Staff Profile

Background

I studied architecture at Cambridge University, subsequently practicing as an architect for many years in the USA and London. Whilst still in practice I started teaching design studio part time, eventually taking up a post at the Welsh School of Architecture (WSA), Cardiff University, where I was employed for over eighteen years, teaching, researching and contributing to the management and administration of their RIBA accredited courses. During this period I completed a PhD at the University of Bath, entitled ‘Landscape as Laboratory in the work of John Evelyn: Baconian Intentions and the Hermetic Legacy’. I joined the SAPL at Newcastle University at the beginning of the 2017-2018 academic year.

I am an editor of Architectural Research Quarterly (arq), published by Cambridge University Press and a member of AHRA (Architectural Humanities Research Association). I currently lead the conferences group of the AHRA, building on experience gained in running three successful international research conferences at Cardiff – ‘Primitive’ (2004); ‘Quality’ (2007); and ‘Economy’ (2011). My primary area of research concerns conceptions of ‘Nature’ in relation to the design of landscapes and buildings in the Early Modern period, see for example my contribution to Jacques Gaffarel: Between Magic and Science, ed. Hiro Hirai (Rome: Serra, 2014).

My current primary project is the completion of a book on the topic on John Evelyn’s engagement with alchemical ideas and practices and how this influenced his garden theories and designs. More general preoccupations concern perception and ideas of how ‘nature’ is conceived by architects and other spatial agents  - see for example ‘Water and the Historicity of Perception’ in Quality out of Control, eds. Dutoit, Odgers, Sharr (Routledge, 2010).  This sometimes manifests as how 'scientific' ideas manifest spatially through mediating structures ( such as perspective), and how this in turn affects perceptual practice. See for example my work with the  working group ‘Perspective as Practice’ sponsored by the Max Plank Institute of the History of Science.  https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/en/research/projects/FG_Dupre_Working_Group_Perspective_as_Practice

I would welcome any proposals for collaborative projects with historians of science and/ or medicine, particularly those working in the Early Modern period.

I have extensive experience teaching architecture on RIBA part 1 and Part 2 accredited courses, latterly leading the BSC course at Cardiff University, where I taught for many years until joining Newcastle University in October 2017. I have taught design studio at all levels from stage 1 through to the graduating year of MArch programmes. I also teach history and theory of architecture and have devised and run successful undergraduate courses which place architecture within wider physical and cultural contexts of architecture ( the landscape, or cities).

I have many years experience supervising Masters Students in their dissertations. I welcome applications from candidates wishing to pursue PhD research in my areas of research

• Odgers J. John Evelyn's villa at Sayes Court: a microcosm of labour and love. In: Odgers, J; McVicar, M; Kite, S, ed. Economy and Architecture. London and New York: Routledge, 2015, pp.59-68.
• Odgers J. Scales of reference: JOhn Evelyn and Caruso St.John Architects. In: Scale. 2011, AHRA.
• Odgers J, McVicar M, Kite S, ed. Economy and Architecture. London and New York: Routledge, 2016.
• Dupre S, Peiffer J, Hills P, Odgers J, Raynaud D, Roccasecca P, Smith M, Trachtenberg M, Baker T, Bol M, Calvo-López J, Camerota F, Farhat G, Field J, Gessner S, Cuenca J, Kheirandish E. Perspective as Practice. Berlin: Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), 2014. Available at: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/research/projects/FG_Dupre_Working_Group_Perspective_as_Practice.
• Odgers J. Resemblance and Figure in Garden and Laboratory: Gaffarel's influence on John Evelyn. In: Hirai, H, ed. Jacques Gaffarel: Between Magic and Science. Rome, Pisa: Fabrizio Serra editore, 2014, pp.85-109.
• Odgers J. 'Affect, Scale and Figure in the work of JohnvEvelyn and Caruso St John Architects'. MADE at WSA 2013, (7), 88-98. In Preparation.
• Odgers J, McVicar M, Kite S. Economy: Abstracts. 2011.
• Odgers J. 'Water in Use and Philosophy at Wotton House: John Evelyn and the History of the Trades'. Architectural research Quarterly 2011, 15(3), 237 - 247.
• Odgers J, Samuel F. 'Designing in Quality'. In: Dutoit, A; Odgers, J; Sharr, A, ed. Quality out of Control: Standards for Measuring Architecture. London; NewcYork, 2010, pp.218. In Preparation.
• Odgers J. 'Power, Trade and Philosophy in the Hydraulic Landscape of Wotton House. In: 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians. 2010, Chicago: SAH. In Preparation.
• Dutoit A, Odgers J, Sharr A, ed. Quality Out of Control: Standards for Measuring Architecture. London: Routledge, 2010.
• Odgers J, Weston R, Sharr A, Gwilliam J, Kite K. 'Redolent Landscapes'. Architectural Research Quarterly 2010, 15(3), 203-204. In Preparation.
• Odgers J. Water and the Historicity of Perception. In: Dutiot,A;Odgers,J;Sharr,A, ed. Quality out of Control: Standards for Measuring Architecture. London, New York: Routledge, 2010, pp.218.
• Odgers J, McVicar M, Weston R. 'Fashioning Architecture'. MADE at WSA 2007, 4(4), 46 - 59.
• Odgers J. Water and the Historicity of Perception: The Bathes of BAth. In: Quality. 2007, Cardiff, Wales: Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University.
• Odgers J. 'Medicine, Alchemy and Architecture at Bath: A study of Paracelsian Emblematics in the Wrok of John Wood the Elder'. In: Cossic, A, ed. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Spa Towns in England and France. London: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2006, pp.47- 68.
• Odgers J, Samuel F, Sharr A, ed. Primitive: Original Matters in Architecture. London: Routledge, 2006.
• Odgers J. 'The Emblematic City: John Wood and the Re-foudning of Bath'. In: Odgers, J; Samuel, F; Sharr, A, ed. Primitive: Original Matters in Architecture. London, New York: Routledge, 2006.
• Odgers J. 'John Wood and the re-founding of Bath: Moses, Bladud and the GIfts of the Holy Spirit. MADE at WSA 2005, (2), 56-65. In Preparation.
• Odgers J, Unwin S. 'BSc Architectural Studies, Year 1 Welsh School of Architecture'. In: Spironidis, C, ed. Monitoring Architectural Design Education in European Schools of Architecture. Greece: EAAE, 2004.
• Odgers J. The Emblematic City: John Wood and the re-founding of Bath. In: The Primitive. 2004, Cardiff: Welsh School of Architecture.
• Odgers J. 'Holiday Haven, Aldington and Craig's celebrated Anderton House'. The Architects' Journal 2003, 218(12), 28-37.
• Odgers J. 'Revealing the Unseen'. Loughborough: Loughborough University, 2003. Available at: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/microsites/sota/tracey/journal/comm/odgers.html.
• Odgers J. Selling Architectural Ideas by Tom Porter. CEBE Resources 2002.
• Odgers J. Authority, Questioning and Learning: Reflections on writing as reflective practice in the Design Studio. Architectural Education Exchange. Cardiff 2001.
• Odgers J. 'The Economy of the Microcosm: John Evelyn's Garden'. In: Economy and Architecture. 2011, Cardiff: Welsh School of Architecture.