Dr Nikolaos Karydis

Qualifications: M.Arch. M.Sc. Ph.D.

Nikolaos Karydis is a practising architect as well as an academic. He studied architecture at the National Technical University of Athens from 1998 to 2004. Having won a Greek state scholarship, he studied Conservation of Historic Buildings at the University of Bath, where he was awarded the Master of Science with distinction in 2006. In the three following years he remained in Bath, carrying out his doctoral research in the History of Architecture. He was awarded his Ph.D. in 2009, and, in 2010, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Architecture in the Rome Studies Program of the University of Notre Dame. In parallel to his academic work and research, he has worked on urban design and architectural projects both independently and as a senior designer in collaboration with Porphyrios Associates in London.

His research focuses on two different areas: the development of construction technology and the design aspect of city making, with specific focus on the European traditions. The Ph.D. thesis he carried out at the University of Bath reflects his interest in the development of vaulting. His research in this field has sought to recapture the original vaulted form and structure of the Early Byzantine churches of west Asia Minor. This work was distinguished with the 2010 R.I.B.A. President’s Commendation for Outstanding Ph.D. thesis and resulted in his book on Early Byzantine vaulted construction, published by B.A.R. International Series in 2011.

Dr Karydis is particularly interested in research projects that bring together the detailed study of individual monuments with a broad view of the urban environment. His current work looks at urban development in Early Modern Rome, and investigates the ways in which specific building projects of the 16th and the 17th centuries conditioned urban renewal. Entitled 'Buildings as Engines of Change in Rome from Sixtus IV to Alexander VII', this three-year project highlights the changing attitudes concerning the interplay between building and urban space in Rome and reconstructs the stages of the planning history of some of Europe’s most influential urban forms.

Survey, Analysis and Conservation of Historic Buildings

• Approaches in graphic recording
• Structural analysis of historic buildings
• Graphic reconstruction methodology
• Structural conservation techniques
• The development of the philosophy of conservation from the Renaissance to the present

History of the Vaulted Construction

• Surveying, reconstruction and 3D graphic modeling of vaulted structures
• Roman, Late Antique and Byzantine vaulted architecture
• The use of lath and plaster vaults in Georgian and Regency architecture in England
• Contemporary brick vaulting

Vernacular Architectural Idioms

• Survey of vernacular houses in the Eastern Mediterranean
• Structural analysis of traditional, earthquake-resistant construction systems
• Preservation of vernacular settlements
• Urban space in vernacular settlements

History of Urban Form

• Urban history of the city of Rome
• Architectural analysis of Rome's urban structure
• Historical and cultural contexts of citymaking in Early Modern Europe
• Urban development of the cities of west Asia Minor in Late Antiquity
• Design of contemporary tourist settlements
  

PhD Supervision

• Rawan Allouzi
• Anske Bax
• Maria Dimitriou
• Omer Pamak