Paul Walker

Paul Walker is a Professor of Architecture in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, affiliated with the Melbourne School of Design. Educated at the University of Auckland, he holds a BArch (Hons) obtained between 1977 and 1981 and a PhD in Architectural Theory. Walker teaches architectural history, theory, and design. His primary research interest is architectural discourse in colonial and post-colonial contexts. Additional research specializations include museum architecture in colonial and post-colonial settings, modern architecture and urbanism in Australia and New Zealand, British colonial architecture across various locations, Asia Pacific architecture, modernism, brutalism, gardens, semiotics, Christian campus planning, and urban and exotic encounters.

Walker has an extensive publication record, including as editor and lead author of John Andrews: Architect of Uncommon Sense (Harvard Design Press, 2023), for which he received the Bates Smart National Award for Architecture in Media at the 2024 Victorian Architecture Awards. Other key books are Looking for the Local: Architecture and the New Zealand Modern, co-authored with Justine Clark (Victoria University Press, 2000); Vertical Living: The Architectural Centre and the Remaking of Wellington, co-authored with Julia Gatley (Auckland University Press, 2014); and contributions to Australias New Cities: Past, Present and Future and Burns Philps Encounters across Colonial Borders: Buildings for Export. Selected articles include Hot Modernism (Architecture Australia, 2016), The Maori House at the Canterbury Museum (Interstices, 1996), and Towards the Modern Garden (A History of the Garden in New Zealand, 1995). A respected critic, he contributes regularly to Architecture Australia and Architecture New Zealand since 1986. Walker is a life member of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, and participates in the Australian Centre for Architectural History, Urban and Cultural Heritage. His scholarship influences discussions on post-colonial architectural history and modernism in the region.

Professional Email: walkp@unimelb.edu.au