Professor of Architecture and Urbanism
MSc Urban Design Course Director
Design Tutor Unit 18

Contact:	Room 122 The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL Wates House, 22 Gordon Street London WC1H 0QB
t:	+44 (0)20 7679 4861
f:	+44 (0)20 7916 4831
e:	c.fournier@ucl.ac.uk

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Research Interests

Urbanism
Within the field of urbanism, there are three distinct areas of research activity that Colin Fournier is involved in:

Hyperdensity: Investigations related to high rise urban design and the development of  compact cities. Cities that have been used as case studies both for analytical research and for design proposals include Hong Kong, Shanghai and Manhattan.
Sustainability: Research into sustainability principles applicable to urban development. Compared to research into sustainability at the scale of individual buildings, this field has so far remained relatively undeveloped.
Generative systems: Use of generative design methods at the scale of urban design. This involves exchanges with professor John Frazer and Professor Manfred Wolff-Plottegg from the TU Wien, Austria.

Architecture
Four main areas of research investigation, both academically and professionally:

Relationship between architecture and urban design: Building seen primarily not as an isolated object but as part of the urban fabric.
Experimental architecture: Investigations into new geometries (particularly the use of double curved “biomorphic” surfaces); new concepts of responsive, interactive architecture (in particular in the use of electronic facades); new materials.
Analytical topology: Relationship between architecture, space and emotion, i.e. the psychological dimension of architecture.
Architecture and philosophy: Particularly, research into the applicability to architecture of the concepts developed by the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard.

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Selected Key Outputs

Fournier,C. (2004). L’ architecture de la séduction. in Francois L’Yvonnet (ed.) Baudrillard. Paris: L'Herne, 185-193. ISBN: 2-85197-146-8
[Detail]

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Curriculum Vitae

Teaching

MSc Urban Design
The Bartlett’s Master of Science course in Urban Design has been developed and run by Colin Fournier as Course Director since its inception in the 1998-1999 academic year. The course is project-oriented and places considerable emphasis on the combination of theoretical research and physical design. While it expects students to work within the planning, technical and economic constraints of the “real world”, It primarily encourages them to develop innovative and experimental approaches that go beyond the limitations of current practice. The students come from a multidisciplinary background, although the majority have a background in design, whether as architects or landscape architects. Since the beginning of the course, the urban contexts that have been proposed as objects of urban design research have been chosen so as to expose students to a wide variety of different geographic and cultural conditions. These include: Hong Kong, Shangai, Manhattan, Thames Gateway.
The course director, as well as the three tutors making up the teaching staff, maintain close connections with the profession: key staff members from leading UK practices and international firms are called upon, in addition to visiting academics, to give lectures, run seminars and workshops, as well as to act as external critics for project reviews. The course is therefore very exposed both academically and professionally, achieving positive external recognition. Consequently, graduates have no difficulty finding employment in leading practices worldwide.

Diploma Unit 18
The work of Diploma Unit 18 has always been original and innovative particularly due to the fact that students are given considerable latitude to develop their own agenda. The design philosophy of the unit encourages an examination of the urban scale in physical design and in this respect is complementary to the research work undertaken by the MSc students, at a more detailed architectural level.

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Awards and Affiliations

Appointments and Affiliations

RIBA, Royal Institute of British architects, UK, Member, 1971-current

SADG, Societe des architectes diplomes par le gouvernement, France, Member, 1969-current

AA, Architectural Association, UK, Member, 1969-current

RCA, Royal College of Art, UK, External examiner, 2001-2004

RMIT, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, External examiner, 2002-2004

Prizes, Awards and other Honours

Frankfurt, Germany, Technical prize awarded for the Kunsthaus Graz project , 2006

Graz, Haus der Architektur, Austria, Architekturpreis des Landes Steiermark, Year prize, 2005, awarded for the Kunsthaus Graz project , 2005

RIBA, Royal Institute of British architects, UK, Stirling prize nomination, Nominated and short-listed as one of the 6 finalists for the Stirling prize, 2004

RIBA, Royal Institute of British architects, UK, RIBA Year prize, 2004, Awarded for the Kunsthaus Graz project, 2004

Graz, Land Steiermark, Austria, Goldener Ehrenzeichen (Golden order of merit), Awarded by the Governor of the province of Styria (Landeshauptmann Frau Waltraud Klasnic) to Professor Colin Fournier for his role as Partner in charge of the Kunsthaus Graz project, 2004

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