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Department of History of Art
HomeDepartment of History of ArtResearchMaterials of Art and ArchitectureArchitectural History and Theory

Architectural History and Theory

Our cluster pioneers adventurous research in architectural history and theory.

In a period when architecture is assuming increased importance locally and internationally, we provide one of the largest, liveliest and most wide-ranging groups of experts in the UK.

Geographically, we focus on Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, the Spanish empire and Germany. Our research is framed by approaches such as historical materialism, the new materialism, critical theory and feminism. We offer significant expertise in gender and sexuality, architectural drawings, spirituality and religious devotion, urbanism and archival work.

People

Staff
  • Professor Helen Hills
    • Baroque architecture; complex cities; architecture and masculinities and femininities; architectural theory; architecture and religion
Research students

Current students

  • Pamela Chapman
    York - the architectural palimpsest - an investigation.

  • William Mead Cheek
    Anglo-Saxon architectural sculpture in its social, aesthetic, and theological context

  • Parshati Dutta
    Enabling Feminist Readings of History Through Architecture

  • Alexander Echlin 
    • The Architecture of Lord Burlington reconsidered
      Dawn Faizey Webster

 

      To what extent did the architecture of the early modern grammar school affect, impede or complexify its formal educational and broader social learning functions?

 

      Debbie Innes


The architectural, artistic and social histories of the New Gallery, Regent Street 1888-1910

      Stephen Kerr

 

      The impetus provided by the Ernst-May-Siedlungen housing projects in Frankfurt during the Weimar Republic to the development of dweller-designed domestic interiors in Modernist mass-housing.

 

      Layla Lozano

 

      Early British Women Travellers to Ravenna and Their Impact Upon Early Studies of Byzantine Art



      Lucia Martin


Fashioning Identity through Material Culture and Architectural Legacy

      Christiana Matt


The Myths of the Origins of Architecture Reconsidered

Past students

  • Blair Apgar 
    • Medieval and Romanesque Architecture in Lombardy
  • Maria-Anna Aristova 
    • The Problem of Ornament in Early Modern Architecture
  • Fabrizio Ballabio 
    • The Architecture of Governmental Machine: the relationship between the architectural and administrative interventions designed by Bourbon Rulers to restructure the newly formed kingdom politically and economically following their arrival in Naples in 1734
  • Charlotte Davis 
    • The approaches of key carvers active in post-Restoration England: Francis Bird, Caius Gabriel Cibber, Grinling Gibbons, and Edward Pierce
  • Elizabeth Deans
    • Architectural Albums: Educational and Professional Tools for a British Architects, 1650-1750
      Mark Kirby

 

      Furnishing Wren’s churches: Anglican identity in late seventeenth century London

 

  • Melissa Stanley 
    • A thematic study on the planning and actualisation of three English towns of the New Town Movement: Letchworth, Milton Keynes, and Harlow
  • Valeria Viola
    • Architecture, Devotion, Family Life: chapels in aristocratic houses of baroque Palermo (ca. 1650 - 1770)
Research degrees
Push the boundaries of knowledge in our supportive and stimulating environment.
Study with us
MA degrees
Study our specialist History of Art (Architectural History and Theory) Masters course.