Shaping Space – Architectural Models in Context

Simona Valeriani is Senior Tutor on the postgraduate programme in the History of Design run by the V&A and the Royal College of Art (RCA). She is a building archaeologist, historian of architecture and technology. Her research centres on Early Modern material culture with a particular focus on the built environment. Her interest in (architectural) models is longstanding and she has published widely on the topic. Recently she has been conducting research on the building history of the Royal Albert Hall, due to be published in 2021. Read less

Head of V&A/RCA History of Design until 2016, Marta Ajmar is Deputy Director of VARI, where she develops academic partnerships and programmes informed by innovative museum-based pedagogies. She has over twenty years’ experience of collections-based research and HE teaching. As PI for Encounters on the Shop Floor: Embodiment and the Knowledge of the Maker (co-edited book, 2022), she works on the educational significance of embodied knowing and learning-through-making. She has published extensively on Renaissance art and design and is completing a monograph about Early Modern practices of material emulation. Read less

Vanessa Norwood is a curator, writer and editor and Creative Director of the Building Centre. She was co-curator of the British Pavilion Venice Takeaway at the 13th International Architecture Biennale and has led projects for clients including the Albanian Government, The British Council and the Wellcome Collection. Vanessa has contributed to publications, magazines and blogs on the subject of art and architecture and is a guest critic at student and international juries. Read less

Harriet Jennings is a public programme curator at the Building Centre. She is interested in connecting people with the ideas, materials and powers that shape their built environment. Harriet completed her MA in Architectural History at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, specialising in public housing and health. Alongside curating the Shaping Space exhibition, she is currently researching the ecology and timber architecture of the Chiloé archipelago, Chile. Read less

Mathilde Savary is a public programme curator at the Building Centre. Following her graduation in Biomedical Science from Imperial College London, Mathilde pursued her interest in the relationship between global health and the environment by volunteering on a permaculture farm in Indonesia. Inspired by the power of regenerative design, her research at the Building Centre focuses on sustainability and the circular economy. Mathilde is also a volunteer at Bees & Refugees in London. Read less