Public lecture :. Thursday 2 April 2009 :. National identity and traditional building

Presented by Professor Miles Lewis


7.00pm, Thursday 2 April 2009
RMIT Building 50, Orr St.

Entry by gold coin donation, refreshments provided. Download the flyer for this event here





In an age of globalisation it is paradoxical that national identities are more of an issue than ever before. Traditional building technology is often as important an indication of identity as is language, and a more persistent one. This lecture will demonstrate how fundamental it is – from Mayan arch forms surviving in Spanish colonial Guatemala to the mud brick shapes used by today's Kurds in eastern Turkey.


Miles Lewis AM is an architectural historian and commentator, professor of architecture at the University of Melbourne, editor of the new international text, Architectura, and author of books including Victorian Primitive, Don John of Balaclava, Two Hundred Years of Concrete in Australia and Suburban Backlash.



















Images: 1. Extracting the tile blank, El Tajar tile yard, Guatemala, 2. Detail of gable end, Sitt-er-Rum Church , Northern Syria