Dr Wesley Aelbrecht

PhD

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

Research interests

My research explores the relationships between visual culture, architecture and urban transformation, with particular attention to how photography and other visual media have shaped the ways cities are imagined, represented and understood. Working across architectural history, planning history, urban history and visual studies, I examine how visual representations participate in the production of urban knowledge, influence perceptions of urban change and contribute to the political and cultural narratives surrounding redevelopment.

Much of my research focuses on North American cities, particularly Chicago and Detroit, from the mid-twentieth century onwards. I am interested in how photography and visual storytelling have been used to document, legitimise and contest processes of urban renewal, neighbourhood clearance, industrial decline and redevelopment. My work examines photographs not simply as historical illustrations, but as cultural artefacts whose production, circulation, sequencing and interpretation shape how urban transformations become visible and meaningful.

Drawing on my background in architectural practice and training in art and architectural history, I combine historical research with visual and material analysis to investigate the relationships between images, built environments and urban change.

Research expertise

• Photography, architecture and urban visual culture
• Architectural, urban and planning history
• Visual representations and imaginaries of cities
• Urban renewal, redevelopment and the politics of representation
• Photobooks, photographic archives and visual storytelling
• Visual methodologies and the production of urban knowledge
• Histories of urban decline, demolition and transformation

Current research projects

Photography, Visual Culture and Urban Transformation: This area of research examines how photography and other visual media have shaped understandings of cities and their transformation. It investigates the production, circulation and interpretation of architectural and urban images, with particular attention to their role in constructing historical narratives, influencing urban imaginaries and mediating the politics of redevelopment.

Framing Renewal: Women, Visual Technologies, and the Politics of Urban Change

Monograph in preparation. My current monograph examines the contributions of women and visual technologies to urban renewal in mid-twentieth-century Chicago. It investigates how photography and other visual practices participated in the production of knowledge about the city and shaped the representation, interpretation and politics of urban change.

Picturing the City: Photography, Planning, and Urban History

Edited collection with Laura Bowie. This collection explores the relationships between photography, planning and urban history. Bringing together interdisciplinary scholarship, it examines how photographic practices have documented, shaped and challenged understandings of cities and their transformation.

Photography, Visual Storytelling and Urban Transformation

Ongoing research programme. This research examines how photographic narratives construct historical interpretations of urban transformation, particularly in Detroit and Chicago. It considers how the selection, sequencing and juxtaposition of photographs create relationships between people, places and events, and how these visual arrangements shape understandings of neighbourhood clearance, industrial decline, redevelopment and urban memory. Current work includes research on photographic storytelling in the Detroit Free Press and the photographic imagination of post-industrial Chicago.

Chicago Photobooks and the City

Collaborative research with David Schalliol. This project examines the role of photobooks in shaping the visual imagination of Chicago and constructing the city's urban identity. Focusing on photographic publications from the post-war period onwards, it investigates how photographers have interpreted the city's changing urban landscapes, architecture and social conditions. Particular attention is given to the photobook as a historical and cultural artefact, considering how photographic publications have contributed to, or challenged, dominant narratives of Chicago's architectural and urban history.

Housing, Architectural Culture and Representation: This area of research explores the relationships between housing, architectural culture and representation, with particular attention to post-war residential environments. It examines how housing has been designed, represented, inhabited and interpreted, drawing on architectural history, photography, archival research and collaborative approaches to investigate the relationships between architectural ideas, built environments and social experience.

Living the SPAN Dream: Towards a Lived Architectural History of Modern Housing

Collaborative research. This project examines the relationship between architectural design, community and everyday life in SPAN's post-war housing developments in London. Combining architectural and archival research with oral histories, photography and community participation, it explores how the social ambitions of modernist housing have been experienced, sustained and transformed over time. The project contributes to debates on housing heritage, collective living and the relationship between architecture and everyday life. 

High-Rise Living: Views, Photography and the Experience of Vertical Housing

Research project in development. This project explores the relationship between photography, architecture and the lived experience of high-rise housing. Working with photographic practitioners, it examines how residential towers, their interiors and the views they offer are represented and experienced. Through photography and visual research, the project investigates relationships between architectural design, domestic life and the surrounding city, contributing to debates on vertical living, housing and the visual representation of urban environments.

