In her role as Archivist – Photographic Collections, she manages the AA's historic and contemporary photographic collections, coordinating cataloguing and digitisation workflows, supervising student assistants and facilitating access to archival materials for research, teaching and public engagement.
The projects presented here reflect her experience in working with architectural records across different formats, including drawings, photographs and historical documents. They bring together collections management, archival description and an engagement with the historical and research significance of architectural archives.
Keith Critchlow Collection
Architectural Association Archives, London · 2022 – present
Role Archival Arrangement, Cataloguing Strategy and Project Coordination
The Keith Critchlow Collection is an extensive and diverse archive documenting more than fifty years of Critchlow's work as an architect, educator, author and researcher. It encompasses architectural drawings, project records, teaching materials, manuscripts, correspondence, publications, photographs and records of exhibitions and conferences.
Since 2022, Golnar Tajdar has led the archival arrangement and cataloguing of the collection. Drawing on the AA Archives' established practices and descriptive structures, she developed and implemented a cataloguing framework tailored to the collection's scale, complexity and range of materials. The archive has been organised into eight principal series, with different levels of description applied according to the nature of the records.
Over four years, she has managed and supervised more than twelve student assistants, providing training in archival procedures and cataloguing methods, allocating and coordinating tasks, and reviewing their work to ensure consistency and accuracy.
The cataloguing has been completed and is currently undergoing final quality control and review, undertaken by Tajdar herself. The resulting catalogue is intended to facilitate research access to the collection and support future study of Critchlow's architectural, educational and intellectual activities.
Preparations are also under way for the collection's public launch.
Georgie Wolton Collection
Architectural Association Archives, London · 2024 – present
Role Archival Arrangement, Cataloguing Strategy and Project Coordination
The Georgie Wolton Collection documents the architectural education and professional practice of Georgie Wolton (1934–2021), a British architect and founding member of Team 4 in 1963, alongside Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and other early members. Following her departure from the practice, Wolton developed an independent architectural career. Her work offers an important perspective on post-war British architecture and the contributions of women architects whose achievements have received comparatively limited scholarly attention.
Held at the Architectural Association Archives, the collection comprises architectural drawings, photographs in various formats, correspondence, project documentation, student work and office records. Together, these materials provide valuable evidence of Wolton's architectural education, design processes and professional practice, extending the historical understanding of her work beyond her early association with Team 4.
Since December 2024, Golnar Tajdar has led the archival arrangement and cataloguing programme. Drawing on the AA Archives' established practices, she developed and implemented a cataloguing framework suited to the collection's varied materials and complex project records. Her responsibilities include planning and coordinating the work of student assistants, providing training in archival procedures and cataloguing methods, allocating tasks and undertaking quality control of their work.
A particular challenge has been the identification and intellectual organisation of records relating to individual architectural projects, often dispersed across multiple portfolios and boxes. The cataloguing framework brings these materials together at project level while maintaining their archival context.
By September 2026, cataloguing had been completed for ten major project groups, comprising approximately 6,930 items, including some of the collection's largest and most complex bodies of material and Wolton's architectural student work. The project remains ongoing, with the aim of establishing a coherent and accessible catalogue to support future research into Wolton's work and her contribution to British architectural history.
Lantern Slide Digitisation
Architectural Association Archives, London · Period covered: c.1890s–1955
Role Digitisation Project Coordination, Collections Management and Quality Control
The Architectural Association's early photographic collection comprises approximately 21,000 lantern slides and glass plate negatives dating from the 1890s to the mid-1950s. One of the few substantial surviving collections of architectural photography from this period in the UK, it provides an important historical resource for the study of architecture, architectural education and visual culture.
Beyond the individual images, the collection offers evidence of the AA's teaching practices and its influence during the early years of the Modern Movement. Its largely preserved original arrangement and classification system are particularly significant, reflecting the intellectual frameworks through which architectural history was organised, taught and interpreted, including the formation of an architectural canon in interwar Britain.
The ongoing digitisation project aims to preserve these fragile photographic materials while improving their accessibility for research and teaching. The work involves the careful cleaning, scanning, documentation and cataloguing of the slides, with particular attention to retaining their original classification and archival context.
As Archivist – Photographic Collections, Golnar Tajdar oversees the ongoing digitisation programme and coordinates the work undertaken by student assistants. Building on procedures established before her appointment, she has introduced improvements to existing workflows to make the processes of cleaning, scanning, documentation and cataloguing more straightforward and consistent. Her responsibilities include training and supervising student assistants, allocating tasks, monitoring progress and reviewing the quality of digitised images and associated catalogue records.
The project contributes to the long-term preservation and documentation of the collection and supports the development of online research access, while maintaining the historical relationships between the photographic materials and the AA's original classification system.