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.

My current research includes a Kempe Foundation project examining the role of timber in architectural education with postdoctoral researcher Francesco Camilli; and two forthcoming books: Architectural thinking in a climate emergency (Routledge, 2024) with Sofie Pelsmakers (Tampere University, Finland), and Studio Properties (Bloomsbury, 2024) with Elizabeth Boling (Indiana University, USA), James Corazzo (Sheffield Hallam University, UK), Colin M. Gray (Purdue University, USA) Derek Jones (Open University, UK), Nicole Lotz (Open University, UK) and Lorraine Marshalsey (University of South Australia, Australia).

I'm the course responsible for five consecutive History of Architecture courses in the Architecture program at UMA. The courses provide students with core knowledge about the history of the discipline, including exemplar buildings and architects, while also developing research and writing skills.

I'm also the course responsible and teacher on two courses that are open to the general public. 5AR017 Architecture and the City  is taught online every fall semester and offers students at all levels the chance to sample the variety of teaching and research available at Umeå School of Architecture.  

5AR704 Architecture, Exploration and Reflection is Umeå School of Architecture's summer course, offering students at all levels the chance to expand and deepen their understanding of the subject through an internsive period of study, normally outside Sweden. Within this course I have developed a new travelling workshop to study first-hand the architecture of significant twentieth century European architects, including Alvar, Aino and Elisa Aalto in Finland (summer 2022) and Jože Plečnik in Austria and Slovenia (planned for summer 2023).

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.