Chair

Chair Profile

The Chair for Urban Design and Urbanization is focused on socially just and climate conscious urban design for people, plants, animals, fungi and crystals. CUD research and design projects explore the complex history, actual use, ecology and economy of the urban and contemporary modes of urban governance. Cooperative and community-based design processes are investigated, developed and tested in teaching, research and practice.

Urbanization is a global phenomenon confronting societies with unprecedented local challenges and opportunities. Rapid urban growth, finite resources and resulting socio-political distribution conflicts demand new governance strategies and planning and design tools. CUD strongly believes that the urban professional has to reinforce his and her expertise in order for urban design to become the platform on which sustainable development is negotiated between different disciplines and stakeholder groups.

CUD focuses on the coordination of top-down and bottom-up planning modes, advocating the integration of civil society based urban development into urban planning and development processes. The chair is organized as a laboratory for urban design theory and practice, cooperating with universities, practitioners, developers, municipalities and – most importantly, the people as co-producers of a better urban future.

(fig: Büro, Thomas Demand, 1995)

Chair staff

  • Jörg Stollmann

    Professor

    Jörg Stollmann is an architect and urban researcher based in Zurich and Berlin. He is co-founder of urbaninform. Jörg Stollmann graduated form the University of the Arts Berlin and Princeton University. He works in various collaborations, for example with the artist Ines Schaber, and was principal of INSTANT Architects with Dirk Hebel. He taught at the University of the Arts Berlin, the Technical University Berlin and ETH Zurich. At ETH, he taught the MAS Program in Landscape Architecture and was Director of Studies of the MAS Program in Urban Design. He was part of the curatorial team of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam 2009 for the section Squat. The Informal City under Construction.

    Jörg Stollmann ist Architekt und Stadtforscher in Zürich und Berlin. Er ist Mitbegründer von urbaninform. Jörg Stollmann studierte an der Universität der Künste Berlin und Princeton University. Er arbeitet in verschiedenen Kollaborationen, z. Bsp. mit der Künstlerin Ines Schaber, und war Inhaber von INSTANT Architekten mit Dirk Hebel. Er lehrte an der Universität der Künste Berlin, der TU Berlin und der ETH Zürich. An der ETH unterrichtete er das MAS Programm in Landschaftsarchitektur und war Studiendirektor des MAS Programm Urban Design. Er war Teil des kuratorischen Teams der Internationalen Architektur Biennale Rotterdam 2009 für die Sektion Squat. The Informal City under Construction.

    (fig: TU Berlin/PR/Ulrich Dahl)

  • Veljko Marković

    Research Associate

    Veljko Marković is a Serbian architect based in Berlin. He obtained a Master of Architecture from the University in Belgrade/Faculty of Architecture, after which he continued his studies in Germany. In 2016 he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg obtaining a Master of Arts, where he studied at the Chair for Architecture and Urban Studies – a research based Master program. His research focus is on the characteristics of intermediate spaces emerging from ideological or interest conflicts. He is interested in the idea of the border between inclusivity and exclusivity, specifically within a participatory processes. His work mainly focuses on Berlin’s city development while drawing parallels to post-socialist Yugoslavian heritage. After gaining experience in several Berlin based architecture offices working on projects of different scale, his main practical work has been working as a team member with Deadline Architects on the co-ownership project Fritzz23, a commercial Baugruppe for cultural industries. He has also collaborated with several artists, mainly on public sculpture projects, as well as with different housing collectives and constellations in the frame of Mietshäuser Syndikat.

    Veljko Marković ist ein serbisch-Berliner Architekt. Veljko Marković, geboren in Serbien, arbeitet als Architekt in Berlin. Nach seinem Masterabschluss in Architektur an der Universität Belgrad führte er sein Studium in Deutschland fort. Ab 2016 absolvierte er einen forschungsbasierten Master der Kunst an der Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Nürnberg, insbesondere am Lehrstuhl für Architektur und Stadtforschung. Der Fokus seiner Recherchen liegt auf den Charakteristiken von „intermediate spaces“, welche durch Ideologie- oder Interessenkonflikte hervortreten. Sein Interesse gilt der Grenze zwischen Exklusivität und Inklusivität, insbesondere innerhalb partizipativer Prozesse. In seiner Arbeit beschäftigt er sich vor allem mit Berlins Stadtentwicklung und zieht dabei Parallelen zu post-jugoslawischen Städten. Nachdem er durch die Mitarbeit an Projekten unterschiedlichen Maßstabs in mehreren Berliner Architekturbüros praktische Erfahrungen sammeln konnte, arbeitete er zuletzt als Teammitglied bei Deadline Architects. Hier betreute er unter anderem das kommerzielle und von unterschiedlichen kulturellen Trägern initiierte Baugruppen-Projekt „Frizz23“. Außerdem sucht er immer wieder die Zusammenarbeit mit unterschiedlichen Künstlern, meist im Rahmen von Projekten wie Kunst am Bau oder in Kooperation mit Wohnkollektiven und dem Mietshäuser Syndikat.