Placemaking, Policy and Practice: This strand of collaborative research explores how academic research can inform planning policy, professional practice and the design of more inclusive urban environments.

Placemaking Toolkit for Wales: Research, Policy and Practice

Collaborative research with Cardiff University's School of Geography and Planning, supported by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account. This project explores how placemaking principles can be translated into planning policy and practice in Wales. Building on the Placemaking Wales Charter and the wider Welsh planning policy framework, it examines how the quality of public spaces and the built environment can be assessed, improved and supported through practical guidance and participatory approaches. Supported by funding from Cardiff University's ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, the project has contributed to the development of a placemaking toolkit intended to help local authorities, planning professionals and communities apply placemaking principles in practice. It seeks to strengthen the relationship between research, policy and implementation while promoting more inclusive, sustainable and people-centred approaches to the design and management of places.

Teaching

My teaching focuses on architectural and urban histories and theories, research methodologies, and the relationships between architecture, visual culture and urban transformation. I teach across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at the Welsh School of Architecture, combining historical and theoretical perspectives with critical research and visual analysis.

Current teaching responsibilities

• Module Leader, Research Methods, Master of Architecture (MArch Year 1).
• Teaching contributor, Architectural History and Theory, BSc Architecture, with particular interests in photography, visual culture, architectural representation and urban history.
• Supervisor, MArch dissertations in architectural history, theory and research.
• Supervisor, doctoral research (PhD).

Teaching and curriculum development

My teaching emphasises critical engagement with scholarship, interdisciplinary research and the development of independent research questions and methodologies. I am particularly interested in helping students connect historical and theoretical debates with contemporary architectural practice.

As Decolonisation Lead (Architecture), I also contribute to curriculum development and initiatives aimed at promoting more inclusive approaches to architectural education.

Biography

Wes Aelbrecht is a Senior Lecturer in Architectural and Urban Histories and Theories at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, where he has taught since 2017.

Originally trained as an architect at KU Leuven in Belgium, he subsequently studied art history at KU Leuven and architectural history at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL). He completed his PhD in Architectural History and Theory at UCL, supported by an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) studentship and a Fulbright Fellowship at Columbia University, New York.

Before entering academia, he worked as an architect and urban designer at KCAP in Rotterdam, Soriano y Palacios Arquitectos in Madrid, and Xaveer De Geyter Architects (XDGA) in Brussels. Prior to joining Cardiff University, he taught at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and Regent's University London.

Committees and reviewing

Editorial appointments

• 2026–present: Associate Editor, Planning Perspectives (Taylor & Francis).
• 2022–present: International Editorial Board: International Planning Studies (Taylor & Francis).
• 2022–2026: UK Book Review Editor, Planning Perspectives.
• 2010–2014: Faculty Editor (The Bartlett), Opticon1826, University College London.

Academic and professional service

• 2024–present: Member, Ethics Committee, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University.
• 2024–present: Decolonisation Lead (Architecture), Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University.
• 2024–present: Member, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University.
• 2022–present: Treasurer, International Planning History Society (IPHS).

Peer reviewing

• Peer reviewer for international academic journals in architectural history, urban history, planning history and visual culture.

Supervisions

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students interested in architectural and urban histories and theories, particularly projects that explore the relationships between visual culture, architecture, planning and urban transformation.

My areas of supervision include:

• Photography, architecture and visual culture: photographic representations of architecture and cities, photobooks, visual storytelling and urban imaginaries.
• Architectural, urban and planning history: historical approaches to urban transformation, redevelopment, regeneration and the politics of planning.
• Visual methods and urban knowledge: photography, film, archives and other visual practices as sources and methods for investigating architecture and urban change.
• Urban renewal and the politics of representation: visual narratives of urban decline, neighbourhood clearance, displacement, demolition and redevelopment.
• Modern architecture and housing: post-war modernism, social housing, high-rise living, suburbs, new towns and the relationship between architectural design and everyday life.
• Architecture, participation and urban governance: community engagement, placemaking, public space and the social and political dimensions of the built environment.
• Urban memory and heritage: the representation of urban change, industrial landscapes, ruins, architectural heritage and collective memory.

I particularly welcome interdisciplinary research that brings architectural and urban history into dialogue with planning history, visual studies, photography, cultural geography and related fields.

Current supervision

Laurence Murray