PhD supervision
Interested in supervising students studying:
- Architectural computing
- Architectural geometry
- Digital reconstruction
- Virtual environments
Professor Paul Richens
MA DipArch RIBA
Profile
Professor Paul Richens is a pioneer of the use of computers in architecture, with experience of both commercial software development and academic research. His work spans the areas of computer-aided design, computational geometry, visualisation, virtual environments and the reconstruction of historic buildings and landscapes.
Paul Richens studied Natural Science and Architecture at King’s College Cambridge, immediately joining Applied Research of Cambridge Ltd, founded by Lionel March, and one of the first of the “Cambridge phenomenon” companies.
In the seventies he was responsible for the first-generation BIM systems OXSYS and BDS, which were aimed at the design, documentation and analysis of complex prefabricated buildings such as hospitals. In the eighties he developed GDS (General Drafting System), which dealt with geometrical drawing (and later solid modelling) for many different design disciplines. In 1986, following the take-over of Applied Research by McDonnell Douglas, he became Technical Director of their AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) Systems Company.
Paul Richens joined the University of Cambridge Martin Centre in 1989, becoming its Director in 1992. There he lead the CADLAB, a group of researchers into architectural Computer-aided design, and was a founder with Nick Ray of the Cambridge Historical Buildings Group. The CADLAB made contributions to sketch design, interfaces for geometrical design, digital photogrammetry, urban texture analysis and spatial simulation, and generated notable innovations in the area of interactive rendering and use of game engines for architectural communication.
In 2002 he joined Francois Penz’s CUMIS (Cambridge University Moving Image Studio) to form the Digital Research Studio. This ran an innovative Master’s Course in “Architecture and the Moving Image”, with doctoral and post-doctoral research in related topics. From 2000 to 2005 he was in addition Vice Master of Churchill College, and acting Master for part of 2001. In 2005 he took up a chair in Architectural Computing at the University of Bath, and from 2007-2009 was Director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Architecture.
Publications
Book Sections
Richens, P. and Harney, M., 2013. Forthcoming. Beckford’s Ride: the Reconstruction of Historic Landscape. In: Bowen, J., Keene, S. and Ng, K., eds. Electronic Visualisation in Arts and Culture. London: Springer. (Springer Series on Cultural Computing)
Richens, P., 2011. Forward. In: Kocatürk, T. and Medjdoub, B., eds. Distributed Intelligence in Design. Wiley-Blackwell, x-xi.
Shepherd, P. and Richens, P., 2010. Subdivision surface modelling for architecture. In: Symposium of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (50th. 2009. Valencia). Evolution and Trends in Design, Analysis and Construction of Shell and Spatial Structures : Proceedings. Editorial de la Universitat Politécnica de Valencia, pp. 1206-1217.
Richens, P. and Herdt, G., 2009. Modelling the Ionic capital. In: Cagdas, G. and Colakoglu, B., eds. Computation: the new realm of architectural design: proceedings of the 27th Conference on Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design in Europe, September 16-19, 2009, Istanbul Technical University and Yildiz Technical University, Istanb. Istanbul: eCAADe, pp. 809-816.
Nitsche, M. and Richens, P., 2006. Telling Stories through Space : The Mindstage Project. In: Goebel, S., Malkewitz, R. and Iurgel, I., eds. Technologies for interactive storytelling and entertainment (TIDSE 2006). Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 61-71. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science; 4326)
Richens, P. and Nitsche, M., 2005. Mindstage: towards a functional virtual architecture. In: Martens, B. and Brown, A., eds. Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures: Proceedings of the 11th International CAAD Futures Conference. Springer, pp. 331-340.
Medjdoub, B., Richens, P. and Barnard, N., 2001. Building Services Standard Solutions. Variational Generation of Plant Room Layouts. In: de Vries, B., van Leeuwen, J. and Achten, H., eds. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures. Kluwer Academic, pp. 479-493.
Ashmore, J. P. and Richens, P., 2001. Pano painter - sketching in the round. In: Bury, M., Datta, S., Dawson, A. and Rollo, J., eds. Proceedings of Mathematics and Design 2001. Geelong, Australia: Deakin University, pp. 332-347.
Ruffle, S. and Richens, P., 2001. Web Based Consultation for Cambridge University's Building Program. In: Reinventing the Discourse - How Digital Tools Help Bridge and Transform Research, Education and Practice in Architecture: Proceedings of the Twenty First Annual Conference of the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture. ACADIA, pp. 366-371.
