CR|PT|C: Recent Episodes
CR|PT|C
InterVIEW/LISTEN 10 November 28 2022 [1 h + 36 min] Dr. Sophia PsarraDirector of the Architectural and Urban History and Theory PhD ProgrammeProfessor, Bartlett School of ArchitectureUniversity College London UCLUKInterviewers in order of participation: Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU& Simone Fallica PhD Student ASAU, CU Sharmeen Dafedar PhD Student ASAU, CUMahsa Esmailpour MAS Student ASAU, CUStephanie Murray MAS Student ASAU, CU Screenshot 2023-05-08 at 9.59.05 PM.pngScreenshot 2023-05-08 at 10.09.52 PM.pngIn –InterVIEW/LISTEN 10–Dr. Sophia Psarra discussed her role as Director of the Architectural and Urban History and Theory PhD Programme at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL) in the UK, where she is a Professor of Architecture and Spatial Design. Dr. Psarra offered an overview of the five doctoral programs at the Bartlett School of Architecture, explaining how they are differentiated from each other. Next, she discussed her role as PhD Program Director of the Architectural and Urban History and Theory PhD Programme, defining the uniqueness of the interdisciplinary program in which students can collaborate with other departments within UCL. The interview includes a discussion on the research media and methods students undertake to define emerging questions and arrive at their contributions to knowledge, defining the inherent agency and originality of their work. Finally, she discussed the role of the supervisor and the advisory committee. Dr. Psarra spoke about the fruitful interaction between the Architectural and Urban History and Theory PhD and the PhD by Design Program, which share a critical engagement with history, theory, contemporary issues and the role of the architect in society. All the seminars are shared between the two programs, and there is an annual conference and exhibition on which the programs collaborate. Dr. Psarra also commented on emerging Doctoral Training Centres (DTC) in the UK that rely on funding from the UK Research Councils (RCUK) to develop specific disciplinary and interdisciplinary questions. Schools can apply to host a DTC program based on calls launched by the UK Research Council. In the second part of the interview, Dr. Psarra offered insights into her research work addressing questions of authorship, narrative plurality, and architecture as an instrument of power, based on a number of her writings, including her book, Architecture and Narrative, published by Routledge in 2009, which deals with architecture as a semi-autonomous object. Finally, the interview concluded with reflections on her latest book, The Venice Variations, published by UCL Press 2018, also available in open access.
InterVIEW/LISTEN 9 October 17 2022 [1 h + 44 min] Dr. Eunice SengChair, Departmental Research Postgraduate Committee in Architecture, Associate ProfessorPhD program, Faculty of ArchitectureUniversity of Hong Kong HKUHong Kong-Interviewers in order of participation: Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU&michelle liu PhD Student ASAU, CUAdila Mehjebin PhD Student ASAU, CUUshma Thakrar, PhD Student ASAU, CUSena Kurcenli Koyunlu, PhD Student ASAU, CUIn –InterVIEW/LISTEN 9–Dr. Eunice Seng discussed her role as Chair of the Departmental Research Postgraduate Committee in Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) in Hong Kong and some key initiatives she has implemented in the program since starting in this role. She was invited to comment on the history, recent developments and uniqueness of the PhD Program in Architecture at HKU. Dr. Seng discussed the relevance and currency of criticism today, the methodological approaches and some of the research outcomes in the PhD program at HKU as well as the limitations and opportunities encountered when working at a distance from a research site. In the second part of the interview, Dr. Seng offered insights into her own research work, addressing questions about her recent publications and, in particular, her book Resistant City: Histories, Maps and the Architecture of Development, published in 2020 in Singapore by World Scientific Publishing Co. The book maps contested spaces in Hong Kong through field observations, analytical drawings, archival research and film studies. She also discussed her work with SKEW collaborative and how she operates between practice, research and teaching.She addresses questions about the role of public space in Hong Kong as a contested, uneven space reclaimed in everyday activities and commented that the boundary between public and private space is constantly re-negotiated. Finally, she provided insights into her ongoing research and forthcoming publications.
Dr Henrieta Moravčíková Director, Department of Architecture PhD program, Faculty of Architecture and Design Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava - Interviewers in order of participation:
Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU & Isabel Potworowski PhD Student ASAU, CU, Stephanie Murray MAS Student ASAU, CU Yu Zhen PhD Student ASAU, CU
In –InterVIEW/LISTEN 8–Dr. Henrieta Moravčiková discussed her role as Director of the Department of Architecture at the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) in Bratislava / faculty of architecture at the Slovak Technical University and some of the key initiatives she undertook in the program. She offered an introduction of the SAV PhD program in architecture at STU and discussed the research approaches as well as the mediums of research employed by PhD students in the program. Furthermore, she spoke of her role as chair of the Slovak working group DOCOMOMO for research and protection of modern architecture, as well as the connections between the activities of DOCOMOMO and research being carried out at the department of architecture.
