Dr Sophia Banou

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  • Qualifications:DipArch PhD MSc SFHEA
  • Position:Senior Lecturer in Architecture
  • Department:College of Arts, Technology and Environment
  • Telephone:+441173286128
  • Email:Sophia.Banou@uwe.ac.uk

About me

I have studied architecture at the National Technical University of Athens, Newcastle University and the University of Edinburgh (ESALA), from where I hold a PhD in Architecture by Design. I am a Greek architect, registered with TEE (Technical Chambers of Greece). Before joining UWE in 2018, I taught architectural design and theory at Newcastle University (SAPL) and the University of Edinburgh (ESALA). I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).

I have been an editor for Charrette, the journal of the Association of Architectural Educators and I am currently in the editorial board of Drawing On: Journal of Architectural  Research by Design. As a reviewer I have contributed to publications such as The Journal of Architecture, New Design Ideas, Interiors: Design/Architecture/Culture and Bloomsbury Publishing.

I welcome inquiries about PhD and PhD by Design/Creative Practice supervision in the wider areas of architectural representation, theory, history, design, heritage and visual culture.

Current PhD supervisions:

Mike Devereux | Borders and Frontiers – a new reading of the urban boundary condition in Paris

Tom Bright | Rethinking Architectural Value: Architectural photography as visual research method for the Post-Occupancy Evaluation of social value in architectural housing design

Manjula Mahavisin Arachchilage | Life and space in Ritigala: Architecture as Sacred Ecological Scripture

 

Area of expertise

The core of my research focuses on issues of architectural notation, representation and mediation, and particularly (PhD thesis: The Kinematography of a City: Moves into Drawing, 2016) the concept of space as a temporal and kinetic condition and the idea of architectural representation as a situated spatial practice. This involves engaging with installation as a form of spatial drawing or 'drawing in space' as well a critical historical approach to architectural representation and architecture's negotiations with the visual modalities of modernity and contemporary visual culture. My current research extends this thinking by focusing on the semiotic and technological challenges posed for architectural drawing, and by extent architectural and urban design, in the context of a digitised, yet cinematic, visual culture. A separate strand, manifesting in the project Towards a New Vernacular, redeploys the concept and methods of spatial drawing towards opening up new ways of understanding architectural heritage by means of spatial data collection methods.

Publications

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