Elantha Evans

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Senior Lecturer

Architecture and Cities

(United Kingdom) +44 20 7911 5000 ext 66458
35 Marylebone Road
London
GB
NW1 5LS
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About me

Following my graduation from Bath University, as a young architect I mainly worked with Richard Rogers Partnership (most notably on Madrid-Barajas Airport) with Tim Ronalds Architects (on Hackney Empire Theatre) and with Evans & Shalev Architects (on a range of projects). These experiences reinforced the importance of nurturing a clear design ethic and intention, whilst holding the overall vision strong and following it through in the detail and making. My belief in pursuing a rich, non-specialised approach to architecture practice continued in my role as one of the founding partners of Serrano Evans Partnership, where our work included architecture, interior and object design. We balanced large scale architectural concept design with furniture making and site-specific performances and installations.

Teaching

My work as an architect has almost always been punctuated with design studio tutoring; first at HKU in 2000, later at Bath from 2004 and then from 2014 at Westminster. I have worked with students across all three of our ‘professional’ parts (UG (part 1), PG (part 2) and the professional examination (part 3) and across ‘strands’; cultural context (history + theory), technical studies, professional practice, but most substantially in design studio, as co-leader of MArch Design Studio DS11, 2018-2022, BA year two leader 2015-18 and BA year two DS[2]01 studio leader 2015-18.

At the core of both my ‘learning and teaching’ practice and my research, is a commitment to deepening understanding of the roles, possibilities and expectations of the young architect as part of a ‘design studio’ and of the ‘design studio’ itself as a carefully guided but open framework for a student’s design exploration and individual development.

A desire for a deeper understanding the nature of architecture education and its institutional structures came with active involvement as chairperson and panel member on RIBA Validation Panels in the UK & Overseas, 2004-2011. I have since been an external examiner at the University of Liverpool, Leicester de Montford and UWL. In 2017 I completed a PGcertHE and gained SFHEA membership. Most recently I was awarded a secondment at the University of Westminster Centre of Education and Teaching Innovation (CETI) as an Academic Professional Development Fellow (APDF), working with and supporting colleagues in their learning and teaching practices. 

Research

As an architect, educator and PhD candidate, my ongoing research makes connections between design processes, pedagogical practices, and learning environments. I am committed to applying rigorous but experimental and exploratory, participatory, action-oriented research methods rooted in strong theoretical understandings whilst grounded in lived experiences. ‘Architecture, Education and the Empathic Imagination’ is the working title of my PhD and is a descriptive umbrella which also covers two recent ‘students-as-co-creator’ projects; ‘Imaginative Empathy: towards inclusive pedagogies’ and ‘Architecture Design Studios: re-framing with the empathic imagination in mind’. 

http://blogstage.westminster.ac.uk/inclusion/imaginative-empathy/

http://blogstage.westminster.ac.uk/inclusion/empathic-imagination-reframing-the-design-studio/

My recent book ‘Dialogues & Dreams: DS(2)01 2015-18’ was published in 2020 and reflects upon the work of DS(2)01, a second-year undergraduate studio in the BA Architecture (Hons). I believe that publishing a ‘studio-as-book’ from a non-degree-awarding year is significant in declaring and demonstrating that much can be gained in the interstitial year between arrival and graduation.

2020 - BOOK ‘Dialogues & Dreams: DS(2)01 2015-18

Evans, E. Evans, E. (ed.) 2020. Dialogues & Dreams: DS(2)01 2015-18. London Lightning Source http://www.studioasbook.org/portfolio/ds201-dialogues-and-dreams/

Publications

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