Karen L Burns | University of Melbourne (original) (raw)

Papers by Karen L Burns

Research paper thumbnail of Mapping the (Invisible) Salaried Woman Architect: the Australian Parlour Research Project

FOOTPRINT

Since the 1970s, feminist historians and polemicists have struggled to uncover the ordinary lives... more Since the 1970s, feminist historians and polemicists have struggled to uncover the ordinary lives of women. They believe that gender ideals and biases are a critical part of the weft and weave of daily life. But the quotidian has been a restricted field in our discipline, often used to define a particular building type rather than the lives of architects. For example, we know little about the workdays of professionals or their labour in the workplace. The architectural office - its daily transactions and everyday culture - remains obscure. Even when represented in histories of the profession, the architectural office is filtered through a top-down lens trained on practice directors. The labour and lives of architecture’s male and female employees is unexplored terrain, but we could begin with the demographics: up to three-quarters of Australian women in architecture are salaried workers, continuing a historical trend. In the past, women generally worked for others. The gendering of ...

Research paper thumbnail of Parlour: The First Five Years

Parlour: women, equity, architecture is a group whose name derives from a rather subversive femin... more Parlour: women, equity, architecture is a group whose name derives from a rather subversive feminist take on the 'parlour' as the room in a house traditionally used for receiving and conversing with visitors. In its first five years, Parlour has grown from a scholarly research project into an activist group with an international reach, but a localised approach to working through issues of equity and diversity in architecture. This paper is a lightly edited version of a keynote 'lecture' given jointly by four of the key members of the Parlour collective.

Research paper thumbnail of Feminism, activism, public scholarship

Non-Standard Architectural Productions, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Can the Design of Effective Public Space Inform the Passenger Experience of Public Transport?

World Transit Research, 2008

... passenger experience of public transport? Selby Coxon, Karen Burns and Arthur De Bono ... Vis... more ... passenger experience of public transport? Selby Coxon, Karen Burns and Arthur De Bono ... Visual access concerns how a person 'reads the landscape' and to the extent they feel either 31st Australasian Transport Research Forum Page 252 Page 3. ... 2.4.2 Relaxation ...

Research paper thumbnail of Anthologizing Post-Structuralism

The Figure of Knowledge, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Michael Corridore: Angry Black Snake

Research paper thumbnail of Feminism's recent architectural history: From archive to anthology

Research paper thumbnail of The Urban Workshop

Research paper thumbnail of The Trouble With Utopia

Research paper thumbnail of Constructing Australian Architecture for International Audiences: Regionalism, Postmodernism, and the Design Arts Board 1980–1988

Fabrications, Jan 2, 2018

In May 2015, a new Australian Pavilion was inaugurated at the Giardini dell Biennale in Venice. D... more In May 2015, a new Australian Pavilion was inaugurated at the Giardini dell Biennale in Venice. Designed by Denton Corker Marshall, it has been described as moving beyond the issues of Australian identity that were the concern of its predecessor, designed by the architect Philip Cox and opened in 1988 to mark Australia's bicentenary. This paper revisits the work of the Australia Council's Design Arts Board in the 1980s in promoting Australian architecture through exhibitions, international design journals, and finally the first Australian Venice Biennale pavilion. During this period, a concern with identity preoccupied Australian architecture, manifest in an idiom of exposed steel frames and corrugated iron and a concern with landscape. This view aligned with one of the period's prevailing international orthodoxies in architecture: Kenneth Frampton's concept of "critical regionalism. " Countering this was the position put by the Italian design journal Domus, in a 1985 special issue on Australia, which depicted Australian architecture as contested, fragmentary, and citational-in a word, "postmodern. " While the Design Arts Board's engagement with the international design media could lead to unanticipated outcomes such as Domus's radical view, it is apparent in readings of the 1988 Biennale pavilion design that mostly engagement continued to be on the basis that Australian architecture should proffer images of identity.

