Staff

SueAnne Ware is Professor of Landscape Architecture, Dean, and the Head of School Architecture and the Built Environment at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She is a co-founder of out(fit), an all-female collective of design practitioners and a self-confessed design activist. She believes that landscape architects share a responsibility for exploring political, social and environmental agendas in public spaces. SueAnne’s projects reflect her commitment to society's marginalised ecologies and communities. Her work is an exploration of issues such as so-called feral pests and weeds in "native" bushlands, phytoremediation in feral gardens, memorials to drug addiction, 'illegal' refugee policies and domestic violence. She creates spaces that generate friction, where protests are permitted and possible, where attention is drawn to some of society's most pervasive issues, and passers-by may discover insight into what SueAnne hopes is a more humanitarian and compassionate approach. Her design projects have won national and international awards; including The SIEV X memorial, the Road as Shrine, and the Anti-Memorial to Heroin Overdose Victims.

Michael Chapman currently runs Studio 7 in the Masters of Architecture, and teaches Architectural History and Theory 3 at the University of Newcastle. He is also a member of the NSW Architects Registration Board. His research is concerned with the theory and politics of architecture, with an emphasis on the domains of aesthetics, art theory, critical theory, avant-garde studies, psychology, neuroscience, communication theory, drawing and modernism.

Dr Beth George is an eudcator and practitioner in architecture, with a research focus on urbanism, design and drawing. She researches and publishes through book chapters, journal articles and papers, competitions, exhibitions and curation. Beth is a registered architect with a sole practice. She has received awards for both her teaching and architecture projects. She has been at the University of Newcastle since 2019 and has taught at the University of Western Australia and Curtin University over the prior 15 years.

Dr Nicholas Foulcher is a Lecturer and Program Convenor in the School of Architecture and Built Environment, teaching in areas of advanced digital design and fabrication. Combining social science with architectural theory, Nic’s research examines the role of digital technology in design and its implication on student learning. In practice, Nic is a director of OA, a design consultancy specialising in architectural design, interactive digital installations and community place-making initiatives.

Pia Ednie-Brown is an architectural theorist, researcher and practitioner, and a Professor of Architecture at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her design practice, onomatopoeia, works with diverse media, methods and milieu to explore creative ways of unsettling anthropocentrism. The ongoing goal is to foster alternative, ecologically inclined ways of practicing, through projects such as The Jane Approach (see: http://onomatopoeia.com.au/what-is-the-jane-approach) Through creative practice methods, her research over the years has sought to articulate relations between creativity and ethics, aesthetics, innovation, emergence, ecological thinking, and emerging technologies. Her writing and creative works have been published in diverse national and international contexts.

Sam Spurr is an architectural theorist, critic and designer. She is currently Associate Professor for Architecture and Program Convenor of the Masters of Architecture, at the University of Newcastle Australia.

Her current research on Mining Ideology and Coal Capitalism, examines the agency of architecture to make legible the complex forces at play in the age of the Anthropocene. Through this research Sam is exploring feminist theories of care and collective political subjectivity, ecological systems and indigenous cosmologies in the Australian context of Country.

Sam is a co-founder of the collective group N, where the topic of conversation and its impact on art, architecture, and design has been unpicked and entangled through various modes that include exhibitions, symposia, studios, and projects

Irene Perez Lopez is Doctor in Architecture and Critics at the School of Architecture, Polytechnic University of Madrid. Her research interest is the based on the understanding of Architecture as the construction of the common, the social space. Her Dissertation explores architectures in the limit between scales and disciplines, through the Construction of a Theory of Bigness. Currently Dr Perez is exploring the implications of inhabiting the threshold between land and water to propose methods and approaches to design and life with water as an instrument to re-think the design of the city.

Irene ran her own practice designing architecture, urban and landscape projects, competitions and consultancies on an international domain since 2005. She lead TerritorioMayor, the Centre for Urban Studies at Mayor University of Chile, and is President and co-founder of the Pan-American Observatory of Landscape, Territory and Architecture OPPTA, a non-profit international organisation focused on the protection, restoration, recovery and reconstruction of urban and rural environments impacted by the effect of human pressure on environment and Climate Change.

