Developing architectural research

By Jenny Blythe

After over twenty years as a lecturer at the School of Architecture in Cardiff, Professor Simon Unwin has come to DJCAD, to take up the post of Chair of Architecture.

Simon's research contributed to the Welsh School's achievement as the top UK school of architecture in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise and he has now been tasked with helping to develop the research base in the School of Architecture at DJCAD.

He explains, "I want to help the School find ways of teaching that help cultivate research so there is symbiosis. So many academics feel the tension of being pulled in different directions, teaching, administration, research - and families too. Finding ways to bring teaching and research together will hopefully make individuals feel less fragmented, which will help them make progress in their fields."

As an art student in London in the late 1960s, Simon developed what he describes as a 'social conscience' and decided to pursue a career in architecture because, "producing buildings for people justifies itself. You are doing something that people use and find beneficial in their lives."

Simon studied architecture at Cardiff after art school, went on to do a PhD and then spent a year in Australia before returning to Cardiff to gain enough experience in practice to take his final architect exams. After qualifying, he decided to opt for teaching architecture - and that is where he has remained, as well as acting as architect and architectural consultant on a number of schemes over the years.

Originally employed to teach Architectural History at Cardiff, Simon went on to teach what he describes as, "the architectural equivalent of grammar." Lectures on Roman and English Rennaissance architecture were replaced by "Geometry in Architecture" and "Formality vs. Informality-Temples and Cottages".

He says, "Through that terrific mechanism of standing in front of students, trying out your ideas and seeing whether they help students when they are faced with a frightening piece of white paper on which they are supposed to design a building, I realised that some of the things I was saying were useful in helping them understand the workings of what they were doing." Over several years these ideas developed, and were finally laid down in his first book 'Analysing Architecture' which has gone on to be a global success, with translations into several languages including Chinese and Spanish.

In his new post, Simon hopes to continue both his personal research - his present project is looking at the formal structures that people make for themselves on beaches - and to help cultivate the research at DJCAD.

He says, "Dundee already has a lot of exciting established lines of research going on; ecologically, theoretically and historically. I hope to help this continue with the integration of teaching and research, as I have done in my work previously."

Simon has already visited four universities in China with University Vice-Principal Professor James Calderhead and International Officer Neil Christie. The aim of their trip was to establish formal links with these establishments in terms of student and staff exchanges, and also research collaborations.