Research
Kent School of Architecture incorporates the Centre for Research in European Architecture (CREAte). Staff are active in Architecture Humanities Research Association (AHRA) and give papers at conferences nationally and internationally. The School promotes innovative and interdisciplinary research study in architecture, urbanism and related fields.
Staff research interests
The School of Architecture has an enthusiastic team of academic staff with many years of teaching experience at degree level, and particular strengths in historical, environmental, technical and digital aspects of the subject. Many of our lecturers are highly active within contemporary debates and also draw on their experience as practitioners within the field.
Director of Research
Prof. Gordana Fontana-Giusti, Dip Arch (Belgrade), PhD (AA and London ) is an architect, architectural theoretician and urban designer.
She has been the Assistant Director of Histories and Theories Programme at the AA - Graduate School and was involved in setting up and teaching at the London Consortium Doctoral programme. Fontana-Giusti was the Director of Urban Design at the Innovation Centre, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London, where she had coordinated the AGORA Cities for People – EU sponsored urban research and design project.
Fontana-Giusti has published articles and is the author of the Complete Works of Zaha Hadid (with Patrik Schumacher) 2004, Thames and Hudson.
She is currently the Professor of Regional Regeneration and the Director of Research at the School of Architecture, University of Kent, and the visiting Professor at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia.
Research interests include the role of arts in architecture and urban design, architectural drawings, sustainable cities in particular in relation to urban psycho-geography, water and urban context, mapping of urban experiences, the role of film in urban design etc.
Dr Gerald Adler: 20th century architectural history and theory, in particular Germany in the early decades; Heinrich Tessenow and his continuing relevance today, as exemplified by Martin Steinman’s notions of ‘forme forte’; architecture in its wider cultural and philosophical contexts; colonial architectures; the ‘ruins of modernism’ – the place of the ruin in the modern architectural imagination.
Dr Timothy Brittain-Catlin: the author of How to Read a Building, and of numerous articles in architectural periodicals. He is a visiting lecturer at Cambridge and at Architectural Association. Brittain-Catlin’s doctoral thesis was on the works of AWN Pugin and nineteenth century architectural theory.
Taseer Ahmad: an architect with experience in professional practice and in teaching. His research interests include contemporary architectural design, interior design, design and research for extreme conditions.
Keith Bothwell: sustainable urban design and case-studies of green buildings in particular energy performance resulting from passive design; the environmental impact of timber in schools; incorporating daylighting performance into building regulations.
Howard Griffin: the links between the industries of film, visualisation and architectural design; the increasing role that the games industry has to offer architectural visualisation; the wider context of virtual architecture.