James Brown

I am an Associate Professor of Architecture with a particular interest in critical pedagogy and the role of design-build and live projects in architectural education.

I studied Architecture at the University of Sheffield (BA Honours 2004 & Master of Architecture 2008). My PhD (Queen's University Belfast, 2012) developed a pedagogical critique of the live project in architectural education. I have held academic positions at De Montfort University, Norwich University of the Arts, the Royal College of Art and the University of Nottingham.

I am the author of Mediated Space: The architecture of news, advertising and entertainment (RIBA Books, 2018) and the co-editor with Harriet Harriss, Ruth Morrow and James Soane of A Gendered Profession: the question of representation in space making (RIBA Books, 2016).

With my postdoctoral colleague Francesco Camilli I am the co-author of Practising Wood in Architecture: connecting design, construction and sustainability (Routledge, 2025) which was funded by a Kempe Foundations grant.

I am the co-author with Elizabeth Boling (Indiana University, USA), James Corazzo (Sheffield Hallam University, UK), Colin M. Gray (Purdue University, USA) Derek Jones (Open University, UK) and Nicole Lotz (Open University, UK) of Studio Properties: a field guide to design studio (Bloomsbury, 2025) which is now available Open Access CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 here.

Forthcoming is Architectural Thinking in a Climate Emergency (Routledge, 2025) with Sofie Pelsmakers (Tampere University, Finland) which will also be available Open Access.

In 2021 I won the Umeå University's Faculty of Science and Technology educational award for innovation and quality of education in the History of Architecture courses.