The Bartlett School of Architecture Appoints its Next Director

The Bartlett School of Architecture is delighted to announce that Professor Amy Kulper will join the school as Director from 01 September 2022, following an international search for a transformative leader. 

Amy Catania Kulper is an architectural educator, administrator and innovator, whose teaching and research focus on the intersections of history, theory, criticism and design. Amy is the Head of Architecture at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and has taught at the University of Cambridge, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Southern California Institute for Architecture (SCI_Arc), and the University of Michigan, where she was an associate professor with tenure and four-time recipient of the Donna M. Salzer Award for teaching excellence.

At Rhode Island School of Design, Amy has continued to shape contemporary architectural thought. In March 2019 she co-chaired the ACSA national conference Black Box: Articulating Architecture’s Core in the Post-Digital Era. As a part of the conference, she co-curated the exhibition, Drawing for the Design Imaginary at the Carnegie-Mellon Museum. More recently she co-curated Drawing Attention: The Digital Culture of Contemporary Architectural Drawings, a group exhibition at Roca Gallery in London.

Amy’s scholarly work has been published in edited volumes and journals including the Journal of Architecture, The Architectural Review, Log, Architecture and Culture, arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, and Candide. From 2011 to 2017, she served as the Design Editor for the Journal of Architectural Education, receiving the ACSA Distinguished Service Award for her work in transforming the design content of the journal.

“I am honoured to have been selected as the next Director of The Bartlett School of Architecture and look forward to future collaborations with staff and students. We are currently witnessing a sea-change in architectural education as the architect’s role is strategically expanded to include fluency and expertise in racial, social, and environmental justice and decoloniality. The Bartlett is a global leader in the pedagogy of the built environment, and I look forward to harnessing the creative innovations of its community as we embrace this transformation in the education of the architect.” 

 - Professor Amy Kulper, incoming Director of The Bartlett School of Architecture

The Bartlett School of Architecture is currently a community of almost 2000 students and staff, ranked first in the UK for architecture and the built environment (QS World Rankings). The school is internationally renowned for cultivating radical and transformative ideas, challenging what architecture is and what it could be. 

“Amy is an inspirational voice for architectural education internationally and I am truly excited about her appointment. She has a driving passion for the transformative power of equality, diversity, and inclusion in higher education, alongside extensive and nuanced knowledge and experience in the field of architecture, bridging practice, design, history and theory.” 

- Professor Christoph Lindner, Dean of The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment and Chair of the Selection Committee 

Following a rigorous recruitment campaign and selection process launched in October 2021, Amy will succeed Professor Bob Sheil, who has led the school for eight years, completing two terms as Director. Bob has overseen an unprecedented period of growth and development at the school, including the transition of the school through temporary premises to its refurbished 22 Gordon Street home and the development of new facilities at Here East, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.