Why research here?

Our research looks at architecture as a broad social, cultural and technical network that exceeds the work of architects or buildings as objects. We tackle the highly political, cultural and contested nature of the outcomes of architectural production across different contexts.

Manchester School of Architecture (MSA) has an excellent reputation for variety, vitality and quality of work.

Our research

We engage in ongoing research projects in different parts of the world focusing on three distinct areas of research:

• Technologies, Media and Innovations in Architecture: epistemological and political implications – from scale models to technologies for manufacturing concrete; technologies for designing, exhibiting or archivization; various contemporary and historical settings are covered. This relates to the Faculty Global Challenge ‘Creativity’ and to some extent to ‘Sustainable Futures’
• Architecture’s Globalization and Material Politics of Infrastructure: alternative historiographies, decolonizing architectural theory and history with a focus on the Global South. This relates to the Faculty Global Challenge ‘Global Inequalities’ and to some extent to ‘Sustainable Futures’
• Digital Theory and History of Architecture. Architectural research and Digital Humanities. Digital is for us both a subject and a methodology. This relates to the Faculty Global Challenge ‘Digital Futures’ and to some extent to ‘Creativity’

Choose Manchester, and you can follow your own interests, discover the latest world-leading research, and attend lectures where leading experts from around the world present their work.

Our supervisors

We have specialist and research-active staff who provide a rich and stimulating environment for everyone.

Many staff have practised as architects or have worked as consultants for architectural practices around the world and have strong links with the architecture community in Manchester and beyond.

Although we welcome applications on any subject, our staff are particularly keen to receive research proposals on topics including:

• Architecture, Politics and Networks of Expertise;
• Design, Climate, and the Anthropocene;
• The Architectures of Temporality; Event Architecture;
• Health, wellbeing and aging; user experience and belonging;
• Materiality, material and technological histories and politics;
• Architectural curation and archiving practices;
• Postcolonial histories and theory;
• Regeneration and Urban transformations and transitions.