In the second part of the interview, Dr. Moravčiková offered insights into her own research work addressing the relations between practice and academic work. The questions addressed the 2020 online conference “[Un]Planned City” in the framework of the research project “Unintentional City: Architectonic and Urbanistic Conceptions of the 19th and 20th Centuries in the Urban Structure of Bratislava,” which Dr. Moravčiková co-organized, and the research she presented at the same event: “Bratislava, (Un)Planned City: Notes on the Interpretation of Planning and Construction History.”
She addressed questions on two of her books: Modern and/or Totalitarian Architecture of the 20th C in Slovakia (Moravčiková, Slovart, 2013) and Bratislava (Un)Planned City (Moravcikova, Henrieta, Peter Szalay, Katarína Haberlandová, Laura Krišteková and Monika Bočková, Bratislava, Slovart, 2020). Lastly, in consideration of how historical cities often resist a complete re-writing, she was invited to discuss whether the incompletion and fragmentation of Bratislava is a beneficial quality in its urban development or something that has prevented positive change at particular time junctures.
March 3 2022
Assistant Professor Menna Agha, PhD Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada - Interviewers in order of participation:
Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU & Warren Borg PhD student ASAU, CU Reem Awad, PhD student ASAU, CU Ahmed Elsherrif PhD student ASAU, CU Stephanie Murray MAS student ASAU, CU Yu Zheng, PhD student ASAU, CU
In –InterVIEW/ASAU III- Dr. Menna Agha, Assistant Professor at the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism (ASAU) at Carleton University, was invited to reflect on her doctoral experience at the University of Antwerp and how her Nubian culture, heritage, and identity influence her research methods. She spoke about her role and work in the recently established Design and Spatial Justice research area at the ASAU, and discussed her interest in decolonial theory and the methodologies and approaches to research that she has been pursuing in her own work, including auto-ethnographic and reflexivity methods. During the interview she delved into questions of space, place, and imagination in Nubian culture through a decolonial lens, with particular attention to critical themes related to women, gender, and feminism. In the concluding part of the interview, Dr. Agha reflected on her diverse roles as architect, researcher, and teacher.
Under the theme of Architectures of Hiding, this set features installations of recording and transcribing silenced layers of history. Today Lifta is fighting a development plan by the occupation that decontextualizes its structures and neglects its history. The plan proposes alienated programs as a method of concealing its position of using architecture to serve political agendas. The podcast features Hala Barakat in conversation with Ryan Stec, Artistic Director at Artengine, and Pallavi Swaranjali, co-convenor, Architectures of Hiding and co-coordinator of C R | P T | C. The creative piece by Hala Barakat can be found at https://www.architecturesofhiding.com/exhibition
Under the theme of Architectures of Hiding, Avert is a work situated within the public sites in which gender-based violence operates, subtly existing alongside the day-to-day ebb and f|ow of pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Through this positioning, the work critiques these spaces which can be designed unsafely, and which are undoubtedly socially regulated by settler-colonial heteropatriarchal systems of oppression. The podcast features Heather Leier in conversation with Ryan Stec, Artistic Director at Artengine, and Pallavi Swaranjali, co-convenor, Architectures of Hiding and co-coordinator of C R | P T | C. The creative piece by Heather Leier can be found at https://www.architecturesofhiding.com/exhibition
Under the theme of Architectures of Hiding, this lecture-performance, creates a rewriting of history in the form of a series of speculative events that are rooted in political incidents that affected the artist’s family. It explores the link between architecture, memory, and history, focusing on the institutions—school, hospital, and prison—through which the state imprints power on or actually destroys bodies to eradicate memory and control the writing of History. The podcast features Anahita Norouzi in conversation with Ryan Stec, Artistic Director at Artengine, and Pallavi Swaranjali, co-convenor, Architectures of Hiding and co-coordinator of C R | P T | C. The creative piece by Anahita Norouzi can be found at https://www.architecturesofhiding.com/exhibition
Under the theme of Architectures of Hiding, Verdures is part of an ongoing investigation of the relationship between landscape and camouf|age. It uses Mimicry camouf|age, which is an image with multiple roles: at once a synthetic representation of a landscape at a distinct moment, it is also, with its concealment of hunters through clothing or shelters, a device for the manipulation of an environment. The podcast features François Sabourin and Bertrand Rougier in conversation with Ryan Stec, Artistic Director at Artengine, and Pallavi Swaranjali, co-convenor, Architectures of Hiding and co-coordinator of C R | P T | C. The creative piece by François Sabourin and Bertrand Rougier can be found at https://www.architecturesofhiding.com/exhibition
