Lisa Landrum

• B.Arch. (5-year professional program), Carleton University, 1995
• M.Arch. History and Theory (post-professional program), McGill University, 2003
• Ph.D. Architecture History and Theory, McGil University, 2010

MAA, FRAIC, AIA
In between undergraduate and graduate studies, Lisa performed seven years of diverse architectural work in New York City, earning her professional license in New York State in 2002. She is a registered member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Manitoba Association of Architects (MAA). In 2019 she was elected to the College of Fellows of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (FRAIC).

Lisa is currently serving as an advisor for FAUM graduate students. Lisa was a full-time professor in Department of Architecture at the University of Manitoba from 2008 to 2023, having previously taught at McGill University in Montreal, Carleton University in Ottawa, Norwich University in Vermont, and at international summer workshops in Rotterdam and Helsinki. She taught architecture design studios, graduate seminars, and undergraduate lectures in the History and Theory of Modern and Pre-modern Architecture. Lisa served as Coordinator of the Masters Design Thesis from 2010-17. Chairs of the Ph.D. in Design and Planning Program from 2017-2023. She earned the Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award from the Faculty of Graduate Studies in 2017 and Students’ Teacher Recognition Awards for outstanding teaching in 2018 and 2022.

From 2017 to 2023 Lisa served as Associate Dean Research, Academic Liaison for the Cooperative Education / Integrated Work Program, which was launched in 2018,  Associate Head of the Department of Architecture (2016 - 2019). She led the 2017 Architecture Program Report and collaborative preparations for the successful 2018 CACB Accreditation visit and re-launched ArchFolio – a publication of student work. Lisa is a member of BEA-Prairies (Building Equality in Architecture), President (2022-2024) of the Canadian Architecture Certification Board (CACB), and a member of the “Future of Architecture” / Rise for Architecture working group with the Regulatory Organizations of Architecture in Canada (ROAC) (Since 2017).

Lisa’s research encompasses topics in architectural history, theory and design. These include: architectural agency and representation, especially dramatic modes of representation implicit in the works and words of architects; the role of architects and architecture in dramatic literature (from Aristophanes to Ionesco); stories and myths about architectural origins; the reciprocity of theatre and architecture, as well as literature and architecture; performance space and the role of festivals in shaping urban environments and cultural identity; architecture’s interrelation with politics and social justice; the creative role of metaphor for architects and the rhetorical function of architecture in philosophy; phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches to contemporary architecture; pedagogical approaches engaging imagination and critical thinking as integral to design practice and professionalism; and other trans-historical topics that remain central to modern architecture and contemporary practice, including ornament, space, cultural memory, and ethical imagination.

Dr. Lisa Landrum completed her Ph.D. in the History and Theory of Architecture at McGill University in 2010. Her dissertation explores the mythic bases and poetic origins of architectural acts by interpreting two ancient Greek plays in which the protagonist is called “architect” while directing a scheme of transformation for the common good. These architect-protagonists and the plots they lead not only provide insight into the emergent role of architects in the fifth century BCE, but also vividly dramatize certain representative deeds and ethical dilemmas that remain (to this day) integral to an architect's performance.

Lisa has presented her research at numerous international conferences and has published widely. Lisa is a Research Associate with the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba, and an active member of the Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA), the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH), and the International Society for the Philosophy of Architecture (ISPA).

Lisa’s research also involves devising ephemeral events, including a series of group costumes and pageantry devices that have been collaboratively constructed and performed in public parades. Lisa has exhibited this creative work, which explores the political and ritual dimensions of collective aesthetic experience, in New York, Berlin, Montreal and Winnipeg. The award-winning costumes have also been featured on prominent websites, including Domus, Storefront, and Architizer.

2022, Unstacking the Deck, playing cards and research booklet celebrating early women architects in Manitoba, in collaboration with the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation. Featured in Canadian Architect, Winnipeg Free Press, and Warehouse. 

2022, CAFÉ Capital: Toward Equity in Architecture (SSHRC Connection events)

2022, Rise for Architecture, a collaborative initiative of ROAC and CCUSA.  Featured in Canadian Architect.

