Rate My Professor Sean Pickersgill

Dr. Sean Pickersgill serves as Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the School of Architecture and Built Environment, College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities, Adelaide University. He earned his PhD from RMIT University through an artefact and thesis examining the interrelationship between German critical theory and the idea of renovation and redemption in architecture. His academic qualifications also include a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours (BA Hons). Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD students, Pickersgill has built his career at the University of South Australia, now integrated into Adelaide University, where he contributes to architectural education through courses such as Advanced Architectural Theory, Reflective Practices, and Architectural Design Research Studios. Associated with the IVE: Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments, his research originates from grants including a 2004 Teaching and Learning Grant and a 2005 Divisional Research Performance Grant, which facilitated the creation of a commercial game mod and an elective in game design.

Pickersgill's research specializations encompass the use and implications of game engines in the ontology of digital architecture, digital ontology and the architectural monstrous, virtual reality and architecture, and gamification for architecture, engineering, and construction students. His scholarly output includes the 2023 book The Architect's Dream: Form and Philosophy in Architectural Imagination published by Intellect Books. Notable journal articles are 'Love’s Labour’s Lost: Alberto Pérez-Gómez’s Polyphilo' (Interstices, 2024), 'Super Architects and Dream Factories' (Interstices, 2017), 'Possibilia: Possible Worlds and the Limitless in Architecture' (Footprint, 2017), 'Architecture and Violence (A Review)' (Interstices, 2012), and 'An Architectural Singularity: Digital Monsters of Architecture' (Ultima Thule, 2012). Key book chapters feature 'Wish You Were Here: Virtual Reality and Architecture' (2021), 'OnSite: The Virtual Site Visit as an Environment for Construction Learning' (2020), and 'Architecture’s New Worlds' (2013). Recent conference contributions include 'Virtual Site Visits through Gamification for AEC Students: Perspectives on Practice' (SIGGRAPH Asia 2024) and 'Adjacencies of the Real: Scholastic Construction in the Twenty First Century' (CDRF 2024, published 2025). Through these works, Pickersgill advances philosophical and technological intersections in architecture, enhancing pedagogical tools like virtual construction site visits.