Anne Elisabeth Toft

Anne Elisabeth Toft

Architect, ph.d.

  • Exners Plads 7

    8000 Aarhus C

    Denmark

19992023

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Curriculum vitae

Anne Elisabeth Toft

Bio

Anne Elisabeth Toft, architect and PhD in architectural history and theory, specializes in architectural representation. Her PhD dissertation (2006) theorizes on architectural photography and the relationship between architecture and photography. Toft is an associate professor with tenure at the Aarhus School of Architecture. She has participated in group and solo exhibitions on architecture and architectural photography in Denmark and abroad, and she has lectured and taught at several international universities and schools of architecture.

Toft has curated exhibitions on architecture and photography, and she has written about architecture, architectural education, architectural photography, and the visual arts. Co-curator of  Photobook Week Aarhus since 2014, the first photo festival in Denmark devoted to the photobook and its discourse, she is responible for the festival's architecture related programme. Toft is the editor of Questions of Representations in Architecture (Arkitektskolens Forlag, 2015, with Christina Capetillo).

Toft’s work as a researcher, teacher, and curator focuses on architecture and its representation. She is particularly interested in the epistemology of architecture, scopic regimes, and didactics, and also in the way photography and photobooks mediate architecture. Other key interests include artist’s books and the mediality of architectural exhibitions, archives, and collections. Her research draws on inspiration from many different disciplines, and it operates with an expanded concept of discourse where methods and theories are brought in from architecture, the visual arts, philosophy, psychology, visual culture, critical theory, and cultural analysis.

Toft has been a member of the council of the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE) and editor of the EAAE News Sheet. She is a member of the European Society for the History of Photography, a member of the international research committee for the iphi awards, and a member of the jury of the Danish Society of Artists (2017-2020). Furthermore, she is on the editorial board of the Nordic Journal of Architectural Research (NJAR). Since 2015 she has been president of the Nordic Association of Architectural Research (NAF/NAAR).

From 2021-2024 she will lead the international research network The Representation of the Welfare City, funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (IRFD).

Curriculum vitae

CURRICULUM VITAE (short version)

Anne Elisabeth Toft, associate professor, architect MAA, PhD


Educational Background and Academic Appointments

1996               
Graduated in architecture from The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Department 3E, Copenhagen, Denmark

1999–2001   
MÜLLER & TOFT – an experimental laboratory for architecture, Copenhagen

1996–2001     
Teaching assistant and academic assistant at Aarhus School of Architecture

2000–2010     
Editor of the EAAE News Sheet (European Association for Architectural Education)

2001–2005     
PhD fellow at the Institute for Architecture and Aesthetics, Aarhus School of Architecture

2004               
Consultant for VELUX (project employee): VELUX Award: Light of Tomorrow

2006               
Awarded a PhD degree in architecture based on the thesis:
Architecture and Photography: A Study if the Relationship between Presentation and Representation

2007–2009     
Assistant professor at Aarhus School of Architecture

2009–present  
Associate professor at Aarhus School of Architecture

 

Guest Lecturer and Guest Critic

Invited guest lecturer and guest critic at various institutions in Denmark and abroad, including:

The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Copenhagen, Denmark; The Royal Danish Library, Copenhagen, Denmark; Design School Kolding, Kolding, Denmark; Köln International School of Design (KISD), Cologne, Germany; University of Technology, Sydney, Australia; The Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow, Scotland; School of Architecture and the Visual Arts University of East London, Great Britain; School of Architecture, Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing, China; The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, London, Great Britain.

 

National and International Guest Teaching

Invited guest teacher, holder of workshops, and long-term visiting lecturer at several Danish and international educational institutions, including:

Metropolis Laboratory 2008 / Metropolis Biennale 2007–17, Copenhagen, Denmark; Köln International School of Design (KISD), Cologne, Germany; CUAAD, School of Architecture, University of Guadalajara, Mexico; School of Architecture and the Visual Arts, University of East London, Great Britain; School of Architecture, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China; University of Technology, Sydney, Australia; DKAD (Danish Research Schools within Architecture and Design), School of Architecture, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark.

 

Academic Leadership, Commissions of Trust, Committees and Boards, etc.