2021, Theatres of Archimagination, CITYX Virtual Pavilion, 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, part of the ALN Sunship

2021, Entr'Actes Exhibition, UQAM Design Centre

2021, Theatres of Architectural Imagination Symposium, May 27-29

2019-20, Canadian Architecture Forums on Education (CAFÉ): Toward an Architecture Policy for Canada. Download the CAFÉ Summary Report (Sept. 2020)

2018, Atmosphere 10: Fabrications, Symposium Co-Chair > Abstract Booklet, PDF

2014, Atmosphere 6: Action, Symposium Chair

"Theatres of Architectural Imagination", co-edited with Sam Ridgway. Routledge 2023.

“Winging it (with Alberti): Learning from Distance” in Remote Practices: Architecture at a Distance, ed. Matthew Mindrup and Lilian Chee. London: Lund Humphries, 2022.

“Tableaux Vivants: Tables and Stages of Architectural Striving,” Architecture and Culture (2021).

Unstacking The Deck: A Game of Change, presentation at the International Archive of Women in Architecture (IAWA), Virginia Tech, part of the 1x1 Symposium on The Potential of the Singular, March 23-26, 2021.

Narrating the City: Mediated Representations of Architecture, Urban Forms and Social Life, co-edited with Ayşegül Akçay Kavakoğlu & Türkan Nihan Hacıömeroğlu. Intellect Press, 2020

“Amateur–Beginner–Citizen: A-B-C’s of Becoming an Architect” in Warehouse 29, ed. Nichola Basford, Kate Sherrin & Micaela Stokes. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, 2020.

“Architecture as Long-Term Care,” in COVID-19 in Manitoba: Public Policy Responses to the First Wave, ed. Andrea Rounce and Karine Levasseur. University of Manitoba Press, 2020.

“Propaganda of Optimism: A tribute to Michael Sorkin (1948-2020)” in Canadian Architect (April 13, 2020).

Canadian Architecture Forums on Education (CAFÉ), Project Lead, 2019-20. Download the CAFÉ Summary Report (Sept. 2020)

“Thinking Architecture” - introduction and guest editor for Montreal Architectural Review, Vol. 6 (2019).

“Academic Agency: Toward an Architecture Policy for Canada” in Warehouse 28, ed. Irena Tonnu and Serena Tonnu. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, 154-157.

“Campus Architecture: The Radical Medium of Learning” in Canadian Modern Architecture: 1967 to the Present, eds. Elsa Lam and Graham Livesey. Princeton Architectural Press, 2019.

“An Architecture Policy for Canada” in Canadian Architect (May 2019).

“Creativity Embedded” in UMToday The Magazine (Spring 2019); and “Tableau Vivant: Musings on a Lively Threshold” in Warehouse 27, ed. Liana Thomson and Jinnette Alvaran. University of Manitoba, 2018.

“Poetic Imagination and the Architecture of Poe,” in Reading Architecture, Literary Imagination and Architectural Experience, ed. Angeliki Sioli and Yoonchun Jung. New York: Routledge, 2018.

“Table Talk” in Warehouse 26, ed. Emily Warsza + Mindy Dao. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, 2017.

“Drawing, Dwelling and Cultivating Agricultural Imagination,” with Xue Wei, 49th Parallel Schools of Architecture Consortium, Vol. 1 (May 2017): 64-75.

“Theory’s Theatricality and Architectural Agency,” Architecture & Culture, 43.3 (2016), 463-475.

“Varieties of Architectural Imagination” in Warehouse 25, ed. Alena Rieger and Ally Pereira-Edwards. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, 2016, 71-83.  

“Architects of Playtime: Cities as Social Media in the work of Jacques Tati,” in Filming the City: Urban Documents, Design Practices and Social Criticism Through the Lens, ed. Edward Clift, Annette Brauerhoch and Mirko Guaralda. Bristol, UK: Intellect Books, 2016.

“Miming a Manner of Architectural Theory. Eudaimonia: A Pantomime Dream Play,” in Confabulations: Storytelling in Architecture, ed. Carolina Dayer, Paul Emmons and Marcia Feuerstein. London and New York: Routledge, 2016.

“Chōra before Plato: Architecture, Drama and Receptivity,” in Chora 7: Intervals in the Philosophy of Architecture, ed. Alberto Pérez-Gómez and Stephen Parcell. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2016.

