Manifesto/s 2018
The 2018 conference was organised by PhD students at the Sheffield School of Architecture which included a first day of PhD research presentations followed by a second day of hands-on workshops experimenting with research methodology and writing.
About Manifesto/s
The 2018 Manifesto/s PhD conference was an internal research conference created to strengthen the student research community at the Sheffield School of Architecture.
This internal research conference, organised by the School of Architecture PGR ambassadors, acted as a platform bringing together both architecture and landscape PhD students to share their research, create connections, and gain constructive feedback from a growing research community.
A manifesto is a public declaration of an idea, intention, or view of an individual or a group. This Manifesto/s conference sought to give a voice and bring together the different research branches that were present within the School of Architecture and the Department of Landscape.
The two-day event took place in the Arts Tower, University of Sheffield, on 27–28 April 2018. The first day of research presentations provided participating PhD students the opportunity to share their ongoing research and discuss feedback with the wide research community of peers, School of Architecture and the Department of Landscape faculty, as well as external responders.
The second day of hands-on workshops will provide a platform for skills learning and experimentation in the areas of research methodology and research writing.
About the Sheffield School of Architecture
The School of Architecture is widely known around the world for its strong social ethos and we believes in architecture that makes a difference, supporting the potential to significantly enhance quality of life. PhD student research is grouped into three main areas:
- Design, engagement and practice
- People, environments and performance
- Space, cultures and politics
Student research approaches include the traditional PhD by written research, as well as research by design and research by practice.
Learn more about the School of Architecture
Learn more about our current research
About the Department of Landscape
At the Department of Landscape, world renowned researchers and practitioners are developing the next generation of landscape architects to create lasting, functional and inspirational places. Landscape PhD student research is grouped into three areas:
- Design ecology
- Place, inclusion and equity
- Creative spatial practices
Learn more about the Department of Landscape
Learn more about current research
Organising team
The conference was organised by the School of Architecture PGR student ambassador team.
- Cathryn Ladd
- Danni Kerr
- Victoria Okoye
- Esra Can
- Gioia Fusaro
- Olivia Espinosa Trujillo
- Yanisa Niennattrakul
- Tingting Yang
With special thanks to Nishat Awan, Senior Lecturer and Head of the Sheffield School of Architecture PhD Programme, for her support and guidance.
Conference themes and presentations
Day one: research presentations
On Friday, 27 April 2018, 21 postgraduate students from the School of Architecture and Department of Landscape presented their current research and received feedback from their peers, faculty, and invited external responders. The students’ 15-minute presentations were organised into four themes.
Mixed methods in research
Research that works within multi-methodological paradigms using both qualitative and quantitative methods. This panel session highlighted the advantages of using multiple ways to explore a research agenda.
Human environment and liveability
Research on the impact and potential of the built environment and green environment to address everyday concerns for health, housing, stress, ageing, and mobility. Features research presentations that engage questions of habitability, access, comfort, and equality in cities.
Co-production of space
Research exploring the agents of change impacting urban space, and the roles of architectural and landscape researchers in documenting and producing new knowledge(s) to explore, expose and critique such complex relationships. Emphasises a deep understanding of the researcher as a catalyst for social change and innovation, and employs transdisciplinary, co-production, and activist approaches.
Technical environment research
Research on interior and outdoor spaces, including the ways in which human perceptions and performance are affected by changes in environmental stimuli. Embraces research approaches that include laboratory experiments, field surveys and simulations, and building performance evaluation.
Day two: research workshops
On Saturday, 28 April 2018, postgraduate research students (only) participated in hands-on workshops exploring and building skills in the areas of research writing and research methodologies. The workshops were facilitated by leading academics progressively bridging research and practice in their work.
Workshop one: research writing
Facilitated by Marie-Louise Richards, Architect, adjunct Lecturer, KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Through engagement in writing exercises, students experimented with writing and reading short texts about their current works, specific research questions and problems through different methods. The workshop contributed to new understandings of how researchers could represent and communicate their research to audiences in different formats.
Participants considered language, textual format, and forms of communication (books, magazines, zines, blogs, websites). Participants tried out new ways of writing and thinking in a constructive space, flexing their creative muscles by thinking together, experimenting, sharing insights and giving and receiving feedback.
Workshop two: research methodologies
Facilitated by Grainne Hassett, Architect, Senior Lecturer, School of Architecture, University of Limerick.
This workshop posed a question about the change needed in architectural practice and research globally within the context of mass displacement of people and culture.
