Research and expertise
At its heart my research is principally concerned with architectural representation. Exploring the roles of drawing and making as generative processes, my work seeks to questions the ethics and agencies of representational practices in the experience, perception, and shaping of space. As an artist, architect, educator and academic my work is comprised of a diverse mixture of historical research, methodological experimentation, and speculative thematic enquiry developed through a broad variety of practice based outputs.
Current research activity
Drawing on the current resurgence and our enduring cultural fascination with the ethereal and uncanny, this research package is centred on an ongoing body experimental practice-based research which frames the spectral as a deconstructive gesture and generative stimulus that undermines the fixedness and certainties of binary logics, providing a means to develop new practices and positions from which to address our contemporary uncertainties. The work seeks construct a discipline through which latency, uncertainty, and indeterminacy (inherent characteristics of the architectural condition) can, once more, be valued, nurtured, and cultivated. Guided by the themes of fragmentation, duration, and multiplicity set forth in Dalibor Vesely’s Magnum Opus ‘Architecture in the Age of Divided Representation’, this project reconceptualises architectural drawing as a temporal construct, a residue of the process of transference from tacit intuition to tangible representation. It charts a largely unmapped disciplinary territory between the documentation of ‘spatial effect and artistic artifact’ in order to initiate a broader disciplinary conversation about the relationships and disjunctions between process, image, and representation.
Recently completed research projects
- Baldwin, P. ‘Soul B(u)oy’: In Memoriam: (Drawings) Yale School of Architecture, 20th Feb - 01st Nov 2020. Connecticut. In Memoriam presents tombs that architects design for themselves, in the past and the present, as a starting point in a conversation about memory and death in Architecture. What do we as architects choose to remember and honour — and how? Invited contributors to this exhibition included: Mark Foster Gage, Young & Ayata, Bryan Cantley, Níall McLaughlin, Flores & Prats and Stephen Slaughter & Aaron Tkac. My design explored the post-mortem condition of online presence and the media logics of memorials, ultimately proposing a columbarium for our virtual fingerprints in the form of a geostationary satellite anchored above zero degrees latitude and zero degrees longitude.
Recent publications
- Baldwin, P (2023) ‘Sites of Inscription‘ AD - A Sublime Synthesis: Architecture and Art’. Vol 93. No 5 ISBN 978 1394 170791
- S Cantley, B. & Baldwin, P (ed.) (2023) Speculative Coolness. Routledge. London. ISBN: 978-1-032-31886-8
- Baldwin, P (2022) ‘SacRE[a]D Vessels’. DRAWING: Research, Theory, Practice. Vol. 7. No. 2.
Teaching
I contribute to learning and teaching activities across the Schools programmes including:
Undergraduate
- Module Lead Design Skills (B. Arch/Architectural Engineering)
- Module Tutor Design Skills (B. Arch/Architectural Engineering)
- Module Lead Design Part B (Architectural Engineering)
- Dissertation Tutor (ABCE)
Postgraduate
- Module Tutor M1 Design Studio (M. Arch)
Profile
Over the past 17 years, I have engaged with the discipline formally and informally as a student, professional, and educator. I held teaching posts at the University of Lincoln for 13 years, including Programme, year and module leadership.. During this time, I have also served as External critic at other institutions including the University of Nottingham, The University of Huddersfield, and The University of Portsmouth.
I currently hold external roles as an Examiner for the RIBA Studio (Certificate and Diploma). As a practitioner I have worked on projects of various sizes and scales, focussing on residential newbuild, extension, and adaptive reuse. I remain active within the profession sitting on the RIBA East Midlands Education Group and serving as Vice President for the Lincolnshire Society of Architects from 2019 until 2023.
My research explores the generative and speculative potential of architectural drawing, representational methods, and design practices and their role in the experience, perception, and shaping of space. I was fortunate to receive Arts Council funding to pursue my creative practice (DYCP Round 15 2022) and I have been invited to give a number of guest lectures including: “Witness Marx; ‘towards a Spectral Turn’, part of the internationally recognized ‘Drawing Forward’ Lecture series (University of Huddersfield 2022), and ‘Altered Perspectives & [dot].compressions’ part of the ‘Matters of Concern’ lecture series (the Portsmouth School of Architecture).
I was invited to exhibit at the Yale School of Architecture as part of the “In Memoriam” Exhibition (2020) and my work featured in AD ‘Radical Architectural Drawing’ [Wiley 2022].
My work on representational theory has also recently been published in Badenoch and Skandarajah’s “Cartographies of the Imagination” (2021), DRAWING: Research, Theory, Practice (Intellect Books 2022), and will feature in AD “A Sublime Synthesis: Architecture and Art” (Wiley September 2023).
I collaborated Professor Bryan Cantley on his latest Book “Speculative Coolness” (Routledge 2023), and will guest edit and issue of Architecture Design (AD), titled “Ghost Stories: Architecture and the Intangible” (Wiley 2024).
I am committed to delivering an excellent student experience and to creating an excellent learning environment and community.
Professional affiliations
- ARB
- RIBA
- HEA
Awards
- RIBA Annie Spink Award for Excellence in Education - Nominee (2022)
- RHS Gold Medal - “S.T.A.N” (2014)
- RHS Gold Medal - “Digital Capabilities” [Fresh Gardens Category] (2013)
External activities
- Plymouth School of Architecture: External Examiner (M.Arch)
- Oxford Brookes [RIBA Studio]: Examiner (Certificate + Diploma)
- ARB: Validation Panel Member
Key collaborators
My research and enterprise activities are conducted with a range of academic and stakeholder partners, including:
- Professor Bryan Cantley (UCLA)