Dr Zoe Latham

Dr Zoe Latham is lecturer and researcher in architecture although her praxis also sits within the fields of human geography and anthropology through a theoretical exploration of place connections and meaningful experience through ritualised practices. She engages in different forms of situated praxes such as drawing, filmmaking, model making and cognitive mapping to examine these less tangible place relations. Preceding her return to academia, Zoe worked as an architectural designer in New York, concentrating on adaptive reuse, regeneration and conservation of architecture. Prior to working in the USA, Zoe worked in Shenzhen, China for two years; working on high-end interior design, conceptual architectural and landscape design.

Qualifications
Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
(2018–2023) PhD Architecture
(2016–2018) Master of Architecture with Distinction, University of Plymouth
(2009–2012) BA (Hons) Architecture, University of Plymouth

Professional background
(2014–2016) Stephen Tilly Architects, New York, USA
(2012–2014) KSR Architects, Shenzhen, China
(2010–2012) Space Design Architecture Ltd, Cornwall, UK

(2022 - present) HKU SPACE BA (Hons) Architectural Studies 建築學榮譽文學士 - Year 3 Design Studio, Lecturer (2022 - present) BA (Hons) Architecture Year 3 Design Studio, Lecturer
(2021–2022) University of Plymouth International College Foundation in Architecture, Practical Design Skills, Associate Lecturer
(2019–present) BA (Hons) Architecture Year 1 Communication, Module Leader
(2017–present) BA (Hons) Architecture Year 1 Design Studio, Lecturer
2019 BA (Hons) Architecture Year 1 Design Studio project at Riverside Community Primary School nomination for RIBA MacEwen Award 'Multidisciplinary student team from University of Plymouth turn windswept hill into learning space':
https://www.ribaj.com/macewen-awards/macewen-awards-2020-university-of-plymouth-students-riverside-community-primary-school-plymouth-outdoor-classroom-firepit

PhD: Casting a Line to the Land: Narratologies of Embodied Rituals and Connectivity to Place
Supervisory Team: Professor Robert Brown (DoS) & Dr Mathew Emmett

Conceptions of landscape within architecture demand extension and reinvention, reflecting our increasing understanding that landscapes are neither fixed nor passive, and of their capacity to enrich cultural imaginations of place and time; and engender rootedness and connection, belonging and identity, emplacement and embodiment. This research does not attempt to redefine landscape or to provide an answer to its ambivalence; instead, it encourages an exploration of how landscape manifests itself in and through a single phenomenon and shared experience of fly-fishing. In turn, this study aims to sharpen our intellectual tools for understanding place-based phenomena and deep-rooted connections between the body/environment.

Examining this relational context of people’s engagement with the world, this study of ritual, place and landscape draws upon and expands architectural discourse and practices into a larger understanding of meaning and environmental experience. This research studies the ritualised behaviours of fly-anglers through narratological methods, mental mapping and film, interrogating notions of sense of place and place attachment and its marked corollary in architectural discourse.

- landscape, place & landscape urbanism
- embodiment & ritual
- phenomenology
- narratological methods (including mapping, film, storytelling) 

September 2021. Festival of Discovery. Futures 21' Voyage of Discovery. Presented and screened 360 Immersive Film 'River Plym from Source to Sea'with Linda Ward
July 2021. AVANCA International Film Conference. Presented 'How might we simulate a riverside experience through virtual collaboration?' a paper and film co-authored with Linda Ward
May 2021. EDRA Just Environments: Presented 'The Dialogics of Tulous: a simultaneous presence and embrace of difference across cultural landscape, heritage and space' a paper co-authored with Prof. Robert Brown and Anqi Dong
September 2019. Test Space: Expositions of practice led research, Plymouth University Fine Art Studios, Royal William Yard. Presented film as auto-ethnographic method entitled 'Embodied Rituals of Fly-fishing'.
September 2019. Flows of Entanglements: how rivers shape identities, University of Plymouth.
Co-convener and participant of methodology roundtable chaired by Professor Owain Jones (Bath Spa University) - presented MPhil/ PhD Methodologies.
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/whats-on/flows-of-entanglement-how-rivers-shape-identities#:~:text=Rivers%20break%20the%20banks%20into,of%20our%20imagination%20and%20memories.&text='Flows%20of%20Entanglement'%20will%20begin,we%20move%20along%20its%20course.
May 2019. Rethinking Post Recovery Space, Presented Master of Architecture work with focus Macau flooding.
March 2018. Cultural heritage and social cohesion, Institute for Sociology, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest. Presented paper titled "Shenzhen's Urban Villages: Dialogic cultural landscapes and resilient rituals":
https://socio.hu/index.php/so/article/view/770

University of Plymouth talks given
November 2021 – History Theory and Critical Context 511, Guest lecture on theme of Landscape and Being in the world, '(re)placing Landscape in Architecture' 
November 2021 – M.Arch PhD research summary & methodology
October 2021 – History Theory and Critical Context 501 Film making Workshop with Linda Ward.
November 2020 – M.Arch Stonehouse Matters Symposium, delivered talk on Connecting to Landscape
October 2020 – History Theory and Critical Context 501 '(re)placing Landscape in Architecture' 
October 2020 – History Theory and Critical Context 501 Film making and Architecture with Linda Ward 
February 2020 – Dialogue: towards a community of praxis Professor Robert Brown Inaugural Professorial Lecture talk 'How do we connect to place?'
October 2019 – M.Arch Design Studio collaborative talk on film-making with Linda Ward 'Ourselves the Water'
May 2019 – Rethinking Post Recovery Space talk on 'M.Arch Programme in Macau - trauma and response'

Research groups
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/urban-dialogues
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/environmental-cultures
https://lex.landscaperesearch.org/profiles/zoe-latham/
Links
Portfolio of selected work
https://cargocollective.com/zoelatham
Award nominations
http://www.presidentsmedals.com/Entry-46411?fbclid=IwAR3dSj16B9V1IQ5tJAaAtlPuASlpLAAzLwe7sf2hHgjplB2x9yNKZKZtQDs
https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/practice/students/aj-student-prize-2018-university-of-plymouth
https://www.archiprix.org/2021/projects/4449