Architecture Research (MPhil) (PhD)

Head of PhD Programme - Ines Weizman

Working at the intersection of theory, research, media and critical-spatial-practices, we support research-intensive, practice-led and interdisciplinary theses aiming for tangible public and social impact. Challenging dominant social, political, and economic conventions.

The programme fosters research into the history and politics of architecture at the intersection of critical ecological, new materialism, and digital humanities. We investigate the ways architects and cultural producers negotiate crises associated with globalisation, migration and statelessness, the hauntings of empire and the colonial present, and growing biopolitical conflicts around ecology and climate change.

We support written academic research in the history and theory of architecture, with especial interest in practice-led, experimental research relevant to diverse careers in academia, curatorial studies, and critical conservation. We encourage establishing real world collaborations with industry-based research groups, leading design practices, policymakers, social and environmental justice groups, human rights organisations and cultural institutions.

We particularly welcome research proposals aligned with strategic areas of research in the School of Architecture: Architecture & Social Movements,  Institutional Forms & Practices and Climate Justice, Critical Materialities and Digital Detection, as well as the work of the Laboratory for Design & Machine Learning. These themes encourage interdisciplinary research with new models of collaboration between academic and non-academic institutions or partners.

Study Architecture Research at the RCA: www.rca.ac.uk