Gregory John Cowan

Gregory Cowan, based in Kings Cross, London, is currently on a unique VSO development posting, developing architectural education for one year in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He previously worked at the Royal Institute of British Architects, Education, as manager of student and graduate projects and awards. He taught post-professional students at the Workers Educational Association, Ilford, in degree in architecture studio and landscape urbanism at Kingston University, School of Architecture and Landscape, and was an invited speaker at the Banff International Curatorial Centre (Canada), Urban Life, Gothenburg, the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, London, and The Architecture Foundation's Renegade City, London.

Architectural education, professional, urban and general are reviewed from a grass-roots level in development work. Communication visually and linguistically is key. Ephemerality, mobility, and collaboration in architecture are key themes of research, particularly in relation to challenging and reconceptualizing architectural theory and practice. Ongoing research, including a new book chapter in Informal Architectures (Black Dog June 08), considers the unsettling influence of activist architecture occupying spaces in the city.

As a lecturer from 1993 to 2003, Gregory Cowan's work at Curtin University in Perth and Kuala Lumpur focused primarily on design studio, professional studies and design communications. His postgraduate research in architectural theory at the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design at Adelaide University led to a Master of Architecture degree by research in 2002, with a dissertation entitled 'Nomadology in Architecture: ephemerality, mobility and collaboration.' Architectural culture is viewed in the context of critique of Western institutions and of cultural difference between Europe and Australia. German-speaking central Europe remains of interest. Cowan was a visiting lecturer in the Architectural Theory Department at Vienna University of Technology and also at the University of Zagreb in 1999.

After graduating with an architecture honours degree from Curtin University in Perth in 1987, Gregory Cowan practiced architecture in the Western Australian public service architects' office, mostly on educational facilities; including Electrical training workshops, CAD/CAM Furniture making education workshops. From 1989 in Graz, Austria, he led design and construction of 28 Apartments in Knittlefeld with Architekturbuero Szyszkowitz - Kowalski. Joining Hermann Czech's atelier in Vienna in 1991, he schematically developed a mixed use urban complex straddling a railway in Paltaufgasse, Ottakring. Returning to Perth in 1992, he undertook commercial and residential projects as a freelance architect. He tutored architecture at University initially part-time, before developing an academic career.

(www.gregory.cowan.com)

Focus areas:
Writing and advocacy:
Nomadology in architecture, cross-cultural architectural awareness, activists and urbanism, cross-disciplinary practice and informal settlements, commmunity cultural development, architectural education in international and community development.
Research: International Development, Urban Nomadology, Nomadic Architecture, Counter-institutions, Protest architecture, Dissent
Teaching: Architectural Design, Architectural Model Making, Architectural Practice, Professional Communication, Architectural Theory, Architecture and Culture, Urbanism.

- August - November 2003 Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, London
- December 2003 Oxfam Community Development Workshop, India
- Bad Subjects January 2004
- Stirling Lecture Prize on Urban Design (Commendation), Canadian Centre for Architecture /London School of Economics
- Informal Architectures Banff Alberta 2004 - 2006

Street occupations and the impact of protest cultures on urbanity and architecture in the street. PhD proposal accepted by London Consortium 2004, postponed.

Urban design and architectural brief development, concept and design development.
Construction Education in developing world.
Collaborative techniques and community development
Architectural communication and conceptual development
Architectural and urban geography criticism