Conference on Architecture, European Urbanisation and Globalisation

Christian Schulz is Professor of European Sustainable Spatial Development and Analysis at the University of Luxembourg and since 2007 Head of its interdisciplinary Research Unit IPSE (Identités. Politiques, Sociétés, Espaces).
His research and teaching mainly focus on cross-border regional development in Europe as well as on environmental economic geography. He recently co-edited the first handbook on spatial development in Luxembourg (Chilla/Schulz 2011: Raumordnung in Luxemburg / Aménagement du territoire au Luxembourg, Binsfeld). In March 2012, a co-authored textbook on economic geography will be released in German (Braun/Schulz 2012: Wirtschaftsgeographie, UTB-Ulmer, forthcoming). He co-directed the ESPON study METROBORDER - Cross-Border Polycentric Metropolitan Regions (2008-2009).
He is a core group member of the Regional Studies Association’s research network on ecological regional development, member of the editorial board of The Canadian Geographer and Europa Regional, and acts on the international advisory board of the International College of Territorial Sciences / Collège International des Sciences du Territoire (CIST) based in Paris.

Murray Fraser is Professor of Architecture and Global Culture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, where he currently acts as the Director of Research.
He has published extensively on design, architectural history & theory, urbanism, and cultural studies. In 2008 his book, Architecture and the 'Special Relationship' (Routledge), won the RIBA President’s Award for Outstanding University-Located Research and the CICA Bruno Zevi Book Prize for best architectural book published anywhere in the world in the previous year. He is the co-editor for a major new book series on ‘Design Research in Architecture’ (Ashgate) as well as the co-editor of The Journal of Architecture (Routledge/RIBA), one of the leading international refereed publications. Also a qualified architect, he has jointly set up the Palestinian Regeneration Team (PART) to carry out projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Professor Fraser is the new Chair of the RIBA’s Research and Innovation Group and he also serves on the RIBA Awards Group, which amongst its duties selects the annual shortlist for the Stirling Prize. He is currently a committee member of the European Architectural History Network, a representative on the European Network of Heads of Schools of Architecture, and also a founder-member of the Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA). He has been an advisor and external examiner for many architectural schools in the UK and internationally, including from 2005-08 as Senior Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Malaysia and more recently as Senior Academic Consultant for setting up the Nazeer Hussain University in Karachi, Pakistan. He has given major lectures and been a keynote conference speaker in many countries around the world.

Brett Steele is the Director of the Architectural Association School of Architecture, including the AA Public Programme and AA Publications. The Architectural Association is the UK’s oldest and only private school of architecture, which has for decades been recognized as an influential worldwide leader in architectural education. AA graduates are the recipients of the world’s leading prizes and awards in architecture, including three of the past nine Pritzker Prizes, the RIBA Gold Medal & Stirling Awards, AIA and other design awards. AA graduates have created many of the iconic buildings and led the most important schools of our time. The AA School is the world’s most international school of architecture, with 90% of the school’s 650 full-time London students originating from sixty or more overseas countries each year. In 2008 Brett founded the AA Visiting School, an international programme of global design workshops that have enrolled more than a thousand visiting students in Dubai; Turin; Istanbul, Madrid, Berlin and elsewhere in Europe; in Santiago, Chile; Bangalore, India; Singapore; Shanghai; Beijing; San Francisco; Dae Jon, Korea; Tel Aviv; Madrid; San Paolo; Tokyo; Tehran; and other cities.
Brett is the founder and former Director of the AADRL Design Research Lab, an innovative team-based M.Arch programme established as the school’s first-ever full-time, accredited graduate design degree. He is a partner of desArchLab, an architectural office in London, and has taught and lectured at schools throughout the world. He is the editor of NEGOTIATE MY BOUNDARY (2002); CORPORATE FIELD (2005); DESIGN AS RESEARCH (Beijing 2005); FIRST WORKS: ARCHITECTURAL EXPERIMENTATION OF THE 1960S & 1970S (2009; vol. 1 of his ‘works’ trilogy on the critical and experimental architectural of the 20th century); and SUPERCRITICAL: PETER EISENMAN MEETS REM KOOLHAAS (2009). Brett’s articles, interviews & lectures have appeared in ARCH+, ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW, A+U, ARCHIS, AA FILES, HARVARD DESIGN MAGAZINE, HUNCH, WORLD ARCHITECTURE, LOG, MARK, FRAME, JAPAN ARCHITECT, MONOCLE, ICON, DAIDALOS, AREA, and other journals; on CNN and the BBC, in THE WALLSTREET JOURNAL, FINANCIAL TIMES and other media. He is the series editor of ARCHITECTURE WORDS, critical writings in modern and contemporary architecture; and AA AGENDAS, a series documenting the work of the AA School.