MPhil/PhD Architectural History & Theory Graduating Students 2006-07: Anne Bordeleau, Lilian Chee, Robin Wilson, Ivana Wingham. Current students: Nicholas Beech, Julia Bodenstein, Willem de Bruijn, Reid Cooper, Edward Denison, Alison Hand, Yi-Chih Huang, Josie Kane, Shih-Yao Lai, Rebecca Litchfield, Yat Ming Loo, Jonathan Noble, Victoria Perry, Sue Robertson, Aslihan Senel, Pinai Sirikiatikul, Catherine Szacka, Sotirios Varsamis.
The MPhil/PhD Architectural History & Theory programme allows candidates to conduct an exhaustive piece of research into an area of their own selection and definition. Great importance is placed on the originality of information uncovered, the creativity of the interpretations made, and the rigour of the methodological procedures adopted. Approximately 20-30 students are enrolled at any one time in this programme. The Bartlett School of Architecture runs an active series of events, including seminars, conferences and workshops, for students from both the PhD by Design and the Architectural History and Theory to provide a platform for advanced discussions of research methodology. The range of research topics undertaken in the programme is broad, but generally look at the history and theory of architecture and cities from c. 1800 to the present day, with an emphasis on the critical reading of these subjects from cultural, political and experiential viewpoints. Recent and current dissertations in the field include: ‘Ethics, architecture and Virtual Technologies’, ‘The Hebrew University in Jerusalem’, ‘Colonial and Postcolonial Histories of the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank’, ‘Critical Public Art and the Urban Site’, ‘Modernity and Brazil’, ‘Landscape and Institutions in South Africa’, ‘Elizabeth Denby, (1894-1965), Housing Consultant’.
Anne Bordeleau, ‘C. R. Cockerell: Architecture, History, Time and Memory’
Robin Wilson, ‘Image, Text, Architecture: Sites of Utopic Critique’
The dissertation focuses on how the nineteenth-century British architect C. R. Cockerell addressed the dilemma of history: if architecture was overidentified with the past, the dangers of an eclectic historicism loomed ahead; if architecture was dissociated from all historical narratives, it risked becoming meaningless. By studying closely the work and architectural theories of Cockerell, the thesis provides valuable insights on the way architects’ knowledge of history affected the comprehension of architectural meaning in nineteenthcentury Britain. Addressing the fundamental question of architectural meaning, the research is underpinned by a theoretical interest in the relations between architecture and time.
My thesis investigated issues of critical practice in the architectural media with particular reference to Louis Marin and Fredric Jameson’s writings on utopian literature. I explored architectural journals for evidence of repressed utopian expression – what Jameson refers to as the ‘utopian impulse’ of cultural production. I sought to clarify how utopian expression produces a critique of ideology and how it might thus surface in articles within architectural journals as a critique of the discourse of the architectural profession. My case studies included an article by Paul Nash for The Architectural Review in 1940 and the contemporary architectural photography of Hisao Suzuki in the journal El Croquis.
Lilian Chee, ‘An Architecture of Intimate Encounter: Plotting the Raffles Hotel Through Flora and Fauna (1887-1925; 1987-2005)’ This thesis reconstitutes the ‘architectural subject’ by placing the intimate encounter between the experiencing subject and the architectural object as central to the architecture of the Raffles Hotel, a wellknown colonial monument in Singapore. It theorizes the original concept of an architecture based on intimate encounter – a method, which emphasizes the agency of the experiencing subject and relational modes of architectural interpretation, specifically, metaphorical and metonymical relationships. Working through academic methods, historical theoretical speculation and performative textual strategies, the thesis combines historical, theoretical and inventive modes of architectural interpretation and production. This page: Lilian Chee, An Architecture of Intimate Encouter, 2006
Prof Jonathan Hill, Dr Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Dr Sharon Morris, Prof Alan Penn, Dr Barbara Penner, Dr Peg Rawes, Prof Jane Rendell, Prof Neil Spiller, Prof Phil Steadman, Prof Philip Tabor.