Joe Crowdy is a PhD fellow researching the built environment of the Fens – an area of marshland in the east of England – as it became the object of intense speculative development in the seventeenth century. His research responds to the words and practices of those who opposed this newly imposed architecture of drainage and enclosure, who rejected depictions of their environment as a barren wasteland in need of ‘improvement’, by asserting its existing economic and ecological vitality.

Crowdy holds an MA in Architectural History from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, and a BA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art and Design, UAL. Prior to his PhD studies, he worked in London as an artist – producing installations, performances and texts for exhibitions and commissions in the UK and Europe – and a gardener, and these practices continue to inform his academic research.