Dr. Michael Spooner
Details
Department: School of AUD
Campus: City Campus Australia
michael.spooner@rmit.edu.au
ORCID: 0000-0002-8326-0283
Open to
- Masters Research or PhD student supervision
About
Dr Michael Spooner is a Melbourne-based designer, writer, curator, and teacher working in the discipline of architecture. He is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture & Urban Design at RMIT University, with over 15 years of experience contributing to architectural education in Australia.
He is Coordinator of the Bachelor of Architectural Design Architecture Design Studio program (2025–) and Architecture Reflective Practice course (2022–). He previously coordinated the Bachelor’s first-year design course, ARCH1000 Design & Communication (2014–2024). He teaches across the Bachelor of Architectural Design and Master of Architecture programs, including design studios and graduate thesis Major Projects, and has supervised 9 PhD-by-project candidates to successful completion.
His research and teaching examine architecture as a speculative, pedagogical and image-based practice, with particular emphasis on research by design, intertextual enquiry, alternative architectural histories, and the role of narrative and fiction in architectural thought.
His published work includes the book A Clinic for the Exhausted: In Search of an Antipodean Vitality, the essay 46 Little Latrobe Street: The Office of Edmond & Corrigan, and the project Frederick Romberg (1913–1992): An Architectural Survey.
Supervisor projects
- Reflective Industry Design Practice Research
- 20 Apr 2026
- Fabling Architecture: Ants, Tortoises and Seahorses
- 23 Jan 2025
- form follows failure
- 12 Oct 2023
- Drawing the Dialectical Image of the City
- 21 Jun 2023
- The Fictional Architecture of Fictional Architects Whose First Name Is Michael
- 3 Sep 2021
- engaging objects
- 1 Jul 2014
- Anecdotal Evidence
- 1 Jul 2014
- Undisciplined: of Architectural Nomadism and the Rebellious Practice
- 1 Jul 2014
- Black Hole Architecture
- 3 Mar 2014
Teaching interests
Course Coordination
- ARCH1001, ARCH1002, ARCH1003, ARCH1004 – Architecture Design Studio, Bachelor of Architectural Design (2025–present)
- ARCH1036 – Architecture Reflective Practice, Bachelor of Architectural Design (2022–present)
Teaching
- Architecture Design Studio (ARCH1001, ARCH1002, ARCH1003, ARCH1004), Bachelor of Architectural Design
- Architecture Reflective Practice (ARCH1036), Bachelor of Architectural Design
- Architecture Design Studio (ARCH1330, ARCH1333, ARCH1335), Master of Architecture
- Architecture Major Project (ARCH1337), Master of Architecture
Previous Roles
- Course Coordinator, ARCH1000 – Design & Communication (first-year core course), Bachelor of Architectural Design (2014–2024)
- Design Stream Leader and Tutor, ARCH1000 – Design & Communication (Stream: Atlas 2014–2018; Babylon 2019–2025)
Research interests
- The architectural project as a speculative and reflective mode of enquiry
- Fiction, narrative, and fabulation as operative methods in architectural practice
- The archive and alternative architectural histories as sites of projective interpretation
- Research by design as a form of knowledge production
- The integration of design, writing, and pedagogy as interrelated practices
- Images and texts as generative instruments in architectural thinking
