Professor Charles Rice
School: The School of Art and Design History
Position: Head of School, School of Art & Design History
Biography
Charles Rice is an architectural historian, theorist and critic. He studied at the University of Adelaide, the University of Queensland, the London Consortium (Birkbeck, University of London), and received his PhD from the University of New South Wales. He was Lecturer in the Architecture Programme at the University of New South Wales from 2000-2005, and, until 2010, Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney. He has also taught undergraduate and graduate history and theory seminars at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, and has lectured at universities and institutions internationally. He joined Kingston as Professor and Head of the School of Art and Design History in December 2010.
Research expertise
Rice's research considers questions of the interior across the arts. His 2007 book The Emergence of the Interior: Architecture, Modernity, Domesticity, analysed the way in which a modern concept of the domestic interior emerged from the beginning of the nineteenth century. Through his investigation of Walter Benjamin's critical theory of urban modernity, Rice has shown how the interior also gained importance culturally as a mobile concept, lodged as much in the modernity of arcades, cinemas, and the metropolis itself as in the private domestic sphere.
This research on the interior's urban appearance has led Rice towards a different era and geographical location: the downtowns of North American cities in the 1960s and 70s. This research charts the emergence of a new and distinct practice which Rice has termed interior urbanism. In the context of large-scale urban upheaval' social, racial, political and economic' mixed-use as a new development type emerged, favoring large, multi-block buildings linked internally into vast urban interiors. In particular, Rice is analyzing the work of architect and developer John Portman and his signature atrium hotel as a key moment in the emergence of interior urbanism.
This research has led Rice to revisit key architectural theories and debates in order to present an alternative history of architecture and urbanism in the 1960s and 70s, recognising interior urbanism as the most important practice of that time, one whose effects are still very present today.
Teaching areas & responsibilities
Rice teaches across architecture, design and cinema modules in the BA History of Art, Design and Film, and research issues and dissertation to students in Fine Art and Design.
Professional activity
- 2012 - presentEditor, The Journal of Architecture (Routledge / RIBA) ISSN 1360-2365
- 2011 - presentExternal examiner, MPhil Projective Cities Programme, Architectural Association School of Architecture
- 2010 - presentExternal examiner, School of Architecture and Design, University of Brighton
- 2010 - present
Educational and professional qualifications
- 2003 PhD in Architectural History and Theory, The University of New South Wales
- 1998 Master of Research in Humanities and Cultural Studies, Birkbeck (London Consortium), University of London
- 1996 Bachelor of Design Studies (Hons), The University of Queensland, Australia
Conferences & events
Visiting positions:
Visiting Professor, School of Architecture, University of Technology Sydney, since 2011.
Visiting Fellow, Graduate School, Architectural Association School of Architecture, 2005.
Visiting Research Fellow, School of English and Drama, Queen Mary, University of London, 2005.
Recent invited lectures and keynotes:
'Atrium Effects'. Keynote lecture, Interior Design Educator's Association of Australia Annual Conference, Perth, 8 September 2012.
'Sylvia Lavin and Charles Rice in Conversation'. Public lecture, Kaldor Art Projects No. 25, Thomas Demand: The Dailies, Sydney, 24 March 2012.
'Domestic Interiors', Evening lecture, Architecture and Education series, Architectural Association, 23 January 2012.
'Interior/Urban c.1974'. Evening lecture and masterclass, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, University of Manchester, 15 & 16 February 2011.
Research groups & programmes
Research supervision
External research supervision
- ----Tarsha Finney PhD
University of Technology, Sydney - ----Anthony Burke PhD
University of Technology, Sydney - ----Linda Matthews PhD
University of Technology, Sydney
Publications
Article
Rice, Charles (2012) Stalking John Portman. AA Files(64), pp. 21-29. ISSN (print) 0261-6823
Rice, Charles (2010) On message: an interview with Michael Chertoff. Architectural Design, 80(5), pp. 124-125. ISSN (print) 0003-8504
Rice, Charles (2010) The space-time of pre-emption: an interview with Brian Massumi. Architectural Design, 80(5), pp. 32-37. ISSN (print) 0003-8504
Rice, Charles (2010) On historical versus material objects, or, what it means to care rather than simply to clean. Interiors: Design, Architecture and Culture, 1(1-2), pp. 19-28. ISSN (print) 2041-9112
Rice, Charles (2008) The atmosphere of interior urbanism: OMA at IIT. Architectural Design, 78(3), pp. 88-91. ISSN (print) 0003-8504
Rice, Charles (2005) Evidence, experience and conjecture: reading the interior through Benjamin and Bloch. Home Cultures, 2(3), pp. 285-298. ISSN (print) 1740-6315
