Contact:	Room 127 The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL Wates House, 22 Gordon Street London WC1H 0QB
t:	+ 44 (0)20 7679 4839
f:	+ 44 (0)20 7679 4831
e:	n.spiller@ucl.ac.uk

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Research Interests

My research is centred upon how architecture is invigorated by cyberspace, the blurred boundary between the virtual and the actual, and how the different parameters of these spaces can be used to inform one another. My early experience in practice was that buildings are limited by the inert materials used to construct them and by the unimaginative ideas of what a building should look like and be. My research draws upon a variety of different disciplines to inform one – architecture. The areas of research are multidisciplinary and include: the changing status of the architectural drawing, smart materials, computer aided architectural drawing, computer aided manufacture, emergent systems, responsive environments, the architectural design of cyberspace, interactivity, cybernetics and evolving systems and algorithmic design.

To create responsive, non-prescriptive designs for architectural intervention was the starting point which led to an interest in the logic of algorithms and open-ended systems. These problem–solving diagrams used by computer programmers are very useful as a way of describing fluctuating conditions in responsive environments. This led to an interest in other computing paradigms such as cellular automata, complexity and emergence. These and other ideas I attempted to bring into the arena of architectural design to help architects cope with the rapid growth of computational technology which was starting to revolutionise the way buildings were designed, drawn and built.

To this end, and with multidisciplinary aspirations, I was guest editor of AD Architects in Cyberspace (1995). This was the first national and international architectural mainstream architectural publication to describe some of the significant potential that digital technology has held for architectural designers since the Sixties. Its contents include pieces written by philosophers, architects, performance artists, digital art theorists and psychologists. This publication was followed by the authored book Digital Dreams (1998) and further guest editorships of AD Architects in Cyberspace II (1998), and Reflexive Architecture (2002). These publications are considered to be critical documents for those interested in the fusion of architecture and digital technology.

Since the publication of ’Architects in Cyberspace’ I have become known internationally and my work has been disseminated in books, journals, lectures and broadcasts. Additionally, the work of my design students at the Bartlett School is also internationally published in journals and books. My best students are recognised as innovators in their own right and respected throughout the international architectural community. This I feel is a by-product of student familiarity with my research work. Dissertations by postgraduate students of other universities are written about my work. Digital Theory and Architecture is a rapidly expanding area of research and the technology that informs it is also rapidly expanding. It is a competitive area of research and one has to have the ability to respond quickly for publication .I am continually looking for and exploring new areas of research which could inform the architectural debate. The theoretic basis of my work is found to be useful for architects in practice and also those in education.

In the last decade my academic work has focused on issues of Digital Theory, most recently it has been on the design of reflexive environments, information ecologies and Architecture. This has resulted in further publications, lectures and public exposure. My research concentrates on three interrelated areas: The History of Virtual Space in Twentieth Century Architectural Discourse, History and Theory in the Twentieth Century Architectural Avant-garde and the positing of theoretical architectural designs that utilise virtual, reflexive, responsive and advanced technologies .I have been instrumental internationally in creating new fields of architectural experiment, research and scholarship.

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Selected Key Outputs

Visionary Architecture
A History of Twentieth Century Visionary Architecture (2006)
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Communicating Vessels
A Design and Written text Research Project (2007)
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Lost Architectures
Wiley Academy (2001)
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Architectural design and the impact of advanced Technology
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Curriculum Vitae

Teaching

I am currently the MArch Architectural Design (2004–) Director and I have been the Bartlett's Diploma Director (1993–2005). Since my tenure the reputation of these courses has risen to the point that they are now some of the pre-eminent courses in the world at this level. The courses' graduates have won many honours, and architectural competitions and have been placed in the Royal Institute of British Architects' Presidents Silver Medal International competition on numerous occassions. Indeed the students from the Bartlett's Diploma Course have won the annual Silver Medal four times and been runners up four times and also have won numerous drawing prizes. The courses' graduates have an exceptionally high employment rate and are offered work around the world.
Teaching activity has been concerned with the attainment of high academic standards in syllabus content, variable teaching methods (crits, seminars, tutorials, group learning and work) and cross year, intra-departmental, intra-faculty, inter-faculty and inter-university discussion. This teaching has enabled me to produce papers, and contribute to conferences and publications on new methods of architectural education and pedagogy. This teaching has been focused on five primary areas.

Director of MArch (Architectural Design) (2004– ) [Link]
Design Master Unit 19 (1992–) [Link]
Supervisor Diploma Technical Dissertation (1996–) [Link]
Director of Diploma Programme (1993–2005 ) [Link]
Tutor to Diploma History and Theory Course (1995–9) [Link]

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Academic Supervision

Goncalo Furtado [PhD] : The Bartlett, UCL
Shaun Murray [PhD] : Planetary Colleguim, Plymouth

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Awards and affiliations