Lecturer in Architecture, UCL
I'm an architectural writer, photographer and artist based in Manchester, UK. I'm also a lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. I'm currently completing a book, Anarchist Architecture, to be published in 2021; and developing new research and writing on the relationship between animals and architecture.
I'm the author of Future Cities: Architecture & the Imagination (Reaktion, 2019); The Dead City: Urban Ruins & the Spectacle of Decay (IB Tauris, 2017); Iron, Ornament & Architecture in Victorian Britain (Ashgate, 2014); London's Sewer (Shire, 2014); and Into the Belly of the Beast: Exploring London's Victorian Sewers (Spire, 2009). I'm also co-editor of Manchester: Something Rich & Strange (Manchester University Press, 2020); Global Undergrounds: Exploring Cities Within (Reaktion, 2016); and Function & Fantasy: Iron Architecture in the Long Nineteenth Century (Routledge, 2016).
My writing and research broadly covers architecture and cities since the 19th century, with particular interests in Manchester, urban futures, underground spaces and ruins, print culture, and industrial architecture. I've published many articles on such diverse topics as drowned cities, the ruins of Chernobyl, neo-Victorian horror cinema, gardening catalogues, census forms, London guidebooks, sewage pumping stations and information for cab passengers. I am also a visual artist and photographer and created the website stonesofmanchester.com in 2018.
Animal architecture: why we need to design buildings for wildlife as well as people
Mar 04, 2023 12:02 pm UTC| Insights & Views
How did early humans first learn to build? Its quite possible that it was by observing animals that had already mastered the art. Indeed, when you look at the animal world many birds, insects and mammals are excellent...
Empty cities have long been a post-apocalyptic trope – now, they are a reality
Jan 19, 2021 02:55 am UTC| Insights & Views Life
Carry out a Google image search of the phrase 28 Days Later and among the many stills and publicity images for the 2002 horror film, one will find a scattering of photographs of London taken during the first COVID-19...
Drilling down on treatment-resistant fungi with molecular machines