Refracted Geographies: Architectural History MA Symposium

About

‘Refracted Geographies’ reflects the global scope of the research projects by the 2023-24 cohort of the Architectural History MA and the diverse approaches brought to the programme. Based at The Bartlett School of Architecture’s Bloomsbury campus, 22 Gordon Street, their research spans disciplinary and geographical boundaries with subjects ranging from colonial anthropologies of Antarctica to constructed images of Asia within Europe. Collectively, the cohort looks to challenge the established canons of architecture – along with its histories and theories – and propose new perspectives.  

The theme is timely, considering the recent identity crisis surrounding the roles of architects and architectural educators. This issue is being discussed widely within the profession, with events like the Decolonising Architecture Symposium at the Royal Institute of British Architects this year, and as evidenced by The Bartlett’s ongoing pedagogical reforms such as its newly appointed Just Environments Cluster. Amid these developments, the symposium adds to the current discussion about the growing importance placed upon architectural dialogues and viewpoints from – and about – the historically marginalised.  

By presenting experiments with disparate and hitherto unmapped ‘geographies’, the cohort brings forward three diverse sessions:

1. ‘Architectural Humanities’ on diverse research methods in composing histories around built environment cultures,
2. ‘Affective Architectures’ on intangible connections between spaces and their users,
3. ‘Fragmented Histories’ on problematic representations of global majorities in diverse contexts. 

The event is organised by Architectural History MA students: Rodney von Daffer-Jordan, Ed Davison, Yanqi Huang, Radhika Jhamaria and Pimchanok Na Patalung. The publication that accompanies the symposium will be released shortly, with sample copies shared with the audience on the day.  

The Architectural History MA was established in 1981 and is currently co-directed by Professor Barbara Penner and Dr Robin Wilson. 

Schedule

10:00–10:15 Audience arrival  

10:15–10:20 Welcome Professor Barbara Penner and Dr Robin Wilson, Programme Directors, Architectural History MA

10:20-10:25 Introduction Rodney von Daffer-Jordan, Symposium Publication Executive Editor

10:25–10:30 Outline of the day Yanqi Huang, Symposium Secretary

10:30–11:15 Keynote The Edge of Architecture, Dr Deborah Saunt, Founding Director, DSDHA 

11:15–12:45 Architectural Humanities  

Four 15-minute papers and one 5-minute video followed by a 20-minute Q&A led by the respondent 

Respondent: Professor Peg Rawes, Professor of Architecture and Philosophy, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

• Yanqi Huang The Esher Report: Architect-Planner Lionel Brett, 4th Viscount Esher, and the Architectural Culture of Conservation in Post-War Britain, 1964-71 
• Inigo Custers The Architecture of Jean-Michel Folon: An Artist’s Contribution to the (Post-)Modern Architectural Discourse 
• Elise Enthoven Covent Garden is for the People: The Emotional Experience of Covent Garden’s Redevelopment (1971-1980) and Its Legacy (5-minute video) 
• Becki Hills Interspecies Oceanic Colonialism at the Hektor Whaling Station, Antarctica (nominated for the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britian Dissertation Prize) 
• Ed Davison ‘Vernacular’ Architecture and Embodied Knowledge: On Indigeneity, Development, and Climate Change 

12:45–14:15 Lunch Break (lunch not provided) 

14:15–15:30 Affective Architectures  

Three 15-minute papers and one 5-minute video followed by a 20-minute Q&A led by the respondent 

Respondent: Dr Sam Grinsell, Research Fellow, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

• Stella Saunt Hills A Foray into the Criticism of the Covert House by the Imagined Critic, Perry F. Allwright 
• Pimchanok Na Patalung Interiorising the Faith Within: The Role of Architecture in the Diasporic Identity and Religious Adaptation of Fo Guang Shan London 
• Qinwen Ding Depicting A Heterogenous Story of Shanghai Longtang: An Intergenerational Memory Study of Four Women Connected to Xingye Fang (5-minute video) 
• Catherine Cull Thomas The Property of the Nation: Exploring the Democracy of the Public Spaces of the National Theatre 

15:30–15:45 Break 

15:45–17:00 Fragmented Histories 

Three 15-minute papers and one 5-minute video  followed by a 20-minute Q&A led by the respondent 

Respondent: Dr Tania Sengupta, Associate Professor, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

• Rodney von Daffer-Jordan Orienting Schloss Schönbrunn: Phantasms and Orientalism in the 18th Century Court of Maria Theresa 
• Sidra Khokhar A Critical Ethnographic of Ziddi Feminist: Socio-Spatial Practices in a Modern-Mohalla of Islamabad (5-minute video) 
• Radhika Jhamaria Disentangling: Dislocation, Dispersion and Disassembly in the Surviving Fragments of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 
• Leah Cho Hang-A-Li on the Pedestal: Constructed Narratives in the Museums of Imperial Japan 

17:00–17:10 Closing remarks 

Dr Deborah Saunt, Director, DSDHA

Deborah Saunt is a Founding Director of the architecture, landscape and research studio DSDHA. Known for their high-profile urban strategies, landscapes and innovative buildings, often in complex  and sensitive environments, as well as widely-acclaimed research, they have been recognised with 20 RIBA Awards to date, shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize, and twice nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award.   

Deborah gained her PhD with the RMIT Practice Research Programme, a Fellowship in the Built Environment from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 and has held academic appointments at Yale School of Architecture, Universidad de Navarra, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne and the University of Cambridge. Much of her current work is concerned with democratising architecture, having set up the Jane Drew Prize, and she is a Founding Director of the London School of Architecture.

This event is open to all. No booking required.

More information

• Find out about studying Architectural History MA 
• Find out more about The Bartlett's New Just Environments Cluster Hire

Image: Created by Rodney von Daffer-Jordan, Ed Davison, Radhika Jhamaria and Pimchanok Na Patalung

Read the Refracted Geographies publication