Research paper thumbnail of Design Strategies for Mitigating the Mis-use of On-board Communication Alarms on Suburban Trains in Paris

Transportation Research Board 90th Annual MeetingTransportation Research Board, 2011

Train dwell times and schedules are particularly important during service peak periods and short ... more Train dwell times and schedules are particularly important during service peak periods and short headways. Miscreant passenger behavior such as the inappropriate or malevolent use of the emergency communication alarm has a detrimental effect upon maintaining the service timetable. There is a general absence of literature in the transportation field examining this problem or offering potential solutions. This paper discusses a collaborative research project carried out between Monash University’s Department of Design and the French National Railway (SNCF). The method for this research drew upon behavioral psychology and crime prevention techniques to aid in the formulation of a design strategy to reduce the instances of malevolent mis-use of alarms. Leveraging the physical design of the environment to provoke desired behaviors in people is a technique widely used in various disciplines from large architecture projects to more subtle uses of applied psychology. This paper describes the background to the problem as it manifests itself on SNCF’s network in Paris and models potential design solutions that may have pertinence for other networks similarly afflicted around the world.

Research paper thumbnail of The Implications of Saloon Design Upon Suburban Train Dwell Times and Service Punctuality

Transportation Research Board 89th Annual MeetingTransportation Research Board, 2010

Many suburban railway systems around the world are experiencing a rapid increase in patronage. Wh... more Many suburban railway systems around the world are experiencing a rapid increase in patronage. While this is a welcome development as an alternative to road congestion, higher passenger densities particularly during peak times of the day have implications upon ...

Research paper thumbnail of How much scaffolding do they need to build a tower

Research paper thumbnail of The Aesthetics and Politics of Reproducibility: Rereading 1850s English Design "Reform

Research paper thumbnail of Optical Surfaces: The limits and possibilities of illusionism at William Butterfield's All Saints' Church

Research paper thumbnail of Advertisements for architecture 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Surface: Architecture's Expanded Field

Architectural Design, 2003

Research paper thumbnail of Uncertain Sights: Owen Jones' improvements for the Crystal Palace interior

Research paper thumbnail of The Art of Memory

Research paper thumbnail of Salon Conversations: Communicating Architecture

Research paper thumbnail of Mapping the (Invisible) Salaried Woman Architect: the Australian Parlour Research Project

FOOTPRINT

Since the 1970s, feminist historians and polemicists have struggled to uncover the ordinary lives... more Since the 1970s, feminist historians and polemicists have struggled to uncover the ordinary lives of women. They believe that gender ideals and biases are a critical part of the weft and weave of daily life. But the quotidian has been a restricted field in our discipline, often used to define a particular building type rather than the lives of architects. For example, we know little about the workdays of professionals or their labour in the workplace. The architectural office - its daily transactions and everyday culture - remains obscure. Even when represented in histories of the profession, the architectural office is filtered through a top-down lens trained on practice directors. The labour and lives of architecture’s male and female employees is unexplored terrain, but we could begin with the demographics: up to three-quarters of Australian women in architecture are salaried workers, continuing a historical trend. In the past, women generally worked for others. The gendering of ...

Research paper thumbnail of Parlour: The First Five Years

Parlour: women, equity, architecture is a group whose name derives from a rather subversive femin... more Parlour: women, equity, architecture is a group whose name derives from a rather subversive feminist take on the 'parlour' as the room in a house traditionally used for receiving and conversing with visitors. In its first five years, Parlour has grown from a scholarly research project into an activist group with an international reach, but a localised approach to working through issues of equity and diversity in architecture. This paper is a lightly edited version of a keynote 'lecture' given jointly by four of the key members of the Parlour collective.

Research paper thumbnail of Feminism, activism, public scholarship

Non-Standard Architectural Productions, 2019

Research paper thumbnail of Can the Design of Effective Public Space Inform the Passenger Experience of Public Transport?

World Transit Research, 2008

... passenger experience of public transport? Selby Coxon, Karen Burns and Arthur De Bono ... Vis... more ... passenger experience of public transport? Selby Coxon, Karen Burns and Arthur De Bono ... Visual access concerns how a person 'reads the landscape' and to the extent they feel either 31st Australasian Transport Research Forum Page 252 Page 3. ... 2.4.2 Relaxation ...