Irene is Senior Lecturer at the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle (Australia). Previously, she has been teaching at the Bío Bío University, Mayor University of Chile, Salamanca University and the School of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Madrid ETSAM-UPM.

Chris Tucker is an academic within the School of Architecture and Built Environment, and principal of herd architects (since 1996). Chris has been awarded regional, state and international prizes for architecture, and his buildings and designs have been exhibited and published locally and internationally. Working between practice and research, and broadly interested in the capacity of public space, Chris also runs architectural studio’s within the Town Camps of Alice Springs and Tokyo.

Hello! Nice to meet you in the cyberspace here. I am SJ, I teach architectural history and first year design studio at the University of Newcastle. Architecture Studio 1 is a lot of fun— I love opening up fresh and new minds to what architecture and design can be, by showing my own quirky way of looking at the world and encouraging students to develop their own unique lens.

Jasper Ludewig is a lecturer in architectural history, theory and design at the University of Newcastle. His research interests concern the role of colonial architecture within systems of territorial expansion and governance. Jasper’s doctoral research analysed the transnational operations and architectural environments of Protestant missionaries, examining their use of architecture as an instrument of infiltration and control in northern Queensland at the turn of the twentieth century. In Semester 2, 2020, Jasper is coordinating Design Studio 6 together with Professor Michael Chapman, as well as History and Theory 2.

An expert in architectural design and theory, Dr Rebecca McLaughlan’s research shows a fascinating link between the built environment, our experiences of healthcare and a patient’s physical and emotional wellbeing. We might not always notice its effects, but the built environment can alter our mood and behaviour in subtle but significant ways. A confined, busy room can heighten an already stressful situation. An echoey open space can intrude on our privacy. Dr Rebecca McLaughlan explains that in healthcare settings such as hospitals, the built environment can have a surprisingly powerful influence on the experiences of a patient, their family and medical team.

Emma Wood has recently joined the School of Architecture and Built Environment as the new Industry Educator. With a degree in architecture and more than 15 years professional practice experience, Emma will integrate her diverse practical knowledge into Architectural Practice and Design Studio. Working between architecture, urban design, landscape architecture and infrastructure, and with a passion for learning and travel, Emma is eager to expand the field of architecture and encourage students to ask “What matters in practice?”.
Outside of teaching, Emma is excited to get out on the open road and explore the Australian landscape.

I've recently become a doctor (of tinkering). Beware, I have an army of little drawing machines. These machines were made by tinkering, a way of making that is distinguished from other methods of making as one that deals with existing objects. Tinkering does not seek to invent something new but rediscover the value of something existing when used in new ways. These 'Exquisite Drawing Machines' draw in random and sometimes mischievous ways. They hop, clatter, spin and zip about while making all sorts of weird and wonderful drawings. They are a source of curiosity that probe questions of architecture and beyond.

Shellie is an 8th generation Novocastrian, tracing her family history back through 7 generations of women to the time of Newcastle’s colonial settlement and the last of the Awabakal people to live a traditional life. She uses a combination of research and art practice to reconnect to her aboriginal heritage.
A graduate of Architecture, Shellie specialised in heritage conservation, working extensively on projects around Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Lower Hunter before moving to Canberra to join the Commonwealth Governments Heritage Branch.
Shellie has a love for living history and uses a combination of personal story and the interpretation of art and weaving objects to make the traditional/historical relatable to our lives today.

I’m an Industry Educator for the School of Architecture and Built Environment and I also manage our Callaghan campus Makerspace. Both my roles revolve heavily on fabrication. While my research and teaching is focused on digital fabrication, I do work with traditional and digital fabrication techniques synchronously. In short, my efforts are focused on supporting learning through making and working with students towards finding/thinking-of new ways to use design tools to balance old, current, and future techniques and technology. With my Industrial Design background I continue to work in industry through my design practice Red Block.