Dr Katharine Bartsch
Senior Lecturer
School of Architecture and Built Environment
Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.
My research examines how human mobility shapes the built environment, specifically Islamic architecture. The emergence and diffusion of Islam can be traced along routes of migration, pilgrimage, trade, or travel in pursuit of knowledge. Given this context of mobility and the cultural encounters that it engenders, the goal of my research is to interpret the complexity and diversity of Muslim communities that is materialised in the built environment, with increasing emphasis on the Australian context. Thus, my research is interdisciplinary, reaching beyond conventional discourses of architecture, to obtain rich insights from cultural geography, world systems theories, postcolonial theory, and the history of travel. This approach enables a critical understanding of the production and transformation of the predominantly hybrid architecture of Muslim communities.
My PhD examined the Aga Khan Award for Architecture which required critical scrutiny of hundreds of projects that have been nominated or awarded. Of these, two key project themes continue to resonate in my research: Contemporary projects informed by the history of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design in the Islamic world; and, Humanitarian projects focusing on underprivileged communities. These two themes continue to influence my research and the HDR topics that I supervise:
1. Human mobility (migration, displacement, pilgrimage, diaspora) and the ways that this shapes architecture, landscapes and settlements, historically and today.
2. A humanitarian focus on migration (rural>urban, displacement, resettlement [forced and voluntary]) and settlement in the context of large scale infrastructure projects or urbanisation.
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Appointments
Date Position Institution name 2018 Associate Head, School of Architecture and Built Environment University of Adelaide 2014 Senior Lecturer University of Adelaide 2005 - 2013 Lecturer University of Adelaide 1997 - 1997 Graduate Architect Philips and Pilkington Architects 1995 - 1998 Graduate Architect Cielens and Partners 1994 - 1995 Architect Intern Abhikram 1994 - 1994 Architect, Intern Lapsys and Keam Architects -
Awards and Achievements
Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount 2014 Research Award ARC Linkage Grant Australian Research Council Australia — 2013 Fellowship Faculty Women’s Fellowship University of Adelaide Australia $15,000 2007 Teaching Award Executive Dean of the Professions’ Prize for Excellence in UG Teaching University of Adelaide Australia $2000 2006 Award Innovation Funding Bid University of Adelaide Australia — 2005 Research Award Small Faculty Research Grant University of Adelaide Australia $6500 2003 Research Award Brenda Nettle Grant: Australian Federation of University Women Australian Federation of University Women Australia $1000 2003 Research Award Samuel H. Kress Foundation Society of Architectural Historians United States $1000 2002 Research Award Clive E. Boyce Fellowship University of Adelaide Australia $2500 2001 Research Award Adelaide University Research Abroad Scholarship University of Adelaide — — 1999 Award The Kenneth and Hazel Milne Travelling Scholarship University of Adelaide Australia $8000 1998 Research Award Australian Postgraduate Award University of Adelaide Australia — -
Language Competencies
Language Competency Italian Can read, understand spoken and peer review -
Education
Date Institution name Country Title — University of Adelaide Australia PhD — University of Adelaide Australia Bachelor of Architecture (Hons I) — University of Adelaide Australia Bachelor of Architectural Studies -
Research Interests
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Journals
Year Citation 2020 Ibrahim, A., Bartsch, K., & Sharifi, E. (2020). Green infrastructure needs green governance: Lessons from Australia’s largest integrated stormwater management project, the River Torrens Linear Park. Journal of Cleaner Production, 261, 14 pages.
2020 Wang, Y., Gao, M., Zuo, J., & Bartsch, K. (2020). Social capital and social integration after project-induced displacement and resettlement: exploring the impact on three life stages in the Three Gorges Project. Social Science Journal.
2020 Li, H., Lv, L., Zuo, J., Bartsch, K. A., Wang, L., & Xia, Q. (2020). Determinants of public satisfaction with an Urban Water environment treatment PPP project in Xuchang, China. Sustainable Cities and Society, 60.
2017 Bartsch, K. (2017). Mutable Architecture. Transfers: International Journal of Mobility, 7(2), 132-134.
2016 Scriver, P., Bartsch, K., & Rashid, M. (2016). The space of citizenship: drifting and dwelling in “imperial” Australia. Fabrications, 26(2), 133-157.
