Associate Professor Peter Scriver

• Biography/ Background

  Peter Scriver has played a leading role in the teaching of Architectural History, Theory and Architectural Design, and the development of postgraduate research across the Built Environment disciplines at the University of Adelaide since 1996. A founding member of the Centre for Asian and Middle-Eastern Architecture (CAMEA), established at Adelaide U. in 1997, his research engages cultural and cognitive approaches to the study of architecture and the broader built environment, with a particular focus on colonial architectures and urbanism, and the professional networks and institutional frameworks in which the design disciplines operate. Scriver’s original doctoral research, completed in the Netherlands (TUDelft) in 1994, examined the interface between theory and practice in the propagation and institutionalisation of modern architectural and engineering knowledge in colonial India through the agency of the Public Works Department of British Indian, and he has continued to focus on cross-cultural thresholds in the building of colonial and contemporary South and Southeast Asia in subsequent work. Scriver’s books include After the Masters: Contemporary Indian Architecture (1990), Colonial Modernities: Building, Dwelling and Architecture in British India and Ceylon (Routledge, 2007), and India: Modern Architectures in History (Reaktion 2015, with Amit Srivastava), a critical history of modern India through the lens of architecture. 

   

   

   

   

• Publications

  (Selected)

   

  Books and edited volumes

   

  P. Scriver and A. Srivastava, India: Modern Architectures in History. London: Reaktion Books, 2015.

   

  P. Scriver and V. Prakash, (eds), Colonial Modernities: Building, Dwelling

  and Architecture in British India and Ceylon. London and New York:

  Routledge/Architext, 2007.

   

  P. Scriver (ed.) The Scaffolding of Empire, Proceedings of the Fourth

  International Symposium of the Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern

  Architecture, Adelaide: CAMEA, 2007.

   

  S. Akkach, S. Fung and P. Scriver (eds). Self, Place & Imagination: Cross-Cultural Thinking in Architecture. Refereed Proceedings of Second International Symposium of the Centre for Asian and Middle-Eastern Architecture(CAMEA), University of Adelaide, January 21-24, 1999.

   

  V. Bhatt and P. Scriver, After the Masters: Contemporary Indian

  Architecture, Ahmedabad and New York: Mapin Publishing, 1990.

   

   

  Book Chapters, Journal Articles and Refereed Papers

   

  A. Srivastava and P. Scriver, “Internationalism and Architecture in India After Nehru”, In E. Haddad and D. Rifkind (eds.), A Critical History of Contemporary Architecture [1960-2010] (London: Ashgate, 2013).

   

  P. Scriver, “Constructing Colonial and Contemporary South Asia: A view

  from Down Under”, Fabrications: JSAHANZ 19:2 “About Asia” (April 2010):

  34-55.

   

  P. Scriver, “Edge of Empire or Edge of Asia?: ‘Placing’ Australia in the

  expanding mid-twentieth century discourse on Modern Architecture,”

  Cultural Crossroads: 24th Annual Conference of the Society of

  Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ), Auckland,

  July 2-5, 2009. CD-ROM.

   

  P. Scriver, “Empire-building and Thinking in the Public Works Department

  of British India.” In P. Scriver and V. Prakash (eds.), Colonial Modernities:

  Building, Dwelling and Architecture in British India and Ceylon, London

  and New York: Routledge/Architext, 2007, 69-92.

   

  P. Scriver. “Stones and Texts: On the historiography of architecture and colonial India,” In P. Scriver and Vikramaditya Prakash (eds.), Colonial Modernities: Building, Dwelling and Architecture in British India and Ceylon, London and New York: Routledge/Architext, 2007, 27-50.

   

  P. Tombesi, B, Dave, B. Gardiner, and P. Scriver, “Rules of engagement:

  Testing the attributes of distant professional marriages” Journal of

  Architectural Engineering and Design Management vol 3, no 1 (2007): 49-

  64.

   

  P. Scriver, “Placing in-between: Thinking through Architecture in the

  Construction of Colonial-Modern Identities,” in Carmen Popescu (ed.),

  Architecture & Identity, National Identities, volume 8, no.3 (September

  2006): 207-223.

   

  P. Scriver, “Mosques, Ghantowns and Cameleers in the Settlement

  History of Colonial Australia,” Fabrications, the Journal of the Society of

  Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, volume 13, no. 1

  (May 2004): 19-41.

   

  P. Tombesi, B, Dave, and P. Scriver, “Routine Production or Symbolic

  Analysis? India and the Globalization of Architectural Services”, The

  Journal of Architecture, volume 8, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 63-94.

   

  V. Bhatt and P. Scriver. “Contemporary Indian Architecture: An Assessment”, Spacio e Societa / Space and Society 38 (April/May 1987): 112-135

   

   

  Review Articles

   

  P. Scriver. “Geometries of Power”. (Review of Geometries of Power: Imperial Cities of Delhi by Chris Johnson. Architecture Australia (July 2002).

   

  P. Scriver. “Building in a Global Garden”. (Review of Building in the Garden: The architecture of Joseph Allen Stein in India and California by Stephen White). Design Book Review 29/30 (Summer/Fall 1993): 70-75.

   

  P. Scriver, “An Imperial Vision” (Review article re: “An Imperial Vision”  by T.R. Metcalf, The Tradition of Indian Architecture by G.H.R. Tillotson, and The Indian Metropolis by Norma Evenson”), Design Book Review 20 (Spring 1991): 65-69.

   

Entry last updated: Thursday, 12 Jan 2023

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