Under the theme of Architectures of Hiding, Hidden Relics investigates a secret design found hidden inside a wall of a building: two lavishly illustrated empty match-boxes, a holy picture with a prayer, a king of cups briscola card, a wooden spoon. What can we infer from these relics? Endless stories. The podcast features Claudio Sgarbi in conversation with Ryan Stec, Artistic Director at Artengine, and Pallavi Swaranjali, co-convenor, Architectures of Hiding and co-coordinator of C R | P T | C. The creative piece by Claudio Sgarbi can be found at https://www.architecturesofhiding.com/exhibition
Full Title: Architectures of Hiding | The Art and Craft of Asking your Boss for a Raise: Josh Silver in conversation
Under the theme of Architectures of Hiding, The Art and Craft of Asking your Boss for a Raise attempts to access the dynamic material conditions of the past in its most banal, everyday forms, artefacts and their mechanisms, visualised and played-out in theatrical space (for this project, a stage adaptation of Georges Perec’s novella entitled The Art and Craft of Asking Your Boss for a Raise) utilising constraint operations (defined by Harry Mathews as, “A strict and clearly definable rule, method, procedure or structure that generates a [textual work],” expanded by Georges Perec as, “describable, definable [and] available to everyone.”). The podcast features Josh Silver in conversation with Ryan Stec, Artistic Director at Artengine, and Pallavi Swaranjali, co-convenor, Architectures of Hiding and co-coordinator of C R | P T | C. The creative piece by Josh Silver can be found at https://www.architecturesofhiding.com/exhibition
Dr. Mark Dorrian Forbes Chair in Architecture ESALA Edinburgh College of Art University of Edinburgh, Scotland - Interviewers:
Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU & Warren Borg PhD student ASAU, CU Damiano Aiello PhD student ASAU, CU Marco Ianni PhD student ASAU, CU Serkan Taycan PhD student ASAU, CU
In –InterVIEW/LISTEN 6–Dr. Mark Dorrian, the Forbes Chair in Architecture, at the Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA, The University of Edinburgh), was invited to offer insight into the history, research approaches and areas of knowledge contribution in the PhD program in Architecture and the PhD by Design. About 90 students are enrolled in the four PhD programs at ESALA at any one time.
Dr. Dorrian was also invited to offer insights into his research. The series of questions that follows deal primarily with his 2015 book Writing on the Image: Architecture, the City and the Politics of Representation (I.B. Tauris), which brings together selected essays developed over a period of ten years (2004-2013), organized under fields of interest such as –elevated vision, cloud architecture, atmospheric politics– interacting with several disciplines. He commented on his notion of a-disciplinarity in architecture research and a desire for openess in theoretical questioning. The interview constitutes a deep reflection on themes related to architecture and the city, within the larger context of the politics of representation. Dr. Dorrian concluded the interview affirming the inescapable centrality of questions relating to the politics of representation today, stating that all knowledge is mediated in some way by it.
Dr. Felix Solaguren Dean of the Barcelona School of Architecture ETSAB / UPC Barcelona Tech, Spain & Dr. Pedro Azara Head of the Department of Theory and History of Architecture ETSAB / UPC Barcelona Tech, Spain
Interviewers in order of participation:
Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU & Kristin Washco PhD student ASAU, CU Marco Ianni PhD student ASAU, CU Reem Awad PhD student ASAU, CU
In –InterVIEW/LISTEN 7–Dr. Felix Solaguren and Pedro Azara, respectively the dean of the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) and the Head of the Department of Theory and History of Architecture were invited to discuss the relationship between PhD programs and professional practice in Spain. They offered insights into the history of the PhD program at ETSAB and its seven research tracks, contextualizing them within the context of PhD programs in Europe and the world. They were invited to discuss the research methods and approaches as well as the mediums of research employed by PhD students in the History and Theory of Architecture program at ETSAB.
In the second part of the interview Dr. Solaguren and Dr. Azara offered insights into their respective research work addressing the relations between practice and academic work. The questions addressed the role of theory in practice and the practice in theory, and the overlap of the social sciences, particularly geography, climate, and nature with architecture research, questioning the responsibilities of researchers and practitioners to engage with ethical concerns and the architect’s role in addressing sustainability.
