Prof. Michael Ostwald

Biography

Dr. Michael J. Ostwald, an ARC Future Fellow (2010-2014), is Professor of Architecture at the University of Newcastle, Australia. In 2004 he was appointed a Research Visitor at SIAL and a Visiting Professor at RMIT University. In 2005 he was appointed a Professorial Research Fellow at Victoria University Wellington and a CHASS Research Visitor at the ANU. He is Director of the University of Newcastle research centre CIBER (Centre for Interdisciplinary Built Environment Research).

Following periods of time as Acting Dean, Assistant Dean and Head of Department, between 2001 and 2006 Michael Ostwald became foundation Head of the School of Architecture and Built Environment and was appointed Dean in 2002. In 2006 and 2007 Michael Ostwald was President of the AASA (Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia).

An award winning teaching, in 1995 he was short-listed for the prestigious TIETE national award and in 1996 he was named by CAUT (the National Centre for the Advancement of University Teaching) one of Australia's “leading professional educators”, elected to the national committee of distinguished educators and awarded a national commendation for teaching and learning.

Qualifications

• Doctor of Science, University of Newcastle, 2007
• PhD, University of Newcastle, 1998
• Bachelor of Architecture (Honours), University of Newcastle, 1990
• Bachelor of Design (Architecture), University of Newcastle, 1988

Research

Research keywords

• Architectural Computing
• Architectural Design
• Architectural Education
• Architectural History
• Architectural Theory
• Urban Design

Research expertise

Architecture, Engineering and the Built Environment.

Collaboration

Michael Ostwald has been a Chief Investigator on teams awarded more than 50 competitive research grants totalling in excess of $5,000,000 (AUS) in funding from the ARC, ALTC and the Carrick Institute in Australia and from the Graham and Getty foundations in the USA. Significantly he has been awarded 11 major ARC grants.

His more than 300 research publications include 22 books as well as papers in the international journals Assemblage, Nexus, Communication and Cognition, The Philosophical Forum, Transition, Interstices, Architectural Theory Review, ARQ (Architectural Research Quarterly), Exedra and Architecture and Geometry, as well as the professional journals Monument, The Interior, The Architects Journal, Inside (Interior Review) and The Architectural Review. His chapters have been published in prestigious books from Birkhauser in Boston, Elsevier in Holland, 2G in Barcelona, Edizioni Dell’Erba in Florence, Images in Melbourne, Sage in London, Routledge in London, World Scientific in Singapore, Archadia in Sydney, Global in Tokyo and the MIT Press and Harvard University Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Michael Ostwald has been co-editor of Architectural Design Research and on the editorial board of the international journals ARQ, Nexus: Architecture and Mathematics and Architectural Theory Review. He has been a Contributing Editor to Architecture Australia and the Architecture Bulletin and is a Contributing Writer to Monument and the Architectural Review: Australia.

Michael Ostwald conducted research on design and non-linear mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997, was a Visiting Scholar to the Rome Academy and in 1998 and a Visiting Scholar at the University of California in Los Angeles in 2001. In 2000 and 2001 he was awarded the prestigious Byera Hadley scholarship to undertake Post Doctoral research into Baroque geometry at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal and at the Loeb Archives (Cambridge, Massachusetts).

Fields of Research

Centres and Groups

Centre

• Centre for Interdisciplinary Built Environment Research

Memberships

Body relevant to professional practice.

• Planning Institute of Australia - Foundation Member, National Steering Committee

Committee/Associations (relevant to research).

• Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia - President, Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia

Editorial Board.

• Co-Editor - Architectural Design Research: International Journal

Appointments

Awards

Research Award.

Teaching

Teaching keywords

• Architectural Design
• Architectural Theory
• Urban Design