Events

1 October 2008

Cultural Crossroads: The 26th Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand

Calls for papers

School of Architecture and Planning, The University of Auckland, 2-5 July 2009
Call for Papers: Abstracts due 1 October 2008
Long before their discovery by the West, our lands existed in the minds of Europeans as the theorised continent Terra Australis Incognita. The first specific map of the South Pacific, Maris Pacifici, by Ortelius in 1589 shows this great southern land, assumed but ‘not yet detected’. The discovery of Australia and New Zealand are not so much the discovery of land, but rather the whittling away of European preconceptions about what the Antipodes held.
Both Australia and New Zealand were already inhabited, one by people whose cultures date back millennia, one by voyagers who had chosen to settle at this extreme of their oceanic region. The arrival of Europeans was marked by a variety of settlement patterns and engagements between the cultures, engagements that continue to this day. Both countries became members of the British Empire and have for long periods seen themselves as outposts of a particular brand of politics, beliefs, lifestyle and architecture.
The 21st century has already been described as the Chinese century, when China has chosen to renew relationships and engagement with the world. The city of Auckland in particular, host of the 2009 conference, has experienced substantial immigration from China and other countries of the Asian region, and heavy engagement with China in terms of trade, education and even architectural production.
Most Aucklanders weren’t born here. It is a gateway city and a city that seems attractive to migrants. Tamaki-makau-rau, ‘Tamaki of a Hundred Lovers’, has been fought over by competing iwi (Maori tribes), was founded as New Zealand’s capital as recently as 1840, has experienced waves of migration including that of rural Maori in the 50s and 60s and Pacific Islanders in the 70s. It is a city with a larger Polynesian population than any other in the world. Auckland is a cultural crossroads, constantly shifting and changing, but it has been an architectural disappointment to many:
‘The founders of Auckland had one of the rarest chances ever vouchsafed to men of planning a majestic site for a majestic city; but they missed it as few such chances have been missed since Adam and Eve lost the garden of Eden’ (Hamish Keith and William Main [eds.], 'New Zealand Yesterdays: A Look at Our Recent Past' [Sydney: Reader’s Digest Services, 1984]: 58).
This conference explores the theme of culture in relation to architectural history in New Zealand and Australia. This can take the form of indigenous architecture, vernacular, colonial and post-colonial, modernism and post-modernism, post-oil, tourism and many others. It can explore the relationship of our countries with others in terms of sources of architectural ideas, interaction, forms and materials. This conference will accept for consideration abstracts on any subjects within the general theme, but will be particularly pleased to receive proposals on topics related to the indigenous, the Pacific and the Asian regions. Abstracts and papers will both be double blind refereed and accepted papers will be published on CD.
Abstract Submission:
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted via the Conference Paper Management website. You will need to create a Login ID and a password to allow secure uploading of your abstract.

Medieval and Modern History

Visual Arts and Media

Organisation: Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand