RMIT Design Archives Journal, Vol. 12, No. 1: Women, Writing, Design is a scholarly journal issue that brings together four distinct histories — of industrial design, craft, archival practice, and collaborative placemaking — to celebrate the career of a foundational figure in Australian design historiography.
About This Book
This issue of the RMIT Design Archives Journal honours Professor Emerita Harriet Edquist, whose decades of work at RMIT University shaped how architectural and design history is researched, written, and exhibited in Australia. Emerging from a 2021 workshop at the University of Melbourne, the issue gathers four scholars whose contributions trace a connective thread between women, design authorship, and the archive. From the material tectonics of postwar Italian industrial design to the largely forgotten women woodcarvers of Melbourne's early Arts and Crafts movement, each essay recovers a story that conventional design history has sidelined. Essential reading for researchers in design history, archival studies, and feminist historiography.
Key Features
- 60 pages of scholarly essays, archival research, and critical design history
- Edited by AnnMarie Brennan, Harriet Edquist, Hannah Lewi, and Laurene Vaughan
- Notable essays include: AnnMarie Brennan on Anna Castelli Ferrieri and the tectonics of plastic in industrial design; Harriet Edquist on Ellen Nora Payne and women art woodcarvers in Melbourne; Hannah Lewi on archives as sites of speculative thinking; Laurene Vaughan on collaborative placemaking with Edquist, 2007–2011
- Published by RMIT University, 2011
What You'll Discover
- How Anna Castelli Ferrieri's work in plastics was shaped by material and tectonic thinking, reframing her place within industrial design history
- The overlooked contribution of Ellen Nora Payne and women art woodcarvers to Melbourne's early Arts and Crafts movement
- How archives can function not merely as repositories but as active sites of imagination, experimentation, and speculative design research
- The collaborative dimensions of design scholarship — specifically the decade-long working relationship between Vaughan and Edquist in crafting place and constructing landscapes of home
About the Author
This issue was edited by AnnMarie Brennan, Harriet Edquist, Hannah Lewi, and Laurene Vaughan. Professor Emerita Harriet Edquist is recognised for her foundational contributions to architectural and design history, archives, criticism, and exhibitions at RMIT University. The issue serves as a precursor to a Festschrift for Edquist published in Fabrications 32:1, edited by Professor Philip Goad and Catherine Townsend.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 60
- Dimensions: 210 x 300 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 18387314-121
- Publisher: RMIT University
- Publication Date: 2011
Perfect For: Design historians, architectural researchers, archivists, feminist scholars in the humanities, and practitioners with an interest in the intersections of design, craft, and curatorial practice in Australia and beyond.