Dr Julia Wedel

PhD, MA IARD, RIBA Part I,II, III

Senior Lecturer in Architecture

School of Architecture

Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment

Phone number: 01865 483217

Email: j.wedel@brookes.ac.uk

Location:

Julia Wedel is a senior lecturer in architecture, researcher and architect.

Following a decade of architectural practice on environmental, education and international development projects, Julia has combined teaching and research at Oxford Brookes University since 2011.

As a lecturer, design tutor and subject coordinator of the MA International Architectural Regeneration and Development, I enjoy exploring the intersection of my architectural, environmental and social science research interests with a new cohort of MA and MArchD students every year.

My research interests centre on human-environment relations, precarious housing and qualitative and visual research methods.

My teaching focuses on architectural interventions in existing contexts, and specifically in consolidating diverse stakeholder and environmental interests through sensitive adaptive reuse of the existing built environment.

In a different role, I am involved in developing the school’s programme for PhD by office based exam.

Teaching

MA/MArchD PG Design studio tutor

Lecturer MA International Architectural Regeneration and Development

Subject Co-ordinator MA IARD

Supervision

MA International Architectural Regeneration and Development: MA Dissertation supervision

Research

Current research projects explore (a) resilience and wellbeing in environments of rapid change and scarce resources, with a particular focus on water scarcity in a Latin American context; (b) the role of sensory ethnography in understanding precarious housing; and (c) methodological work on the value and application of qualitative, small-sample studies in informing policy.

I am developing series of graphic short stories to visualise the experienced and political dimensions that affect livelihoods in contexts of rapid change and scarce resources.

Research group membership

Research Associate:

OISD: PCI & CENDEP

Research grants and awards

A staff development grant from Santander (with Dr. Aylin Orbaşlı) has allowed me to pursue a teaching collaboration with the University of Evora in 2014-15.

Publications

Book chapters

Wedel. J. (forthcoming, 2018) ‘The role of the professional in architectural regeneration’, in Architectural Regeneration. Eds Orbaşlı, A. and Vellinga, M., Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Orbaşlı, A. and Wedel, J. (forthcoming, 2018) ‘Teaching Architectural Regeneration’ in Architectural Regeneration. Eds Orbaşlı, A. and Vellinga, M., Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Conference papers

2017 ‘Building livelihoods amidst multiple temporalities of rapid change’, SIEF conference, March 2017, Göttingen, Germany.

2017 ‘Living Water, Making Water: The Experience and Political Construction of Water Scarcity’ Workshop participation at the SIEF conference, March 2017, Göttingen, Germany

2017 ‘The value and application of ethnographic approaches for resilience measurement – Evidence from a context of urban water scarcity’, Stockholm Resilience conference, August 2017

2017 'Water for Human Wellbeing: Revisiting the "Basic Needs" literature', Paper in progress

2013 ‘The costs of flexibility: Responses to water scarcity in an informal settlement in Lima, Peru’ Paper presented at PhD conference ‘Within the Limits of Scarcity: Rethinking Space, City and Practices’, Westminster University

Visual works

A collection of graphic short stories and a short animation to depict resilience to water scarcity through a series of interweaving vignettes that set the experience of water scarcity in its socio-political context. In progress.

Professional information

Membership of professional bodies

Higher Education Academy Fellow

RIBA Professional member (2007-9)