Centre for Art, Architecture and Design (CAAD)
Research degree opportunities
Current PhD Projects
Student representatives: Emilio Distretti, Panagiotis Galanis, Abba Muazu and Andrea Verenini
Emilio Distretti won a CAAD bursary in 2010 to work on Colonialism and Colonial Identity in the Memory of Contemporary Italy: Sixty years of colonial legacy in Italy’s politics of representation
(Supervisor: Dr Jenny Walden).
Abstract
Shaping public consciousness is part of the politics of representation and after a general theoretical reflection upon the general issues of memory of colonial pasts and ‘collective amnesias’ and the specific context of Italy (Literature review) the project intends to develop close scrutiny of the phenomenon in Italy by way of three case studies of different types of post-colonial ‘address’ to the colonial past ‘where each official and formal act of remembering reveals an ongoing substantial process of collective forgetting.’ These case studies are: 1) The restitution of the stele of Axum to Ethiopia in 2008, as the symbolic conclusion of the decolonization of Ethiopia; 2) The exhibition L’Epopea degli Ascari Eritrei inaugurated in Rome in 2004, which has been dedicated to the memory of the Eritrean Askari who fought in the Italian Army at the time of the colonial occupation of Eritrea; 3) The picture of Libyan patriot Omar al Mukhtar pinned on Colonel Gheddafi’s uniform during his controversial visit to Rome in 2009, which celebrated the conclusion of the normalization process following the end of Italy’s colonization of Libya.
Panagiotis Galanis holds a CCi Faculty bursary to pursue his research on An exploration of cognitive aspects involved in the process of graphic design.
(Supervisor: Dr Marius Kwint)
Marina Hauer’s PhD project is In with the old, via the new: a game-based learning approach to building conservation education in UK undergraduate property courses.
(Supervisor: Dr Zeynep Aygen)
Abstract
Building Conservation is a topic many people feel strongly about, be they in favour or opposed to the practice. Faced with a mass of listed properties, members of the UK property sector are highly exposed to the particularities connected to dealing with the historic built - yet less than 1 out of six undergraduate property courses cover even threshold-level conservation contents. My project focuses on bringing Building Conservation issues closer to undergraduate property students through the use of contemporary media and particularly applied game-based learning.
Jessica Holland has recently completed her PhD on An English sensibility: the architecture of Oliver Hill.
(Supervisor: Dr Elizabeth Tuson)
Abstract
British architect Oliver Hill (1887-1968) was an important and influential figure of the interwar artistic milieu. His enthusiasm for a wide range of architectural styles invited a reputation as an eclectic, and ensured he remained outside of the avant-garde of British Modernism. Hill’s refused admittance to the prestigious MARS group has set the tone for recent historiography, which typically suggests that he was merely propagating a modern “style”. This thesis investigates Hill’s early Arts and Crafts derived houses and his conversion to Modernism, resulting in a decade of work that reveals his traditional background and a love of the new.
Mohd. Hafizal Ismail is working on a project entitled Host community involvement in heritage management in Malaysia: a case study of Malacca Heritage Trail.
(Supervisor: Dr Zeynep Aygen)
Abstract
This study is conducted to understand in more depth and explicit about host community involvement in heritage management in Malaysia. In regards with this aim, determination of the levels of attachment and SWOT analysis on host community involvement in heritage management is essential for future planning on heritage conservation and heritage tourism industry as well. Moreover, the analysis of the current institutional arrangement governing heritage asset management and constitutional framework governing host community in decision making is also evaluated to understand on what extent ‘bottom-up’ approaches for heritage management can be implemented within ‘top-down’ management system found in Malaysia.
Sarah Jankowski is working on a project entitled Photo art for the hospital space. Her work is supported by Guys and St Thomas’s hospital, where she has previously exhibited.
Visit Sarah's exhibition
(Supervisor: Dr Jenny Walden)
Abbas Mu’azu is currently working on Energy efficiency in green design approach: a case study of government office buildings in Abuja, Nigeria.
(Supervisor: Roger Tyrrell)
Abstract
In cognisance to dwindling resources across the world, sustainable development has become pertinent. As such, huge energy consumptions in buildings have attracted concerns that demands better building performances without compromising occupant comfort. This research undertakes an historical review of office building development in tropical climates of Nigeria to elicit architectural design differences and associated energy consumption using SPSS based correlation analyses. A prototypical office building model is simulated using IES VE to examine the impact and relative importance of design variables on internal comfort and associated cooling load. This can be useful to architects in understanding the relationship between their design decisions and energy use implications in the context of a developing country.
David Slater’s PhD project is A traditional modernist: A. Lawrence Kocher in search of the American idiom.
(Supervisor: Dr Elizabeth Tuson)
Abstract
This research project will provide a critical study of the architectural career of Alfred Lawrence Kocher (1885-1969). Kocher’s achievements in the fields of architectural journalism, conservation, teaching and avant-garde practice are regularly overlooked in academic discourse of early C.20 American architecture. In each field, Kocher’s interests ranged broadly; from Beaux-Arts classicism, to historical restoration, to cutting-edge modernism. Though he could be labelled as an eclectic, this thesis will reveal how Kocher sought to define a recognisable American ‘Style’ of architecture expressed through contemporary rhetoric and technology yet rooted in the traditions of the American pioneers. This will demonstrate how what is often described as Kocher’s ‘conversion’ to modernism may not have been as unexpected as is often intimated, and that his achievements in each field deserve greater recognition in their own right.
Andrea Verenini is working on a project entitled Urban Metamorphosis: The Case of Portsmouth.
(Supervisor: Dr Fabiano Lemes de Oliveira)
Abstract
This PhD is a study of the importance of regarding the city as a process rather than a finished piece. It researches the relevance of urban metamorphosis with the view that a city is a continuous work in progress containing with it a narrative that needs to be acknowledged in order to derive to an urban regeneration strategy in sync with a particular city’s ethos. Portsmouth will be used as a prime case study for the work which has theoretical roots in emergent urbanism, urban evolution and urban morphology in the field of urban regeneration.
Heidi Young’s PhD project is The vile bodies of interwar Britain: Stephen Courtauld's effect on English artistic form.
(Supervisor: Dr Elizabeth Tuson)