Scopus12015 Bartsch, K. (2015). Building identity in the colonial city: the case of the Adelaide Mosque. Contemporary Islam, 9(3), 247-270.
2014 Bartsch, K., & Rashid, M. (2014). Historical Fabulation: A Framework to Rethink The Islamic Architecture Outside Islamic World. International Journal of Architectural Research, 8(1), 120-132. 2014 Bartsch, K., & Kamleh, E. (2014). Karbala in Lucknow: an itinerary of architectural mobility. International Journal of Islamic Architecture, 3(2), 267-302.
2014 Rashid, M., & Bartsch, K. (2014). Architecture of the Adelaide mosque: hybridity, resilience and assimilation. Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, 25(2), 65-75. 2014 El Ashmouni, M., & Bartsch, K. (2014). Egypt's age of transition: unintentional cosmopolitanism during the reign of Muhammad ‘Alī (1805–1848). Arab Studies Quarterly, 36(1), 43-74.
2006 Bartsch, K. (2006). Tectvs realises a Corbusian vision on the park. Place, 1(6), 14-16. 2006 Bartsch, K. (2006). Cult of the Fountainhead and the Culture of our Architectural Community [2006 RAIA Architecture Awards; Critique].. Place, 2(1), 12-14. -
Books
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Book Chapters
Year Citation 2018 Bartsch, K., & Scriver, P. (2018). The House of Stars: Astronomy and the architecture of new science in early modern Lucknow (1831-49). In S. Akkach (Ed.), 'Ilm: Science, Religion and Art in Islam (pp. 59-77). Adelaide, South Australia: University of Adelaide Press.
2016 Kamleh, E., & Bartsch, K. (2016). Karbala in Lucknow: An itinerary of architectural mobility. In C. Gruber (Ed.), Islamic Architecture on the Move (pp. 26-59). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 2009 Bartsch, K. (2009). Roots or routes? Exploring a new paradigm for architectural historiography through the work of Geoffrey Bawa. In J. Traganou, & M. Mitrasinovic (Eds.), Travel, Space, Architecture (pp. 167-188). Surrey, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited. -
Conference Papers
Australian Research Council Linkage Grant. The Architecture of Australia's Muslim Pioneers, 2014-2017.
Chief Investigators Dr Peter Scriver and Dr Katharine Bartsch with Research Associate Dr Mizanur Rashid, University of Adelaide
With Partner Investigator Dr Philip Jones, South Australian Museum, and Partner Investigator Dr Abdul Razak Sapian, International Islamic University of Malaysia.
Current Courses 2016
Design Studio I introduces concepts, principles and techniques which form the basis for future design studies and professional practice. Students explore design as a speculative process of inquiry and experimentation. This process begins in the design studio — a hands-on experience — where students produce drawings, models and other artefacts to explore and represent their ideas in weekly studio tasks. These formative, incremental studio tasks enable the development and resolution of the summative design assignments. In this way, the studios support the acquisition and preliminary development of skills to analyse, conceptualise, resolve and present well-reasoned design responses. Beginning with a specific site, Design Studio I focuses on the foundation element of the design disciplines (architecture, landscape architecture and urban design), the ground plane. As such, this studio encourages students to engage in iterative design processes which integrate considerations of site, precedent, human scale, site engineering and material and physical data. Idea generation is central. Historical and contemporary design precedents are introduced (considered in parallel with History Theory I), and hand drawing and physical modelling (skills developed in parallel with Representation I) form the primary medium for design communication and exploration. The principles of digital representation are introduced as a tool to assist design, design ‘thinking’ and design communication. In addition, skills in oral communication are developed. It is imperative that designers can convey their ideas in a clear and convincing way. As an ongoing practice students are encouraged to develop an appreciation and ability for a high quality of craft and attention to detail, from micro through to macro scale; skills which are fundamental to successful design outcomes.
