Professor Davide Deriu

I joined the University of Westminster as a Postdoctoral Fellow in 2007 and am currently a Professor of Architectural Humanities. Since 2023, I have served as REF Lead for Architecture, Built Environment, and Planning (UoA13). Previous roles include Director of Architectural Research, Co-Convenor of the Architectural Humanities Research Group, and Editorial Board Member of the University of Westminster Press.

My academic journey began in Italy at Politecnico di Torino and continued at University College London, where I earned a Master’s in the History of Modern Architecture (Distinction) and a PhD in Architecture. Before Westminster, I taught at The Bartlett (UCL), Brighton, Canterbury, and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at METU in Ankara. I hold a PG Cert in Higher Education (Distinction) and am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

I publish widely in multiple languages, and my research has been supported by leading international institutions, including the British Academy, the UK’s Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Yale’s Paul Mellon Centre, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and the Wellcome Trust.

In addition to writing and teaching, I contribute to the scholarly community through various peer review and advisory roles. I have been a Visiting Professor at Iuav University of Venice and the University of Cagliari, have assessed PhDs at UCL and Kingston, sat on panels for the Italian National Research Agency, and served as a referee for international funding bodies.

I am a former member of the steering committee of the Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA) and the European Architectural History Network (EAHN). I helped establish the EAHN’s open-access journal, Architectural Histories, and am a long-standing member of its Urban Representations interest group.

My research explores critical intersections between spatial and visual cultures. I have conducted extensive research on 20th-century architectural and urban representations, with a focus on photography. In recent years, my attention has shifted to the perception and experience of space, encompassing both high-rise built environments and underground settings. 

PhD supervisions encompass a broad spectrum of design research, and I am also involved in co-supervising practice-based projects at the Westminster School of Arts (CREAM). I welcome doctoral proposals, particularly in the following areas: 20th-century architectural history and theory, modernity/modernism, visual culture and representation, the experience of space, travel cultures, and contemporary urbanism and landscapes.

Ongoing supervisions:

- Hui Ken (Dmitri) Chong, Refuge: Home-making in the context of refugeeness

- Akma Nazar, Reimagining the gendered Mappila home

- Danying Yu, Spatial Expressions of Everyday ‘Making Do’ in Chinese Urban Villages (CREAM)

- Ruiqi Tao, The Anatomy of Authenticity in Street Market

Completions:

- John Aitken, Visualising Creative Destruction: A Photographic Study of Urban Change in Salford, UK

- Amy Butt, ‘Doors that could take you elsewhere’: The Architectural Practice of Reading Science Fiction (PhD by Published Work)

- Lida-Evangelia Driva, The Operation of the ‘Hidden’: Towards an Understanding of Architectural and Urban Space (the case of Omonia Square)

- Samra Khan, The Sethi Merchants’ Havelis in Peshawar, 1800-1910: Form, Identity and Status

- Emilia Siandou, A Value-Based Approach to Modern Architectural Heritage in Cyprus: Schools in Larnaka, 1945-1963

- Timothy Waterman, Taste, Democracy, and Everyday Life in Landscape Imaginaries (PhD by Published Work)

PROJECTS & GRANTS

Body and Space (architectural experience)

This broad research area encompasses various projects, ranging from studies of tall buildings to the experience of underground spaces. 

Vertigo in the City is a cross-disciplinary project that explores issues of balance related to the perception and experience of built environments. Since its inception in 2014, the project has brought together a network of scholars and practitioners, including a collaboration with the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Its exploratory phase, funded by a Wellcome Trust small grant in the Medical Humanities, led to a special issue of the journal Emotion, Space and Society. A British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship facilitated the publication of my monograph On Balance: Architecture and Vertigo (Lund Humphries, 2023).

As part of this project, I conceived and co-curated (with Michael Mazière) an exhibition of architectural film installations by Catherine Yass, titled Falling Away (2021), in Ambika P3. This exhibition was co-funded by Arts Council England, and a public symposium was held at the School of Architecture & Cities in conjunction with it.

My latest output from this project is a forthcoming article about architecture and gravity published in Architectural History (Cambridge University Press).

I am currently developing new research focused on architecture as shelter, specifically exploring the history, myths, and representations of underground spaces.

Photography and Architecture

My extensive research on photography and the built environment primarily addresses issues of scale, perception, and politics of representation. It originated from my PhD, which examined the relationship between aerial photography and urban visions in the early 20th century. My postdoctoral research, funded by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, resulted in a themed issue of The London Journal on ‘Aerial Views of Metropolitan London’.

I then shifted my focus to the encounter between photography and the architectural model, which opened up new questions regarding scalar perception. After completing a Visiting Scholarship at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal, I curated the exhibition Modernism in Miniature: Points of View at the CCA in 2011. Subsequently, I was invited back to the CCA as a Mellon Fellow for the multidisciplinary programme Architecture and/for Photography (2016/17).

Another research strand concerns the socio-spatial aspects of urban landscape photography. In 2012, I co-organised a major cross-disciplinary conference that led to the edited book Emerging Landscapes: Between Production and Representation (Ashgate, 2014; republished by Routledge, 2016). This experience inspired me to explore the photographic work of Gabriele Basilico, whose influential practice was the subject of a seminar we hosted at Westminster in 2016, leading to further publications.

My latest output in this area is the open-access book Picturing Cities: The Photobook as Urban Narrative (Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2024), co-edited with Angelo Maggi.

Travel and Representation

A further area of interest concerns the role of travel practices within architectural culture. My project, titled ‘Picturing Modern Ankara: “New Turkey” in Western Imagination’, explored the cross-cultural perceptions of modern Ankara during the early years of the Turkish Republic. This research, funded by an AHRC Early-Career Fellowship in 2011-2012, resulted in several publications and the organisation of an international symposium in collaboration with SOAS. Additionally, in 2016, I co-edited a special collection of Architectural Histories focused on the theme of travel.

For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.