Professor of Architecture

  • Academic
  • Research
Professor Charles Holland

Charles Holland is the principal of Charles Holland Architects and Professor of Architecture at UCA, Canterbury where he teaches an MArch studio.

Professor Charles Holland

Bio

Charles Holland is an architect, writer and teacher. He is the principal of Charles Holland Architects (CHA), an architecture and research practice based in the UK. The practice’s work includes housing, civic, education, public realm and exhibition design. Their recent work includes Radical Rooms, an exhibition about houses and power at the Royal Instibtue of British Architects and Co-Housing in the Countryside, a proposal for new rural housing which was awarded the Davidson Prize in 2022.

Prior to founding CHA, Charles was a director of FAT where he led a number of the practice’s key proiects including A House for Essex, a collaboration with the artist Grayson Perry. FAT were also the curators of the British Pavilion at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. Charles’ work has been published internationally and is included in the Phaidon World Atlas of Architecture. He has exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Olso Triennal, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts.

Charles was appointed Professor of Architecture at UCA, Canterbury in 2022. Prior to this he was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Brighton and a Visiting Professor at Yale University in the US. Charles has taught architecture and design at numerous schools in the UK and elsewhere including the Royal College of Art and the State Academy of Fine Arts, Stuttgart.

Charles writes regularly on architecture and design. He has contributed articles to OASE Journal, Perspecta, Architecture Design, Domus and Icon and along with Charles Jencks he co-edited a special edition of AD on Radical Post Modernism. He lectures widely on the work of his practice and is currently writing a book – How To Enjoy Architecture – to be published by Yale University Press in 2024.

Research statement

Rural housing and sustainable communities: Charles Holland’s current research, explored through buildings, publications and exhibitions, includes a focus on rural housing. A practicing architect, he is currently engaged in both live and research projects looking at the development of sustainable new communities in rural and coastal areas. This builds on previous work including the book chapter “Wild Architecture: The Potential of Self-Build Settlements” (Wiley, 2018). In 2022, Charles led a multi-disciplinary team developing new models for rural housing that was awarded the Davidson Prize.

Research supervision

Charles is currently supervising the following doctoral students:

  • Sarah Moody (UCA): ‘Women and the Twentieth Century Decline of the Country House in Fiction, Biography, and Heritage’
  • Chartered Architect: ARB
  • Chartered Member: RIBA
  • Fellow: RSA
  • Guardian: Dover Arts Development
  • 2022 Davidson Prize – First Place
  • 2022 RIBA Radical Rooms – First Prize in RIBA Competition
  • 2021 Tooley Street Triangle – First Prize in LFA Competition
  • 2016 A House For Essex – Special Commendation, AR House of Year