     

    veljko.markovic(a)tu-berlin.de

  • Steffen Klotz

    Research Associate (BMBF Project „Wohnqualitäten“)

    Steffen Klotz ist Urban Designer und Stadtforscher in Berlin. Er arbeitet in Formen kollaborativer Wissensproduktion und kollektiven Gestaltungsprozessen für die sozialgerechte und nachhaltige Entwicklung von Räumen. Steffen interessiert sich besonders für das Zusammenwirken unterschiedlicher Maßstabsebenen und die geeigneten Ansatzpunkte in diesem Geflecht für eine Transformation von unten. Steffen ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im Citizen-Science-Projekt „C/O________ – Forschen mit Kindern und Jugendlichen zur Wohnqualität in der Großwohnsiedlung“ (pbi/CUD). In den vergangenen Jahren hat er zu den Transformationsprozessen in ländlichen Räumen in Ostdeutschland geforscht – insbesondere im Hinblick auf die Wirkung globaler Kräfte und den lokalen Teilhabemöglichkeiten. Steffen studierte Landschaftsarchitektur und Urban Design an der TU Berlin.Er hat in verschiedenen Landschaftsarchitektur- und Architekturbüros in Berlin gearbeitet (u.a. man made land und Planorama Landschaftsarchitektur). Er war Teil des Designbüros studio amore und wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Thünen-Institut für Regionalentwicklung. Darüber hinaus arbeitet Steffen aktuell zu Themen gemeinwohlorientierter Stadtentwicklung als Teil der Planungskooperative coopdisco.

     

    Steffen Klotz is an urban designer and urban researcher based in Berlin. He works in forms of collaborative knowledge production and collective design processes for the socially-just and sustainable development of spaces. Steffen is particularly interested in the interaction of different levels of scale, and suitable approaches within this web to enable bottom-up transformation. Steffen is a research associate in the Citizen Science project “C/O________ ­– Researching with Children and Young People on Housing Quality in Large Housing Estates” (pbi/CUD). In recent years, he has conducted research on transformation processes in rural areas in eastern Germany – particularly with regard to the impact of global forces and local opportunities for participation. Steffen studied landscape architecture and urban design at the TU Berlin. He has worked in various landscape architecture and architecture firms in Berlin (including man made land and Planorama Landschaftsarchitektur). He was part of the design studio amore and a research assistant at the Thünen Institute for Regional Development. In addition, Steffen is currently working on topics of community-oriented urban development as part of the planning cooperative coopdisco.

    s.klotz(at)tu-berlin.de

  • Jeanne Lacour

    Research Associate

    Jeanne Lacour is a French architect and urban planner based in Berlin. She is interested in decision-making processes and the meaning of inhabitants participation in urban design projects. Her research focuses on the value created by the relationship between places and inhabitants and on how this value can be taken into account in the design process.
    She graduated from the École d’architecture de la Ville et des Territoires (School of Architecture of the City and Territories) Paris-Est with a degree in architecture and urban design. Thanks to several years spent as a project manager in architecture and urban design agencies in Paris, Anyoji Beltrando and then Shahinda Lane, she has gained experience on a wide variety of projects. With the associations Chorographe and Les Lignes, which she co-founded, she developed “Chimen an nou”, a participative digital map to improve daily mobility in Guadeloupe by sharing sensitive knowledge and personnal experiences. She is also a member of the interdisciplinary collective Officina Kreuzberg.
  • Jamie-Scott Baxter

    Designer and Research Associate

    Jamie-Scott Baxter, Dr.-Ing., is an architect-planner and sociospatial researcher with a focus on urban natures. At the intersection of design and science, Jamie coordinates the “Planetary Tactics for Cohabitation” lab within the BUA project “Re-Scaling Global Health. Human Health and Multispecies Cohabitation on an Urban Planet” at the Chair for Urban Design and Urbanisation, Technical University Berlin. In this constellation, he jointly coordinates the sub-project “The Health Effects of Biophilic Urbanisms: Planning with Pathogens in the United Kingdom”. Together with Laura Kemmer, he coordinates the project “Designing with the Planet. Connecting riparian zones of struggle in São Paulo, Jakarta and Berlin” (South Designs Initiative, Swiss National Science Foundation).  He is PI on “Planetability”, a 2-year DAAD-CAPES funded project that brings together planetary health and multispecies cohabitation discourses between Brazil and Berlin. And he currently coordinates the Planetary Health Ambassador Program at TU Berlin. Additionally, Jamie is joint executive editor at Architecture and Culture.