2000–2006     
Council member of the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE)

2002–2005     
Member of ‘The School Council’, Aarhus School of Architecture

2004–2010     
Member of an international ‘think tank’ in Ulm, Germany, set up with the purpose of rebranding the International Forum für Gestaltung Ulm (IFG Ulm), Germany

2007–2010     
EAAE Project Leader for the EAAE Network: Architecture and Its Representations

2010–2011     
Member of ‘The School Council’, Aarhus School of Architecture

2011–present  
Member of the board of the Nordic Association of Architectural Research (NAF/NAAR)

2012               
Jury member for the EAAE Prize 2011–2012: Writings in Architectural Education: Research by Design

2013               
Invited by Rotor (Belgian curatorial team) to develop a project for the Oslo Architecture Triennale, Oslo, Norway: 19 September – 1 December 2013

2014–2017     
Member of the jury of The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Society of Artists (deputy)

2015–present  
President of the Nordic Association of Architectural Research (NAF/NAAR)

2017–2020     
Member of the jury of The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Society of Artists

2018–2022     
Member of the appointed team of external examiners for Fine Arts Programmes in Denmark under the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science

2018–2022     
Member of the appointed team of external examiners for Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University

2019 - present
Member of the international research committee for the iphi awards

2021
Member of the jury of the iphiGenia Gender Design Award 2021

2021-2024
Leading the international research network "The Representation of the Welfare City" funded by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (IRFD)

2022-2026
Member of the appointed team of external examiners for Fine Arts Programmes in Denmark under the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science

2022–2026   
Member of the appointed team of external examiners for Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Copenhagen and Aarhus University

 

Organization of Conferences, Symposia, Seminars, and Lecture Series

Organization of several international conferences, seminars, symposia, and lecture series on the subjects architecture and architectural representation, including:

The international research symposium: Questions of Representations in Architecture (2011), School of Architecture, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark, for DKAD and EAAE; PhD master class: Strategies of Representation: Architecture and Photography, Film and Models (2011), School of Architecture, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark; international research conference: 2016 NAF Symposium The Production of Knowledge in Architecture by PhD Research in the Nordic Countries (2016), KTH Stockholm, Sweden; international research conference: 2017 NAF Symposium Reflecting Histories and Directing Futures (2017), NMBU, Ås and AHO, Oslo, Norway; international research conference: 2018 NAF Symposium Built Environment and Architecture as a Resource (2018), Seinäjoki University Centre, Seinäjoki, Finland; international research conference: 2020 NAF Symposium Northernness (2020), Oulu University, Oulu School of Architecture, Finland.

 

Participation in Exhibitions

Participation in judged exhibitions in Denmark and abroad with my own work, including:

Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling (KE) 1995, Charlottenborgs Forårsudstilling 1996 and 1997, Royal Scottish Academy Annual Exhibition 1998 (The Mound, Edinburgh, Great Britain), and a solo exhibition at the Danish Architecture Center, Dobbeltlokalitet: Arkitektur + Fotografi (1999–2000).

Participation by invitation in exhibitions with my own work or the work of my students, including:

Oslo Architecture Triennale, Behind the Green Door, Oslo, Norway, 19 September – 1 December 2013, invited by: Rotor, curatorial team; The GREAT Small – Great Gender-Sensitive Design and Small Anti-Gender Design, Hong Kong, 9 October – 7 December 2014, organized by: International Gender Design Network (iGDN) and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).

 

Exhibition Curating

Curating of several research-based exhibitions on architecture and architectural photography, including:

Nine Walks, 15 November 2013, Oslo Architecture Triennale, Oslo, Norway; Beijing/Aarhus: Mapping the Void I + II, 25 February – 31 March 2014, Power Station of Art, Design Shanghai 2013, Shanghai, China; Plug-In, 7 May – 21 May 2014, DAC/Arkitekternes Hus, Copenhagen, Denmark; Photobook Week Aarhus 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 – International Photobook Festival, Aarhus, Denmark; Danish Cool: Keld Helmer-Petersen, Photography and the Photobook, 13 August – 18 September 2016, The Danish Cultural Center, 798 International Arts District, Beijing, China; The ARoS Collection, 4 October – 1 November 2018, ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus, Denmark; Nadja - A Portrait of a City, 2 - 25 October 2020, ARoS, Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark; Per Bak Jensen: Books and Catalogs, 2 - 25 October 2020, ARoS, Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark.

 

Travel and Project Grants

Frøken Marie Månssons Legat

Margot og Thorvald Dreyers Fond

Statens Kunstfond

Realdania

Nationalbankens Jubilæumsfond

Independent Research Fund Denmark

 

Contributions to Books and Journals

Articles and interviews in journals and books on architecture, architectural education, architectural photography, and visual culture.

 

 

Publication collaborations within the past 5 years.

Recent external collaboration on country/territory level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots or