Dr Simon Richards

• Architectural history and theory, especially modern through to contemporary
• Philosophical aesthetics, including comparative aesthetics of different world cultures
• Discourses of tradition and heritage in the arts and built environment
• Concepts of self and psychology in architecture

My recent research projects and collaborative endeavours have included: explorations of the Delos Symposia as the first concerted attempt to frame the global built environment as a problem of environmental sustainability; a multi-phase investigation of various aspects of Japanese architectural and heritage discourse; events and collected volumes reinterrogating concepts of regionalism and regional identities.

• A book on C. A. Doxiadis and the Delos Symposia, as PI of AHRC-funded research network in collaboration with Dr. Mantha Zarmakoupi: https://delosnetwork.com/
• Edited book (Critiques) and journal (Architecture and Culture) from AHRA 2021 ‘Region’ conference

PhD supervision

I welcome research proposals on the areas of expertise outlined above, and have successfully supervised PhDs on the following topics: Representations of The City in Taiwanese New Wave Cinema (Chiang, 2013); Heritage and Preservation of British Modernist High-Rise Residential Developments (Moss, 2015); The Post-Colonial Critique of Western Literary Utopias: Plato, More, Bellamy, Welles (Khoshnaw, 2016); Roger Fry, Clive Bell and the Anglo-American Formalist Orthodoxy in Early 20th Century Painting and Aesthetics (Maddock, 2017); Re-interrogating Critical Regionalism (Zheng, 2022); The Application of Islamic Principles and Traditional Knowledge to Achieve a Sustainable Urban Form in Al-Ula (Matar, 2023).

Monographs

• Richards, S. Architect Knows Best: Environmental Determinism in Architecture Culture from 1956 to the Present, Ashgate/Routledge, London, 2012/2016. (AHRC funded)
• Richards, S. Le Corbusier and the Concept of Self, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2003. (British Academy funded)

Edited Books

• Zarmakoupi, M. and Richards, S. (eds.), The Delos Symposia and Doxiadis, Lars Müller Publishers, Zurich, 2024 (© 2025). (AHRC/Pistiolis Foundation/UPenn funded)
• Richards, S., Schmidt III, R., Sanliturk, C., and Palaiologou, F. (eds.), Region, Routledge, London, 2023

Edited Journals

• Richards, S., Schmidt III, R., Sanliturk, C., and Jazaierly, A. (eds.), Regional Fragments, special edition of Architecture and Culture, 11, No. 3, Spring 2025

Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters

• Richards, S., ‘Delos and “The Human Factor”’, in Mantha Zarmakoupi and Simon Richards (eds.), The Delos Symposia and Doxiadis, Lars Müller Publishers, Zurich, 2024 (© 2025)
• Zheng, Z., Schmidt III, R., and Richards, S., ‘Reinterrogating Critical Regionalism’, in Architecture and Culture, 11, No. 3, Spring 2025
• Matar, F., Palaiologou, F., and Richards, S., ‘Urban sustainability assessment for vernacular and traditional built environments’, Journal of Urban Management, Volume 12, Issue 2, 2023 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2023.01.001
• Gutai, M., Richards, S., and Kafantaris, A., ‘The Transparency Trilemma: Interrogating Transparency in Architectural Design’, Plan, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2022 DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.15274/tpj.2022.07.01.6
• Richards, S., ‘Demolition traditions: Isozaki and Sakaguchi’, in Architectural Research Quarterly, 25, Issue 1, March 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1359135521000154
• Richards, S. ‘Weighing up intangible heritage: a view from Ise’, in Amy Barnes, Katy Bunning and Sheila Watson (eds.), A Museum Studies Approach to Heritage, Routledge, London, 2019
• Richards, S. ‘“The Moving Image of Eternity”: idealism, incompleteness and Ise Jingū’, in Philosophy East and West, Vol. 68, No. 3, July 2018 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/pew.2018.0074
• Richards, S., ‘The Modulor’, in Graham Livesey and Antony Moulis (eds.), Le Corbusier, Routledge, London, 2017
• Richards, S. Introduction to Robert Lamb Hart, A New Look at Humanism: in Architecture, Landscapes, and Urban Design, Meadowlark Publishing, 2016
• Richards, S. ‘“Shadows in the Farthest Corners”: The Pursuit of National Identity in Japanese Architectural Aesthetics’, in M. Gamal Abdelmonem and Ruth Morrow (eds.), Peripheries, Routledge, London, 2012
• Richards, S. ‘“Vernacular” Accommodations: Wordplay in Contemporary-Traditional Architecture Theory’, in Architectural Research Quarterly, Vol. 16, Issue 1, Spring 2012 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/s1359135512000279
• Richards, S. ‘“Halfway Between the Electron and the Universe”: Doxiadis and the Delos Symposia’, in Gerald Adler, Timothy Brittain-Catlin and Gordana Fontana-Giusti (eds.), Scale: Imagination, Perception and Practice in Architecture, Routledge, London, 2011
• Richards, S. ‘Pop Architecture: A Toxic History’, in Mark Crinson and Claire Zimmerman (eds.), Neo-avant-garde and Postmodern: Postwar Architecture in Britain and Beyond, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2010
• Richards, S., ‘Le Corbusier’, in Ray Hutchinson (ed.), Encyclopedia of Urban Studies, Sage, London, 2009
• Richards, S. ‘Destroy All Humans!’, in Iain Boyd Whyte (ed.), The Man Made-Future: Planning, Education and Design in the mid-20^th Century, Routledge, London, 2007
• Richards, S. ‘The Antisocial Urbanism of Le Corbusier’, in Common Knowledge, Vol. 13, No. 1, Winter 2007 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754X-2006-029
• Richards, S. ‘Communities of Dread’, in Sarah Menin (ed.), Constructing Place: Mind and the Matter of Place-Making, Routledge, London, 2003

Undergraduate

• CVA059 Architectural History (Module Leader)
• CVB078 Critical Theory (Module Leader)

As well as the above, I also contribute to Design Studio teaching, reviews and supervision at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Previous appointments include: Senior Research Officer, School of Philosophy and Art History, University of Essex; Associate Professor, School of Arts, University of Leicester.

Previous institutional experience: Research Director, REF Coordinator, Impact and Environment Officer, ERASMUS/International Liaison Officer, Admissions Director, Curriculum Transformation Lead, Deputy Head of School, School Management and Programme Approval Boards.

Professional affiliations

• Architectural Humanities Research Association: http://www.ahra-architecture.org/
• Delos Network: https://delosnetwork.com/

External activities

I offer art, architecture and aesthetics related reviews and refereeing to a wide variety of publishers and outlets, including: Yale University Press; Ashgate/Routledge; Architecture Philosophy; Architectural Histories; Journal of Architecture; Common Knowledge; Planning Perspectives; Architectural Research Quarterly; Architectural Theory Review; Open Arts Journal; Journal for Asian and African Studies; Journal of Rural Studies; Journal of Interrupted Studies; The Art Book; Times Higher Education Supplement; Urban History.