    Research interests include: planetary health and multispecies urbanism, critical conservation, botanic gardens, rural-urban relations, hybrid mapping and multi-sited ethnography, new materialisms and critical (spatial) theory.

  • Safa Ashoub

    PhD Candidate

    Safa Ashoub is a trained political scientist and an urbanist. She holds a double master’s in International Cooperation and Urban Development at the TechnicalUniversity of Darmstadt, Germany & University of Rome II, Italy (2008-2010).

    She also received a third master’s degree in Politics and International Relations (with focus onurban social movements) at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom (2012). She wrote her dissertation on: “Egyptian Popular Committees of the January 25 Revolution: The underlying movement and activism”.

    She has been working in the international development field for more than 12 years; at the GIZ, UN Women and UN-Habitat as well as the Egyptian Cabinet of Ministers.

    Currently, she is a PhD candidate at the Chair for Urban Design and Urbanization, Faculty VI Planning Building Environment, Technische Universität Berlin (TUB).

    Her PhD project “Urban Transformations in Cairo’s Middle-Class Neighbourhoods” (WT) is strongly related to her ambition to bring about changes in politics and policy making in her native country, Egypt. Inspired still by her experiences within the so-called period “Arab Spring”, she intends to closely investigate how potentials for democracy can still be assessed in Egyptian society. In her dissertation, she scrutinises the political and social production of urban space by citizens and communities in the middle of the Egyptian socio-economic hierarchy. She investigates current practices in terms of their relation to or evolvement from anti-government protests, activism, and civic mobilisation during the 2011 Egyptian revolution.

    Her research interests include social movements, alternative governance, urban activism, middle-class and politics of transition.

    Safa speaks Arabic, English, French and German.

  • Franka Matthes

    Student Assistant

    Franka Matthes kommt aus Köln und studiert seit 2020 an der Universität der Künste Berlin Architektur. Zuvor schloss sie ein Bachelor-Studium der Politik- und Sozialwissenschaften in Frankreich ab. Außerdem ist sie Teil des Redaktionsteams der Protocol, ein studentisch geführtes Magazin, das jährlich wechselnde Themen des Architekturdiskurses bearbeitet.

    Franka Matthes is from Cologne and has been studying architecture at the Berlin University of the Arts since 2020. Previously, she completed a bachelor’s degree in political and social sciences in France. She is also part of the editorial team of Protocol, a student-run magazine that deals with different topics of architectural discourse every year.

  • Former Staff Members

    Katharina Hagg, Research Associate

    Anna Heilgemeir, Research Assistant

    Mathias Heyden, Research Associate

    Sandra Bartoli, Research Associate

    Anita Kaspar, Research Associate

    Julia Köpper, Research Assistant

    Fee Kyriakopoulos, Research Associate

    Joachim Schultz, Research Associate

    Jakob Tigges, Research Associate

    David Levain, Research Associate

    Anne Fenk, Lecturer

    Karin Bradley, Post-Doc

    Anna Barwanietz, Student Assistant

    Daniel Bruns, Student Assistant

    Alexander Grams, Student Assistant

    Hugo Guiomar, Student Assistant

    Dorothee Hahn, Student Assistant

    Leonie Hartung, Student Assistant

    Theresa Jung, Student Assistant

    Malte Kloes, Student Assistant

    Ivan Leroy, Student Assistant

    Johanna Maierski, Student Assistant

    Daniela Mehlich, Student Assistant

    Oscar Mehlitz, Student Assistant

    Florian Müller, Student Assistant

    Kathrin Schömer, Student Assistant

    Frederik Springer, Student Assistant

    Andreas Wende, Student Assistant

    Greta Wörmann, Student Assistant

    Dagmar Pelger, Guest Lecturer & Research Associate

    Seonju Kim, Research Associate

    Menatullah Hendawy, Research Associate & PhD 2021

    Yamil Hasbun Chavarria, PhD 2019

    Sarah Schmidt, Student Assistant

    Karola Schäfermeier, Student Assistant