Peta Carlin

Associate Professor

Office: GHKH A219

E-mail: pcarlin@wku.edu.ch

 

Courses Teaching activities

ARCH 2103 *Studio 3: Landscape and Architecture

ARCH 2303 *Representation 3

 

Research Field

– Reading and Writing Images

– The Body | Building Analogy

– The Poetics of Place

– Living Heritages

 

Biography

Peta Carlin is an accomplished Australian academic, artist, designer, and essayist with over 20 years of dedicated experience in architecture and design education and research. Currently, she serves as an Associate Professor at the School of Public Architecture, Wenzhou-Kean University having joined the institution in 2024. Prior to this role, she taught at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China, & Monash University, RMIT University & The University of Melbourne, Australia.

Her interdisciplinary research integrates creative and scholarly practices, grounded in extensive theoretical, visual, and material exploration. Her work is context-driven, and focuses on the reading of images, the analogy between body and building, and the poetics of place, and themes such as surface, ornament, and weaving. She employs and advances visual analogy as a crucial interdisciplinary design research methodology.

Peta’s academic endeavors span a wide range of activities, including supervising traditional and practice-based PhDs, as well as leading undergraduate and postgraduate design studios. Her expertise in art, architecture, design publishing, and cinema enriches her diverse projects and contributions.

Her research and creative work have been widely published in renowned books, journals, and magazines such as Textile: The Journal of Cloth & Culture; The Journal of Modern Craft; Craft + Design Enquiry; & Architecture Australia. Her projects have been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at The Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne; West Space, Melbourne; De De Ce, Sydney; & Stills Centre for Photography, Edinburgh. Additionally, her work is featured in significant collections and has garnered numerous national and international awards.

Peta has presented and discussed her work at various festivals, conferences, and symposia by invitation. She is also the director of an art and design consultancy that continues to build strong connections with industry.

 

 

Education Background

PhD, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

MA (Media Arts), RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

BA (Visual Communication) (Hons), RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

BArch (Hons), RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

 

Publications

2022 — ‘Preliminary Notes on Relationships between Chinese Ge Ba Textiles and the Walls of Amateur Architecture Studio 中国格巴纺织品与业余建筑工作室墙壁的关系初, Garland Magazine 28 (2022)

2021 — ‘”Applicability, Economy and Attention to Beauty with Limitations”: The Origin and Value of a 1950s Chinese Architectural Design Strategic Guideline’. Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand 37, pp. 64-74. With X. Chen and Y. Dong

2018 On Surface and Place: Between Architecture, Textiles and Photography. Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge, 2018

2016 — ‘Bauhaus Weaving Theory’, Journal of Modern Craft 9, no. 2 (2016), 255-57

2016 — ‘Sophie Taeuber-Arp: Today is Tomorrow’, Textile: Journal of Cloth and Culture 14, no. 1 (2016): 142-45

2015 — ‘Place | Dressing’, Craft + Design Enquiry 7 (2015): 69-80

2015 — ‘Ritual | Repetition’, Textile: Journal of Cloth and Culture 13, no. 1 (2015): 80-99

2011 — ‘Callum Morton: “In Memoriam”’, Architecture Australia 100, no. 6 (2011): 109-110

2011 — ‘Networks, Cells and Silos’, Artlink 31, no. 2 (2011): 157

2011 — ‘For What It’s Worth’, Architecture Australia 100, no. 1 (2011): 25-26

2010 — ‘Urban Fabric: Orain Luiadh’, Craft Culture, Craft Victoria, Fortieth Anniversary Essay

2009 — ‘Urban Fabric: Swatch’, Architect Victoria, (Spring 2009): 24-25

2008 — ‘Or Whatever Floats Your Boat’. In Para, ed. L. Zilka. Melbourne: RMIT Publishing, 2008, 33-4

2006 — Photographic Studies for ‘Urban Fabric’. In M. Neustupny, Curtain Call. Melbourne: RMIT Publishing, 2006, n.p.,

2006 — ‘Men in Black’ and ‘Empires, Ruins and Networks’, Un Magazine 7 (2006): 66-67

2005 — ‘Bearth and Deplazes’, AR Architecture Review 94 (2005): 22-24

1999 — ‘Australian Embassies: An Overview’, Backlogue: Journal of the Half-Time Club,

1994 — ‘The Kronborg Clinic: A Dionysian Disco in the Netherworld’, Transition 44 / 45 by Backlogue (1994): 180-189

 

 

Social and education Experiences

2024- — Associate Professor, School of Public Architecture, Wenzhou-Kean University, China

2022 — Visiting Scholar, University of Canberra, Australia

2019-2024 — Associate Professor, Architectural Design, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

2016-2019 — Assistant Professor, Architectural Design, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China

2016-2024 — Honorary Associate, University of Liverpool, UK

2014-15 — Teaching Associate, Monash University, Caulfield, Australia

2010-15 — Studio Leader and Tutor, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia

2008 — Visiting Artist, School of Media Arts. RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

1998-2013 — Sessional Academic, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

 

Honors & Awards

2009 — British Council Design Research Award

2007 — Shortlisted: The William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize

2007 — Lomo Australia Award for Most Innovative Use of Photo

Exhibitions

2017 — ‘Urban Fabric: Greige’, Stills Centre for Photography, Edinburgh, Scotland – solo

2009 — ‘Urban Fabric: Swatch’ (Craft-Cubed: Perspective) Craft Victoria, Melbourne, Australia – group

2007 — William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize, Monash Gallery of Art, Wheelers Hill, Australia – group

2007 — 2007 Kodak Salon, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia– group

2007 — ‘Urban Fabric: Greige’, West Space: Artist-Run-Initiative, Melbourne, Australia – solo

2007 — ‘Urban Fabric: Looming’, SIAL Interactive Pavilion – Designex, Melbourne, Australia- group

2003 — Nikon Summer Salon, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia – group

2002 — ‘Corners’, De De Ce, Sydney, Australia – solo

2001 — ‘Corners’, Level 11 Gallery, Melbourne, Australia – solo

2000 — ‘Littoral’, Viscom Gallery, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia – solo

 

Keynote and Public Lectures

2018 — ‘On Surface and Place: An Introduction’, Practical Aesthetics: Yesterday and Tomorrow, Southeast University, Nanjing and China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China

2011 — ‘Luminous Cities’, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

2007 — ‘Weaving with Walter Benjamin’, Architecture + Philosophy, Federation Square, Melbourne, Australia