Research paper thumbnail of Anthologizing Post-Structuralism

The Figure of Knowledge, 2020

Research paper thumbnail of Michael Corridore: Angry Black Snake

Research paper thumbnail of Feminism's recent architectural history: From archive to anthology

Research paper thumbnail of The Urban Workshop

Research paper thumbnail of The Trouble With Utopia

Research paper thumbnail of Constructing Australian Architecture for International Audiences: Regionalism, Postmodernism, and the Design Arts Board 1980–1988

Fabrications, Jan 2, 2018

In May 2015, a new Australian Pavilion was inaugurated at the Giardini dell Biennale in Venice. D... more In May 2015, a new Australian Pavilion was inaugurated at the Giardini dell Biennale in Venice. Designed by Denton Corker Marshall, it has been described as moving beyond the issues of Australian identity that were the concern of its predecessor, designed by the architect Philip Cox and opened in 1988 to mark Australia's bicentenary. This paper revisits the work of the Australia Council's Design Arts Board in the 1980s in promoting Australian architecture through exhibitions, international design journals, and finally the first Australian Venice Biennale pavilion. During this period, a concern with identity preoccupied Australian architecture, manifest in an idiom of exposed steel frames and corrugated iron and a concern with landscape. This view aligned with one of the period's prevailing international orthodoxies in architecture: Kenneth Frampton's concept of "critical regionalism. " Countering this was the position put by the Italian design journal Domus, in a 1985 special issue on Australia, which depicted Australian architecture as contested, fragmentary, and citational-in a word, "postmodern. " While the Design Arts Board's engagement with the international design media could lead to unanticipated outcomes such as Domus's radical view, it is apparent in readings of the 1988 Biennale pavilion design that mostly engagement continued to be on the basis that Australian architecture should proffer images of identity.

Research paper thumbnail of Design Strategies for Mitigating the Mis-use of On-board Communication Alarms on Suburban Trains in Paris

Transportation Research Board 90th Annual MeetingTransportation Research Board, 2011

Train dwell times and schedules are particularly important during service peak periods and short ... more Train dwell times and schedules are particularly important during service peak periods and short headways. Miscreant passenger behavior such as the inappropriate or malevolent use of the emergency communication alarm has a detrimental effect upon maintaining the service timetable. There is a general absence of literature in the transportation field examining this problem or offering potential solutions. This paper discusses a collaborative research project carried out between Monash University’s Department of Design and the French National Railway (SNCF). The method for this research drew upon behavioral psychology and crime prevention techniques to aid in the formulation of a design strategy to reduce the instances of malevolent mis-use of alarms. Leveraging the physical design of the environment to provoke desired behaviors in people is a technique widely used in various disciplines from large architecture projects to more subtle uses of applied psychology. This paper describes the background to the problem as it manifests itself on SNCF’s network in Paris and models potential design solutions that may have pertinence for other networks similarly afflicted around the world.

Research paper thumbnail of The Implications of Saloon Design Upon Suburban Train Dwell Times and Service Punctuality

Transportation Research Board 89th Annual MeetingTransportation Research Board, 2010

Many suburban railway systems around the world are experiencing a rapid increase in patronage. Wh... more Many suburban railway systems around the world are experiencing a rapid increase in patronage. While this is a welcome development as an alternative to road congestion, higher passenger densities particularly during peak times of the day have implications upon ...

Research paper thumbnail of How much scaffolding do they need to build a tower

Research paper thumbnail of The Aesthetics and Politics of Reproducibility: Rereading 1850s English Design "Reform

Research paper thumbnail of Optical Surfaces: The limits and possibilities of illusionism at William Butterfield's All Saints' Church

Research paper thumbnail of Advertisements for architecture 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Surface: Architecture's Expanded Field

Architectural Design, 2003

Research paper thumbnail of Uncertain Sights: Owen Jones' improvements for the Crystal Palace interior

Research paper thumbnail of The Art of Memory

Research paper thumbnail of Salon Conversations: Communicating Architecture