Prof. Dr. Tatjana Schneider

In the face of climate breakdown, accompanying and entangled epochal transformations as well as increasing socio-spatial inequalities, my research and teaching is concerned with case studies that call for and promote principles of common good and resist violent—exploitative, speculative, and exclusionary—productions of space. At the same time, it is important to me to address the impact of these changes on the profession, practice and education of spatial planners, architects and city makers in order to establish other forms of organising, working and producing. I am particularly concerned with the social, economic and political parameters within and through which architectures and cities emerge, and with the tools and methods that enable people to intervene transformatively in the production of space.

Prior to my appointment at Braunschweig, I was employed at the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield (2004–2018) and at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (2001–2004), where I also completed my PhD. I was a founding member of the Architectural Workers Cooperative Glasgow Letters on Architecture and Space (2000–2007), which critiqued, on both a theoretical and practical level, capitalist (re)productions and uses of the built environment.

As (co-)author or (co-)editor, I have published books such as Flexible Housing (2007), This Building Should Have Some Sort of Distinctive Shape. The Story of the Arts Tower in Sheffield (2008), Agency. Working With Uncertain Architectures (2009), A Right to Build. The next Masshousebuilding Industry (2011) and Spatial Agency. Other Ways of Doing Architecture (2011, 2016), Living the City. Of Cities, People and Stories (2020) and Making Futures (2022).

I am currently working on a series of research projects that focus on spatial practice in the face of the climate emergency, most notably: Architecture after Architecture. In 2021, I ran for mayor of the city I live in: Braunschweig.

orcid, researchgate