Matthew Armitt
Lecturer in Architecture
Birmingham School of Architecture and Design
- Email:
- Matthew.Armitt@bcu.ac.uk
- Phone:
- +44 (0)121 331 5110
Matthew’s research is on the period of the 1920s and 1930s on Soviet Architecture, Theory, and Architectural Teaching. Through his past research, Matthew has explored the revolutionary architectural teaching methods of the Russian Architecture School VKhUTEMAS (Higher Artistic and Technical Studios) through a discipline of architectural teaching called Space. He has spent time researching at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), University of Cambridge, Moscow School of Architecture (MARKhI) and the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI) in Moscow.
His current research is to establish further cross-theoretical connections between soviet architecture, theory and teaching tracing parallel links with contemporaneous concerns of architects and teachers on Soviet architecture and teaching to enhance the understanding of the period. This approach will shed light on how the workings of the theory and trends of architects – individual theoretical ambitions and architectural language of the Soviet period developed and establish new knowledge on key historical personalities and movements which still remain obscure. This will open the prospect of a more thoroughly grounded understanding on a variety of new and unknown topics within Soviet architecture.
The research is intended to serve architects and students of Soviet architecture, as well as to aid institutions and individuals collecting and researching material on the subject. It will be amongst researchers themselves where parallel connections will render its most important service, by opening up the wholly unfamiliar world of intellectual discourse within which their Soviet fellow-professionals have always worked contributing to the History and Theory of Soviet architecture and teaching.
Beyond his Doctoral research, Matthew founded the research group Russia House created as a collaborative research collective to celebrate Soviet creative thought of the 1920s. The intention is to remain research active and to develop new areas of investigation into the history of architecture by continuing to develop research on the History and Theory of Soviet architecture and architectural teaching in Moscow. Russia House establishes a program to restore and preserve the integrity of Soviet pioneering creative thought between architecture, theory and architectural teaching and to promote current and new research to widen the current academic and public debate challenging current areas of known and developing unknown areas of research across three areas: (i) Soviet architecture, theory, and architectural teaching research, (ii) collaborative research and (iii) education of architectural students in the UK and beyond.