The University of Sheffield
School of Architecture
Renata Tyszczuk
  • Mappa Mundi Workshop, Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 2007
    Mappa Mundi Workshop, Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 2007
  • Mappa Mundi Workshop detail, Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 2007
    Mappa Mundi Workshop detail, Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 2007
  • Studio Six publication 2007
    Studio Six publication 2007
  • Studio Six Winter Games 2008
    Studio Six Winter Games 2008
  • Studio Six provisional Cinema 2008
    Studio Six provisional Cinema 2008
  • Studio Six Mapping, Nowa Huta, 2008
    Studio Six Mapping, Nowa Huta, 2008
  • Studio Six Nowa Huta Map 2008
    Studio Six Nowa Huta Map 2008
  • =91Interdependence UK_ Open City=92 IABR/ Parallel Cases, Studio Six = at =20
    =91Interdependence UK_ Open City=92 IABR/ Parallel Cases, Studio Six = at =20
  • Future Scenarios Workshop, Harbin, PRC, 2011
    Future Scenarios Workshop, Harbin, PRC, 2011
  • Future Scenarios Mapping detail, Harbin, PRC, 2011
    Future Scenarios Mapping detail, Harbin, PRC, 2011
  • ATLAS- www.atlas-id.org <http://www.atlas-id.org/> 2011
    ATLAS- www.atlas-id.org <http://www.atlas-id.org/> 2011
  • Culture and Climate Change: Recordings publication 2011
    Culture and Climate Change: Recordings publication 2011
  • ATLAS
    ATLAS

MA (Cantab,) Dip Arch, MPhil, PhD

Renata Tyszczuk is Senior Lecturer in Architecture. She has an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Architecture and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. She joined the School in 2004, having previously taught at the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge (Visiting Design Tutor 1992–2003) and at the Architectural Association (Unit Tutor 1992–1994). Her current research and teaching explore questions concerning global environmental change and provisionality in architectural thinking and practice. She is a founding member of the Agency Research Centre at the School of Architecture and together with Professor Doina Petrescu is the founding editor of Field: journal of architecture.

Teaching Activities

I have taught students of architecture since 1992. Initially as an undergraduate Design Tutor at Cambridge (1992-2003) and Intermediate Unit Tutor at the Architectural Association (1992-1994), and since 2004 as a full-time academic at the School of Architecture in Sheffield. Since my appointment in Sheffield I have been fully engaged in teaching at all levels of the School, including undergraduate lectures in History and Theory, a Masters design studio (Studio Six 2005-2009), Postgraduate Taught Masters (PGT) and PhD programmes of study.

My teaching is informed by my research and by an exploration of enquiry based learning. I have made innovative contributions in integrating research into both the active studio culture and humanities study while at Sheffield. As a researcher in the history and theory of architectural ideas concerned with broader philosophical questions of sustainability, and a teacher of future practitioners of architecture, I am committed to finding ways of bringing fields of enquiry such as humanities and environmental sustainability into closer creative dialogue. I recognise the importance of providing both a strategic framework and an open learning environment to explore important contemporary themes and issues through studio work. I am committed to teaching future architects to be creative, imaginative and more socially engaged and offering an intellectual challenge to students at all levels. My research and teaching objectives build on my extensive experience in a range of teaching activities and in critical engagement in research, practice and pedagogy.

My current responsibilities in the School of Architecture include:

Postgraduate Taught Masters:

Director of Postgraduate Taught Masters programmes

MA in Architectural Design (MAAD)programme coordinator

My current PGT teaching involves delivery and co-ordination of the following modules: Design Project 1 (ARC 6986) Design Project 2 (ARC 6987) Thesis Design Project (ARC 6988) History and Theory in Design (ARC 6853) Environment and Technology in Design (ARC 6854) Histories of Architecture and Sustainability (ARC 6855), Future Climates and Architecture (ARC 6771).

MArch RIBA Pt 2, professional practice course:

I am involved in Design Studio teaching and the mentoring of Live Projects (ARC 552). I also contribute to History and Theory teaching including the Theory Forum series (ARC 553, ARC 6853) and dissertation supervision (ARC 556).

