Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Dr Naomi Stead is Professor and Head of the Department of Architecture at Monash, an Adjunct Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Queensland, and Research Leader in the large Australian architecture practice Hayball.
Her research interests lie broadly in the architectural humanities, intellectual history in architecture, and the cultural studies of architecture: in its production, reproduction, and reception. Her doctoral thesis, ‘On the Object of the Museum and its Architecture,’ examined the cultural politics of architecture in recent social history museums. Current research projects examine experimental writing practices in architecture, oral history as a disruptive method in architectural research, and the representation of architecture and architects in popular media – film, television, and literature. She is currently working on a book about the allure of miniature buildings.
Stead was a co-investigator on the 2010-2013 ARC Discovery project ‘The Cultural Logic of Queensland Architecture: Place, Taste and Economy’ with Professor John Macarthur and Dr Deborah van der Plaat. She was the leader of the 2010-2014 ARC Linkage project ‘Equity and Diversity in the Australian Architecture Profession: Women, Work and Leadership,’ and as part of that was co-founder with Justine Clark and others of Parlour, an activist group advocating for greater gender equity in architecture. She was a co-author of the award-winning Parlour Guides to Equitable Practice, co-curator of the exhibition Portraits of Practice: At Work in Architecture, and she is an associate editor of the Parlour website.
Stead edited the 2012 book Semi-Detached: Writing, Representation and Criticism in Architecture (Uro, Melbourne, 2012) and was co-editor of the Taylor and Francis journal Architectural Theory Review from 2010-2014. She was also from 2011-2015 co-editor of Culture Unbound: Journal of Current Cultural Research, based in Sweden.
Stead holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of South Australia and a PhD from the University of Queensland. She has been a visiting postdoctoral fellow at the Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden, and a funded keynote speaker at three national and international conferences. Her scholarly work has been published in anthologies such as Critical Architecture (Jane Rendell et al. eds, Routledge, London, 2007), Architecture and Authorship (Katja Grillner et al. eds, Black Dog, London, 2007) and Architecture, Disciplinarity and Art (Andrew Leach and John Macarthur eds, A & S Books, Ghent, 2009). With Prof John Macarthur of UQ, she co-edited the Aesthetics section of the Sage Handbook of Architectural Theory (C. Greig Crysler, Stephen Cairns and Hilde Heynen eds, Sage, London, 2012). She has also published in journals including the Journal of Architecture, Volume, OASE, Performance Research, JAS: Journal of Australian Studies, the Journal of Visual Communication and the Open Museums Journal.
Stead also maintains a number of ‘para-academic’ writing, exhibition, and art projects. These include the 2009 exhibition ‘Mapping Sydney: Experimental Cartography and the Imagined City’ and its accompanying catalogue; a series of short films made in 2009 for the UTS Equity and Diversity Unit in collaboration with Sam Scotting; an ongoing writing collaboration with Dr Katrina Schlunke of UTS, and the visual research project Documentation: The Visual Sociology of Architects. She has written artists exhibition catalogue essays for Todd Robinson, Mathieu Gallois, Mat Rogers, and Sandra Kaji-O'Grady.
Stead is widely published as an art and architectural critic in Australia, having written more than fifty commissioned feature and review articles in professional magazines over the last decade. These include Places Journal, Architecture Australia (of which she was a contributing editor between 2003-2012), Architectural Review Asia Pacific, Monument, Artichoke, Pol:Oxygen, and [Inside]: Australian Design Review. In 2008 she was awarded the Adrian Ashton Prize for architectural writing by the NSW chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects.
Stead is presently the architecture columnist for The Conversation, where she writes about architectural culture and issues for a generalist audience, and also a columnist for Places Journal, where she writes broad-based essays on concepts and mythologies within and without architecture.
Education/Academic qualification
Architecture, PhD, University of Queensland
Award Date: 1 Oct 2004
Architecture, Bachelor of Architecture, University of South Australia
Award Date: 1 Feb 2000
External positions
Adjunct Professor, University of Queensland
1 Jan 2017 → …Research area keywords
- Architecture
- architecture criticism
- architectural history and theory
- architectural design
- architecture advocacy
- gender equity in the architecture profession
- writing in architecture
- ficto-critical writing practices
- oral history as method in architecture
Network
Projects
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Architectural Work Cultures: professional identity, education and wellbeing
Stead, N., Wolfram Cox, J., Gusheh, M., Cooper, B. & Orr, K.
16/09/20 → 15/09/23
Project: Research
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Accessible and Adaptive Housing Project
Gusheh, M., Murphy, C., Bertram, N., Stead, N. & Murray, S.
Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (Australia)
29/06/20 → 31/08/21
Project: Research
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Unequivocal Women’s Housing: Quality affordable housing and landscaping for women at risk of homelessness
Kalms, N., Dyring, S., Donnelly, S. & Stead, N.
