Dr Luis Hernan (he/him)
PhD, SFHEA
School of Architecture and Landscape
Lecturer in Spatial Narratives
Deputy Director of PGR
Lead of PhD by Design
Co-editor in Chief, field: journal
+44 114 222 0376
Full contact details
School of Architecture and Landscape
Arts Tower
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
- Profile
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I am a writer and researcher, trained as an architect in Mexico and with an MSc and a PhD in Architecture from Newcastle University. I am a deputy director of the Postgraduate Research where I lead in our PhD by Design programme. oversee the School of Architecture’s Creative Enquiry, a series of talks and events to promote the use of creative methodologies in architectural research. I am the co-editor in chief, with Emma Cheatle and Iulia Statica, for field:, our open access, peer reviewed journal of architecture.
My research explores the interface between stories, narrative and architecture. Inspired by the Latin-American literary tradition, my work springs from stories as central to the way that we inhabit and make sense of architecture and urban space. I am particularly interested in the political, social and spatial aspects of the future, examining how ideas of progress, modernity and utopia have come to shape the imaginaries of buildings and cities, interfacing as well with the production of nostalgia and desire in late-stage capitalism. In the last few years, I have explored the notion of futures in the domestic space and in the articulation of the Mexico-United States border, a process which has strengthened my interest in the logic of Empire and colonialism. This trajectory has evolved in an interest in the past and lost futures in the North of England, looking at the way that de-industrialisation has been narrated by local communities and intertwined with the processes of extraction and exploitation by Empire.
My research is transdisciplinary, combining critical theory with creative practice. Parallel to my career as a critical writer and researcher, I have developed a practice as a photographer, poet and fiction writer, approaches which I incorporate in my academic work. I have collaborated with others in the school and beyond in issues of coloniality and feminism, having contributed to the development of the SSoA Feminist Library, as well as the ongoing effort to “decolonise” our curriculum.
- Qualifications
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PhD, MSc, BA
- Research interests
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My research revolves around stories as the fundamental mode through which we make sense of architecture and the urban environment. This interest initially evolved from an engagement with the digital cultures that shape contemporary spaces, to a wider exploration of the social and political dimensions of ideas of the future and the nostalgia for the past in late-stage capitalism. I have explored these connections in:
Utopian Domesticities. My doctoral thesis looked at the spatiality of wireless technologies, which started a project to understand how “smart” technologies have reshaped our ideas, expectations and desire for the good life, while drawing on nostalgic models of domestic space as a gendered refuge against the world.
The Mexico-United States Border. My interest in digital cultures, and especially in the narratives of Silicon Valley, has led to an exploration on the use of new technologies to produce an “invisible” border between Mexico and the United States. Crucial to this formation is the use of Science Fiction tropes and texts to inspire and justify the new technologies and shift the terms of racial forms of othering and the formation of an American utopia.
I am currently working on a book monograph that brings together my interest in utopian domesticities, the spatial narratives of Silicon Valley, Science Fiction and the production of desire in American culture.Empire, Industrial Landscapes and Nostalgia. As a colonised subject, my work has been motivated by an understanding of the way that Empire and colonisation shape our contemporary world. I have recently become interested in the way that these processes have produced the industrial landscapes of the North of England, and how the industrial revolution and the deindustrialisation of the region have been narrated in nostalgic stories of the past and a craving for lost futures.
Creative Enquiry. Central to my work is an interest in trans-disciplinary approaches. I explore the use of ficto-critical approaches which draw on photography, poetry and auto-theory writing. I have also collaborated with Emma Cheatle in “Live-Writing” as a form of situated care.PhD Supervision
I am interested in supervising doctoral research which engages with:
Domesticity, Futures, Utopia, Storying and Narrative, Science and other Speculative Fictions, New Materialism, Feminist Theory, Decoloniality, Digital Cultures, Borders, Autotheory, Ficto-Critical writing, Photography, Poetry
- Publications
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Journal articles
- A Luminous Abstraction: 5G Narratives and Futuring Otherwise. Mediapolis, 7(3).
- Embodying an Anti-Racist Architecture. field: A Free Journal of Architecture(8), 1-7.
