Rothwell Chair Research Appointments
Research Associates
Rothwell Residents
Research Associates
Research Associate, Rothwell Chair Postdoctoral Associate 2024-2026 – Amina Kaskar
Amina Kaskar is a South African architect, having obtained a Master’s in Architecture from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and completed a Master’s in Human Settlements from KU Leuven, Belgium. Her work is predominantly influenced by ideas about soft architecture, textiles, gender, and migration, exploring new categories to investigate the city.
Amina has been awarded the prestigious Rothwell Chair Postdoctoral Research Associate position at the University of Sydney. In this exciting role, she will contribute to the architectural design research of the renowned Japanese firm Atelier Bow Wow, focusing on exploring urban-rural connections.
Kaskar’s Research
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In 2020, Amina was awarded the Global Minds scholarship to pursue a PhD at KU Leuven. Her dissertation, “Soft Architecture: Afro-Indian Spatial Strategies under Hard Migrations” explores the material, spatial practices migrants use to reclaim space in contexts where rigid, exclusionary infrastructures dominate their arrival environments.
She co-founded Counterspace (2014-2020), a collaborative architectural studio dedicated to architectural projects, exhibition design, art installations, public events curation, and urban design. Counterspace was commissioned to design the renowned Serpentine Pavilion 2020/2021.
She is the artistic director of Shamsaan, an NGO that supports youth platforms for dialogue and promotes social activism and human rights through creative arts campaigns. She was a CETA associate lecturer in the Wits School of Architecture, running the Advanced Design Studio Elective for the post-graduate program for two consecutive years (‘Metropolitan Nomads’ in 2020 and ‘Housing Ecologies’ in 2019).
Rothwell Chair Postdoctoral Associate 2022 – 2024 – Hannes Frykholm
The Rothwell Chair Postdoctoral Associate is a three year appointment to support and contribute to our Rothwell Co-Chairs, Lacaton & Vassal’s, research agenda and to conduct work on independent research projects related to the Rothwell Chair Program.
Hannes Frykholm is an architect (UC Berkeley and LTH, (MSc. Arch)), educator and researcher. He holds a PhD in architecture from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden, where he has been teaching the master studio “Infrastructural Love”.
Frykholm’s Research
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From Hannes: “I see in the work of Lacaton & Vassal the understanding of architecture as a fundamentally democratic open-ended project, where acts of addition and restructuring are just as important as proposals which rebuild. I would like to work with them to explore parallels between such an approach and Greek-French philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis’ notion of “imaginary institutions of society” – the idea that society is a continuous social and political negotiation around human co-existence. Perhaps the true autonomy of architecture exists in the unfinished quality of any built object, and the fact that what is built must be imagined and negotiated, again and again. To think of architecture this way, is to situate our profession at the construction site of a democratic project. With Lacaton & Vassal, I look forward to approaching questions of housing with this in mind, exploring architecture both as the physical support for everyday life, and the scaffold for imagined lives to come.”
Rothwell Postdoctoral Research Associate 2021 – Maren Koehler
Dr Maren Koehler is an Academic Fellow in Architecture at the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning. Her research is interested in the intersections between architecture and processes of financialisation and the extraction of natural resources. She held postdoctoral appointments as a Virtual Fellow at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montréal (CCA) and a fellow at the interdisciplinary research project “Architectures of Order” at the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Technical University of Darmstadt, associated with the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory and the Deutsches Architekturmuseum. She also worked as an architect in international architecture practices in Europe, the US and Asia, such as Steven Holl Architects in New York and Beijing.
Koehler’s Publications
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The Rothwell Postdoctoral Research Associate 2021 was an appointment to support and contribute to the research agenda of the Rothwell Co-Chairs, focussing specifically on preparing and editing a proceedings publication of the Rothwell Chair Symposium 2021 to serve as an expanded record of the event and citable resources for students, researchers and professionals.
Rothwell Residents 2022/2023
The Rothwell Resident is a part time appointment that will provide an opportunity for postgraduate students to learn from leading practitioners and gain a deeper insight into professional life, while providing practitioners with time to explore and reflect on their practice and share insights with our students and the School through their program of research.
Rothwell Residents Research
Rothwell Resident in Architecture 2022/2023 – Dr Michael Zanardo
Dr Michael Zanardo is a registered architect, urban designer and director of Studio Zanardo, an independent and collaborative design consultancy working at the intersection of policy and built form and specialising in the design of housing, particularly social and affordable housing.
Michael is a member of the City of Sydney Design Advisory Panel Residential Subcommittee, Ku-ring-gai Urban Design Consultants Panel and Inner West Architectural Excellence and Design Review Panel, provides urban design advice to the NSW Land and Housing Corporation, has chaired and been a panellist for a number of design excellence competitions, and acts as an urban design expert witness in the NSW Land and Environment Court. He has also recently been appointed to the City of Sydney Housing For All Working Group as well as the Australian Institute of Architects NSW Housing Working Group to help shape advocacy on housing design, policy and affordability
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Michael actively combines practice with a dedication to research and teaching. His investigations focus on the central role that housing has in making the fabric of our cities and how the everyday ‘ordinariness’ of housing can, and should, be elevated through design.
Through the Rothwell Residency in Architecture, Michael proposes to further his PhD research into Sydney’s rich built history of affordable housing to reveal professional typological knowledge that can positively inform the design and amenity of new denser forms of housing today.
Rothwell Resident in Urban Design 2022/2023 – Callantha Brigham
Callantha Brigham is an Architect and Urban Design professional with over 20 years’ experience working in State and Local Government. Most recently Callantha led the City Transformation Team at the City of Parramatta where she was responsible for a multidisciplinary team guiding the strategy, design and implementation of large-scale, city-shaping projects. Callantha is also the current NSW Vice President and a NSW Chapter Councillor of the Australian Institute of Architects where her focus has been on advocating for gender equity, reconciliation and supporting the work of designers within government.
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Callantha is passionate about the potential of public and community-based projects to drive positive social, cultural and environmental impact. Her Rothwell Residency in Urban Design will consider principles of equity, diversity and democracy (Susan Fainstein’s concept of the ‘Just City’) and the role designers can play as advocates and agents of change.