Dr Simon Richards

My areas of expertise are:

• Architectural history and theory, especially modern through to contemporary.
• Philosophical aesthetics, including comparative aesthetics of different world cultures.
• Discourses of tradition and heritage in the arts and built environment.
• Concepts of self and psychology in architecture.

Current research activity

• A book on C. A. Doxiadis and the Delos Symposia, as PI of AHRC-funded research network in collaboration with Dr. Mantha Zarmakoupi: https://delosnetwork.com/.
• Edited book (Critiques) and journal (Architecture and Culture) from AHRA 2021 ‘Region’ conference.
• Preliminary research on the theme of ‘Architectural Forgery: Nelson Goodman and the Anglo-American Originality Debate’.

PhD supervision 

I welcome research proposals on the areas of expertise outlined above.

I have supervised PhDs on the following topics: The City in Taiwanese New Wave Cinema (complete: Chiang, 2013); Heritage and Preservation of British Modernist Housing (complete: Moss, 2015); The Post-Colonial Critique of Western Literary Utopias: Plato, More, Bellamy, Welles (complete: Khoshnaw, 2016); Roger Fry, Clive Bell and the Anglo-American Formalist Orthodoxy in Early 20th Century Painting and Aesthetics (complete: Maddock, 2017); The Social Project of Constantinos Doxiadis and the Delos Network (Perdikogianni, ongoing); Re-interrogating Critical Regionalism (Zheng, ongoing); Traditions of Sustainability in Al-Ula (Alghamdi, ongoing).

Monographs

• Richards, S. Architect Knows Best: Environmental Determinism in Architecture Culture from 1956 to the Present, Ashgate/Routledge, London, 2012/2016. (AHRC funded)
• Richards, S. Le Corbusier and the Concept of Self, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2003. (British Academy funded)

Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters

• Gutai, M, Richards, S, and Kafantaris, A, ‘The Transparency Trilemma: Interrogating Transparency in Architectural Design’, Plan, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2022. DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.15274/tpj.2022.07.01.6
• Richards, S., ‘Demolition traditions: Isozaki and Sakaguchi’, in Architectural Research Quarterly, Vol. 25, Issue 1, March 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135521000154
• Richards, S., ‘Weighing up intangible heritage: a view from Ise’, in Amy Barnes, Katy Bunning and Sheila Watson (eds.), A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage, Routledge, London, 2019.
• Richards, S., ‘“The Moving Image of Eternity”: idealism, incompleteness and Ise JingÅ«’, in Philosophy East and West, Vol. 68, No. 3, July 2018.
• Richards, S., ‘The Modulor’, in Graham Livesey and Antony Moulis (eds.), Le Corbusier, Routledge, London, 2017.
• Richards, S., Introduction to Robert Lamb Hart, A New Look at Humanism: in Architecture, Landscapes, and Urban Design, Meadowlark Publishing, 2016.
• Richards, S., ‘“Shadows in the Farthest Corners”: The Pursuit of National Identity in Japanese Architectural Aesthetics’, in M. Gamal Abdelmonem and Ruth Morrow (eds), Peripheries, Routledge, London, 2012.
• Richards, S., ‘“Vernacular” Accommodations: Wordplay in Contemporary-Traditional Architecture Theory’, in Architectural Research Quarterly, Vol. 16, Issue 1, Spring 2012.
• Richards, S., ‘“Halfway Between the Electron and the Universe”: Doxiadis and the Delos Symposia’, in Gerald Adler, Timothy Brittain-Catlin and Gordana Fontana-Giusti (eds), Scale: Imagination, Perception and Practice in Architecture, Routledge, London, 2011.
• Richards, S., ‘Pop Architecture: A Toxic History’, in Mark Crinson and Claire Zimmerman (eds.), Neo-avant-garde and Postmodern: Postwar Architecture in Britain and Beyond, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2010.
• Richards, S., ‘Le Corbusier’, in Ray Hutchinson (ed.), Encyclopedia of Urban Studies, Sage, London, 2009.
• Richards, S., ‘Destroy All Humans!’, in Iain Boyd Whyte (ed.), The Man Made-Future: Planning, Education and Design in the mid-20^th Century, Routledge, London, 2007.
• Richards, S., ‘The Antisocial Urbanism of Le Corbusier’, in Common Knowledge, Vol. 13, No. 1, Winter 2007.
• Richards, S., ‘Communities of Dread’, in Sarah Menin (ed.), Constructing Place: Mind and the Matter of Place-Making, Routledge, London, 2003

Undergraduate

• CVA059 Architectural History (Module Leader)
• CVB078 Critical Theory (Module Leader)
• CVC092 Research Dissertation (Module Leader)

As well as the above, I also contribute to Design Studio teaching, reviews and supervision at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Previous appointments include: Senior Research Officer, School of Philosophy and Art History, University of Essex, 2001-2005; Associate Professor, School of Arts, University of Leicester, 2005-17. 

Institutional experience: Research Director, REF Coordinator, Impact and Environment Officer, ERASMUS/International Liaison Officer, Admissions Director, Curriculum Transformation Lead, Deputy Head of School, School Management and Programme Approval Boards. 

Professional Affiliations

• Architectural Humanities Research Association: http://www.ahra-architecture.org/.
• Delos Network: https://delosnetwork.com/

External activities

I offer ongoing art, architecture, and aesthetics-related reviews and refereeing to a wide variety of publishers and outlets, including: Yale University Press; Ashgate/Routledge; Architecture Philosophy; Architectural Histories; Journal of Architecture; Common Knowledge; Planning Perspectives; Architectural Research Quarterly; Architectural Theory Review; Open Arts Journal; Journal for Asian and African Studies; Journal of Rural Studies; Journal of Interrupted Studies; The Art Book; Times Higher Education Supplement; Urban History.