Gevork HARTOONIAN

Gevork Hartoonian is Professor of the history and theory of architecture at the University of Canberra, Australia. He was born in Iran, 1946, and received a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and has taught in a number of American universities, including Columbia University.

                        The investigative and speculative aspect of Hartoonian’s research in architectural history/theory draws from Walter Benjamin’s drive to save the tradition from its tendency to conform. Central to his critical investigation of architectural history is the modalities of the crisis of the object and its implications for the tectonics. Starting from the historicity of the project of Modernity, Hartoonian’s research also pursues the impact of modernization and globalization for the architecture of countries such as Australia, China, Iran, etc. Hartoonian teaches architectural history and theory and design studio in the School of Design and Built Environment, Faculty of Arts and Design, and supervises 5 research students. He has taught at the Columbia University and other American schools of architecture. He was the 2016 and 2013 invited Professor of Architecture history at Tongji University, Shanghai. Books include; Time, History and Architecture, 2017, Architecture and Spectacle: a critique(2012), The Mental Life of the Architectural Historian(2013/11), Walter Benjamin and Architecture, ed. (2010), and Ontology of Construction(1994), a Thai and Korean edition of which was released in 2017 and 2010. His research is primarily focused on architectural history and contemporary theories of architecture. Hartoonian is a prolific writer. In addition to journal essays and conference proceedings, he has contributed scholarly chapter essays to a number of books including, Reade: Tectonics in Architecture, 2018, Against the Post-Political: Reclaiming the Critical Project in ArchitectureRoutledge, 2014; Architecture Postmortem, Ashgate, 2013;The Political Unconscious of Architecture, Ashgate, 2012.

                        Research interest:

• Historiography of contemporary architecture
• Contemporary architectural theories
• Contemporary theories of tectonics
• The idea of Baroque in architecture
• Australian architecture
• Modern architecture in non-European countries