for her pioneering work on the design of (non)custodial environments for Indigenous peoples. She worked on numerous Indigenous projects, prepared submissions and acted as an expert witness for Government Inquiries, coronial inquests and Royal Commissions.

Dr Kelly Greenop is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture at The University of Queensland. She conducts research within Aboriginal Environments Research Centre (AERC) and Architecture Theory Criticism History Research Centre (ATCH). Her research has focused on work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in urban Brisbane, using ethnographic techniques to document place experiences and attachment, and the importance of housing, place, family and country for urban Indigenous peoples. She was elected to membership of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies in 2009 and has received multiple awards for research and teaching.

Dr Albert L. Refiti is a researcher and Senior Lecturer in Pacific Architecture, Art and Space at Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. Albert has worked in architectural practice in Auckland and London. His academic work focusses on Indigenous thought and methodologies, new ethnography and anthropology of Pacific material culture and contemporary architecture. His work takes a critical look at architectural spaces that constructs communal memory in museums, diasporic communities, and neoliberal cultural institutions in the wider Pacific.

Daniel J. Glenn, AIA, AICAE is an award-winning architect specialising in culturally responsive architecture and planning for diverse cultures and Indigenous communities. He is the Principal of 7 Directions Architects/Planners, a Native-owned firm in Seattle, Washington. His work and philosophy reflect his Crow tribal heritage. He has been featured in the film, Aboriginal Architecture: Living Architecture (Bullfrog Films), and four of his projects are published in the book, New Architecture on Indigenous Lands (University of Minnesota Press 2013).