Dr Anna Wakeford Holder MA, MArch, PhD
Senior Lecturer in Architecture
Summary
I am a Senior Lecturer in Architecture in the Department of the Natural and Built Environment. I bring critical feminist perspectives to my work as a designer, researcher and educator, with particular interests in:
• the politics and knowledge practices of built environment project commissioning, procurement, design and use;
• the interactions, alliances and democratic practices of activist groups, citizens, designers and the local state to effect social and environmental change within the current and historic conditions of capitalism
I am a director of the social enterprise architecture practice Studio Polpo.
About
I hold an MA in Architectural Design from the University of Edinburgh; a dual MArch in Architecture and Town and Regional Planning from the University of Sheffield, and a PhD in Architecture from the University of Sheffield.
My doctoral research ‘Initiating Architecture’ was funded by the Arts and Humanities Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Council and contributes to understanding of collective agency and knowledge practices within project initiating, developed through case studies of activist and state alliances within socially-engaged and public architecture projects. It is currently being developed as a research monograph.
I was a postdoctoral researcher on ADAPTr, the international Architecture, Design and Art Practice Training research Initial Training Network, a collaboration between seven research institutions (EU FP7 funded). Based at Aarhus Arkitektskolen, Denmark, I developed research into methodologies of creative practice research and practices of knowledge creation among designers in architectural practice.
I was awarded HEA Senior Fellowship in 2018, and have experience leading the history and theory subject area (University for the Creative Arts), leading and teaching design studio (University of Sheffield, Arkitekskolen Aarhus), and teaching professional practice (University of Brighton).
I joined the Department of the Natural and Built Environment at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ in 2022.
Teaching
School of Engineering and Built Environment
Courses taught
MArch Architecture
MArch Architecture Masters Apprenticeship
BSc (Honours) Architecture
Modules taught
Design studio 5
Design studio 6
Critical study
Integrated practice
Cultural context 1
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Current research projects
My current research, developed in collaboration with Dr Kim Trogal (University for the Creative Arts) focuses on feminist histories within socialist and radical municipal spatial practices.
‘Sites of democratic urban practice: revisiting participatory housing in Bologna 1968 – 1977’, supported by the University for the Creative Arts research fund, looks back to the spatial and planning practices of ‘Red’ Bologna, when the city pioneered a programme of decentralisation, participatory democracy and innovative forms of non-market housing. This project sheds new light on ways in which architecture and urban planning can support democratic and equitable city development, showing the contributions of women, migrants and other neglected figures.
‘Socialist feminism and the GLC’s Popular Planning Unit’ critically reflects on the activist state work of socialist feminists within the Labour left Greater London Council in the 1980s. The project analyses pre-figurative feminist practices as a politics of becoming in place, looking at the mechanisms by which the local state provided economic and political support to pioneering and important architecture and planning projects such as Coin Street, the People’s Plan for the Royal Docks and Jagonari Women’s Centre by Matrix Feminist Design Co-operative. A chapter contribution to The Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics, Vol II: Ecology, Social Participation and Marginalities (forthcoming 2023) is in preparation.
Publications
Journal articles
Udall, J.M., & Holder, A.M. (2014). . Footprint, 13, 63-80.
Hatleskog, E., Holder, A., & Hoete, A. (n.d.). Talking Architecture: Exploring knowledge production through conversation in architectural creative practice research. Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network, 9 (3).
Conference papers
Stirling, E., Freeman, E., Levick-Parkin, M., Bennett, C., Wakeford Holder, A., Boon, M.K.T., & Smith, S. (2025). . AMPS Proceedings Journal Series, 1 (40.1), 485-492.
Book chapters
Wakeford Holder, A., & Trogal, K. (2024). Prefigurative feminist practices of democratic city-making: Learning from socialist feminism and the Greater London Council. In Bobic, N., & Haghighi, F. (Eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Architecture, Urban Space and Politics, Volume II: Ecology, Social Participation and Marginalities. Routledge
Udall, J., & Wakeford Holder, A. (2023). . In Dobson, J., & Ferrari, E. (Eds.) Reframing the Civic University. An agenda for impact. (pp. 143-162). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan:
Wakeford Holder, A., Stangeland, S.H., & Pedersen, C.P. (2017). Spaces of creativity. In The ADAPT-r creativity book. (pp. 73-109). KU Leuven
Care, L., Evans, H., Holder, A., & Kemp, C. (2015). Building Schools Key Issues for Contemporary Design. Birkhäuser
Reports
Wakeford Holder, A. (2017). Transformative triggers: 'triggers' as markers of knowledge creation, and recognition of development and change in creative practice research. KU Leuven, Brussels.
Wakeford Holder, A., & Udall, J. (2012). Knowing Common Grounds: Architectural Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Methods.
Theses / Dissertations
Ionita, C.-.E. (2024). . (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Udall, J., Cerulli, C., & Wakeford Holder, A.
Wakeford Holder, A. (2014). Initiating Architecture: Agency, Knowledge and Values in Instigating Spatial Change. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Cerulli, C., & Chiles, P.
Exhibitions
Cerulli, C., Udall, J., Wakeford Holder, A., Orlek, J., & Parsons, M. (2020). . [Interactive installation]. Venice.
Presentations
Stirling, E., Levick-Parkin, M., Wakeford Holder, A., Freeman, E., & Bennett, C. (2023). Reimagining the Garden City, Pride in place through cultivating climate action. Presented at: Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual International Conference 2023, London
Wakeford Holder, A., & Trogal, K. (2023). Feminist practices and alternative infrastructures: democratic city-making for social reproduction.
Wakeford Holder, A., & Donovan, E. (2016). How architecture students gain and apply knowledge of sustainable architecture. Presented at: Central Europe towards Sustainable Building, Prague, Czech Republic
Wakeford Holder, A., & Trogal, K. (2015). More Common, More Public Working with products for transvaluation. Presented at: Transvaluation, Gothenburg, Sweden
Other publications
Wakeford Holder, A., Pedersen, C.P., & Bundegaard, C. (2015). Making research | researching making: Conference Proceedings. Aarhus Arkitektskolen
Wakeford Holder, A., Pedersen, C.P., & Bundegaard, C. (2015). Making research | researching making: Conference Proceedings. Aarhus Arkitektskolen