Rice, Charles (2005) Experience and criticality: returning to Federation Square. The Journal of Architecture, 10(3), pp. 323-333. ISSN (print) 1360-2365
Rice, Charles (2004) At Federation Square. The Journal of Architecture, 9(1), pp. 105-120. ISSN (print) 1360-2365
Penner, Barbara and Rice, Charles (2004) Constructing the interior - introduction. The Journal of Architecture, 9(3), pp. 267-273. ISSN (print) 1360-2365
Rice, Charles (2004) Rethinking histories of the interior. The Journal of Architecture, 9(3), pp. 275-287. ISSN (print) 1360-2365
Rice, Charles (2003) Bourgeois inhabitations: theory and the historical emergence of the interior. Architectural Theory Review, 8(2), 143-151 . ISSN (print) 1326-4826
Rice, Charles (2002) The Antipodean relation. Volume, 6, pp. 32-43. ISSN (print) 1574-9401
Rice, Charles (2001) Images at the edge of the built. Architectural Design, 71(3), pp. 24-29. ISSN (print) 0003-8504
Rice, Charles (2000) The drama of identification: reflexivity, the apparatus and Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract. Critical Quarterly, 42(2), pp. 92-107. ISSN (print) 0011-1562
Book
Benjamin, Andrew and Rice, Charles, eds. (2009) Walter Benjamin and the architecture of modernity. Melbourne, Australia : re.press. 224p. (Anamnesis) ISBN 9780980544022
Rice, Charles (2006) The emergence of the interior: architecture, modernity, domesticity. London, U.K. : Routledge. 176p. ISBN 9780415384674
Book Section
Rice, Charles (2013) Exploding the lobby: Hyatt Regency, Atlanta. In: Avermaete, Tom and Massey, Anne, (eds.) Hotel lobbies and lounges. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 171-177. (Interior architecture) ISBN 9780415496537
Rice, Charles and Matthews, Linda (2011) Designing (in) the PhD in Architecture: knowledge, discipline and pedagogy. In: Lee, Alison and Danby, Susan, (eds.) Reshaping Doctoral Education: International Approaches and Pedagogies. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 99-112. ISBN 9780415618120
Penner, Barbara and Rice, Charles (2010) The Conder Room: evidencing the interior's dissolution. In: O'Neill, Morna and Hatt, Michael, (eds.) The Edwardian sense: art, design, and performance in Britain, 1901-1910. New Haven, U.S. : Yale University Press. pp. 127-133. (Studies in British Art , no. 20) ISBN 9780300163353
Benjamin, Andrew and Rice, Charles (2009) Introduction: Walter Benjamin and the architecture of modernity. In: Benjamin, Andrew and Rice, Charles, (eds.) Walter Benjamin and the architecture of modernity. Melbourne, Australia : re.press. pp. 3-8. (Anamnesis) ISBN 9780980544022
Rice, Charles (2009) 'So the flaneur goes for a walk in his room': interior, arcade, cinema, metropolis. In: Di Palma, Vittoria , Periton, Diana and Lathouri, Marina, (eds.) Intimate metropolis: urban subjects in the modern city. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 72-89. ISBN 9780415415064
Rice, Charles (2009) The geography of the diagram: the Rose Seidler house. In: Sparke, Penny , Massey, Anne , Keeble, Trevor and Martin, Brenda, (eds.) Designing the modern interior: from the Victorians to today. Oxford, U.K. : Berg. pp. 131-143. ISBN 9781847882882
Rice, Charles (2009) The inside of space: some issues concerning heterogeneity, the interior, and the weather. In: Hensel, Michael , Menges, Achim and Hight, Christopher, (eds.) Space reader: heterogeneous space in architecture. London, U.K. : Wiley. pp. 185-193. (AD Reader) ISBN 9780470519424
Rice, Charles (2007) Critical post-critical: problems of effect, experience and immersion. In: Rendell, Jane , Hill, Jonathan , Fraser, Murray and Dorrian, Mark, (eds.) Critical architecture. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 261-68. (Critiques: critical studies in architectural humanities, no. 1) ISBN 9780415415378
Rice, Charles (2007) For a concept of the domestic interior: some historical theoretical challenges. In: Hollis , Edward , Milligan, Andrew , Milton, Alex , Plunkett, Drew , Gigli, John and Hay, Frazer, (eds.) Thinking inside the box: a reader in interiors for the 21st century. London, U.K. : Middlesex University Press. pp. 177-185.
Rice, Charles (2007) Interior/image: authorship and the spatialities of domestic life. In: Anstey, Tim , Grillner, Katja and Hughes, Rolf, (eds.) Architecture and Authorship. London, U.K. : Black Dog Publishing. pp. 74-81. ISBN 9781904772743
Rice, Charles (2005) Immersion et rupture: l'espace domestique de Walter Benjamin. In: Simay, Philippe, (ed.) Capitales de la modernite: Walter Benjamin et la ville. Paris, France : Editions de l'eclat. pp. 153-168. ISBN 9782841621088
Rice, Charles (2005) Photography's veil: reading gender and Loos' interiors. In: Heynen, Hilde and Baydar, Gülsüm , (eds.) Negotiating domesticity: spatial productions of gender in modern architecture. Abingdon, U.K. : Routledge. pp. 281-295. ISBN 9780415341394
Rice, Charles (2005) Walter Benjamin's interior history. In: Benjamin, Andrew, (ed.) Walter Benjamin and History. London, U.K. : Continuum. pp. 171-181. (Walter Benjamin Studies) ISBN 9780826467461
Rice, Charles (2001) Seeing whiteness in colour. In: Tercier, John, (ed.) Whiteness. London, U.K. : Lawrence & Wishart. pp. 197-218. (Room 5, no. 1) ISBN 9780853159193
