Garry Martin

Garry Martin is Managing Director of Garry Martin Associates, Architects in Melbourne. During the 1980s he practiced for many years as an architect in the Middle East, and has both written on and drafted analytical drawings of traditional Islamic architecture for major publications. Educated in architecture at the University of Melbourne, Garry has combined the practice of architecture with his other keen interests in archaeology, art history and philosophy. He has lived and practiced architecture in Australia, the U.K. and Europe, and in the 1980s he was director of a practice in London that designed a large number of award winning projects in many different countries of the Middle East including Iraq, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the U.A.E. His approach to design involved interpreting modern building as a continuity of spatial and material traditions that had existed for centuries in the various regions.

Garry has acted as guest lecturer for one of the world's oldest and greatest study tour companies, lecturing on Swan Hellenic's Art Treasure Tours from London to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. He has also lectured over a number of years at institutions in London, as well as Melbourne University and the Melbourne School of Philosophy. Garry has also accompanied archaeological expeditions to Iran, Afghanistan, Jordan and India and undertaken personal study tours to Iran, North Africa, Central Asia and India to study Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist architecture. Garry is particularly interested in the interaction between place, time, culture, history and religion and ways in which this matrix leads to a flowering of a culture through its art and architecture. Garry first joined ASA as a tour lecturer for Iran in 2008.

Current Tours

Iran: Art and Culture of the Persians (2 - 22 November 2011)

Past Tours

Iran: Art and Culture of the Persians (2008-2010)

Publications include

Architecture for Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Architects and Architecture, London, Quatro Publications, 1991

Elements of Islamic Architecture, published by Commonwealth Association of Architects, 1987

Chapter on the Indian architecture of the Indian subcontinent in Architecture of the Islamic World, ed. George Michell, Thames and Hudson, 1978

Drawings and plans for Iran 2, Scorpion Press, 1977

Drawings and plans for Arts of Islam catalogue, Hayward Gallery, London, 1976

'Glazed tiles of Kandahar', Journal of Afghan Studies, 1976