“Before Architecture: Archai, Architects and Architectonics in Plato and Aristotle,” Montreal Architectural Review, Vol. 2 (2015).

“Poetic Persistence and Architectural Renewal: investing in an economy of stories,” in Economy and Architecture, ed. Juliet Odgers, Stephen Kite and Mhairi McVicar. London: Routledge 2015. 

“Modus Operandi of an Architectus Doli: Architectural cunning in the comic plays of Plautus,” in Architecture’s Appeal: How Theory informs Architectural Praxis, ed. Marc J. Neveu and Negin Djavaherian. London & New York: Routledge 2015, 218-27.

“Performing Theoria: Architectural Acts in Aristophanes’ Peace,” in Architecture as a Performing Art, ed. Gray Read and Marcia Feuerstein. Farnham & Burlington: Ashgate 2013, 27-43.

“Ensemble Performances: Architects and Justice in Athenian Drama,” in Architecture and Justice: Judicial Meanings in the Public Realm, ed. Nicholas Temple, Jonathan Simon and Renee Tobe. Farnham & Burlington: Ashgate 2013, 245-56.

“The Beginnings of Architectural Theory in Drama and Philosophy,” in Warehouse, ed. Brandon Bergem and Nicole Hunt. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba, 2012, 212-17.

“History and Histrionics: Dramatizing Architectural Inquiry,” in Made: Design Education & the Art of Making. University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2010, 17-24.

Material Operations by Patkau Architects. Canadian Architect (Oct. 2017): 43-45.

Review of Attunement: Architectural Meaning After the Crisis of Modern Science by Alberto Pérez-Gómez. Canadian Architect (Sept. 2016): 38.

“Difficult Harmonies,” review of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, designed by Antoine Predock, Canadian Architect (Nov. 2014): 22-29.

Review of Time Matter(s): Invention and Re-Imagination in Built Conservation by Federica Goffi, Journal of Architectural Education 68.2 (Oct. 2014): 132-34.

Review of Four Historical Definitions of Architecture, by Stephen Parcell, Journal of Architectural Education 67.2 (Oct. 2013): 306-07.

“Avenue Action,” review of The Avenue on Portage and Manitoba Start, designed by 5468796 Architecture, Canadian Architect (June 2013): 14-19.

2021-22 Studio Physio. Student Work
2020-21 Studio Scenario. Click here for a selection of student work from Studio Scenario.
2019-20 Studio Biblio. Click here for a selection of student work from Studio Biblio.
2018-19 Studio Curio. Click here for a selection of student work from Studio Curio.
2017-18 Studio Theatre. Click here for a selection of student work from Studio Theatre.
2016-17 Radical Campus. Click here for a selection of student work from Radical Campus.
2015-16 Phantasmagoria. Click here for a selection of student work from Phantasmagoria.
2014-15 Main Street Studio. Student work.
2013-14 In and Out of Bounds. Student work.
2012-13 Matters Media Milieux. Student work.
2010-11 Complementary Contradictions, description and student work.
2009-10 Storied Vessels, description and student work.
2008-09 The House that Jack Built, description and student work.

2023 Studio Tempo exhibit at Finishing the Ends of Architecture
2022 Graduate students Jeramee Fajardo, Tara Fuller and Hyeonji (Angie) Kwon winners of StorefrontMB and Urban Idea’s Placemaking Challenge
2022 Jihoon (Kevin) Jo earns second prize for Symbiosis City, RAIC Vince Catalli Scholarship for Sustainable Architectural Innovation 
2022 Thesis students featured on the Study Architecture Showcase: Romilie Calotes and Zahra Sharifi 
2021 Design Thesis Student Wilrose Pingol, Mel P. Michener Architectural Fellowship Recipient
2021 Max Sandred, Undergraduate Research Poster Competition Winner
2021 Design Thesis Student Tali Budman and team earn Special Mention in the Future of Ontario Place Design Challenge
2019 Odudu Umoessien, RAIC International Prize Scholarship
2019 Jessica Leon D'Toste, ACSA Drawing the Design Imaginary Exhibition Award Winner
2018 Yang Peng & Océane Perham, Undergraduate Student Research Poster winners
2016 Sakshi Misra, Architecture as Stage, Choreographer and Performer, 3min Thesis Finalist
2013 Urbanism/Architecture Bi-City Biennale in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China