Dr Elizabeth Darling
Reader in Architectural History
School of Education, Humanities and Languages

Role
Elizabeth Darling works on 20th century British architectural history with a particular interest in inter-war modernism, social housing, and gender.
She has published on the nature of authorship in the design process; the innovative practices of the inter-war voluntary housing sector; the housing consultant Elizabeth Denby; the relationship between citizenship and the reform of domestic space in inter-war Britain, and sexuality, domesticity and modernism in 1920s Cambridge.
Her book on British architectural modernism, Re-forming Britain: Narratives of Modernity before Reconstruction, was published by Routledge in early 2007 while an edited volume (with Lesley Whitworth), Women and the Making of Built Space in England, 1870-1950 was published by Ashgate in autumn 2007. Her most recent publication is Wells Coates (RIBA Publishing, 2012).
Forthcoming work includes a discussion of Modernism and the Neo-Georgian in 1930s England, and the introduction to a new edition of Elizabeth Denby's 1938 book Europe Rehoused.
Teaching and supervision
Courses
Undergraduate
- Museums and Society
- Art and Modernity, 1917-1939
- Curatorial Practice
- Advanced Seminar: This Changing World: Culture and Modernity in 1930s England
- Dissertation supervision
Research Students
Name | Thesis title | Completed |
---|---|---|
Alex Banister | Designing the Domestic: Women’s Writing on Architecture and Design in Interwar Britain | Active |
Research
Current research focuses on three main areas :
- the link between urban renewal and social (especially child welfare) reform in the slums of Edinburgh in the early 20th century (with funding from the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland)
- the arena in which progressive ideas about design and space were developed and disseminated in 1920s Britain and
- an in-depth study of the work and life of the architect-engineer Wells Wintemute Coates, which research is supported by funding from the Paul Mellon Centre for the Study of British Art and the RIBA Research Trust.