AHT explores architectural history, theory, philosophy, and heritage studies, reflecting the interplay between these disciplines and their relation to architectural and urban design.

Architecture History and Theory explores changing narratives and novel theories of architectural and cultural change, emphasizing a new social role for architects and designers.

The Chair of Architectural History and Theory (AHT) at TU Eindhoven is focused on understanding how historical patterns in architecture and related fields have an impact on contemporary social challenges. We are focused on history, theory, and discourse more generally as a means to reimagine and reshape the culture of building, and to reconsider how we live in and interact with the built environment. Central here is a critical analysis of architecture’s deep interrelationship to energy, climate, politics, aesthetics, and other social and ecological frameworks - aiming to, again, reimagine how architecture can play a new and perhaps unexpected role in the just energy transition. We offer courses tracing this novel narrative of architecture development, as well as frameworks for cultural and curatorial engagement, for understanding heritage and the life of buildings, and studio projects that operate at diverse scales, from the watershed to the water fountain. 

Research and teaching emerge out of three interconnected domains, intended to develop in concert with other chairs, units, and departments at TU/e. The Curatorial Research Collective interrogates the socio-political construction of architectural culture, emphasizing the role of institutions, media, and public discourse in shaping frameworks for both exhibition and practice. The History and Decarbonization working group explores architecture’s historical entanglement with carbon-intensive systems and practices, proposing alternative narratives and methodologies to reimagine architecture as a tool for climate adaptation and mitigation. The third domain, Cultural and Climate Heritage explores conceptual and practical frameworks of heritage as they relate to changing landscapes, cities, and cultural aspirations, in light of the increasing pressures of environmental transformation.

Our research is directly focused on the university-wide ambition to become a sustainable university. Indeed, our collective trajectory over the coming period aims to theorize post-sustainable methods, where architecture becomes a medium for discourse, buildings, and speculating on an equitable, beautiful, carbon-free future. This framework allows for intensive integration across TU/e and with regional and global discussions of architecture and climate justice.