Professor Gordana Fontana-Giusti

Qualifications: PhD, MArch, Dip Arch, FRSA

Gordana Fontana-Giusti is an architect, theoretician and urban designer engaged in promoting arts and humanities for contemporary sustainable urban environments.

Fontana-Giusti is the Professor of Architecture and Urban Regeneration and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies at the Faculty of Humanities where she is the academic lead for CHASE – AHRC Consortium of Arts and Humanities of South East of England (www.chase.ac.uk).

She began her career at the Architectural Association, London (1986-2000), where she completed her doctorate and was involved in running of the Histories and Theories Programme. She took part in setting up of the London Consortium Doctoral Programme - comprising the AA, Tate, Birkbeck College, British Film Institute and the ICA (1994-2000).

Fontana-Giusti led the urban design unit at Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design, London (2004-07) where she coordinated Agora Cities for People - the FP5 European Commission research project in urban design.

Fontana-Giusti is the author of the Complete Works of Zaha Hadid (with Patrik Schumacher 2004, Thames & Hudson), Foucault for Architects(2013, Routledge) and co-editor and author of Scale: Imagination, perception and practice in architecture(2011, Routledge). Her scholarly articles have been published in AA-Files, ARQ, The Journal of Architecture, Architecture and Culture etc.

Fontana-Giusti lectured widely in the UK and abroad and has been involved in collaborative regeneration and urban design projects in Beijing organised by the Architectural Society of China.

Professor Fontana-Giusti has lectured at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Tsinghua University, Beijing, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, UNESCO Paris, UIA Istanbul, Walk 21 Zurich, and at universities in Utrecht, Barcelona, Novi Sad and others.

Her recent research involves study of spaces in maps, prints and drawings and their role in the formation of urban and landscape design. This included the exhibition on Christopher Packe’s Philosophico-Chorographic Chart of East Kent held in Canterbury Cathedral as part of Questions of Space (June 2016) and a book chapter on Albrecht Dürer and Venice published in the volume on Architecture and the Unconscious (2016, Ashgate).

Fontana-Giusti is a Fellow of Royal Society of Arts and actively collaborates with institutions such as the British Library, RIBA, V&A, Canterbury Heritage Museum, Canterbury Cathedral, Turner Contemporary and others.

Fontana-Giusti has supervised many PhD students and welcomes candidates with interest in contemporary architectural theory; architecture’s relationship to philosophy; art and architecture; technologies of art and architectural representation including the digital; history of architectural drawings; sustainable urban design and regeneration, ecological urbanism, psychological and social sustainability, theatre and architecture, public spaces, water and cities.

• Contemporary architectural theory
• Architecture's relationship to philosophy
• Art and architecture
• Technologies of art and architectural representation
• History of architectural drawings
• Sustainable urban design and regeneration
• Ecological urbanism
• Psychological and social sustainability
• Architecture and theatre
• Public spaces
• Water and cities

Current projects include:

• Designing Cities for People - A monograph in urban design
• The role of theatre drama in urban design
• The relationship of water and cities
  

Undergraduate

As reviewer / examiner:

• Crit panels throughout School (BA and MArch programmes)

Postgraduate

MPhil and PhD Research Seminars - Convenor of weekly research seminars involving reading of theoretical texts, research methodology discussions and presentations by candidates.

PhD Examiner

• PhD Examiner for European PhD degree Politecnico, Turin, Italy
  

PhD Supervision

• Benedetta Castagna
• Giacomo Damiani
• Howard Griffin
  
• Bernado Lopes
• Iliona Outram-Khalili
• Khaled Sedki
• Rafaella Siagkri
  

Post-PhD Supervision

• On Psycho-Social Quality of Dwelling and its improvement within Urban Context - Beria Bayizitlioglu

• AHRA representative, Kent School of Architecture and Planning, University of Kent
• Member of KIASH Steering Committee
• Member of SILBA Societe Leon Battista Alberti, Paris
• AA London
• Visiting Professor - PhD in Architecture - Technical University, Novi Sad