- Architectural Humanities
About me
Dr Ro Spankie is a Principal Lecturer and Subject Lead for Interior Architecture.
I trained as an architect at University College London and have a City and Guilds in Cabinet Making. My subject area is interior architecture, a discipline focusing on the alteration and adaptation of existing buildings. It is a creative practice concerned with re-imagining an obsolete present to anticipate future needs, rather than simply preserving the past. At the same time by avoiding demolition adaptive reuse facilitates the presence of the past in the future, in the process transforming the past into something new.
I am a Founder member of Interior Educators, a UK forum for Interior Architecture and Interior Design Educators. http://interioreducators.co.uk/ and am on the Editorial Board of the international journal: Interiors: Design, Architecture, Culture (Taylor & Francis).
Curatorial practice includes: Travelling Companions an exhibition of the work of Fay Ballard and Judy Goldhill at ARBart; CRASSH, University of Cambridge (2020-21) and Dark Skies at Hay Castle (2023-24)
Passionate about the environment in 2022 I took the role of Convenor of ArCCAT, a new role within A+C. Its remit is to encourage and facilitate staff and students to engage in the climate debate. Initiatives include, developing a School Climate Action Strategy to encourage discipline specific curriculum change, introducing an UG Student Award, a School Travel Policy, running a staff Reading Group to increase climate literacy and working with estates on greening the campus. We organise public facing events such as ‘Architecture Acts a Climate Performance in Three Acts’ and student workshops such as Climate Action Week.
I represented the university at the THE Global Sustainable Development Congress 2024 speaking on two panels Sustainable urban planning: How are we creating cities for the future? and Shaping healthy futures: Effective policy pathways driving collaboration and impact.
External Activities
· External Examiner/Opponent of PhD Thesis, School of Arts, Design and Architecture (ARTS) Aalto University, Helsinki. 2024
· External Examiner of PhD Thesis, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh. 2018
· External Examiner for MDes Interior Design, Glasgow School of Art. 2019-23
· External Examiner for BDes (Hons) Interior & Environmental Design, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee. 2018-21
· External Examiner for the Graduate School of Architecture, (GSA), University of Johannesburg. 2016-18
· External Examiner for BA (Hons) Interior Architecture and Design, Leeds Beckett University. 2015-19
· External Examiner for Interior Design MA, University of Brighton. 2013-17
· External Examiner for BA (Hons) Interior Design LASALLE College of Arts Singapore. 2011-14
Teaching
I joined Westminster in 2009 primarily to set up and run the new BA Interior Architecture Degree that opened in October 2009. Now 150 students strong, I have taught across all three years and contribute to History and Theory in the Architecture School including PhD supervision.
I welcome PhD applications from students who have interests in architecture, interiors, social theory, material culture, micro history and psychoanalysis as well as story-telling, narrative environments, and exhibition design. Current Students:
Sally Stone: The Future of the Already Built. DoS Completed 2024
Nicola Murphy: Slow Practice - (re)drawing time. DoS Completed 2023
Rachel Simmonds: The Architectural Expositions of Alvar Aalto. 2nd Supervisor
Prof Deborah Schneiderman: The Prefabricated Interior. Co-DoS
I lead on the ‘Mental Health, Design and Wellbeing: Co-design Workshop’ a collaborative design project involving students from across the five of the architecture courses in the School of Architecture+Cities at the University of Westminster and medical students from Imperial College London. Now in its fifth year this innovative two-day workshop involves students working in teams with patients, clinicians, architects, and other key stake holders on existing NHS sites.
The workshop has won an ASME/GMC ‘Excellence in Medicine Award’ 2019, a National ‘Research and Education Award’ 2022 (see link), a University of Westminster ‘Learning and Teaching Excellence Award for Collaboration’ 2022 and was a Green Gown Award 2023 Finalist under the category Tomorrow's Employers.
Research
Following a Masters in Computing and Design (UEL) I developed fascination for the role of the drawing in the design process. In 2018 I was awarded a PhD in Architectural Design from UCL. My thesis, ‘Thinking through Drawing’ is focused on the role of the drawing as an investigative tool in relation to three case study interiors. My current research focuses on environmental humanities.
Recent publications include: ‘Revisiting Sigmund Freud’s Diagrams of the Mind’ in Working with Diagrams (Studies in Social Analysis), Engelmann, Humphrey, Lynteris (ed.), (New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2022), ‘Within the Cimeras: Spaces of Imagination’ in Production Sites: Resituating the Culture of Architectural Knowledge, Sophia Psarra (ed.), (London: Routledge, 2018) An Anecdotal Guide to Sigmund Freud’s Desk (Freud Museum, London, 2015), 'The Art of Borrowing' in The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design (Bloomsbury, 2013), Basics Interiors 03: Drawing Out the Interior (AVA Academia, 2009)
I co-edited Volumes 8 (2017) -12 (2023) of the Taylor & Francis Journal 'Interiors Design Architecture Culture'. I edited Volume 13: Ecologies of the Interior (2024).
Recent conference presentations include: Presenting a paper ‘Travelling Companions: Material Culture and Time Travel’ at the Anticipation Conference at Lancaster University, 2024. Co-presenting a paper at ‘ARCH22: Enabling health, care and well-being through design research’ at TU Delft. Co-presenting an ‘New Ideas’ session at the Anticipation Conference at Oslo School of Architecture, 2019. (Fellow presenters include a cognitive scientist, philosopher, polar historian and a medievalist.) Presenting a paper ‘Shadow Space’ at the 2019 multidisciplinary conferenceDarkness, organised by Island Dynamics and held in 24 hour darkness in Svalbard, presenting a paper ‘Revisiting Sigmund Freud’s Diagrams of the Mind’ at the 2016 conference, Diagrammatic: Beyond Inscription? CRASSH Centre For Research In The Arts, Social Sciences And Humanities, University of Cambridge.
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.