Dr Alexandra Stara
Faculties, departments and locations
- Kingston School of Art
- Department of Architecture and Landscape
- School of Arts
Associate Professor and Reader in the History and Theory of Architecture
- Email:
- [email protected]
About
I teach history and theory in the Department of Architecture & Landscape, and supervise several PhD students. I have previously led the MArch history and dissertation modules, directed the MA Architecture: Thinking Building and the Graduate Diploma in Architecture (RIBA/ARB Part 2).
I am a trained architect with masters degrees in Advanced Architectural Studies from The Bartlett UCL, and in the History & Philosophy of Architecture from the University of Cambridge. I also hold a doctorate in the History of Art from the University of Oxford and a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.
I have lectured, examined and published internationally on the hermeneutics of art, architecture and the modern museum for the past 30 years. I have been judge and chair of the RIBA President's Medals 2009–2014, a member of the editorial board of The Architectural Review, and I am currently on the panel of the Queen's Anniversary Prizes, as well as a referee for a number of international publications on art and architecture.
Qualifications
- Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2015
- DPhil (PhD), Department of the History of Art and Worcester College, University of Oxford, 1999
- MPhil, Department of Architecture and Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, 1993
- MSc, Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, 1991
- Registered Architect-Engineer at the Technical Chamber of Greece (RIBA/ARB Part 3 equivalent), 1990
- Diploma of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens, 1989
Domains
Courses taught
My research explores encounters between architecture and the arts, and the relationship of past and present in current practice. I investigate these relationships across historical and contemporary manifestations, focusing on questions of continuity, the invention of heritage and the changing role of curating.
My most recent book, a collection of the late Dalibor Vesely's essays, co-edited with Peter Carl, brings to light new and hard-to-access material for those familiar with the seminal architectural philosopher's thought, while also presenting a compelling introduction to his writing and its profound relevance for architecture and culture today.
My earlier books include the first publication in English on the 18th-century Museum of French Monuments in Paris, based on original research and exploring the ideas of historic monument and national heritage through the quest for collective identity in emerging modernity; and two edited volumes, on curating architecture and the city, and on trauma in art and literature, which map different aspects of the idea of place and its representations across media.
Photography as a means of interpreting our environment is an ongoing concern. It is the focus of several papers and events, including an Arts Council funded exhibition.
I am currently working on a project investigating ways in which architectural practice in recent years has returned to a critical engagement with historical precedent.
Publications
'Making Strange': The Photography of Steffi Klenz and Thomas Weinberger
Stara, Alexandra, 2013, History of Photography (37), 3pp 353-359, Published
Women are now on average more highly educated than men
Stara, Alexandra, 2012, The Architects' Journal (235), 1pp 30-31, Published
Planung fur Rainham Marshes Nature Reserve in Ost-London, Grossbritannien: architekt Peter Beard, London
Stara, Alexandra, 2010, Bauwelt (43), 10pp 34-34, Published
The new Acropolis Museum
Stara, Alexandra, 2009, The Architectural Review (CCXXV), 1348pp 24-26, Published
A journey elsewhere: in search of Steffi Klenz's Dagenham Heathway
Stara, Alexandra, 2009, London Independent Photography (Spring), 12pp 24-25, Published
Book Review of: Exit-architecture: design between war and peace by Stephan Truby, with forward by Heiner Muhlmann, translated by Robert Payne.
Stara, Alexandra, 2008, The Architects' Journal, Published
Joseph and the amazing van Eyck
Stara, Alexandra, 2008, The Architects' Journal (227), 18pp 49-50, Published
The 'Parkour Organisation': inhabitation of corporate spaces
Daskalaki, Maria, Stara, Alexandra and Imas, Miguel, 2008, Culture and Organization (14), 1pp 49-64, Published
Architecture is no picture
Stara, Alexandra, 2008, KIOSK, 2pp 56-59, Published
Madder Rose: Lynch Architects' east London gallery draws on the history of the type and the life of the street
Stara, Alexandra, 2007, Architecture Today (175)pp 40-49, Published
Re-membering
Stara, Alexandra, 2005, Scroope: Cambridge Architecture Journalpp 136-143, Published
London
Stara, Alexandra, 2003, AA files (49)pp 14-19, Published
