Biography

Fields of interest

General: History, theory and historiography of modern architecture and townplanning (19th - 21st centuries).

Specific fields of interest:: The medium of the architectural manual and architecture as a knowledge system; architecture in relation to mass production and mass culture; the architecture and urban design of Dutch suburbia; architecture in relation to the construction of national identity (through city branding, tourism, guidebooks, popular history books).

Biography

Petra Brouwer (1969) is Assistant Professor of Architectural History at the Department of Art History at the University of Amsterdam. She studied Art History and Physical Planning at the University of Amsterdam, from wher she graduated cum laude. From 1996-2008 she worked as a researcher and lecturer in Architectural History at the Free University of Amsterdam, where she received her PhD in 2009. Her dissertation De wetten van de bouwkunst. Nederlandse architectuurboeken in de negentiende eeuw [The Laws of Architecture. Dutch Architectural Handbooks in the Nineteenth Century] was published in 2011 by NAi Publishers Rotterdam. Brouwer works as an architectural critic and is a frequent guest lecturer and participant at debates at architectural, cultural and educational institutions. She is member of the Institute for Culture and History (ICH) and of the editorial board Stadgeschiedenis, Flemish-Dutch journal for the history of townplanning.

Previously Brouwer lectured at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture (1999-2003), was a member of the Amsterdam Town Planning Advisory Council [Amsterdamse Raad voor de Stadsontwikkeling] (2005-2010) and architectural critic for The Witte Raaf (1998-2004). As a student she was one of the founding editors of Simulacrum, journal for art and culture of the Department of Art History at the University of Amsterdam.

Current management and advisary functions: chairperson Art History Course Committee [Opleidingscommissie]; member or the Architecture advisory committee The Netherlands Architecture Fund [Stimuleringsfonds voor Architectuur]; member of the Advisory Committee of the Amsterdam Centre for Architecture [ARCAM].

website ARCAM

website Netherlands Architecture Fund

website Stadsgeschiedenis