M Ph i l /P hD A rc h i te c t u ral H i sto r y & Th e o ry
MPhil/PhD ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY & THEORY Graduating Students: Willem de Bruijn, Shih-Yao Lai, Christina Malathouni, Sotirios Varsamis Current Students: Wesley Aelbrecht, Ricardo Agarez, Kalliopi Amygdalou, Tilo Amhoff, Tal Bar, Nicholas Beech, Eva Branscome, Eray Cayli, Edward Denison, Stella Flatten, Yi-Chih Huang, Anne Hultzsch, Kate Jordan, Irene Kelly, Thomas-Bernard Kenniff, Tat Lam, Torsten Lange, Abigail Lockey, Suzanne Macleod, Ivan Margolius, Jacob Paskins, Dragan Pavlovic, Brent Pilkey, Matthew Poulter, Sue Robertson, Ozayr Saloojee, Maria del Pilar Sanchez Beltran, Pinai Sirikiatikul, Sarah Stanley, LéaCatherine Szacka, Nina Vollenbroker, Danielle Willkens
Programme Director: Dr. Barbara Penner
The MPhil/PhD Architectural History & Theory programme allows candidates to conduct an extensive 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. 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. Approximately 20–30 students are enrolled at any one time in this programme. The Bartlett School of Architecture runs an active series of events for students from both the MPhil/ PhD Architectural Design programme and the Architectural History and Theory programme to provide a platform for advanced discussions of research methodology. These include a series of departmental seminars (PhD Architecture Research Conversations), and an annual graduate conference at which students present work to invited respondents p. 1 72
(PhD Architecture Research Projects). With the Slade since 2005, we also run a special PhD workshop, The Creative Thesis: Thesis Writing in the Practice Related Arts/Humanities PhD Admission. We would like to congratulate Dr. Victoria Perry, who won the RIBA President’s Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis 2009-10, for her dissertation, “Slavery, Sugar and the Sublime: The Atlantic World and British Architecture, Art and Landscapes, 1740-1840”. Willem De Bruijn ‘Book-Building: A Historical and Theoretical Investigation into Architecture and Alchemy’ Primary Supervisor: Prof. Jane Rendell Secondary Supervisor: Dr. Barbara Penner
My thesis investigates the relation between architecture and alchemy through a study of printed works published by three well-known alchemists (Heinrich Khunrath, Michael Maier and François Béroalde de Verville) and one manuscript treatise composed by an architect whose interest in architecture was alchemical (Antonio di Pietro Averlino, better known as Filarete). This investigation, though historical in its choice of sources, is not without relevance to contemporary architectural discourse. For, while architecture has been thought of as chiefly concerned with stability (firmitas), the construction of solid forms and the immutability of objects, alchemy, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with processes of change — material, spatial, social and cultural. In recent years, it is precisely this notion of change that has generated a wide-spread interest in alchemy as a