Will Davis

Roles:
Author, Reader, Section Editor

Affiliations:

• • SNSF Ambizione Group Leader
  • Academy of Architecture, ISA / ISUP
  • Università della Svizzera italiana View ROR record for Università della Svizzera italiana. (opens in new tab)
  • Feb 2024–
• • Teaching Fellow
  • Architecture and Urban Design
  • University of California, Los Angeles View ROR record for University of California, Los Angeles. (opens in new tab)
  • Sep 2018–Jun 2021
• • Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Architecture
  • Princeton University View ROR record for Princeton University. (opens in new tab)
  • Sep 2022–Aug 2023
• • Research Associate
  • Asia Research Institute, Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Research Cluster
  • National University of Singapore View ROR record for National University of Singapore. (opens in new tab)
  • Nov 2021–

Biography

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Will is interested in how people interact with plants to make buildings, paying attention to architecture’s role in historical narratives of land struggle, ecological (mis)interpretations, and the emergence of the agribusiness complex. These interests are reflected in his current project “Voyaging Vapors: Plant Histories of Plantation Architectures” which explores the architecture of the plantation system in nineteenth century Southeast Asia. The project is funded by the Ambizione scheme of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2024–2028), hosted at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio. His doctoral dissertation, “Palm Politics: Warfare, Folklore, and Architecture” (UCLA, 2021) explored how the political economy of nipa palm as house-building material intertwined with histories of land-grabbing in the Philippines.