About Barbara Kenda

Dr. Barbara Kenda is an architect and architectural historian focusing on the integration of built environment and medicine. Her work promotes sustainable buildings and cities that enhance the physical and mental state of their inhabitants.

Barbara Kenda's research on pneumatic and therapeutic architecture has been published in several articles including On the Art of Well-being: Pneuma in Villa Eolia (RES, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Fall 1998). She is the author/editor of Aeolian Winds and the Spirit of Renaissance Architecture (Routledge, Taylor & Francis, London, New York, 2006), described by reviewers as an original and ground breaking book.

Barbara Kenda has received an MA from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a recipient of several awards, grants and fellowships, including a postdoctoral Fellowship at Dumbarton Oaks, Harvard University. She is a former Professor at the University of Notre Dame and a former Director of Education at the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment in London. Currently, she is an Adjunct Professor at Virginia Technology Institute and State University in Alexandria—Washington Center. She also works at the United States Department of State.

Quotes

She identified and pioneered the unexpected subject of pneumatology [from pneuma: air, wind, breath, spirit, soul] in the field of Renaissance architecture, and linked the new theme to contemporary environmental questions. Joseph Rykwert

I was fascinated to read of Fransesco Trento [Aeolian Winds…] and his systems of natural ventilation. I can't help feeling we could learn something from them for application to today's "greener" buildings…! HRH The Prince of Wales