Aleksandr Bierig is a PhD candidate studying architectural and urban history at the Harvard GSD. His research focuses on the intersection of architecture, economy, and environment, particularly between the mid-seventeenth and mid-nineteenth centuries in Britain and its empire. This work is concerned with how it came to pass that buildings began to be conceived environmentally—that is, as an interior space of often purified comfort set apart from the threatening vicissitudes of the external world, as well as an instrument that might serve to manage environmental, economic, and social risks. His dissertation investigates the interaction between coal use and architecture in London between the Great Fire of 1666 and the construction of the second London Coal Exchange in 1849. Other recent work includes investigations into the late eighteenth-century English cottage, the early nineteenth-century plantation in the American south, and changing concepts of building ventilation between 1650 and 1850. Prior to his PhD studies, Bierig completed his MArch from Princeton University and his BA in Architecture from Yale University. He has worked for a number of architectural firms in the United States and Europe, and has published articles and essays in Log, Clog, Architectural Record, The Architectural Review, and Pidgin.
During the Richard Rogers Fellowship, Bierig will be advancing his dissertation research, exploring the architectural, infrastructural, and commercial regulations of the eighteenth-century coal trade, including documentation on coal taxation, records of debates on the London Coal Trade, and designs for metropolitan improvements. This work will take place at several archives and institutions, including the London Metropolitan Archives, the National Archives, and the British Museum.
During the Richard Rogers Fellowship, Bierig will be advancing his dissertation research, exploring the architectural, infrastructural, and commercial regulations of the eighteenth-century coal trade, including documentation on coal taxation, records of debates on the London Coal Trade, and designs for metropolitan improvements. This work will take place at several archives and institutions, including the London Metropolitan Archives, the National Archives, and the British Museum.
