Public lecture on ‘Nostalgia & Architecture’

by Frances H Mikuriya, PhD

Place: Do Visual Lab, 2.5 Floor, Faculty of Architecture, CU

Date: Monday 11 December 2023, 2.15-3.15pm

This lecture is part of the annual AA Bangkok Visiting School workshop.

Dr Frances H Mikuriya joined us from London to teach in this year’s AA Bangkok Visiting School workshop. She gave a talk based on her PhD thesis on nostalgia and architecture. Frances discussed how the ‘idea’ and ‘symptoms’ of nostalgia have transformed since the 17th century and how they have impacted architecture more recently triggered by the rejection of Modernism. Frances’ lecture ended with some interesting questions from the guests raising thoughts regarding post modernist architecture to politics.

Frances H Mikuriya holds a PhD from the Architectural Association of Architecture (AA), an MSc in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University, and an MSc in Adaptive Architecture and Computation from the Bartlett Graduate School. She completed her Bachelors of Architecture (BArch) degree at the University of Texas in Austin. Frances taught at the AA for 8 years in First Year, Intermediate and Diploma Schools in Histories and Theories and Intermediate Design Unit. Her PhD thesis, which focused on Nostalgia and Architecture, was nominated for the RIBA President’s award in 2012. Frances studied under the late Mark Cousins since she was a graduate student at Columbia University and she moved to London to study her PhD under his supervision. Frances’ most recent architectural design work is a 7,400 square ft high-end boutique fitness studio on High Street Kensington in London, Body Machine Performance Studio (https://www.bodymachineps.com/our-space), which she designed together with AA alumni Jorgen Tandberg MNAL in 2018-2019. Frances is also the founder and director of Body Machine Performance Studio. She is currently the director of Frances M Fitness (https://www.francesmfitness.com/about). Her long standing interest in the relationship of architecture and the human body finds twofold expression in her professional practice in both the fields of design and physical training. Frances’ passion and complementarity of the two fields have been instrumental in helping her clients optimise their fitness potentials and she has garnered top reviews from her clients and press.