I am working as an architectural historian, researcher and educator, with a transdisciplinary approach, and interests in environmental and energy humanities, encompassing the material and geological turn. Since January 2019, I am lecturer in architectural studies at the University of Manchester, where I teach seminars on environmental histories, energy and resource transition, pursuing research on material histories, as a member of the Manchester Architecture Research Group (MARG) at the School of Education, Environment and Development (SEED).
From 2016 to 2018, I was Associate Director of Research at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montréal, Canada, having been responsible for various research programs for different cohorts of researchers. There, I directed a multidisciplinary research program, with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, taking on a project on "Architecture and/for Photography" and especially designing a project on "Architecture and/for the Environment", among others.
I hold a doctorate in architecture from the ETH Zurich, which I received in 2011. My doctoral thesis back then focussed on an institutional history, analysis and critique of the renowned Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies (New York, 1967-1985). From 2013 to 2015, then as a postdoctoral scholar at the Institute gta (History and Theory of Architecture), I conceived and taught a methods seminar in the doctoral program in history and theory of architecture.
Moreover, I have an academic background in English Language and Literature, American Studies, Physical and Human Geography, as well as Pedagogy, which I studied at the University of Münster, Humboldt University in Berlin, and the University of Toronto. Previously, I gained pedagogical experiences, being trained and working as a high school teacher of English and Geography in Berlin.
My research interests include political, economic, social and cultural issues in architecture. I currently focus on the political economy and ecology of building materials, archives of energy transition, ecological thought and practice since the 1970s, and the rhetorics of sustainability. For my research, I received grants from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), academic institutions (D-ARCH at ETH Zurich; SEED at The University of Manchester) and cultural institutions (Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart; CCA).
Next to academic anthologies, art and architecture books, and exhibition catalogues, I have published in various architectural journals and magazines (ARCH+, Archithese, Architectural Histories, Bauwelt, Candide, Clog, Places, Project, Werk, Bauen + Wohnen), as co-editor of the Berlin journal An Architektur, guest editor of ARCH+, guest editor of Candide, and as part of the New York and Brussels based group common room.
I am currently working on a monograph on the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, which combines an institutional history of a unique setting at the time cultural production prevailed in architecture, with cultural analysis and criticism, with a production grant from the Graham Foundation.
current position
since January 2019
Lecturer at the University of Manchester, UK
past position
March 2016 to December 2018
Associate Director, Research at the CCA, Montréal, CA
research fellowship
July 2015 to December 2015
fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, DE
project: "Eco- and Solar Architecture in Baden-Württemberg in the 1980s"
academic research and teaching
December 2011 to June 2015
lecturer in the doctoral program in History and Theory of Architecture and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich, CH
June 2007 to September 2011
doctoral candidate at the Department of Architecture (D-ARCH), ETH Zurich, CH
dissertation: "The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, New York (1967-1985). A Cultural Project in the Field of Architecture"
August 2009 to June 2010
research scholar at Columbia University, New York, US
February 2009 to June 2009
researcher at the CCA, Montréal, CA
January 2007 to December 2007
research project: "Transatlantic Dialogue: US-American Theory of Architecture in the 1970s", D-ARCH, ETH Zurich, CH
February 2006 to January 2009
assistant at the Institute for History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich, CH
professional training
November 2003 to November 2005
trainee teacher for English and Geography in Berlin, DE
studies
September 1999 to April 2000
exchange student at the University of Toronto, CA
October 1997 to December 2002
master studies in English and Geography (secondary-school teacher) at Humboldt University in Berlin, DE
September 1996 to May 1997
teaching assistant in Hull, UK
April 1995 to May 1996
bachelor studies in English and Geography (secondary-school teacher) at the University of Münster, DE
grants
2019
Early Career Grant, SEED, University of Manchester, UK
research project: "Cement. Building Material of the Anthropocene"
2015
six-months fellowship at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, DE
research project: "Eco- and Solar Architecture in Baden-Württemberg in the 1980s"
2013
production and presentation grant of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts:
publication project: "The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, New York, 1967–1985: Networks of Cultural Production"
2010
production and presentation grant of the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts:
publication project: „Abrons Arts Center: Public Architecture and Architectural Education“
2009
July 2009 to June 2010
fellowship of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF): Columbia University, New York, US
February to June 2009
collection research grant of the Department of Architecture (D-ARCH), ETH Zurich and the CCA, Montréal, CA