2/01/20 → 10/09/21
Project: Research
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RESEARCH PILOT – ROOM TO BREATHE: Towards a best-practice design model for enhancing the quality of life of First Nations people living in remote Northern Territory communities
Stead, N., Khor, L., Martin, B., Wong, K., Robertson, H., Moore, T., Hernandez Ibinarriaga, D., Greenop, K. & Ackfun, A.
29/03/19 → 28/08/20
Project: Research
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Research and Action on Gender Equity in Landscape Architecture
Matthewson, G., Stead, N. & Kalms, N.
1/07/18 → 31/12/18
Project: Research
Research output
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Pictures of architects: documentary photography, persona, and the visual evidence of work life and professional identity in architecture
Stead, N., 2020, Non-Standard Architectural Productions: Between Aesthetic Experience and Social Action. Karina Loschke, S. (ed.). 1st ed. Oxon UK: Routledge, p. 156-169 14 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Research › peer-review
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Exhibiting the Workaround
Stead, N., Ednie-Brown, P., Watson, F. & Rhodes, K., 2019, In : Journal of Architectural Education. 73, 2, p. 193-201 9 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
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On the expert and the amateur in online architectural commentary
Stead, N., 2019, The Routledge Companion to Criticality in Art, Architecture, and Design. Brisbin, C. & Thiessen, M. (eds.). 1st ed. Oxon UK: Routledge, p. 386-394 9 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Research › peer-review
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Ordinary Walking, Ordinary Writing: Some Thoughts in Preparation for an Essay as Yet Unwritten
Stead, N., 2019, In : Writing Place. 3, p. 137-147 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open Access -
Speaking of Buildings: Oral History in Architectural Research
Gosseye, J., Stead, N. & van der Plaat, D., 2019, Hudson, New York, USA: Princeton Architectural Press. 319 p.Research output: Book/Report › Edited Book › Other › peer-review
Prizes
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2016 UQ Award for Excellence in Equity and Diversity - Second Commendation
Stead, Naomi (Recipient), 2016
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
-
2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, Australian Exhibition - Shortlisted
Justine Clark (Recipient), Stead, Naomi (Recipient), Karen Burns (Recipient), Maryam Gusheh (Recipient), Catherine Griffiths (Recipient) & Fiona Young (Recipient), 2015
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Bates Smart Award for Architecture in the Media - National Award
Justine Clark (Recipient), Stead, Naomi (Recipient), Susie Ashworth (Recipient), Catherine Griffiths (Recipient) & Neph Wake (Recipient), 2015
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
File -
COLVIN PRIZE SHORTLIST: 'Speaking of Buildings: Oral History in Architectural Research'
Janina Gosseye (Recipient), Stead, Naomi (Recipient) & Deborah van der Plaat (Recipient), Aug 2020
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
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Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) - President's Awards for Research 2016 - Outstanding University-located Research - Shortlisted
Justine Clark (Recipient), Stead, Naomi (Recipient), Karen Burns (Recipient), Sandra Kaji O'Grady (Recipient), Julie Willis (Recipient), Amanda Roan (Recipient) & Matthewson, Gill (Recipient), 2015
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Activities
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Women, Design + Housing Symposium
Nicole Kalms (Host) & Naomi Stead (Host)
20 Mar 2019Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Interior Futures: a symposium
Charity Edwards (Contributor) & Naomi Stead (Contributor)
21 Mar 2019Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public event
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Queering architecture and design
Niki Kalms (Host), Michael Spooner (Host), Timmah Ball (Contributor), Naomi Stead (Contributor), Timothy Moore (Contributor), Sophie Dyring (Contributor) & Jana Perkovic (Contributor)
27 Jan 2018Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Queering Architecture
Nicole Kalms (Director) & Naomi Jean Stead (Director)
26 Mar 2017Activity: Community Talks, Presentations, Exhibitions and Events › Public event
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Not in my backyard
Naomi Stead (Invited speaker)
28 Oct 2016Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
Press / Media
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LANDSCAPE AUSTRALIA: 'AILA census report reveals mixed progress in gender equity'
Nicole Kalms, Gillian Matthewson & Naomi Stead
20/12/18
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Article/Feature
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ARCHITECTURE AUST: 'Leading Change: The potential for doing things differently'
Fleur Watson, Kate Rhodes & Naomi Stead
27/09/18
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Article/Feature
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THE LOCAL PROJECT: 'WORKAROUND: Women, Design, Action, Activism'
Naomi Stead, Kate Rhodes & Fleur Watson
7/08/18
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Article/Feature
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ARCHITECTURE AUST: 'Architecture, advocacy and activism: A ‘broadcasting’ exhibition from RMIT Design Hub'
Naomi Stead, Kate Rhodes & Fleur Watson
1/08/18
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Article/Feature
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MATTERS JOURNAL: 'Women In Design That WORKAROUND'
Naomi Stead, Kate Rhodes & Fleur Watson
1/08/18
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Review