Rate My Professor Zuzana Kovar

Dr. Zuzana Kovar is a lecturer in the Architecture Discipline within Griffith University's School of Engineering and Built Environment. She teaches architectural design and contemporary architectural theory, serving as convenor of second-year design studios in the Bachelor of Architecture and Built Environment program. Her teaching integrates practice-based learning with theoretical exploration, fostering innovative design thinking among students.

Kovar's research centers on the relations within and between bodies and spaces, informed by Julia Kristeva's philosophy of abjection and process thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. She examines bodily boundaries and their intersections with architecture, philosophy, art, and film. Her key publication, the monograph Architecture in Abjection: Bodies, Spaces and their Relations (Bloomsbury, 2017), analyzes how bodies and spaces result from violent processes, employing interdisciplinary tools to reveal abjection's potential in representing trauma and its spatial legacies; the editing was funded by Griffith University's Research Start Up Fund. Expertise areas include architectural design, urban design, contemporary theory, and body-space relations. She leads the Architecture Et cetera Lab (AEcL), a practice-based research initiative co-founded in 2020 with Cecilia Bischeri and Jessica Blair. Recent works encompass 'Scaffold/ing: A Relational Architectural Concept' (Idea Journal, 2025), 'The House and a Commercial, Public Room' (2023), and exhibitions like Skin Deep and Empty. Paralleling academia, Kovar is a registered architect and co-director of zuzana&nicholas architects (est. 2013), acclaimed for residential projects including 2024 Houses Awards national honors.