Dr. Philip Ursprung Professor of the History of Art and Architecture, Director of Research Department of Architecture ETH Zurich, Switzerland Interviewers:
Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU & Marco Ianni PhD student ASAU, CU Isabel Potworowski PhD student ASAU, CU
In –InterVIEW/LISTEN 4–Dr. Philip Ursprung, the Director of Research at the Department of Architecture, at ETH Zurich, was invited to offer insight into the history, research approaches, and areas of knowledge contribution in the Doctoral Program in History and Theory of Architecture, Architecture, and Technology (2012), and Landscape Architecture and Urban Studies (2020) at ETH Zurich, in Switzerland. He commented on his role in the Board of Directors of the PhD in History and Theory of Architecture, and how he initiated the two programs, which are unique in Switzerland, in collaboration with his colleague Philippe Block in 2011. He commented on how the GTA Archives, the GTA Verlag publishing house, GTA Exhibitions, and GTA Digital impact doctoral work at ETH. He discussed the role of exhibitions as a site of experimentation in developing and disseminating doctoral research.
During the second part of the interVIEW Dr. Ursprung offered insights into his own research. The series of questions addressed areas including, research with the Future Cities Laboratories where he serves as the Principal Investigator of Tourism and Cultural Heritage; the human and non-human relations and the concept of the Anthropocene; the necessity for the continuous review of the premises of scholarship through historiography; the representation of capitalist versus socialist space, in relation to the representation of industrial and immaterial labour—a topic which he affirms “remains a blindspot in representation.”
Dr. Laurent Stalder Chair of Theory of Architecture Department of Architecture ETH Zurich, Switzerland Interviewers in order of participation:
Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU & Reem Awad PhD student ASAU, CU Marco Ianni PhD student ASAU, CU
In –InterVIEW/LISTEN 5–Dr. Laurent Stalder, the Chair of Theory of Architecture at the Department of Architecture, at ETH Zurich, offered insight into the history, research approaches, and areas of knowledge contribution in the Doctoral Program in History and Theory of Architecture (2012) at ETH Zurich, in Switzerland, situating it in the context of doctoral programs in Europe and the world. He was also invited to reflect on the diversity of doctoral programs in architecture across a wide spectrum, from PhD in history, theory, or criticism, to PhD by design, creative practice, or by practice. He discussed the research approaches of students in the ETH History and Theory of Architecture PhD program, the curriculum structure, and the role of the PhD advisor.
In the second part of the interview, Dr. Stalder offered insights into his own research. The series of questions addressed areas including research on architectural representation and the intersection of the history and theory of architecture and the history of technology within the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He discussed the academic multidisciplinary quality of architecture and the influence of technology on how we think and design today. The interview concluded with Dr. Stalder addressing a question about the promising research mediums in doctoral research.
Part 2 of 2
School of Architecture and Urbanism, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile December 20 2019 - Santiago, Chile
See also InterVIEW/READ 3 (English language) April 2 2020 - Ottawa, Canada Forthcoming - Interviewers in order of participation:
Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU & Nicolas Arellano Risopatron PhD student ASAU, CU Devon Moar MAS student ASAU, CU Marco Ianni PhD student ASAU, CU Kristin Washco PhD student ASAU, CU Amanda Lapointe MAS student ASAU, CU - Dr. José Rosas Vera from the School of Architecture and Urbanism, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC)- discussed the developments of their PhD program in Architecture, which started in 2004.
Two interVIEWS were conducted: one in the Spanish language in Chile (InterVIEW/LISTEN 2), and a second one in the English language (InterVIEW/READ 3). PhD student Nicolas Arellano Risopatron translated the interviewees’ questions in Spanish and conducted the interview held in Santiago, Chile. Dr. Rosas Vera was invited to discuss the impact of architectural research in the urban context and the role of the academic institution in the public life of Santiago, and the wider regional and national context. Additionally, he reflected on the country’s complex political scenario since the beginning of the Chilean protests in October 2019.
The PhD program is recognized as one of the most relevant in the Ibero-American context and is part of the Urban Studies Institute, which is the first interdisciplinary institute of PUC. The doctoral research covers the areas of urban history, theory, landscape, geo-politics, and representation. The program has graduated sixty-eight doctors in architecture, and sixty dissertations are currently ongoing. He discussed the role of the architect and architecture in urban design and development, and the relationship between the PhD program and the planning department of the city of Santiago, the impact of research on public policies and urban planning, the importance of public space, and the Western influence on the urban development of the city historically and in its present context.
