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InterVIEW/LISTEN 10
November 28 2022 [1 h + 36 min]

Dr. Sophia Psarra
Director of the Architectural and Urban History and Theory PhD Programme
Professor, Bartlett School of Architecture
University College London UCL
UK
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Interviewers 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, CU
Mahsa Esmailpour MAS Student ASAU, CU
Stephanie Murray MAS Student ASAU, CU
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In –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 Seng
Chair, Departmental Research Postgraduate Committee in Architecture, Associate Professor
PhD program, Faculty of Architecture
University of Hong Kong HKU
Hong Kong
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Interviewers in order of participation:

Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU
&michelle liu PhD Student ASAU, CU
Adila Mehjebin PhD Student ASAU, CU
Ushma Thakrar, PhD Student ASAU, CU
Sena Kurcenli Koyunlu, PhD Student ASAU, CU

In –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.
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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
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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
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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