BA Architecture, Undergraduate course:

I contribute lectures to Y1 'History of Ideas' (ARC 103), Y2 ‘Issues in Contemporary Architecture’ (ARC 204/254) and Y3 'Urban Histories' course (ARC 303/353). I also supervise students working on their Y3 Special Study and Dissertation modules (ARC 322, ARC 311-314).

PhD:

I supervise PhD students on a range of topics ranging from the history of sustainability through experimental practice and film (see list below).

I contribute to Advanced Research Methods and Research by Design courses of the Doctoral Development programme in the Graduate School.

Administrative Roles

Director of Postgraduate Taught Masters Programmes

Research Interests

My current research interests lie in two key areas of architectural humanities: understanding the place of architecture in cultural transformations and transitional periods and in my investigations of the concepts of sustainability, global environmental change and globalization. My initial research explored experimental representational practice and its relation to European literature and politics in the eighteenth century as well as to the emerging areas of urban and landscape design (PhD, Cambridge 1998). Through careful investigation of the social and political context, I have continued to investigate the communicative aspects of architecture across different media: text, sculpture, performance and film. A commitment to environmental issues and a more careful use of the world´s resources underpins my integrated research, practice and teaching. I am currently working on two research and publication projects:

1. `Culture and Climate Change´
This project results from a shared interest in the global processes of environmental, cultural and political change with researchers at the Open Space Research Centre, Open University and the Ashden Trust. The project comprises a body of research and debate that aims to give proper recognition to the cultural dimensions of the issue. We have initiated this work with a series of discussions that seek to plot a research agenda around the cultural politics of climate change. The discussions feature leading figures from the arts and journalism, as well as humanities and social science researchers, and are chaired by Quentin Cooper of BBC´s Material World. They took place at the Tipping Point Conference, Oxford University; Eden Project; Open University, Camden; and the National Theatre Studio in 2010. 1. History: A History of Cultural Responses to Climate Change; 2. Publics: Popular Culture and Climate Change; 3. Anatomy: An Anatomy of Cultural Responses to Climate Change; 4. Futures: How Cultural Responses to Climate Change Have Altered Our Experience of Time and Place. The Culture and Climate Change discussions are available as the ‘Mediating Change’ podcasts on iTunes U; Edited transcripts of the discussions have been published along with 3 essays and an introduction in Butler, Robert, Smith, Joe, Margolies, Eleanor and Tyszczuk, Renata (eds.) Culture and Climate Change: Recordings (Cambridge: Shed, 2011) ISBN 978-0-9557534-1-1

The work is co-funded by the Ashden Trust, an environmental charity and the Open Space Research Centre.

2. Architecture and Interdependence
Co founder (with Dr Joe Smith, Open University) of the ESRC/NERC, DEFRA and Open University (OU) funded Interdependence Day (ID) project. The institutional partners of this project are the OU, nef (The New Economics Foundation) and University of Sheffield. The ID project brings together issues of communication and representation of climate change, biodiversity loss and globalization. It is built around collaborations between media, policy and environment related natural and social sciences. Interdependence Day project outputs have included to date public events and exhibitions (RGS London 2006, 2007), BBC Radio Four broadcasts: Material World 2006, 2007; an ESRC/NERC funded seminar series, academic journal articles, a popular publication Do Good Lives have to cost the Earth? Andrew Simms, Joe Smith, (eds.), (Constable and Robinson, 2008); and policy reports: Interdependence (nef/OU, 2006) and Chinadependence (nef/OU, 2007). A key aspect of my research contribution to this project has been developing the architecture strand of the ID project - Architecture and Interdependence as a research led MArch design studio between 2006 and 2009. My aim has been to situate architecture within the complex relations of ecological, cultural and economic interdependence. Other contributions have included academic writing, digital video and installation work as well as organisation and participation in the seminar series, public event organisation (RGS, London) and developing funding bids. I am the lead editor and designer of the (ESRC/NERC) seminar series publication of the ID project: The ATLAS of Interdependence ong>Julia Udall (PhD by Design) start September 2010

