Biography

Theodora Bowering is an architect, Gates Scholar and PhD Candidate in the Centre for Urban Conflict Research (UCR) at the Department of Architecture. Her doctoral research, ‘Ageing and the city: urban resilience and sociospatial marginalisation of older people in East London’, investigates everyday experiences of ageing within the civic spaces of cities, looking specifically at the London Borough of Newham.

In 2017–18 Theodora convened the CRASSH seminar series, ‘Ageing and the city: everyday experiences of older people in urban environments’, in collaboration with the Institute for Public Health and Department of Land Economy (www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/programmes/ageing-and-the-city-everyday-experiences-of-older-people-in-urban-environme). She was also a participant in the University of Cambridge ThinkLab project, in collaboration with the RSA, investigating the challenges of housing in the UK. Theodora was the recipient of the 2017 Future Cities PhD Fellowship from the Department of Land Economy and co-editor of the twenty-sixth issue of Scroope, The Cambridge Architecture Journal, on the theme of 'apologia'. She also supervises the BA Tripos (ARB/RIBA Part I) course The Architecture of Housing and BA dissertations, as well as acting as a critic for BA, MAUD and MAUS presentations. Theodora co-convened the UCR’s PhD and Early-Career Workshop ‘Doing Architectural Research: Socio-political Perspectives on Theories, Methodologies and Praxis’ in Cambridge in June 2017. Additionally, she has run Petite Pecha Kucha events for graduate students within the department.

Before beginning her PhD, Theodora completed the Masters in Architecture and Urban Studies in the Department of Architecture at Cambridge. Theodora’s professional architectural education was at the University of Sydney, where she gained a Bachelor of Architecture (Hons I) and Bachelor of Science (Architecture). She has also been a registered architect in NSW, Australia (RAIA) since 2013.

Theodora has worked for over six years in architectural practice, in Sydney (Richard Leplastrier Architect and Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects) and London (Skene Catling de la Peña Architects), on residential, heritage and public buildings, from concept and detail design through to contract administration and office management. Additionally, she has four years’ design and communications studio tutoring and lecturing experience in the Department of Architecture at the University of Sydney. Theodora has also been a volunteer and continuing instructor for the Taoist Tai Chi Society (www.taoist.org) for over fifteen years, and leads a weekly class at Newnham College.

Previous Education

University of Sydney
University of Cambridge