- Time is out of joint : digital domesticity and magical realism. Journal of Architectural Education, 75(2), 184-191.
- Living Ashes : associated milieus and distributed agencies. Performance Research, 25(3), 25-31.
- Design and modelling of an engineered bacteria-based, pressure-sensitive soil. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, 13(4). View this article in WRRO
- Atmospheres of digital technology: wireless spectres and ghosts outside the machine. Digital Creativity, 27(3), 214-233. View this article in WRRO
- Down in Mexico, Transmigration and Storying at the Border. field, 9(1).
- A Home with a Future. Digital Domesticity and the Vague Fictions of Silicon Valley. Architecture and Culture.
Chapters
- Urban Design Pedagogies for Staying with a Broken Planet In Leite Viana D, da Cruz Brandão E, Morais F, Carvalho IC, Duarte JP & Brandão N (Ed.), Emerging Perspectives on Teaching Architecture and Urbanism Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
- Wireless borders: illegal bodies and connected futures In Karunaratne G (Ed.), Informal Settlements of the Global South (pp. 47-62). London: Routledge.
- Neoliberal Spectres. On Creative Practice and Resisting Instrumentality In Mason A & Sharr A (Ed.), Creative Practice Inquiry in Architecture (pp. 194-204). London: Routledge.
- Reaching for the stars: Boca Chica and interstellar colonialism In Karunaratne G (Ed.), Displaced Urbanism
Conference proceedings papers
- The revolution of living systems in design. Radical change, design, culture and non-humans. Design Culture(s). Cumulus Conference Proceedings Roma 2021, Volume #2, 8 June 2021 - 11 June 2021.
- Domesticity and digital eugenics: design cultures of Silicon Valley. Design Culture(s). Cumulus Conference Proceedings Roma 2021, Volume #2
- The Technological Invisible - Image Making as an
Exercise of Power. Proceedings of the 5th Biennial Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference (pp 471-487), 18 April 2018 - 20 April 2018. View this article in WRRO
- The Biological Unseen. Producing and Mediating
imaginaries of Protocells. Proceedings of the 5th Biennial Transdisciplinary Imaging Conference 2018 (pp 122-137), 18 April 2018 - 20 April 2018. View this article in WRRO
- Bio-materialism: Experiments in biological material computation. Proceedings of the 3rd Biennial Research Through Design Conference (pp 292-307), 22 March 2017 - 24 March 2017. View this article in WRRO
- Thinking Soils: A Synthetic Biology approach to material based design computation. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA). Ann Arbor, 27 October 2016 - 29 October 2016. View this article in WRRO
- Bacterial Hygromorphs: material proxies as design pedagogy to engage with living technologies. Proceedings of the 36th Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA), 27 October 2016 - 29 October 2019. View this article in WRRO
- Of wireless and bodies: affective atmospheres in the smart city. Proceedings of the MEDIACITY 5 Conference View this article in WRRO
- Adaptive Morphologies: Toward a Morphogenesis of Material Construction. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA). Cambridge, Ontario, 24 October 2013 - 26 October 2013. View this article in WRRO
- Proto-materials: Material Practices in Architecture at Molecular and Cellular Scales. Prototyping Architecture. The Conference Papers. London, 21 February 2013 - 23 February 2013. View this article in WRRO
- Material Macroscope: Merging digital and physical research spaces through interaction with research objects. Proceedings of the Digital Research Conference, 10 September 2012 - 12 September 2012. View this article in WRRO
Theses / Dissertations
- Wireless Spectres. Space and the re-enchantment of invisible technologies.
- A Luminous Abstraction: 5G Narratives and Futuring Otherwise. Mediapolis, 7(3).
- Research group
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Spaces, Culture and Politics Research Group
- Teaching activities
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Module convenor
ARC303 Humanities 5, Urban Narratives
ARC598 Architectural Research Methodologies
Studio Leader
ARC6985/86 Design Project I and II
Contributing lectures
ARC103 Humanities 1
ARC6731 Doctoral Training in Architecture
ARC6983 Participation in Architecture and Urban Design