- Emerging Territories
About me
I am Professor of Architecture and Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange in the School of Architecture + Cities at the University of Westminster and set up and convened ArCCAT, the Architecture + Cities Climate Action Taskforce in 2021-2022. I am currently PI for a British Academy funded grant titled 'Reimagining the Good City from Ennore Creek' and for 'Climate Cartographics,' a Proof of Concept Grant funded by the UKRI. I was PI for Monsoon Assemblages, European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, no. 679873 from 2016-2021. For more about this project go here: http://monass.org or to the online exhibition here: http://exhibition.monass.org.
I was previously Professor of Architecture and Chair in the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia (2006 - 2011) and Chair of Architecture at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg (1998 - 2004). I am an award-winning architect and writer and have published, lectured and exhibited widely. My published work includes 'Sedimentary Ways' (2020), ‘Sedimentary logics and the Rohingya Refugee camps in Bangladesh’ (2020), 'Planning the Chennai Floods' (2020), 'Thinking architecture from an Indian Ocean aquapelago' (2016), 'Fluid Ontologies in the Search for MH370' (2014), 'Folded Ocean: The Spatial Transformation of the Indian Ocean World' (2013), 'The Politics of Rising Acid Mine Water' (2013) and Writing the City into Being: Essays on Johannesburg 1998 - 2008 (2010), winner of the Jane Jacobs Book Award in 2011. I hold M. Arch and DSc. Arch degrees from the University of the Witwatersrand, and a B.Arch degree from the University of Cape Town.
I blog at https://geoarchitecture.wordpress.com/
I welcome PhD applications from students who have interests in interdisciplinary approaches to architecture, urbanism, climate change, climate urbanism, monsoons and the Anthropocene, particularly in cities and territories in the Global South.
Teaching
I have taught architecture design studios and the theory of architecture at all levels, from the first year of the undergraduate degree to the final year of the graduate degree, at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, (1983-2004) Temple University in Philadelphia (2006-2011) and the University of Westminster in London (2012 onwards). I was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where I taught an advanced graduate design studio (2005).
I currently teach in history and theory in the BScAED and the MArch at the University of Westminster, and co-ordinate The Cross Disciplinary Exchange, a teaching and public engagement programme running across all Masters level courses in the School of Architecture + Cities, investigating and designing for climate change in the Borough of Westminster in London.
I have been invited as a visiting lecturer or design critic to many institutions in the world, including the AA, the Bartlett and the RCA in London, the Berlage Institute, Rotterdam; the Centre of Contemporary Culture, Barcelona; Columbia University, New York; Cornell University, Ithaca NY; Documenta Platform 11, Lagos; Harvard University, Boston MA; House of World Cultures, Berlin; International Architecture Symposium Pontresina, Switzerland; Quito Architecture Biennale, Ecuador; University of California, Berkeley, CA; University of Cape Town; University of Cordoba, Argentina; University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MI; University of Pavia, Italy; University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA; University of Princeton, NJ; Universita della Svizzera Italiana, Mendrisio, Switzerland and elsewhere.
Research
Current research
I am currently PI for a British Academy funded grant titled 'Reimagining the Good City from Ennore Creek' and for 'Climate Cartographics,' a Proof of Concept Grant funded by the UKRI. I was PI for Monsoon Assemblages, European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, no. 679873 from 2016-2021.
Research Group
I was Director of Architectural Research in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (2012-2017) and co-ordinated the Expanded Territories Research Group (2012-2021). I am now Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange in the School of Architecture + Cities and a member of the Emerging Territories Research Group.
Research Appointments
I have served as a Commissioning Editor for the Journal of Architecture, and as a reviewer for the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Cities, City and Society, Political Geography, GeoHumanities, the Journal of Architecture, Building Research, the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region, Social Dynamics, Architectural Histories. I was a member of the Scientific Committee for the Colonial and Postcolonial Urban Planning in Africa Conference, University of Lisbon, 2013 and the African Perspectives Conference, University of Pretoria and the Delft University of Technology, 2009. I was London School of Economics and Political Science Urban Age Programme Advisor, 2006-2009 and continue to serve as a South African Research Foundation (NRF) Research Rating Referee.
Research Students
I am currently supervising:
David Mathewson, 'Historic Institutionalism and urban morphology in Jakarta: Drawing the link between flood policy and impacts on urban form & social sustainability' (PT, 2016, ongoing).
Nina Barnett, 'The Vaal Dam and Me: Tracing water in a landlocked postcolonial city' (FT, University of Johannesburg, 2022, ongoing).
Previous students:
University of Westminster
Harshavardhan Bhat, 'Ways of Monsoon Air: Entanglements and Stories of Matter, Space and Time' (2021).
Anthony Powis, 'Thinking with Groundwater from Chennai: Materials, Processes, and Experimental Knowledge' (2021).
Phillip Leuhl, 'Informal Economies and Spatial Design in Windhoek Namibia' (2020).
Will McLean, 'Technological Innovation in Architecture: The Role of the Aberrant Practitioner' (2018).
Lilit Mnatsakanyan, 'The stone Lab: Decoding Shikahogh Khachkars' (M. Phil 2017).
May Aljamea, 'Cultural Preservation in a Saudi Domestic Environment in the Eastern Province' (2017).
Samra Khan, 'The Sethi merchants' havelis in Peshawar, 1800-1910: form, identity and status' (2017).
John Walter, 'Alien Sex Club' (2017).
Jason Pomeroy, 'Skycourts and skygardens: Towards a vertical urban theory '(2017).
Sarah Milne, 'Dining with the Draper’s: the Draper’s Company dinner book as a map of the city of London' (2016).
Izis Salvador Pinto, 'Study of moveable and deployable structures using EFT Cushions' (2014).
Goldsmiths College
Nabil Ahmed, 'Radical Meteorology' (2014).
Philippe Zourgane, 'Creolization in Architecture: Cultural Diversity in the Postcolonial City' (2013).
Temple University, Philadelphia, USA
Alan Wiig, 'Digital Infrastructure and Networked Ecologies' (2011).
Delft School of Design, Netherlands
Gerhard Bruyns, 'Disop_za_tif: spatial mechanism and the new city : The Netherlands and South African models' (2011).
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Azza Arif, 'Online teaching of an Undergraduate Architecture Technology Course'
(deceased before completion).
Hannah le Roux, 'Critical Approaches to the Discourse of Climatic Responsiveness in Modern Architecture in West Africa' (M Arch, 2002).
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.