Job title
Senior Lecturer, Architecture
Job responsibilities
Current responsibilities are as Programme Leader, BArch (Hons) Architecture, and as Verifier for the Interior Architecture programme, Design Center, Johannesburg. Her main teaching interests relate to design in the architectural studio, the integration of knowledge into the architecture project, conceptual and theory-related design and culturally responsive architectural design, as well as the teaching and learning activities that encourage this.
Research Centre or Group
Architectural Design and Global Difference
Research, scholarly and professional interests
As part of the Architectural Design and Global Difference research group, her main interest is in the meeting of designers' personal ideologies and contextual cultural factors in architectural design. This is coupled with concerns with the relationship between the local and the global, the elusiveness of identity and the forms this takes in the human environment.
Current projects
The Sky Vault project: Alina Hughes and Tom Hughes are developing their design for the Sky Vault East Midlands landmark as part of the design practice 2hD. This project resulted from a competition-winning scheme designed to enhance the East Midlands' regional identity. The intention is to explore this scheme both as a live project case study and as a vehicle for identity studies. An interest in the nature of the project's representation has already resulted from the great number of public interface opportunities offered by its outreaching nature.
Information for prospective research students
Alina’s main interests for potential PhD supervisions are:
- globalisation in design higher education, architectural design and its representations
- relationship between the local and the global, the elusiveness of identity and the forms this takes in the human environment
- the meeting of designers' personal ideologies and contextual cultural factors in architectural design.
Link: Sky Vault landmark project
