MPhil/PhD Architectural History & Theory Graduating students 2005-06: Kemas Ridwan Kurniawan, Iradj Moeni, Sant Suwatcharapinun. Current students: Julia Bodenstein, Anne Bordeleau, Li Lian Chee, Gil Doron, Willem de Bruijn, Carola Ebert, Gonçalo Furtado Lopes, Yi-Chih Huang, Josie Kane, Shih-Yao Lai, Yat Ming Loo, Suzanne MacLeod, Christina Malathouni, Miho Nakagawa, Jonathan Noble, Anja Nydal, Victoria Perry, Aslihan Senel, Juliet Sprake, Noriko Tsukui, Sotirios Varsamis, Robin Wilson. .
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 25-30 students are enrolled at any one time for MPhil/PhD research study in this field. An intensive programme of research skills and methodologies is provided – this includes the PhD Architecture seminar series, which provides advanced discussions of research methodology, as well as presentations of on-going research by internal and visiting international speakers. 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, (18941965), Housing Consultant’, ‘Photography and the Representation of the Modern City’, ‘Proportional Geometries in the Design of Architectural Form’.
Kemas Ridwan Kurniawan 'The Architecture and Urbanism of Indonesian Tin Mining: a Colonial and Postcolonial History with Particular Reference to Mentok-Bangka'. Bangka, as one of the greatest tin producing islands in the world, experienced large scale alterations in its socio-cultural and political geography during its colonial and postcolonial periods. By focusing on the ex-colonial town of Mentok, this study explores relationships between the Indonesian tin mining operation and the built environment. A large amount of empirical material is supported by interpretive ideas and strategies which criticize the politics of space and the operation of power in the construction of Bangkanese geographical identity.
Sant Suwatcharapinun 'The Space of Male Prostitution in The City of Bangkok'. The thesis examines the relationship between male prostitutes and male homosexuals, particularly in a triangular relationship between sexual identities, the body and space. The research explores the space of male prostitution as a set of social relations, spatial production and reflection of the legitimising hegemony of hetero-normality. The theoretical framework for the thesis is derived from Henri Lefebvre, Michel de Certeau, Gayle Rubin and Shannon Bell.
Iradj Moeni 'The Ethics of Information-Age Architectural Design'. The values of information-age architecture mark the emergence of information-age value systems which necessitate the rethinking of universalism, place, architects' duty to transform society and fulfil utilitarian needs, authorial creativity, honesty, technology, and simplicity. They also challenge creative autonomy, representation, rationality and its associated pressures on creativity, the unilaterality and linearity of authoraudience and theory-practice relationships in creative processes, typology, top-down social engineering, and, finally, rigidity and determinism in architectural thought, design processes and final outcomes.
Above: Sant Suwatcharapinun, Male space, Bangkok.
Dr Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Prof Alan Penn, Dr Barbara Penner, Dr Peg Rawes, Dr Jane Rendell, Prof Neil Spiller, Prof Philip Steadman, Prof Philip Tabor.