My research focuses on the history and theory of Victorian architecture and design broadly defined, with a special interest in the history of British imperial and colonial architecture. A major theme in my work concerns the impact of empire on built environments in the United Kingdom, considering how buildings, monuments, and urban space were both designed and used as markers of imperial power and prestige. I am currently developing an additional specialism in the historic relationship between architecture, energy, and climate change over the longue durée, but particularly during the Victorian industrial revolution. I also have expertise in the relationship between national identity and the wider built environment; religious architecture (particularly Anglican and Nonconformist cultures in Britain and its colonial empire during the nineteenth century); and nineteenth-century infrastructure. I have published widely on these subjects. My research has received funding from the Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy, the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
Other research interests include the relationship between commercial architectures and international trade in the context of empire, especially networked spaces of economic exchange, where I have undertaken research on the commercial infrastructure of Jardine, Matheson & Co. in South and South-East Asia during the early nineteenth century. I also have a special interest in the historiographic traditions of architectural scholarship, with a particular concern for the application of broader historiographic frames of reference to the understanding of architecture and the wider built environment, including Transnational, Oceanic, and World/Global historiographies, as well as methods of cultural and historical geography. I am currently working on a project that explores the nexus between architecture, energy, and political power in the British world during the nineteenth century.
