About
I studied architecture at TU Darmstadt in Germany, and the Polytechnic of Central London, and I am a registered architect in the UK. Before taking a full-time post at Liverpool, I taught part-time at Kingston and Liverpool, and worked in practice in Germany, the UK, France and Greece.
My research interests are the representation of architecture, mainly in print media; architectural competitions; and rationalism in C20 architecture. My PhD thesis, for which initial research was funded by the AHRC, was on the German competition journal Wettbewerbe Aktuell.
I have instigated and co-edited two volumes on C20 rationalism (Rationalist Traces, with Andrew Peckham and Charles Rattray, 2007; The Rationalist Reader, with Andrew Peckham, 2014), two volumes on the relationship between fame and architecture (Fame and Architecture, with Julia Chance, 2001; An Architect's Guide to Fame, with Paul Davies, 2005), one volume on the relationship between architecture journals and modernism (Modernism and the Professional Architecture Journal - Reporting, editing and reconstructing in postwar Europe, with Andrew Peckham, 2018), as well as the book Building Children's Worlds - The Representation of Architecture and Modernity in Picturebooks (with Jill Rudd and Emma Hayward, 2023). Having won a Research Trust Award (RIBA), I curated the exhibition Building Children's Worlds at the RIBA in Liverpool (2019).
During my time at Liverpool so far I have, among other tasks, run 2nd, 4th and 5th year, and have been Director of Studies of the MArch (than BArch), Director of Studies of the BA, and most recently Deputy Head of Architecture (2016-2021).
Reviews of Building Children's Worlds:
"Architecture is frequently overlooked as a background in picturebook research. However, the field of children’s literature has increasingly focused on architectural spaces and environments in picturebooks as a result of the ‘spatial turn’ and the ‘pictorial turn’. Yet there are still relatively few studies specialising in the architecture of children’s picturebooks. Building Children’s Worlds: The Representation of Architecture and Modernity in Picturebooks is groundbreaking in this field, employing various research methodologies to present a diverse architectural world in children’s picturebooks that is closely related to history, culture, ideology, and emotion. The collection encourages further exploration of architecture and children’s literature and will undoubtedly appeal to all those interested in modern architecture and modernity in children’s picturebooks."
Manle Li and Haifeng Hui, International Research in Children’s Literature, May 2024
"This edited volume provides a valuable bridge between the fields of architecture and children’s literature, while inviting a wider interdisciplinary discussion including history studies, digital humanities, and intercultural research. It not only demonstrates the modern connection between the material and literary worlds, but more importantly, reveals how they work together to shape children’s understanding of modernity, on which our everyday lives largely depend."
Xiao Zhang, Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature, 2025
Reviews of Modernism and the Professional Architecture Journal:
"This is surely the first systematic survey of architectural journals produced across Europe in that vital 20-year period following the war when modernism was in vexed transit from embattled cause to contested orthodoxy. Scholarly country-by-country coverage reveals how the medium of the professional journal functioned as both a mirror and a torch, reflecting while also guiding the inextricable narratives of practice and discourse. Journalism may be but ‘the first rough draft of history’, yet this fascinating study shows what a rich and compelling draft it can be."
John Allan, Architect and writer
"During the years between 1945 and 1968 professional journals were testing grounds for institutional debates where modernist discourse has been produced and disseminated. Grounded in extensive new research, the essays in this volume by eleven international architectural scholars propose a stimulating interpretation of a medium whose role has been hitherto underestimated. Examining the interferences between journals, design practice and the tasks of reconstruction, the book shows us how professional architecture journals, their owners, editors, contributors and designers shaped architectural culture in the postwar decades."
Ákos Moravánszky, Professor Emeritus, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
"By exploring differences and commonalities between specific architectural journals, the contributions in this volume reveal how post-war architecture, its theories, debates and products, and in particular its response to modernism, were perceived and disseminated across Europe. … through its geographical breadth the volume does offer us a greater understanding of the scope, ambition and content of the architectural journal in the period when modernism was a central issue."
Matthew James Wells., 2020. Reviews: Spring 2020. Architectural Histories, 8(1), p.7.
"The book offers a wealth of empirical research into the cultures and production of architectural journals, as well as details of the publishing landscapes of specific countries. This type of research can be hindered by a lack of archival material, the published magazine often the only consistently surviving source. However, the scholars in this volume have traced the networks of people editing and contributing to the journals to offer a helpful resource to fellow researchers."
Jessica Kelly, Architectural History , Volume 63 , 2020 , pp. 339 - 341.