CFP: Writing Buildings (Kent, 14 -16 July 2016)

Writing Buildings (14 -16 July 2016)  – University of Kent
Centre for Research in European Architecture, the research centre for architecture and the humanities at the Kent School of University, University of Kent, is holding a conference in collaboration with the Architectural Review which will bring together quite different traditions of writing about historic buildings. The special character of this conference is that speakers will be drawn from both academic and non-academic fields, and from a range of disciplines that touch on architectural experience and history. In this way we aim to offer a new experience for writers on architecture, interior design and urban space.
We are inviting papers from those in Architecture, English, History, Sociology, Film and Drama, Landscape Studies and other academic schools with a specialist interest in writing about buildings and urban spaces or experiences across different time periods. The common theme of the papers will be the uses of a variety of voices in creating architecture culture.
Writing Buildings will be a two-day conference on the subject of alternative ways of writing architectural history which will encourage experimentation in criticism through breaking disciplinary barriers. The programme will include papers from both academic disciplines and non-academic professions which engage with the built environment, for example, journalism, interior design and construction, as our keynote speakers demonstrate:
Iain Sinclair / Writer
Matthew Beaumont, UCL / Psychogeographer
Jonathan Meades / Architectural critic
Alexandra Harris, University of Liverpool / Cultural Historian
Barbara Penner, Bartlett, UCL / Material Anthropologist
Jonathan Reed / Interior Designer
Ben Campkin, Bartlett, UCL / Urban Geographer
Ian Dungavell / former director, the Victorian Society
We will organise at least one project-based writing event outside the conference hall. We are currently planning to hold this in collaboration with Turner Contemporary as part of their innovative Waste Land project.
We will update news about the conference, including information about events, talks and activities on the website: http://www.kent.ac.uk/architecture/conference/2016/writingbuildings/
Publication:
Both previous CREAte conferences have resulted in edited books by leading international academic publishers and we anticipate that this will happen again this time. In addition, the widely read and respected international journal The Architectural Review will promote the conference and intends to publish papers from it.
Conference directors:
Dr Timothy Brittain-Catlin, Kent School of Architecture, University of Kent
Dr Catherine Richardson, School of English, University of Kent
Tom Wilkinson, History Editor, The Architectural Review.
Abstract submission:
Abstracts should be 250 words long.
Abstract submission deadline: 30 September 2015
Notification of acceptance of papers: by 31 January 2015
Conference dates 14th-16th July 2016
Submit your abstract to WritingBuildings@kent.ac.uk with the subject ‘Writing Buildings: abstract’.
If you have any questions, please contact: Timothy Brittain-Catlin (tjb33@kent.ac.uk) or Catherine Richardson (c.t.richardson@kent.ac.uk)