On the problem of history in the museum
Stara, Alexandra, 2000, Annals For Aesthetics (39)pp 163-174, Published
The museum as dialectics of distance
Stara, Alexandra, 1993, Scroope: Cambridge Architecture Journal, 5pp 17-19, Published
The latent world of architecture: selected essays
Vesely, Dalibor (2023). Abingdon, U.K.: [Published]
The edges of trauma: explorations in visual art and literature
(2014). Newcastle upon Tyne: [Published]
The Museum of French Monuments 1795-1816: killing art to make history
Stara, Alexandra (2013). Farnham, U.K.: (Ashgate) [Published]
Curating architecture and the city
(2009). Abingdon, U.K.: (Routledge) [Published]
'The play's the thing': on theatricality and modern public space
Stara, Alexandra (2023). In: Landrum, Lisa, Ridgway, Sam, (eds.)pp 131-143 [Published]
The depth between frames: architectural representation in two films by Elizabeth Price and Rut Blees Luxemburg
Stara, Alexandra (2020). In: Troiani, Igea, Campbell, Hugh, (eds.), Bristol, UK:pp 39-56 [Published]
Architecture's ethical function: in defence of the architect's profession
Stara, Alexandra (2019). In: Jones, Alan, Hyde, Rob, (eds.), London, U.K.:pp 222-225 [Published]
Nature and artifice: Nadav Kander's Yangtze, The Long River
Stara, Alexandra (2019). In: Adler, Gerald, Guerci, Manolo, (eds.), Abingdon, U.K.: [Published]
The Louvre Effect
Stara, Alexandra (2015). In: Kristoffer, Arvidsson, (eds.), Gothenburg, Sweden: Gothenburg Museum of Artpp 50-87 [Published]
Ghosts of place: displacement and identity in the work of Ori Gersht
Stara, Alexandra (2015). In: Pultz Moslund, Sten, Ring Petersen, Anne, Schramm, Moritz, (eds.), London, U.K.:pp 257-269 [Published]
On mimesis and type in the work of Lynch Architects
Stara, Alexandra (2015). London, U.K.:pp 23-70 [Published]
Rehearsals
Stara, Alexandra (2015). In: Stewart, Christopher, Teichmann, Esther, (eds.), London:pp 14-16 [Published]
Introduction: the arts of trauma
Benyei, Tamas and Stara, Alexandra (2014). In: Benyei, Tamas, Stara, Alexandra, (eds.), Newcastle upon Tyne:pp 1-17 [Published]
Traces of trauma: the photography of Ori Gersht
Stara, Alexandra (2014). In: Benyei, Tamas, Stara, Alexandra, (eds.), Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.:pp 181-190 [Published]
Architectural poetics in Alvaro Siza's Church of Santa Maria
Stara, Alexandra (2012). In: Emmons, Paul, Lomholt, Jane, Hendrix, John, (eds.), Abingdon, U.K.:pp 123-131 [Published]
National history as biography: Alexandre Lenoir's Museum of French Monuments
Stara, Alexandra (2012). In: Hill, Kate, (eds.), Woodbridge, U.K.: Boydell & Brewerpp 265-276 [Published]
Cultivating architects: the humanities in architectural education
Stara, Alexandra (2010). In: Bandyopadhyay, Soumyen, Lomholt, Jane, Temple, Nicholas, Tobe, Renée, (eds.), Oxford, U.K.:pp 28-35 [Published]
Introduction
Chaplin, Sarah and Stara, Alexandra (2009). In: Chaplin, Sarah, Stara, Alexandra, (eds.), Abingdon, U.K.: Routledgepp 1-5 [Published]
Urban fictions with the office for subversive architecture
Stara, Alexandra (2009). In: Chaplin, Sarah, Stara, Alexandra, (eds.), Abingdon, U.K.: Routledgepp 233-245 [Published]
Office for subversive architecture (OSA)
Stara, Alexandra (2008). In: Smith, Deborah, (eds.), Kingston-upon-Thames, UK:pp 35-38 [Published]
'The Play‘s the Thing‘: On theatricality and modern public space
Stara, Alexandra(2021). [Accepted/In press]
The radicality of mimesis: towards a proposition for contemporary architecture
Stara, Alexandra(2017). [Published]
City and river in contemporary landscape photography
Stara, Alexandra(2014). [Published]
Beyond form: the relevance of the tectonic
Stara, Alexandra(2013). [Published]
Photography as alternative urbanism
Stara, Alexandra, Luxemburg, Rut Blees, Collins, Hannah, McCarthy, Tom and Lynch, Patrick(2010). [Published]
Making strange in urban landscape photography: the work of Steffi Klenz and Thomas Weinberger
Stara, Alexandra(2010). [Published]
Architectural poetics in Alvaro Siza's Parochial Centre of Marco de Canaveses
Stara, Alexandra(2010). [Published]
Traces of trauma: the work of Ori Gersht
Stara, Alexandra(2010). [Published]
Phenomenology as architectural praxis: two houses in East Anglia
Stara, Alexandra(2009). [Published]
Displacement as enchantment: the poetic potential of the museum
Stara, Alexandra(2008). [Published]
The revelatory frame: curating the city through art photography
Stara, Alexandra(2007). [Published]
Cultivating architects: the humanities in architectural education
Stara, Alexandra(2007). [Published]
Strange places: urban landscape photography
Stara, Alexandra, Bitter/Weber, n/a, Collins, Hannah, Klenz, Steffi, Gersht, Ori, Leong, Sze Tsung, Power, Mark, Ribas, Xavier, Specker, Heidi, Weinberger, Thomas, Wilberforce, Rachel and Blees Luxemburg, Rut (2009) [Published]