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Staff Profile

Dr Loes Veldpaus

Senior Lecturer in Architecture and Urban Planning, / Degree Programme Director ABA Hons Architecture and Urban Planning

  • Address: School of Architecture Planning and Landscape
    Henry Daysh Building 7.22
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU
Background

I have a background in architectural and urban design (BSc and MSc), and in urban planning, and heritage studies (PhD), and I now research and teach across and between those areas. I draw on a variety of social and creative methods to explore the understandings people have of our urban landscapes, about what they are, what they do, and the ways they are cared for, about, and with.

In my research, I include elements of urban and planning history, heritage planning, and governance of the built environment, usually centring on re-use and re-design, and working in collaboration with people in the heritage sector. In those settings, I am particularly interested in the political and socio-ethical nature of building(s), and the context of practices we label as 'heritage'.

Find me on Google Scholar



Research

My research currently focuses on the question “Who do we (not) care for, by (not) caring for this heritage?” I explore care and care ethics perspectives to help us rethink the ways we ‘do’ heritage. Care – rather than just conservation – includes a much wider range of practices, for example, the maintenance, use, engagement, governance, and rejection of heritage. More importantly, I think care can help us think through the ethics of conservation and the way it reproduces injustices as it shifts our focus from materiality to relationality, on ongoing care relations between people through heritage, and between people and heritage.

I am one of the co-directors of the Centre for Heritage (Heritage NUCoRE)

I am an advisory board member for the EPICA project

 

past and current projects

  • Campus Legacies, Newcastle University Centre for Heritage. with Black History Month funding, Co-I with Prof Annie Tindley
  • The uses of space by artists within Newcastle and Gateshead, with Kitty McKay, Jenny Mc Namara, Daniel Newberry and Dr. Emma Coffield.
  • Making Space / Keeping Space / Extending Space: Building the Impacts of the Sunderland Heritage Lab (Led by Dr. Ashley Mason)
  • OpenHeritage (2018-2022) a ‘Research and Innovation Action’ funded under H2020), on adaptive heritage reuse practices and policies. In this project, we look at the practices, processes, and policies of adaptive heritage reuse. Our aim here is to experiment with co-creative, participatory, finance, and management innovations, whilst reflecting on them constructively and critically. With Martin Hulse, John Pendlebury, Ashley Mason, and previously Dr. Emma Ormerod, and Dr. Miranda Iossifidis. Our main case study is in Sunderland (UK).
  • Towards more inclusive heritage policies: ‘Blue Plaques’ in Tyne and Wear, with John Pendlebury and the Common Room of the North, see also e.g. here and here
  • The Clayton Street Corridor: Engaging the grassroots arts sector. CTC team, PI Dr. Emma Coffield.
  • Diversities and Genders, Month Theme in the 'OurWorldHeritage' initiative, recordings can be found on the website as well as on YouTube with Dr. Tokie Laotan-Brown and Prof Sophia Labadi (2021)
  • Brexit and Heritage (2017-2018) PI John Pendlebury
  • JPI PICH (2015-2018) Conservation planning in Norway, Italy, Ireland, and England, PI John Pendlebury



Postgraduate Researchers I work with


Recently completed

Dr. Byung Choon (Brian) Hwang Community Participation in South Korean Heritage-led Regeneration


Currently working on their thesis

Gulnur Cengiz Vertical Interventions: Unpacking Heritage-Led Urban Regeneration and Community Engagement in Sunderland (submitted)

Elena Balzarini Ecologies of the domestic threshold in UK multi-unit housing

Minki Sung Urban Heritage Sites’ socio-economic and socio-spatial impacts in South Korea. 

Sinan İhtiyaroğlu Exploring the Intersection of Hegemonic Discourse and Local Heritage: Towards a Dialogical Understanding of Adaptive Heritage Reuse


If you are interested in undertaking a PhD with me, please email me your CV and research proposal (maximum 2 pages excl. references). It would also be helpful if you add a brief statement about why you would like to work with me, and if you have funding sources in mind to support you during the PhD. If you need some guidance on how to frame your proposal and application in general, check out these helpful posts: https://hannahmarierobbins.com/blog/resources/ and https://phipps.space/2016/01/05/proposal/ .



 

 

 

 

 

Teaching

I am the Degree Programme Director for the BA (Hons) in Architecture and Urban Planning and teach across the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, on undergrad and postgrad degrees, both studio-based and classroom-based modules.


Currently, I teach on the following modules:

Undergraduate teaching

TCP1027 Shaping Towns and Cities (Planning History)

ARC1007 Architectural Design (project 1)

APL2007 Visual and Creative Research Methods

TCP2035 Study Visit (Glasgow)

APL3007 Dissertation Architecture and Urban Planning


Postgraduate teaching (involved in)

Critical Perspectives on Heritage Practices

Consultancy Project (MPlan)

Conservation & the City

MSc Urban Planning Dissertation



In 2014, I obtained my Dutch University Teaching Qualification (VSNU, TU/e).



 


Publications