Amanda Achmadi

Associate Professor Amanda Achmadi serves in Architectural Design with a focus on Asian architecture and urbanism at the Melbourne School of Design, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. An Indonesian-born academic, architect, and writer, she earned her doctorate in Architecture and Asian Studies from the University of Melbourne in 2007, where her dissertation examined the role of architectural discourses in the 20th-century construction of cultural identity in Bali. She previously obtained a Bachelor of Architecture from Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung, Indonesia, in 1998.

Achmadi's research centers on architectural historiography, socio-spatial practices, and identity politics in colonial and postcolonial Indonesia, particularly exploring intra-colonial trading and shipping networks in the late 19th-century Asia Pacific, the transformation of kampung urbanism in Indonesian cities, and interactions between architecture and identity politics in Southeast Asia. Her publications include the edited anthology Architectural Encounters in Asia Pacific: Built Traces of Intercolonial Trade, Industry and Labour, 1800s-1950s (Bloomsbury, 2024), chapters in Reclaiming Colonial Architecture (RIBA Publishing, 2024), Routledge Handbook of Asian Cities (Routledge, 2023), Design and the Vernacular: Interpretations for Contemporary Architectural Practice and Theory (Bloomsbury, 2023), and Sir Banister Fletcher’s Global History of Architecture (Bloomsbury, 2019), as well as journal articles such as 'Beyond Chinatown: Chinese diaspora, the transition of power, and contested urban space in late colonial Surabaya' (2024), 'Cosmopolitan Subaltern: Transnational Spatial Agency on the Fringe of the Worlding Cities of the Indonesian Archipelago' (2023), 'Contested Riverscapes in Jakarta: Flooding, Forced Eviction and Urban Image' (2019), and 'The Past in the Present: Architecture in Indonesia' (2010). In recognition of her teaching excellence, she received the Open Award in 2020 for developing Design Studio Gamma in the Bachelor of Design, integrating architecture, landscape architecture, and interdisciplinary research. Achmadi leads travelling studios to Indonesia, including the 2025 Studio Co-Urban, moderates symposia on Indonesian architecture, and is a founding member of the Society of Architectural and Urban Historians of Asia.

Professional Email: aachmadi@unimelb.edu.au