Dr Alexandra Stara
Faculties, deparments 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:
- a.stara@kingston.ac.uk
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, and 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
The latent world of architecture : selected essays
Vesely, Dalibor, Stara, Alexandra and Carl, Peter (2023). Abingdon, U.K.: (Routledge)
The edges of trauma: explorations in visual art and literature
(2014). Newcastle upon Tyne: (Cambridge Scholars Publishing)
The Museum of French Monuments 1795-1816: killing art to make history
Stara, Alexandra (2013). Farnham, U.K.: (Ashgate)
Curating architecture and the city
Chaplin, Sarah and Stara, Alexandra (2009). Abingdon, U.K.: (Routledge)
'Making Strange': The Photography of Steffi Klenz and Thomas Weinberger
Stara, Alexandra, 2013, History of Photography (37), 3, pp 353-359
Women are now on average more highly educated than men
Stara, Alexandra, 2012, The Architects' Journal (235), 1, pp 30-31
Planung fur Rainham Marshes Nature Reserve in Ost-London, Grossbritannien: architekt Peter Beard, London
Stara, Alexandra, 2010, Bauwelt (43), 10, pp 34-34
The new Acropolis Museum
Stara, Alexandra, 2009, The Architectural Review (CCXXV), 1348, pp 24-26
A journey elsewhere: in search of Steffi Klenz's Dagenham Heathway
Stara, Alexandra, 2009, London Independent Photography (Spring), 12, pp 24-25
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, pp 53
Joseph and the amazing van Eyck
Stara, Alexandra, 2008, The Architects' Journal (227), 18, pp 49-50
The 'Parkour Organisation': inhabitation of corporate spaces
Daskalaki, Maria, Stara, Alexandra and Imas, Miguel, 2008, Culture and Organization (14), 1, pp 49-64
Architecture is no picture
Stara, Alexandra, 2008, KIOSK, 2, pp 56-59
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
Re-membering
Stara, Alexandra, 2005, Scroope: Cambridge Architecture Journal, pp 136-143
London
Stara, Alexandra, 2003, AA Files (49), pp 14-19
On the problem of history in the museum
Stara, Alexandra, 2000, Annals For Aesthetics (39), pp 163-174
The museum as dialectics of distance
Stara, Alexandra, 1993, Scroope: Cambridge Architecture Journal, 5, pp 17-19
'The play's the thing' : on theatricality and modern public space
Stara, Alexandra (2023). In: Landrum, Lisa, (eds.) and Ridgway, Sam, (eds.), Theatres of architectural imagination. Routledge, pp 131-143
The depth between frames : architectural representation in two films by Elizabeth Price and Rut Blees Luxemburg
Stara, Alexandra (2020). In: Troiani, Igea, (eds.) and Campbell, Hugh, (eds.), Architecture Filmmaking. Bristol, UK: Intellect Books, pp 39-56
Architecture's ethical function: in defence of the architect's profession
Stara, Alexandra (2019). In: Jones, Alan, (eds.) and Hyde, Rob, (eds.), Defining contemporary professionalism: for architects in practice and education. London, U.K.: RIBA Publishing, pp 222-225
Nature and artifice : Nadav Kander's Yangtze, The Long River
Stara, Alexandra (2019). In: Adler, Gerald, (eds.) and Guerci, Manolo, (eds.), Riverine : architecture and rivers. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge
The Louvre Effect
Stara, Alexandra (2015). In: Kristoffer, Arvidsson, (ed.), Skiascope 7: Art, Museum, Architecture. Gothenburg, Sweden: Gothenburg Museum of Art, pp 50-87
Ghosts of place : displacement and identity in the work of Ori Gersht
Stara, Alexandra (2015). In: Pultz Moslund, Sten, (eds.), Ring Petersen, Anne, (eds.) and Schramm, Moritz, (eds.), The culture of migration: politics, aesthetics and histories. London, U.K.: I. B. Tauris, pp 257-269
On mimesis and type in the work of Lynch Architects
Stara, Alexandra (2015). In: Lynch Architects, (ed.), Mimesis: Lynch Architects. London, U.K.: Artifice Books on Architecture, pp 23-70
Rehearsals
Stara, Alexandra (2015). In: Stewart, Christopher, (eds.) and Teichmann, Esther, (eds.), Staging Disorder. London: Black Dog Publishing, pp 14-16