Shuyou Zhang (PhD by Design) start February 2011

Ruxandra Berinde start September 2011

Jordan Jay Lloyd (PhD by Design) start September 2011

Ahmed el-Astal ‘Low-cost Housing in Gaza’ - start October 2011

Shima Rezaei Rashnoodi ‘Diasporic ideas of Home’ - start November 2011

Nor Izura Tukiman ‘Architecture and Climate Change' - start January 2013

Publications

Books:
Tyszczuk, R., Smith, J., Clark, N., Butcher M., (eds.) ATLAS: Geography Architecture and Change in an Interdependent World (London: Black Dog Publishing, 2012)

Butler, Robert, Smith, Joe, Margolies, Eleanor and Tyszczuk, Renata Culture and Climate Change: Recordings (Cambridge: Shed, 2011) ISBN 978-0-9557534-1-1

Kossak, Florian, Petrescu, Doina, Schneider, Tatjana, Tyszczuk, Renata and Walker, Stephen(eds.), Agency: Working with Uncertain Architectures (Critiques series) (London: Routledge, 2009); ISBN-13 978-0415566018

Tyszczuk, Renata, The Story of an Architect King: Stanislas Leszczynski in Lorraine 1737-1766, Cultural History and Literary Imagination series David Midgley and Christian Emden (eds.), (Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang AG, 2007); ISBN 978-3-03910-324-9

Tyszczuk, Renata, (ed.) Architecture and Interdependence: Mappings and Explorations by Studio Six (Cambridge: Shed, 2007); ISBN 978-0-9557534-0-4

Book Chapters:
Tyszczuk, Renata, ‘l’utopie architecturale du roi bienfaisant’ in Antoine Hatzenberger (ed.), Utopies des Lumieres (Lyon: ENS Éditions, 2010), pp. 77– 106; ISBN 978-2-84788-214-8

Tyszczuk, Renata, ‘Open Field: Documentary Game’, in Suzanne Ewing, Jérémie Michael McGowan, Chris Speed and Victoria Clare Bernie (eds.) Architecture and Field/Work, Critiques series (London: Routledge, 2010); pp. 92– 100; ISBN 978-0-415-59540-7

Tyszczuk, Renata, ‘Nature intended: the garden of a roi bienfaisant’ in Martin Calder (ed.) Experiencing the Garden in the Eighteenth Century, (Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang AG, 2006), pp. 161–187; ISBN 978-3039102914

Tyszczuk, Renata, ‘vérité fabuleuse: the Rocher at Lunéville 1743-1745’ in Gillian Rose and Mark Dorrrian (eds.) Deterritorializations, Revisioning Landscapes and Politics, (London: Black Dog Publications, 2003), pp. 200–211; ISBN 978-1901033939

Journals:
Tyszczuk, Renata and Walker, Stephen ‘Editorial: Ecology’ field: 4(1) December 2010: 1–3; (www.field-journal.org); ISSN 1755–0068

Tyszczuk, Renata, ‘Alina Slesinska 1922-1994’ book review, Special issue for ‘Poland Year’ 2010, Journal of Architecture, 15 (1): 132-135; ISSN 1360-2365

Tyszczuk, R, and Smith, J., ‘The Interdependence Day Project: Mediating Environmental Change’ The International Journal of the Arts in Society, Common Ground Publishing May 2009 (volume 3, issue 6): 37– 42; ISSN 1833–1866

Agency: (Peter Blundell Jones, Florian Kossak, Doina Petrescu, Tatjana Schneider, Renata Tyszczuk, Stephen Walker) ‘Before and After “Agency’’’, Footprint 4, 2009:113–122; ISSN 1875-1490

Tyszczuk, Renata, ‘Games of Skill and Chance’ in ‘Architecture and Indeterminacy’ field: 1(1) October 2007: 146–163; (www.field-journal.org) ISSN 1755–0068

Tyszczuk, Renata and Petrescu, Doina, ‘Editorial: Architecture and Indeterminacy’ field: 1(1) October 2007: 1–3; (www.field-journal.org) ISSN 1755–0068

Published conference papers:
Tyszczuk, Renata, ‘Provisional Construction: in-between the other and the world’, published in conference proceedings A+P2 Architecture and Phenomenology 2, International conference, Kyoto Seika University, Japan, June 2009

Tyszczuk, Renata, ‘Architecture and Interdependence: Provisional responses to global environmental change’, published in conference proceedings Ethics and The Built Environment conference, EBE, 9-11 September, University of Nottingham, 2009; ISBN- 13 9780853582632