Architecture + Women . NZ

Dr Dorita Hannah is an architect and trans-disciplinary practitioner-scholar who collaborates with performers, artists, designers & communities to co-conceive, design and direct events, installations, exhibits, objects and spaces as well as the creation of cultural environments, particularly architecture for the visual and performing arts. Her research focuses on the concept of ‘eventspace’: demonstrating via design work and scholarly publications that the built environment housing an event or performance is itself an event and an integral driver of experience. Having taught architecture and design since 1986, Dr. Hannah has developed and established new academic programs, including Interior Design, Spatial Design and Performance Design. She is currently Research Curator for World Stage Design (WSD 2013), Theory Curator for the Prague Quadrennial (PQ 2015) and Design Director of FLUID STATES: a yearlong globally dispersed conference for Performance Studies International (PSi 2015). Her creative work has gained NZIA and DINZ awards as well as a UNESCO Laureate (1999) and World Stage Design medals (2009). She has led design projects at the Prague Quadrennial on Performance Design & Space, particularly as Design Director of the central exhibition in 2003 and as Architecture Commissioner in 2011.