Dr Adam Sharr April 5 2020 School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK - Interviewers in order of participation:
Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU & Nicolas Arellano Risopatron PhD student ASAU, CU Devon Moar MAS student ASAU, CU Marco Ianni PhD student ASAU, CU Kristin Washco PhD student ASAU, CU Amanda Lapointe MAS student ASAU, CU
- Guest: Taj Masud Adjunct Prof. ASAU, CU
In –InterVIEW/LISTEN 3–Dr. Adam Sharr, the Director of the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape at Newcastle University, introduces the PhD by Creative Practice, established in the last decade in one of the oldest architecture schools in the UK. About 15 candidates have graduated in the PhD by Creative Practice, which is rooted in research by design or practice based research and exists alongside more traditional PhDs. PhD students in the Creative Practice PhD question how architectural ways of knowing inform contemporary society, its practices, and culture at large.
Dr. Sharr discussed the shift brought about in the postwar era, after the first Oxford Conference on architectural education (1958), with the establishment of doctoral research in architecture in the UK. At that time much of the research was into technical knowledge, land use and construction, and architects borrowed research methods from more established research fields, including applied science, engineering, humanities, and sociology. In this millennium, architects are now trying to establish methods that are distinctive of the field, trading in architectural ways of knowing.
Distinctively in the Creative Practice PhD in Newcastle, the experimental research work distinguishes itself from Design Research, as it is known in Australia and Europe, by taking design methods and architectural ways of working back into the inter-, multi- and trans-disciplinary domain to reengage them with methods including historiography, ethnography, anthropology, by experimenting on a wide spectrum of approaches, from creative history, digital creative practices, biotechnical creative practices, ethnography, co-production of space, to choreographic and mapping practices.
Professor Jill Stoner November 14 2019 Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada - Interviewers in order of participation:
Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU & Kristin Washco PhD student ASAU, CU Amanda Lapointe MAS student aSAU, CU Marco Ianni PhD student ASAU, CU Nicolas Arellano Risopatron PhD student ASAU, CU Devon Moar MAS student ASAU, CU
In InterVIEW/ASAU 1 Jill Stoner, Director of the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University, was invited to discuss her motivation and process in writing her 2012 book Toward a Minor Architecture (MIT Press). She spoke of Deleuze and Guattari’s book on Kafka and minor literature as the basis for her development of the theory of “minor architecture.” This she defines as a practice within architecture’s master language, intending to disrupt it. During an in depth two-hours interview she dealt with modes of research in both practice and academia and opened up key ideas about her theory of minor architecture, including how her unique approach to professional practice shaped her approach to criticism. Through the interview she advocates for the potential of minor architecture in the context of “regretful constructions” within our corporate culture. She reflected on a number of earlier writings and projects over a two-decades career as both a Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley and a practicing architect in San Francisco, California. Lastly, she was invited to comment on the potential dichotomy that may exist between practicing minor architecture and directing a professional school of architecture in the contemporary context, and advocated for “turning the school inside out,” reflecting not simply on architecture, but outside of it, and making the ASAU part of “the edge condition,” while cultivating diversity and multiplicity of actions amongst its faculty and students.
Dr Benno Albrecht March 12 2019 Doctoral program in Architecture IUAV Venice, Italy - Interviewers in order of participation:
Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU & Rana Abughannam PhD Student ASAU, CU Nicolas Arellano Risopatron PhD Student ASAU, CU
In –InterVIEW/LISTEN 1–Benno Albrecht, the director of the School of Doctorate Studies at the Università IUAV di Venezia since 2015, introduced the history of the oldest Architectural PhD program in Italy, founded in 1983, and its tracks, which had been created by Aldo Rossi (Design), Manfredo Tafuri (History) and Bernardo Secchi (Urbanism). The program, with its over one-hundred PhD students at any one time, is unique in being the only one in Italy exclusively dedicated to questioning the project of architecture at all scales. PhD students contribute to architectural theory following a disciplinary approach to research. Some of the tracks are currently testing a problem-oriented research approach to deal with complex issues in research teams.
Albrecht was invited to discuss the role of Urbicide HUB and its influence on the doctoral research in the PhD program. He affirmed that Urbicide HUB contributes to a growing a body of knowledge on the process of destruction and reconstruction in cities where there is conflict and commented on the importance to share that knowledge to counter war strategies that inflict destruction and loss of life in urban centers. He commented on the international community’s responsibility to establish and define Human Rights to land ownership and reconstruction in conflict situations to allow refugees to go back to their cities and villages after a conflict, noting the lack of and the need for clear international laws to regulate such rights. Currently, the IUAV is working on a pilot reconstruction project in Syria to test theoretical ideas on the ground.