Dr Chris L. Smith
Title: Dr
Name: Chris L. Smith
Position: Senior Lecturer in Architectural Design and Techné; Degree Program Director (Bachelor of Design in Architecture); Associate Dean (Undergraduate)
Location: Room 311, Wilkinson Building (G04), 148 City Road, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006
Phone: +61 2 9351 5905
Email:
Current Research
Chris L. Smith is a Lecturer in Architectural Design and Techné and the Associate Dean (Undergraduate) in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Sydney. His research is concerned with the interdisciplinary nexus of philosophy, biology and architectural theory. Chris has published on the political philosophy of Giles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (also the subject of his doctoral thesis), technologies of the body and 'the eclipse of Darwinism' phase. Presently Chris is concentrating upon the changing relation the discourses of philosophy, biology and architecture maintain in respect to notions of matter and materiality.
Current Projects
I am presently working on two key projects: The first is an edited text that is the result of a conference I co-organised in the UK with Andrew Ballantyne and Sally Jane Norman titled Architecture in the Space of Flows. The text will focus on the understanding of selves, buildings and cities as modulators of flows. The second project is preparing my doctoral dissertation for publication. The text explores a method derived from the work of Deleuze and Guattari for the analysis of deployments of body constructs from biological to architectural theory. This work will extend from and contextualise a number of my published papers. Both of these projects will draw upon research conducted through the Tectonic Cultures Research Group and as a co-director of the Cultural Technologies of the Body Research Group at Newcastle University UK.
Academic Awards| 1995 |
Bachelor of Science (Architecture) degree with merit. |
| 1998 | Bachelor of Architecture degree with Honours Class I. |
| 2004 |
Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice and membership to the Higher Education Academy from Newcastle University, UK. |
| 2005 | PhD in Architectural Theory. |
Prizes and awards
| 2009 | TIES Large Grant Scheme 2009 for 'Architecture Program Curriculum Mapping by Content and Graduate Attributes' with Simon Weir. The grant allows a detailed curriculum review of the Faculty's BDesArch and MArch degrees in respect to graduate attributes and the Royal Australian Institute of Architecture accreditation criteria. ($43,398 AUD). |
| 2009 | Strategic eLearning Development Projects Grant for 'Information Architecture: a coordinated approach to e-Learning for Students of the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning' with Ross Anderson and Krishna Shrestha. The intention of this strategic project is to create a centralised e-learning experience for students through the development of WebCT sites for every Unit of Study for the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning. (Grant 'in-kind': Project administration; 350 hours in total of educational and graphic designers time). |
| 2009 | City of Sydney Grants program for the Sydney Writers Festival 2009. The grant is for the staging of an event 'Metaphors of Space: Between Poetry and Architecture' in association with Mascara Poetry. ($1400 AUD + Bangarra Mezzanine, Sydney Dance Theatre). |
| 2008 |
Awarded a Research Enhanced Learning and Teaching Scholarship grant to explore best practice in the use of digital technology for the support of research-led learning and teaching in architectural construction. ($3000 AUD). |
| 2006 | Awarded a University Teaching and Learning Grant to explore the use of easily accessible digital technologies in teaching and learning (£5000). Newcastle University, UK. |
| 1998 |
Awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award Research Scholarship to support doctoral studies. |
| 1997 | Awarded the University of Newcastle Vice-Chancellor's Honours Scholarship for excellence in academic performance.The University of Newcastle, Australia. |
| 1997 | Awarded the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Sydney C. Morton Prize for technology studies in Architecture. |
| 1997 | Awarded the Board of Architects of New South Wales Prize for the highest performing architecture student at The University of Newcastle; 1997. |
Publications
Edited book sections
| 2003 | 'The Impassive Politics of Language: Speech-acts and the Body of Architectural History', in Christian Hermansen and Elizabeth Tostrup eds, Con,text: (Theorising) History in Architecture and Design, (Oslo: Architekthøgskolen i Oslo, 2003), 107-15. |
| 2004 |
'Architecture, Biology, Philosophy and the Hopeful Monster', in Paul L. Yoder and Peter Mario Kreuter eds, Monsters and the Monstrous, (Oxford: Inter-disciplinary Press, 2004). ISBN: 1-904710-21-2 |
| 2005 | 'Differential Mechanisms: form and matter' in The Erotic: Approaches to a Cultural Contextualisation. The eBook is Volume 5 of the Critical Issues series entitled 'The Erotic', edited by Koen De Temmerman, ISBN: 1-904710-04-2. |
| 2009 |
'To Lighten: In the Glare of 01 Bligh', in Richard Francis-Jones, Lawrence Nield, Xing Ruan and Deborah van der Plaat (eds.), Skyplane, (Sydney: UNSW Press [March 2009]), 160-73. |
Forthcoming edited book sections
| 2009 | 'Preceding an Architectural Body', in Jean-Jacques LeCercle and Francoise Kral, eds. Awakawa and Gins: Architecture and Philosophy, (Amsterdam: Ridopi, [May 2009]), 121-37 |
| Guest edited journal edition |
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| 2008 |
Chris L. Smith and Andrew Ballantyne guest eds, Architectural Theory Review (13/3:2008) special edition 'Flows'. |
Refereed journal papers
| 1999 | 'Architecture and the Anatomy of Ontogeny: Architecture and the Transforming Body of the Biological Morphology Movement,' within Richard Blythe and Rory Spence eds., Thresholds, Papers of the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand, Launceston and Hobart, Australia. |
| 2000 | 'A Very Becoming Whale: a (re)emerging Origin in the Construction of an Architectural Body,' Habitus: a sense of place, international conference proceedings, Perth, Western Australia, Australia. |
| 2001 |
'anOther Hopeful Monster: Reading a Motion from Modern Figuration,' within Formulation Fabrication, Papers of the Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand. |
| 2002 | 'The Habit and its Fictions: Analogy and the Appropriate(d) Body of Architecture,' within John Macarthur & Antony Moulis, Colophon: Additions to Architectural History, (Brisbane: Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand, 2002). |
| 2006 | 'The Problem of Writing Architecture', Journal for Cultural Research, 10(2), 185-197. |
| 2008 |
Chris L. Smith and Andrew Ballantyne, 'Thinking Flows', Architectural Theory Review, (13/3: 2008): 271-3. Editorial to the above. |
| Forthcoming refereed papers |
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| 2009 |
'Text and the Deployment of the Masochist', Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities, (14/3:2009)- in publication. |
Exhibitions/Events
| 2009 |
‘Metaphors of Space: Between Poetry and Architecture’ Convened. Sydney Writers Festival Sunday 24 May 2009 Pier 4 Sydney Dance Theatre; Bangarra Mezzanine, Walsh Bay. Sydney, Australia. |
| 2009 |
Constructing education Tuesday Night Talks (TNT) Roundtable with Professor Shane Murray May 05, Tusculum, AIA. |
| 2008 |
‘The Philosophy of Life: Architecture, Nature, Ethics’ Invited colloquium speaker 05 September 2007 University of South Australia. |
| 2006 | Architectural Interventions in the Body March 13-19, 2006. An exhibition of conceptual design work in/of the body. Queen’s Campus, Durham University, UK. |
| 2005 |
The Bolam Coyne Competition Exhibition |
| 2005 |
City Sense Showcase |