The workshop sought to situate questions of migration, climate justice, the appropriate vantage point/gaze/benchmarks, the construct of architectural theory/prototypes/history and precedents, unplanned urbanisation and mega cities, practices of propaganda – photography and publication, scope of architectural design practice, ethical responsibility, purpose and value of craft, what is good in architectural detail, labour conditions and relation to capital, the need for authority-agency-legitimacy, and most importantly, ‘are we any use to the world?’.
Participants were be asked to critically examine, research, understand and draw out the strands of conditions underlying architectural practice in the world. They were exposed to critical thinkers and texts in these areas and they provided a critical response.
Feedback participants
We are thankful to the Sheffield School of Architecture and Department of Landscape Faculty, as well as to our invited external workshop facilitators, for their participation and providing individualised feedback to PhD student presentations.
Karim Hadjri, Head of School at the Sheffield School of Architecture. His research has explored the influence of the built environment on various user groups, including people with physical, sensory and cognitive impairments. His current research interests are concerned with the challenges of designing age-friendly environments, as well as enabling environments, particularly for people with dementia. Twitter: @KHadjri
Nishat Awan, Senior Lecturer and PGR Director at the Sheffield School of Architecture. Her research interests have focussed on questions of diversity, migration and geo-politics and how these can be addressed through spatial practice. She has addresses some of these issues in her work with OPENkhana, a collaborative that works between architectural, computational and artistic practice. Twitter: @nish_aat
Renata Tyszczuk, Senior Lecturer at the Sheffield School of Architecture. Her research and teaching has explored questions concerning global environmental change and provisionality in architectural thinking and practice and the cultural dimensions of climate change. Twitter: @renatatyszczuk
Nicola Dempsey, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield. Her research interests relate to understanding the complex relationship between landscape and humans. They focus on sustainable landscape planning and management, in particular how urban and rural landscape planning and management affect everyday life, quality of life and wellbeing. Twitter: @DrNicolaDempsey
Steve Fotios, Professor of Lighting and Visual Perception at the Sheffield School of Architecture. His research interests are in lighting, visual perception and visual performance, for electric lighting and daylighting. In his work, he places a strong emphasis on methodology and the manner in which experimental procedures will bias the outcome: this led to the establishment of CIE technical committee TC1-80 to identify best practise in experimental procedures, and to LumeNet, a methodology conference for PhD students.
James Uttley, Research Assistant at the Sheffield School of Architecture. He has carried out research into lighting and perception, with a particular focus on road lighting for pedestrians and cyclists. He has been a part of the MERLIN-2 project, which aims to provide empirical evidence to support future pedestrian road lighting guidelines.
Michele Lancione, Urban Ethnographer and Activist and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield Urban Institute. His research challenges mainstream understandings relating to issues of marginality, poverty, and difference in the contemporary urban. His work is of a qualitative kind, sustained by in-depth ethnographic fieldwork and informed by theoretical grounding in assemblage thinking, critical urban theory, affective space, biopolitics. Twitter: @michelelancione
Francesco Aletta, Architect and Urban Sound Planner. He earned his MArch and PhD degrees from the University of Campania (formerly, Second University of Naples). He has been a research associate at the Acoustics Group, Sheffield School of Architecture since 2013, working on soundscape descriptors and indicators. Since 2016 he has worked at Ghent University, Department of Information Technology within the WAVES research group.
Chengzhi Peng, Lecturer at the Sheffield School of Architecture. He completed his PhD at EdCAAD under John Lee and Aart Bijl. At Sheffield, he has taught modules on digital design, interactive architectural and urban visualisation modelling and more interactive built environments.
Xiang Ren, Teaching Associate at the Sheffield School of Architecture. He received his PhD and FHEA in 2017. He supports Studio Making Time, one of the MA in Architectural Design studio units at the School of Architecture.
Workshop facilitators
Marie-Louise Richards, Architect, Editor, adjunct Lecturer at KTH and Writer, Founder and Lead of M A D A M E A R K I T E K T, an experimental architecture practice. Her wide-ranging experience in critical design includes lecturing on ‘The invisible – experimental methods in research of architectural project’ and presenting on ‘The art of mirroring the city – the power of visuality in public space’. Read her article: Hyper-visible Invisibility (PDF, 1.32MB).
Grainne Hassett, Practising Architect, Senior Lecturer and member of the advisory board at the new School of Architecture, University of Limerick (SAUL), as well as a Visiting Professor at the Sheffield School of Architecture. Twitter: @GrainneHassett, Hassett Ducatez Architects.