Danni Kerr

University Teacher

danni.kerr@sheffield.ac.uk

She/her

I became an architect a bit later in life after careers in manufacturing, finance and even enjoyed an apprenticeship in musical instrument making. It is this diverse experience I bring to architecture in which I position myself as an architect, teacher, and researcher. After all, if architecture is to be holistic and integrated then my engagement must support practice, pedagogy, and scholarship. I think about these elements as three legs on a stool capable supporting endeavour in any context on any territory, no matter how uneven, no matter what boundaries we think exist. So, I will often be heard to say, “If you don’t have a life outside of architecture what is it that you are bringing into it?”

Even if people are not conscious of it the built environment is the reality for most people in their everyday lives. Arguably, it comes into being through, is sustained by, and ultimately is dissolved by an ever-changing context of human agendas and natural processes. We humans make our own environment, so it seems rational to me, to want to understand its process and how we attach ourselves to it socially, physically, environmentally and in pretty much any way that humans find meaning and perhaps why I have undertaken PhD studies in architecture and time.

Also, I might be heard saying ‘architects need to be tall creatures having our head in the clouds and feet on the ground’. We have the responsibility to imagine the possibilities and so deliver something that works incredibly well. I try to thread a sense of the real through all my projects always asking how can this work, how can this be made? I am very lucky to be an architect who lives in house of their own design but I set out to do this because I demanded to know the experience of the client – and I’m still living and learning this today.

Elephant - 26th February, 2023

"Architecture is at a tipping point. Over the last few years voices of the under-represented in education and practice have been increasing in volume and are agitated for change. If we don’t collectively listen, re-adjust and change our future outlook, we limit the potential relevance of the profession in today’s society and ultimately the places we create. This book will capture insight from leading voices, both academic and in practice, aiming to encourage understanding, reflection and address critical questions, providing practical steps towards meaningful change. Our universities begin as places of diversity, with visible and invisible differences. But as individuals progress in architecture, representation diminishes, particularly at senior levels of practice to a profession dominated by white heteronormative, able bodied men. Disparities between the cultures and identities of the profession as opposed to the broader population are significant and manifest themselves in important ways, both obvious and insidious. It is critical that we address this, as a profession.
Who enters the profession, and progresses on into positions of power, determines not only who writes our history, but who feels accepted in the profession, who designs our built environments and how inclusive they are." RIBA Publishing
This piece which also includes graphics produced from a performance art as been described as essential for Queer representation at the Sheffield School of Architecture
Book, EDI, History and Representation, Participation, Danni Kerr

The Pavilion as ‘Research by Design’ Method: Layered concepts of ‘design’ and ‘design research’ in architecture - Spring, 2022

Doctoral Times - Research Methodologies, Issue 22, Spring 22 - Page 10 - Danni Kerr:

https://www.flipsnack.com/tuostimes/doctoral-times-research-methodologies-issue-22-spring-20.html

220411 The Pavilion as ‘Research by Design’ Method_ Layered concepts of ‘design’ and ‘design research’ in architecture.pdf

My research interests in the field of ‘architecture and time’ have a fundamental nature seeking common or universal patterns that may be true throughout architecture and perhaps even throughout all design disciplines. To approach this research I have needed to consider what would constitute a suitable research platform or vehicle. In this article passage I discuss the merits of the 'architectural pavilion' in 'design research'.
Journal Article, EDI, Pedagogy, Material Cultures, Danni Kerr

Remember to Forget - March, 2022

220316 Remember to Forget_ Into Eternity and Deep Time Reckoning.pptx

'Remember to Forget' is review of two sources investigating the issues and implications of long term nuclear waste disposal. Both 'Into Eternity' a Film Documentary by Michael Madsen and 'Deep Time Reckoning' by Vincent Ialenti are narratives in 'vast time' of the Onkalo Nuclear Waste Repository in Finland, which consider the practicalities and implications of the belief that we can extend design thinking over 100,000 years.
This scholarship was untaken as part of the year 2 undergraduate tutor group CPD. This represented an opportunity to discuss my reading on 'extreme temporality' which is a component of my PhD thesis on Architecture and Time. An argument in the thesis is that time is an ever present and interactive context in which architecture and its actors must exist. It is through rich scenarios such as those presented by Madsen and Ialenti that we can appreciate aspects of this relationship.
The presentation was made in the context of a UG tutor CPD presentation session following which the ensuing discussion acknowledging temporality as way to understand how particular types of interaction in the built environment makes that built environment over time.
Presentation, EDI, Placemaking, History and Representation, Danni Kerr

The SSoA Voices Survey - November, 2021

211213 The SSoA Voices Survey_ A means to support knowledge-based progressive policy making to drive forward positive change at the Sheffield School of Architecture.pdf

The Sheffield School of Architecture has a positive and proactive culture which may obscure the fact that abuse and exclusion do occur.
In the summer of 2020, a group of students from across the Sheffield School of Architecture (SSoA) advocated for change through proactive anti-racist activity. As a product of their conversations, they wrote "Anti-Racism at SSoA: A Call to Action", This open letter argued that ‘our school has been and remains complicit in the structures that perpetuate systemic racism within architecture’ and demanded ‘immediate action and concrete change’.
The letter, and in particular its powerful testimonials, made for hard reading, asking some serious questions of the school’s claim to be a ‘Social School of Architecture’. Despite actively fostering a pedagogy and culture around ‘gender equality and feminism’, conversations on race had been either minimised or excluded altogether from the discourse.
The letter had a powerful impact, with many students and staff adding their signatures, and the momentum generated has stimulated a strong desire and mandate for change within the school. We have seen in response the rejuvenation of the Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion committee of which the pro-active Student Action Group is an essential component. For those of us involved in EDI at SSoA, the ‘Call to Action had revealed the provocative power of testimonials for progressive change. In particular, it prompted the realisation that individual narratives and the lived experience of members of our school’s community can lead to and inform action.
‘A Call to Action’ declared both the necessity and the urgency of change, impressing upon us that the school must keep these conversations alive and relevant, to continue to tackle racism and other aspects of inclusion as they impact on the whole of the school community and that this needs to happen together with our agendas to decolonise the curriculum, to promote gender-equality and to tackle climate change. As a necessary action in response to ‘A Call to Action’, the Voices Survey was initiated.
Report, EDI, Pedagogy, History and Representation, Participation, Danni Kerr and Catherine Skelcher