Introduction: the arts of trauma
Benyei, Tamas and Stara, Alexandra (2014). In: Benyei, Tamas, (eds.) and Stara, Alexandra, (eds.), The edges of trauma: explorations in visual art and literature. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp 1-17
Traces of trauma: the photography of Ori Gersht
Stara, Alexandra (2014). In: Benyei, Tamas, (eds.) and Stara, Alexandra, (eds.), The edges of trauma: explorations in visual art and literature. Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp 181-190
Architectural poetics in Alvaro Siza's Church of Santa Maria
Stara, Alexandra (2012). In: Emmons, Paul, (eds.), Lomholt, Jane, (eds.) and Hendrix, John, (eds.), The cultural role of architecture. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge, pp 123-131
National history as biography: Alexandre Lenoir's Museum of French Monuments
Stara, Alexandra (2012). In: Hill, Kate, (ed.), Museums and biographies: stories, objects, identities. Woodbridge, U.K.:, pp 265-276
Cultivating architects: the humanities in architectural education
Stara, Alexandra (2010). In: Bandyopadhyay, Soumyen, (eds.), Lomholt, Jane, (eds.), Temple, Nicholas, (eds.) and Tobe, Renée, (eds.), The Humanities in Architectural Design: A contemporary and Historical Perspective. Oxford, U.K.: Routledge, pp 28-35
Introduction
Chaplin, Sarah and Stara, Alexandra (2009). In: Chaplin, Sarah, (eds.) and Stara, Alexandra, (eds.), Curating architecture and the city. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge, pp 1-5
Urban fictions with the office for subversive architecture
Stara, Alexandra (2009). In: Chaplin, Sarah, (eds.) and Stara, Alexandra, (eds.), Curating architecture and the city. Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge, pp 233-245
Office for subversive architecture (OSA)
Stara, Alexandra (2008). In: Smith, Deborah, (ed.), In the space of elsewhere. Kingston-upon-Thames, UK: Stanley Picker Gallery, pp 35-38
‘The Play’s the Thing’: On theatricality and modern public space
Stara, Alexandra(2021). In: Frascari Symposium V: Theatres of architectural imagination, 27-29 May 2021 :Montréal and Manitoba [ONLINE]
The radicality of mimesis : towards a proposition for contemporary architecture
Stara, Alexandra(2017). In: Copycat. Dealing with Dangerous Mimesis, 23-25 Feb 2017 :Weimar, Germany
City and river in contemporary landscape photography
Stara, Alexandra(2014). In: Riverine Conference 2014, 26-28 Jun 2014 :Canterbury, U.K
Beyond form: the relevance of the tectonic
Stara, Alexandra(2013). In: Form Finding, Form Shaping, Designing Architecture, 10-11 Oct 2013 :Mendrisio, Switzerland
Photography as alternative urbanism
Stara, Alexandra, Luxemburg, Rut Blees, Collins, Hannah, McCarthy, Tom and Lynch, Patrick(2010). In: Photography as alternative urbanism, 10 Nov 2010 :London, U.K.
Making strange in urban landscape photography: the work of Steffi Klenz and Thomas Weinberger
Stara, Alexandra(2010). In: Emerging Landscapes, 25 - 27 Jun 2010 :London, U.K.
Architectural poetics in Alvaro Siza's Parochial Centre of Marco de Canaveses
Stara, Alexandra(2010). In: The Cultural Role of Architecture, 23 - 25 Jun 2010 :Lincoln, U.K.
Traces of trauma: the work of Ori Gersht
Stara, Alexandra(2010). In: Exploring the Edge of Trauma, 13 - 16 May 2010 :Chichester, U.K.
Phenomenology as architectural praxis: two houses in East Anglia
Stara, Alexandra(2009). In: Architecture + phenomenology, 26-29 Jun 2009 :Kyoto, Japan
Displacement as enchantment: the poetic potential of the museum
Stara, Alexandra(2008). In: Location: the museum, the academy and the studio. 34th AAH Annual Conference, 2-4 Apr 2008 :London, UK
The revelatory frame: curating the city through art photography
Stara, Alexandra(2007). 17 - 18 Nov 2007 : Kingston upon Thames, U.K.
Cultivating architects: the humanities in architectural education
Stara, Alexandra(2007). In: The Role of the Humanities in Design Creativity, 15-16 Nov 2007 :University of Lincoln, Lincoln, U.K.