Ratti, C. and Richens, P., 1999. Urban texture analysis with image processing techniques. In: Augenbroe, G. and Eastman, C., eds. Computers in Building: Proceedings of CAAD Futures 99. Boston: Kluwer Academic, pp. 49-64.
Richens, P., 1999. The Piranesi system for interactive rendering. In: Augenbroe, G. and Eastman, C., eds. Computers in Building: Proccedings of CAAD Futures 99. Boston: Kluwer Academic, pp. 381-398.
Richens, P., 1997. Computer-aided art direction. In: Penz, F. and Thomas, M., eds. Cinema & architecture: Méliès, Mallet-Stevens, Multimedia. London: British Film Institute.
Articles
Shepherd, P. and Richens, P., 2012. The case for subdivision surfaces in building design. Journal of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures, 53 (174), pp. 237-245.
Richens, P., 2011. Towards non-linear representation. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 15 (2), pp. 93-95.
Sussner, J., Thomas, M. and Richens, P., 2006. Patterning reconfigurable narrative: Interactive cinema as architectural elevation within 3D interactive digital environments. Digital Creativity, 17 (4), pp. 243-256.
Ruffle, S. and Richens, P., 2004. Stylist and scaleable: vector graphics for all on the web. International Journal of Architectural Computing, 2 (3), pp. 333-350.
Ratti, C. and Richens, P., 2004. Raster analysis of urban form. Environment and Planning B: planning and design, 31 (2), pp. 297-309.
Medjdoub, B., Richens, P. and Barnard, N., 2003. Generation of variational standard plant room solutions. Automation in Construction, 12 (2), pp. 155-166.
Richens, P. N., Trinder, M. and Nagashima, M., 2001. Design participation through the internet. Journal of Architecture and Building Science, 116 (1481), pp. 353-358.
Ashmore, J. and Richens, P. N., 2001. Computer Simulation in Daylight Design: a comparison. Architectural Science Review, 44 (1), pp. 33-44.
Richens, P., 2000. Playing games. Digital Creativity, 11 (3), pp. 156-160.
Richens, P. and Trinder, M., 1999. Design participation through the internet: a case study. arq: Architectural Research Quarterly, 3 (4), pp. 361-375.
Conference or Workshop Items
Bak, A., Shepherd, P. and Richens, P., 2012. Intuitive interactive form finding of optimised fabric-cast concrete. In: Second International Conference on Flexible Formwork (icff2012), 2012-06-27 - 2012-06-29, University of Bath.
Bak, A., Shepherd, P. and Richens, P., 2012. Intuitive interactive form finding of optimised fabric-cast concrete. In: Second International Conference on Flexible Formwork (icff2012), 2012-06-27 - 2012-06-29, University of Bath.
Georgiou, O., Shepherd, P. and Richens, P., 2011. Performance based interactive analysis. In: Design Modelling Symposium, 2011-10-07 - 2011-10-12, Berlin.
Fernandoy, J., Shepherd, P. and Richens, P., 2011. Geometry optimisation for adaptable lightweight structures in remote areas. In: 2011 IASS Annual Symposium: IABSE-IASS 2011: Taller, Longer, Lighter, 2011-09-20 - 2011-09-23, London.
Richens, P. and Harney, M., 2011. Reconstruction of historic landscapes. Submitted to: EVA (Electronic Visualisation and the Arts) London 2011, 2011-07-06 - 2011-07-08, London.
Shepherd, P. and Richens, P., 2011. Subdivision surfaces for integrated design, analysis and optimisation. In: 2011 IASS Annual Symposium: IABSE-IASS 2011: Taller, Longer, Lighter, 2011-09-20 - 2011-09-23, London.
Nitsche, M. and Richens, P., 2005. Combining linear content and spatial design in Mindstage. In: Mit4: 4th Conference on Media in Transition, 2005-05-01.
Richens, P., 1997. Image processing for urban scale environmental modelling. In: Proc 5th Intemational IBPSA Conference: Building Simulation 97, 1997-01-01, Prague.
Dataset
Wilson Jones, M., Richens, P., Herdt, G. and , T. S. T. L., 2009. Early examples of the ionic capital. [Dataset]
Wilson Jones, M., Richens, P., Herdt, G. and , T. S. T. L., 2009. Early examples of the ionic capital. 7: Corner Capital – Delos Museum. [Dataset]
