Peter Sealy is an architectural historian who studies the ways in which architects constructively engage with reality through indexical media such as photography. He holds architecture degrees from the McGill University School of Architecture and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he was a Frank Knox fellow. He recently completed his PhD at Harvard on the emergence of a photographic visual regime in nineteenth-century architectural publications, seen through the lens of truth — in both architecture and its representations.

Peter’s research on Émile Zola and the immateriality of 19th century iron buildings was recently published in Function and Fantasy: Iron Architecture in the Long Nineteenth Century (Routledge), a volume he co-edited with Paul Dobraszczyk. He has presented at numerous scholarly conferences, including those of the AAH, CAA, EAHN, INHA, RIBA, SAH, and SAHANZ. His articles have appeared in Abitare, Border Crossings, Canadian Architect, Domus, Harvard Design Magazine, The Journal of Architecture, and Oris, and in several edited volumes, including Blackwell’s Companion to the History of Architecture. Previously, he worked at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) on exhibitions including Actions (2008) and Journeys (2010). Recently, he studied the resurgence of model photography and photomontage in contemporary architectural representation as a Mellon Researcher at the CCA.

Current research projects include a study of the Berlin Wall in film, and a forthcoming article on the iterative nature of re-mediated design practices.