Sayan Skandarajah
-
0118 378 2563
-
Lecturer
• Co-lead of Year 2 design studio
• Director of End of Year Show
Office
G05Building location
L05 London Road CampusAreas of interest
The Architectural Drawing
Drawing-led Research
Imagination, Story-telling and Allegorical Design
The Representation of the City
Teaching
Convenorship:
Co-lead of BSc Architecture Year 2
AA2DS4 – Architecture Design: Skills in Architectural Design 2 (UG Year 2)
AA3RXM – Reflective and Explorative Making in Architecture (UG Year 3)
Contributing to:
AA2DS3 – Architecture Design: Skills in Architectural Design 1 (UG Year 2)
AA3HTA - History and Theory of Architecture: Critical Writing (UG Year 3)
AA1VCI – Visualisation and Communication (UG Year 1)
AA2VCC – Visualisation and Communication – Digital media (UG Year 2)
Research centres and groups
Research projects
Cartographies of the Imagination
Background
I am an architectural academic specialising in drawing-led research. My role within the School of Architecture at Reading involves co-running 2nd year design studio in the undergraduate program, as well as teaching a range of modules that deal with visual communication and experimental model making. At the school of Architecture, I am also the Admissions Tutor and Director of the End of Year Show. Alongside my teaching, my own reflective design practice feeds into research investigating non-Western representations of the city and the use of parallel projection as a drawing convention. Alongside Kirsty Badenoch I am co-curator of the Cartographies of the Imagination project, an ongoing exploration into map-making, drawing and the mind’s eye. My research has been funded by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership, and The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation.
Academic qualifications
PhD Candidate in Architecture - UCL, Bartlett School of Architecture
MArch Architectural Design, RIBA part II – UCL, Bartlett School of Architecture, 2014
MA Architecture, RIBA part I –University of Edinburgh, 2012
Websites/blogs
https://cartographiesoftheimagination.xyz/https://sayanskandarajah.com/
Instagram: @cartographiesoftheimagination
Selected publications
Skandarajah, S (2024) “Devices of Dream-like Precision: Tracing the Streets of Kyoto using Photogrammetry and Layered Drawing”, Drawing Matter Journal– Architecture and Representation, No.2: Drawing Instruments / Instrumental Drawings, ISBN 978-1-9161522-4-3, 236-257
Skandarajah, S. and Badenoch, K. (2024) “Cartographies of the Imagination; Talking, Drawing, Performing Places”, Embodied Aware¬ness of Space: Body, Agency and Current Practice, ISBN 9819742633 [IN PRESS]
Skandarajah, S (2022) “Kyoto Machiya Studies”, Afterparti, Issue 01: For the Love of Power, ISSN 2632-3745, 114-117
Skandarajah, S. and Badenoch, K. (eds.) (2021) Cartographies of the Imagination. Cartographies of the Imagination, London. ISBN 9781527283862,
Skandarajah, S (2019) “Into the Clouds of Rakuchu Rakugai Zu: Eastern< >Western Drawing Tolerance Critiqued through Speculative Drawing Practices”, Architecture and Culture, 7:1, 129-147
Skandarajah, S (2019) “Imaginal Cloud Spaces”, Drawing Matter, https://drawingmatter.org/imaginal-cloud-spaces/
Skandarajah, S (2018) “Authorship and Authority: Parallel Projection and the Shifting Imagination of Kyoto in the Early Modern Period, PhD Research Projects 2018, Bartlett School of Architecture, ISBN 0995481997, 34-35