The AA School’s PhD programme combines advanced research with a broader educational agenda, preparing graduates for practice in global academic and professional environments. Current doctoral research encompasses the topics of the school’s postgraduate programmes in architectural theory and history, architectural urbanism, emergent technologies and design, and sustainable environmental design. Within each of these strands candidates can engage in design-led research (PhD in Architectural Design) or follow the traditional route of the text-based dissertation. Across the programme’s streams, shared research issues are explored through specialist groups, seminars and other events in and outside of the school. This year, several of the programme’s PhD candidates contributed to conferences and publications in the UK and abroad. ‘A Day on the Grid’ was a public event organised by Alexandra Vougia, Costandis Kizis and Gabriela García de Cortázar Galleguillos, held in early May. The programme’s current PhD candidates and recent graduates participated, as well as teaching staff and students from across the school. The day tackled the issue of the grid from nine angles, each examined by two papers: ‘prologue’, Aldo Urbinati; ‘urban’, Alexandra Vougia and Ross Adams; ‘maps’, Gabriela García de Cortázar Galleguillos and Emmanouil Stavrakakis; ‘drawing’, Alison Moffett and Nerma Cridge; ‘plan’, Alejandra Celedon and Costandis Kizis; ‘intermission’, Merve Anil and Eleanor Dodman; ‘coordinates’, Ryan Dillon and Arturo Revilla; ‘graph’, Valeria Guzman and Jingming Wu; ‘epilogue’, Doreen Bernath; ‘discussion’, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Mark Campbell and Marina Lathouri.
Director
Simos Yannas
Supervisors
Pier Vittorio Aureli
Lawrence Barth
Paula Cadima
Mark Cousins
Jorge Fiori
Hugo Hinsley
George Jeronimidis
Marina Lathouri
Patrik Schumacher
Brett Steele
Thomas Weaver
Michael Weinstock
Simos Yannas
External Supervisors
Doreen Bernath
Vida Norouz Borazjani
David Cunningham
Socratis Georgiadis
Spyros Papapetros
Edward Soja
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Patricia Martin Del Guayo
Environmental Perception of Urban Spaces in Spanish Cities
Supervisors: Simos Yannas, Paula Cadima
The way people use public spaces is strongly influenced by the environmental conditions experienced in these spaces. Urbanisation has not only changed the environmental properties of our surround¬ings, but it has also affected our relationships and interactions with them. This research project addresses these issues by studying people’s environmental perceptions of urban public spaces. With field studies in Soho Square, London and sev¬eral locations in Spain the project investigates the factors influencing environmental perception with the aim of developing appropriate design strategies and techniques for improving environmental conditions in outdoor urban spaces.
Patricia Martin del Guayo is an architect and PhD Candidate in Environmental Design. In 2010 she graduated from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University with a Master’s of Architecture in Urban Design as a Gobierno Vasco Scholar. She previously obtained her degree in Architecture in San Sebastian, Spain, having studied as an Erasmus Scholar at TUWien, Austria. She worked as an architect in Spain and Germany and now she maintains her own design practice.
e-mail: Patricia.Martin@aaschool.ac.uk
website: www.martindelguayo.com