Four inter-related and inter-disciplinary areas of research in architecture over the last 2 decades include the following; writing, pedagogy, practice and the city.
Writing has resulted in over 20 books on architecture, art and society up to the present with the most recent Being: An Architect (with Ian Ritchie, Royal Academy 2013);The School of Exile (For and Against Architectural Theory 2015); and the forthcoming What’s Wrong with This Picture (Writing Architecture after All These Years). This continues a narrative of research, writing and teaching since the publication of Writing Architecture (MIT Press, 1989) 25 years ago; a CICA awarded volume.
Pedagogy has more recently been expressed in The Age of the Pamphlet, a series of contrarian architectural essays, plays and provocations on education, de-schooling and live pedagogy (titles include Architecture Degree Zero, Aalto Ego and Life after Architecture). Closing forthcoming sequence: Texts for Nothing 1-V.
Practice involves formal, informal and speculative practices. Sequentially; project leader of Mataya Arquitectos, Luanda (Angola); ongoing direct-build projects (currently) in Oslo and Luang Prabang (Laos) and, thirdly, as Heron-Mazy, an architectural studio for speculative and alternative projects (competitions, films, animations, texts, provocations – amongst them: White House Redux 2008, and Sick City 2015).
The City: an emerging area or research exploring Urbanism and Ottawa, including the Third City Urban Laboratory and Storefront. As a collaborator and consultant member of the Meganom Practice (Moscow) the following work has been edited in English; The Archeology of the Periphery (2012) and Leonid Pavlov, Collected Works (2015) Recent critical seminars on Urbanism: The Uncurious, The Indifferent. The Intertext; Forthcoming, Terrific Lies, Emerging Truths & The Cinematic City.
Current interrelated options/works: (Writing & Pedagogy) The Politics of Architectural Friendship (with Pekka Salminen); Practice: Direct Aid-Design Build Project: Tha Pho Minority High School, Luang Prabang; The City- Research project: Ottawa: The Urban Reader & Inter-disciplinary Conference project: Exceptional / Exceptionable Space (2015-2016)