Environment I The course explores the notion that designers respond to pressing environmental, cultural, social and economic issues in the design and creation of our built environments. The course introduces the historical, political and ethical contexts and processes of environmental design. The relationship between climates, environments and design as both built structures and landscapes is explored at a variety of scales. This course introduces students to the complex context for the development of projects destined to shape our inevitably changing built environments. This course is the foundation for future courses focusing on design and the environment at Level II and Level III in the Bachelor of Design Studies.
History Theory II Building on History Theory I, this course expands and deepens the frameworks of historical and theoretical understanding that necessarily underpin current knowledge and practice in the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design. The course focuses on the long history of Modernity (16th - 20th c.) as a process of globalisation, and its conceptual, formal, spatial and technological consequences for the development of the environmental design disciplines. Throughout the course disciplinary concerns will be considered within their social, cultural, political and environmental contexts. Students enhance their research and academic writing skills and consider other modes of interpreting and understanding historical and theoretical concerns.
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Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name 2019 Principal Supervisor Towards A Socially Sustainable Educational Space Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mrs Farjana Rahaman 2019 Principal Supervisor An Other Regionalism: A Design Investigation into an Adelaide Architecture Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time APrf Francesco Bonato 2018 Principal Supervisor Managing Flood Risks: Exploring Dynamics Between Green and Grey Infrastructure Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Alhassan Ibrahim 2018 Principal Supervisor Managing Flood Risks: Exploring Dynamics Between Green and Grey Infrastructure Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Alhassan Ibrahim 2017 Principal Supervisor Building Modern Sri Lanka: New Town and Mahaweli Architectural Unit Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Nirodha Kumari Meegahakumbura Dissanayake 2017 Co-Supervisor Relearning the Limits of Growth: An Inter-disciplinary Coherence of Urban Planning and Water Cycles in Dhaka City Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Mehbuba Tune Uzra 2017 Principal Supervisor Building Modern Sri Lanka: New Town and Mahaweli Architectural Unit Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Nirodha Kumari Meegahakumbura Dissanayake 2017 Co-Supervisor Relearning the Limits of Growth: An Inter-disciplinary Coherence of Urban Planning and Water Cycles in Dhaka City Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Mehbuba Tune Uzra 2016 Co-Supervisor Urban Bioregionalism in Policy and Practice at Willunga Basin Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mrs Pragathi . -
Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name 2013 - 2016 Principal Supervisor Evaluating New Towns in the Context of Mega Projects: A Case Study of the Mahaweli Architectural Unit, Sri Lanka (1983-1989) Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mrs Nirodha Kumari Meegahakumbura Dissanayake 2013 - 2016 Co-Supervisor The Rise of Modern Urbanity (tamaddun) in the Arab World Education, Journalism, and Enlightenment Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mrs Kinda Alsamara 2013 - 2018 Co-Supervisor Botanic and Poetic Landscapes: A Reading of Two Persian Texts on Early Safavid Gardens Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Zahra Ranjbari 2012 - 2012 Co-Supervisor Gardens of Damascus: Landscape and the Culture of Recreation in the Early Modern Period Master of Landscape Architecture Master Full Time Miss Georgina Hafteh 2012 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Multi-step Transition in Housing Provision and Progressive Development of Urban Settlements: Case of Davao City, Philippines Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Isidoro III Malaque 2010 - 2013 Principal Supervisor The Rationale of Architectural Discourses in Post-Independence Egypt: A Contrapuntal Reading of `Alam Al-Bena'a (1980-2000) Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Marwa Moustafa El-Ashmouni 2008 - 2010 Co-Supervisor Sustainable Water Management in Semi-Arid India: Learning from the Gond and Kohli Indigenous Communities Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mrs Namrata Vishwasrao 2008 - 2012 Co-Supervisor Architectural Exchange in the Eighteenth Century A Study of Three Gateway Cities: Istanbul, Aleppo and Lucknow Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mrs Elise Kamleh 2008 - 2017 Principal Supervisor Conservation of Heritage Curtilages in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mrs Nadiyanti Mat Nayan
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Committee Memberships
Date Role Committee Institution Country 2015 - ongoing Member Uniting Communities Redevelopment Steering Committee Uniting Communities Australia -
Memberships
Date Role Membership Country 2013 - ongoing Member Australian Institute of Architects Australia
Connect With Me
External Profiles
