
Aleks Catina
Senior Lecturer
Lecturer
Architectural design and methods
Department of Architecture & Visual Arts , School Of Architecture, Computing And Engineering
Aleks is a Senior Lecturer and Year 1 Coordinator for BSc Architecture. He is an educator and researcher in the field of architecture. He received his postgraduate design education at the Royal College of Art. He started teaching in HE in 2008 and he has taught at master-level as well as leading a foundation course and year 1. He has led modules on design education as well as history and theory at various UK universities.
Qualifications
- Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
- MA RCA
- MA Architecture H&T
- BA (Hons) Architecture
Areas Of Interest
- Architectural research
- History and theory of architecture
- Writing about architecture
- Learning and teaching in HE for the creative industries
OVERVIEW
Aleks has extensive expertise in designing and delivering learning and teaching provisions in compliance with a research-based approach to the pedagogy of architectural education. He joined UEL in 2022 and has taken on the coordination of the first year. Aleks is currently completing his PhD at Birkbeck, University of London.
Every year, Aleks organises a week-long history field trip to Italy for the first year cohort. He advocates the effect a first-hand experience of history can have in enabling and supporting independence and personal development in problem-based education. Through a variety of techniques of designing, making and representation the year 1 course encourages students to test means of bridging the gap between the architectural image and the lived experience in the world we are tasked to alter and maintain.
CURRENT RESEARCH
Research and impact
Aleks’ PhD thesis explores radical difference and criticality in the cultural production in post-colonial and post-communist settings since the end of the Cold War. It investigates allegorical connotations attached to the architectural monument from situated perspectives outside the historical West. Focusing on contemporary art in Africa, the research aims to describe non-canonical applications of critical idioms, such as irony, in the processes and material choices of works that thematise radical differences through the encounter with the monumental. It asks what insights these critiques hold for a heteroglot description of ‘critical architecture’.
Aleks’ published research documents a wide-ranging interest in the cultural field of architecture. In his current work, he addresses the opportunities offered by the decolonised curriculum for the advancement of reflective teaching practice.
Most recent research
On pedagogy:
On the architecture of the British High Street:
On history (exhibition review):
Aleks' passion is for creative writing at the intersection with scholarly practice. His monograph, a take on architectural fiction writing, titled 'The Pillars of Uncertainty' (a Jeu d’ esprit on the monument), is coming out in the autumn of 2024.
PUBLICATIONS
Authored Book(s)
- (Forthcoming) Aleks Catina, The Pillars of Uncertainty, London; Cours de Poetique (Cours de Poetique, 2024)
Book Chapter(s)
- Aleks Catina, 'The Dubious High Street: Distinctiveness, gentrification and social value', AHRA 2019 Conference Book (Routledge, 2021)
Journal Articles
- Aleks Catina, Review: 'Superstudio Migrazioni' (exhibition), ARQ, July 2021.
- Aleks Catina, 'Letter to a Young Architect', Architecture Review, September 2020, n,73-4.
- Aleks Catina, 'Dialogue and studio space: the architectural design studio as the setting for continuous reflection', Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching, Vol. 3, No.1, Singapore, 2020.
- Aleks Catina, 'Stages of Dialogue: the role of reflective teaching and learning in the architecture design studio', Investigations in University Teaching and Learning (2017).
- Aleks Catina, 'The Failings of a Fleet of Fools: Encountering the interiors of disused power stations'. Idea Journal, 13(1), 2013, p.130-141.
Conferences and Talks
Conference papers
- 'The Dubious High Street: Images between gentrification and social value'; 16th Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA) Conference: Architecture and Collective Life, Dundee, November 2019.
- 'Stages of Dialogue; Widening access through design teaching'; London Metropolitan Learning and Teaching Conference; London, 2019.
- Panel chair The Commons and Public Space, at AHRA conference, Dundee, 2019.
Talks
- AAD Sessions: 'Forms of Resistance', 25th May 2022.
- 'Provincializing Irony, decolonising architectural meaning-making' (talk), Learning and Teaching Conference 2021, London Metropolitan University.
TEACHING
MODULES
- First Year design studio
- History and Theory, Year 1 and 2
Publications
Browse past publications by year.
Full publications list
Visit the research repository to view a full list of publications