Stephen Parcell Professor BArch (Toronto), MArch (Cranbrook), PhD (McGill) Teaching and administration I teach courses in architectural design, history, and representation. From 1994 to 2010 I also coordinated the graduate design theses in the final year of the MArch program. As the School's undergraduate coordinator, graduate coordinator, and former assistant dean, much of my attention has been devoted to the workings of an architecture school. Research My general research areas are architectural history, theory, and design. Research studies have focused on historical definitions of architecture, alliances between architecture and other disciplines, and tensions between architectural representations and the world at large. Philosophically, these studies are grounded in hermeneutics: how architecture is engaged and interpreted.
In 2007 I completed a PhD in architectural history and theory at McGill University. The dissertation examines four historical definitions of Western architecture: architecture as a techné in ancient Greece, as a mechanical art in the Middle Ages, as an art of disegno in Renaissance Italy, and as a fine art in the eighteenth century. These definitions situated architecture within larger classifications of knowledge. They established alliances between architecture and other disciplines. They also organized elements of architectural practice: what we would associate conventionally with the designer, builder, dweller, material, drawing, and building. The dissertation reviews writings in each historical period and focuses on the practical implications of several texts: Hugh of St. Victor, Didascalicon; Leon Battista Alberti, De re aedificatoria, Book 1; and Étienne-Louis Boullée, Essai sur l'art. As a series, the four historical definitions show how the very concept of architecture and the elements of architectural practice have been open to change. Even the word "architecture" has ambiguous roots. Four Historical Definitions of Architecture, a book based on the dissertation, will be published in March 2012 by McGill-Queen's University Press.
CHORA: Intervals in the Philosophy of Architecture is a refereed series of books in architectural history and theory, published by McGill-Queen's University Press. Alberto Pérez-Gómez and I are the editors. The seventh volume is now in preparation. Although the series is based in Canada and oriented toward architecture, the authors are international and the subjects are interdisciplinary. Prospective articles are welcome and we work with authors to develop promising submissions. |
