Mr Austin Williams

Kingston School of Art
Department of Architecture and Landscape
School of Arts

Course Leader

Email:: austin.williams@kingston.ac.uk

Get in touch

About

Austin Rhys Williams is course leader/senior lecturer, PG Dip Professional Practice in Architecture at Kingston School of Art; and honorary research fellow at XJTLU University in China.

I am the director of the Future Cities Project, and have written for a range of publications; from the Times Literary Supplement to Top Gear; from the London Property Review to The Economist. I have recently published "Five Critical Essays on Architectural Education".

My latest books are "China's Urban Revolution: Understanding Chinese Eco-cities" (Bloomsbury, 2017) and "New Chinese Architecture: Twenty Women Building the Future" (Thames & Hudson, 2019). My previous books include: "Enemies of Progress", "The Future of Community" and "The Lure of the City". I co-founded the mantownhuman manifesto (featured in Penguin Classics "100 Artists' Manifestos") and I run the Bookshop Barnies (interviews with contemporary non-fiction authors) as well as hosting the Professional Practice Podcasts.

Qualifications

BSc (Hons)
Dip Arch
RIBA Part III
Member, Association of Professional Studies Advisers
Honorary Research Fellow, XJTLU university, Suzhou, China
Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy

Domains

Williams, Austin. Chapter: "China's Eco Dreams and Green Reality" in Zhang, Fagshu and Wu, Fulong (eds) China's urban environmental governance, Edward Elgar, 2023 forthcoming
Williams, A. (2022) Urban Fringe. In Quazi, Z. (ed) Urbanism(s) at Borders, SpringerLink. August 2022.
Williams, A. Series Editor, Five Critical Essays
- Architectural Education, 2021
- The Crit, February 2023
Williams, Austin. (2022) "Growth and the Appropriation of Nature. Left-wing Misanthropy, the Rise of Authoritarianism, and the Pro-Capitalist character of Environmental Discourse" in Lange, Elena Louisa and Joshua Depaolis-Pickett (eds.) (2022) The Conformist Rebellion: Marxist Responses to the Contemporary Left. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (Maryland, US).
Williams, A. "Environment & Freedom", Letter on Liberty, Academy of Ideas, February 2021
Williams, A. (2022) "The Emerging City: Malawi and China". In Powell, M. (ed) The Climate City, Wiley.
Williams, A. (2020) Urban transformation and mobility in Chinese society. In Chen, Chia-Lin et al. Handbook on Transport and Urban Transformation in China. Handbooks of Research on Contemporary China Series. Edward Elgar, March 2020.
Williams, A. (2019) What is Chinese Architecture?. In Lee, R. (ed), Robin Lee Architecture.
Williams, A. (2019) Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai Bridge, HKIUD Journal of Urban Design,
Williams, A. (2019) Around The World in 80 Minutes. Contributions to tomorrow's mobility, In 80 Minuten um die Welt: Beiträge zur Zukunft der Mobilität, Novo (Germany)
Williams, A. (2018) Fresh Soil: architectural modernism in China, LEAP magazine [pp18-23
Williams, A. (2018), Cities of the Future. In The Big Conversation 2019, BDP. pp6-13 (https://issuu.com/bdp_com/docs/bdp_2018_the_big_conversation/ Accessed 20 August 2019)
Williams, A. (2019), New Chinese architects: Twenty women building the future, New York/London. Thames & Hudson
Williams, A. (2018), Eco-cities: Understanding Chinese environmentalism. In Hudson, A, Chinese Urban Transformation: A Tale of Six Cities, London. RIBA Publishing
Williams, A. (2017), China's urban revolution: Understanding Chinese Eco-cities", London. Bloomsbury Academic
Williams, A. (2017), (ed). Style (in defence of…), Machine Books
Williams, A. (2017), Beyond pragmatism: The pedagogy of the impressed. In Hayes D, Beyond MacDonaldization, London. Pearson. pp115-129

Williams, A. (2014), Baiziwan Middle School by Wang Yun, Machine Books, 2014
Williams, A. and Dounas, T. (2012), eds Masterplanning the Future: Modernism – East, West & Across the World, TRG Publications, ISBN 978-1-903094-01-3
Williams, A. (2012), Don't de-carbonise, defenestrate. In One hundred great ideas for higher education, Academic Questions, 100th Issue, Volume 25, Issue 4, Winter 2012, ISSN: 0895-4852;
Williams, A. (2012), ed., The Architectural Review, London. Emap, September 2012
Williams, A. (2012), What is a City? In Littlefield, D. ed, Special Issue: London (Re)generation, AD, Volume 82, Issue 1, January/February 2012, pp66-68
Williams, A. (2012), Fashionable Dilemmas. In Tseelon, E. ed., Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty, Vol 2, Issue 1, Leeds, Intellect Books
Williams, A. (2011) citation, "Who's Who in Research: Visual Arts", Bristol/Chicago, Intellect Ltd,
Williams, A. (2011), ed., The lure of the city: from slums to suburbs, London, Pluto Press.
Williams, A. et al (2011), mantownhuman: manifesto towards a new humanism. In Danchev, A. ed. 100 Artists' Manifestos: From the Futurists to the Stuckists, Penguin Classic
Williams, A. (2010), Corroding the Curriculum: Sustainability v Education. In Sustainability: Special Issue, Academic Questions, NAS, Vol 23, No 1, pp. 70-83
Williams, A. (2009) Shortcuts: Book 1 – Structure and Fabric, London, NBS Publishing
Williams, A. (2009) Shortcuts: Book 2 – Sustainability and Practice, London, NBS Publishing
Williams, A. (2008) Enemies of Progress: The dangers of sustainability, London, Societas:Impact
Williams, A. et al (2008) eds. The Future of Community: Reports of a Death Greatly Exaggerated, London, Pluto Press.
Williams, A. et al (2008) Manifesto: Towards a New Humanism
Williams, A. (1999), ed., Transport in the New Millennium London, TRG Publications

Publications

Developing an analytical framework for liveable streets in Shanghai

Istrate, Aura-Luciana, Chen, Fei, Kadetz, Paul, Chang, Ying and Williams, Austin Rhys, 2021, URBAN DESIGN International (26), pp 3-20

Mr Austin Williams

Faculties, deparments and locations

About

Qualifications

Domains

Teaching and learning Open

Research Open

Publications

Authored Books Open

Articles Open

Book Chapters Open

Gallery of work

Professional Practice Podcasts

New Chinese Architecture: Twenty Women Building the Future (Thames and Hudson, 2019)

China's Urban Revolution: Understanding Chinese Eco-cities (Bloomsbury, 2017)

The Enemies of Progress: The Dangers of Sustainability (Societas, 2008)

The Lure of the City: From Slums to Suburbs, (Pluto, 2014)

The Future of Community: Reports of a Death Greatly Exaggerated (Pluto, 2008)

mantownhuman: manifesto towards a new humanism

Letters on Liberty: Greens, the new neo-colonialists

Style: In defence of...

Style: In defence of...

Five Critical Essays on Architectural Education

Videos of my work

Bookshop Barnie with Xing Ruan

The City After Lockdown

Bookshop Barnie with Joel Kotkin

Bookshop Barnie with Laura Dodsworth

Kingston School of Art Part 3 Professional Practice

Edge Town/Che Feng

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