Staff Research Profiles

My main research interests are:

The Architecture of Berlin, Modern Danish Housing, Proportioning Systems in Architectural Design and Urban Typologies.

The Architecture of Berlin:

Over many years of organising student study visits, I placed great importance on being well informed and prepared to make the most of the opportunity - researching, selecting and presenting information on the form of study guides for Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague.

After receiving regular requests for copies from other architecture schools, Manchester University Press commissioned me to author the 'Berlin' book as part of their series, 'The Buildings of Europe'. Following the book's publication, I chose to re-use the material to create an exhibition of photographs and text which could be shown in Schools of Architecture. Including Edinburgh, it was shown in 8 schools across Europe including Aachen, Amsterdam, Budapest and Copenhagen. I was invited to give a lecture to accompany the opening at each venue.

Modern Danish Housing:

My interest in modern Danish Housing stems from my British Council funded post-graduate study year at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art. I studied co-operative Danish housing projects which involved the user group in the design process and the continuing management of the housing schemes.

This interest has continued over the years with family connections to Denmark and regular visits to the country. My teaching exchange, with Professor Jens Kvorning of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Art, has kept me informed me of various developments in housing and enabled me to visit many of the most interesting examples over recent years. I have been able to apply this knowledge into practice and informing my teaching and have recently agreed with Jens Kvorning to collaborate on the research of Danish housing urban typology.

Proportioning Systems in Architectural Design:

My interest in theories of proportion in architectural design stem from the cultural context option delivered by Christopher Cornford while studying at the RCA. I still have my lecture/seminar notes and have revisited the subject of and on over the years. This research has enabled me to better understand the qualities and characteristics of the elements of dynamic symmetry, analyse plans and elevations to identify evidence of conscience application, analyse Scottish vernacular buildings to test if systems could be related to 'eye sweet' and apply systems to my own designs.

I've always loved the buzz of exploring new cities for the first time (and also re-visiting familiar old favourites). For me, the dynamic blend of life, spaces and buildings is a constant source of inspiration. Fortunately, this process of observing, experiencing, recording, discussing and reflecting on all aspects of architecture and design has been valuable to both my personal development and informing my teaching.

Urban Typologies:

An old dissertation of mine from the RCA titled, "Town Buildings and City Grids" was based on an historic study of the Courtyard, the Street, the Square, and the Pavilion as the basic elements of city plans. A few years ago, I re-visited this thesis and refined the proposition that the urban fabric is made up from three seminal built form typologies - Point, Line and Enclosure or House; Terrace and Court. By further extending the scale/orientation of these, different variants and characteristics have been identified and illustrated with examples from home and abroad. Hybrids or mixed typologies have also been identified which are also part of the rich and complex built form of cities.

This proposition for categorising urban built form typologies has been included in the publication - Edwards, B. (2008) Understanding Architecture through Drawing, Taylor & Francis, Oxon.

Presently, I'm focusing on how the nature of the immediate external space can alter the characteristics of each typology. Using the criteria of Ownership/Barrier/Access, I will explore boundaries between public and private and how the qualities of these external spaces are affected by national culture and convention. Various cultures around the world display different attitudes toward ownership and use of their immediate external space, streets, gardens and courts. The proposed outcome would be to categorise, catalogue and illustrate different examples (as a design guide?). This particular aspect resulted from a paper I presented last year to the International Federation of Housing and Planning (IFHP) Summer-school, Helsinki, where the theme was Global Urban Typologies and Local Spatial Cultures.

ESALA_eca, Architecture