Dr Marian Macken is Associate Professor at Te Pare School of Architecture and Planning. She trained in architecture, landscape architecture and visual art, receiving a PhD, by thesis and creative work, from the University of Sydney. She took up a position at Waipapa Taumata Rau The University of Auckland in 2016. 

Her creative practice research and writing primarily focuses on architectural drawing; and additionally, temporal aspects of architecture and the role of artists’ books as documentation of architecture, with particular interest in the implications and possibilities for architectural drawing and exhibition as design outcome. Her work has been acquired by various international public collections of artists’ books, including collections at Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum, UK, and Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal.

Her book Binding Space: The Book as Spatial Practice was published as part of the Routledge Design Research in Architecture series in 2018. Our Concealed Ballast (Vagabond Press, 2023), was shortlisted in the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction in the 2024 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, Australia. Her next book, Bodies and Space in Architectural Drawing: Line, Movement and Scale, co-authored with Carl Douglas, will be published as part of Bloomsbury’s Drawing In series. 

Marian teaches in architectural media and design research and is coordinator of the MArch(Prof) thesis programme. 

Research expertise: 

• Histories and theories of architectural drawing
• Temporality and spatial practice
• Architecture and the book
• Design research

Qualifications:
PhD USyd, MArch (Research) UTS, BLArch UNSW, BSc (Architecture) USyd

Work in public collections:

• Hyman Kreitman Research Centre at Tate Britain, U.K.
• National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum, U.K.
• Canadian Centre for Architecture Collection, Canada
• Book and Media Art Collection, Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany
• Urawa Art Museum, Saitama, Japan
• Musashino Art University, Tokyo, Japan
• Asia Pacific Design Library, State Library of Queensland, Australia
• Rare Books Collection, State Library of Victoria, Australia
• Artists’ Book Collection, Artspace Mackay, Qld, Australia
• Victoria University of Wellington Library, NZ

Responsibilities, selected:

MArch(Prof) Thesis Coordinator (2021-)
Media Stream Coordinator (2017-)
Co-director, Architectural Exhibitions Research Hub (2020-2023)
Auckland University Press Committee (2019-2021)
Associate Dean (Research) (2018-2020)
Associate Dean (Academic) (2020)
Independent Chair, Doctoral Oral Examinations (2018-)