Architectural Research Lecture Series

The lecture series “Architectural Research” is an integral part of the Graz Architecture Doctoral School. In the series, international as well as local scholars and architects present their architectural research projects, introducing research concepts, methods and results. In a follow-up workshop, registered participants can exchange ideas and discuss their individual approach with the lecturers.

Winfried Nerdinger
Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste
“Nazi-Architecture: Unity of Art Policy and War Policy”
Thursday, October 23, 2025, 7pm
HS II, Rechbauerstraße 12, 1. KG, 8010 Graz

Winfried Nerdinger studied architecture in Munich and received a PhD in art history. From 1986 to 2012 he was professor of architectural history at the Technical University of Munich. From 1989 to 2012 he was director of the architecture museum in the Pinakothek der Moderne, and from 2012 to 2018 he served as the founding director of the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism. Since 2019 he has been the president of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. He has held visiting professorships at Harvard University, Eichstätt University, and the Technical University of Vienna. As both author and editor, Nerdinger has published widely on architectural history between the 18th and 21st centuries, with works on Theodor Fischer, Leo von Klenze, Gottfried Semper, Frei Otto, the Bauhaus, and Walter Gropius. His most recent monograph, Architektur in Deutschland im 20. Jahrhundert, was published in 2023.

Gennaro Postiglione
University of Campinas / TU Graz
“Public, Collective, Shared, Private: Rethinking the Threshold in (Unconventional) Housing”
Wednesday, November 12, 2025, 7pm
HS L, Lessingstraße 25/1. OG, 8010 Graz

Gennaro Postiglione is professor and dean in Interior Architecture at DAStU/Politecnico di Milano. His research field resides at the intersection between people, places, and practices. This theoretical background also nourishes his research by design activity focused on the adaptive reuse of built heritage, including minor and neglected sites. He is interested in architecture and the way it responds to humans, non-humans, and environmental needs, while reflecting on the discipline’s own principles. He studied architecture at the University of Naples, where he attended a three-year master’s in industrial design soon after completing his PhD. Besides having been involved in many international design workshops and intensive teaching programs, he has been a visiting research fellow at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in 1994 and 1996, the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture in 2009, and the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University (LTH) in 2019, as well as visiting professor at LTH in 2007, the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2014, RMIT University in Melbourne in 2016, and the Technical University of Berlin in 2023. Since 2000, he has taken part in several national and international research bids, e.g.: The Atlantic Wall Linear Museum, MeLA-Museum and Libraries in the Age of Migrations, REcall: European Conflict Archaeological Landscape Reappropriation, Transatlantic Transfers, and Unconventional Affordable Housing which he will present in his lecture. The research investigates the link between unconventional design solutions and affordability (to update the Modern Movement paradigm on housing) and explores the concept of the threshold as a key design element for determining the layers of relationships within unconventional residential buildings. He is a member of several editorial boards and has published extensively.

Ward Verbakel
KU Leuven / PLUSOFFICE
“Village Urbanism: Design Research as a Villageous Practice”
Thursday, November 27, 2025, 7pm
HS L, Lessingstraße 25/1. OG, 8010 Graz

Ward Verbakel holds degrees in Civil Engineering and Architecture from KU Leuven and Urban Design from GSAPP Columbia University. Since obtaining his professional license in 2006 he co-founded plusoffice architects, a practice in Belgium working on various construction and design research projects ranging from master planning and transitional urbanism to public buildings and housing projects. Their design research on the productive city and village urbanism has been internationally published and exhibited. As an associate professor he coordinates the Urban Project master design studios at KU Leuven and since 2025 he became program director for the international master’s programs in Human Settlements and Urbanism, Landscape, and Planning. He completed his PhD on the practice of village urbanism in overlap with his professional practice. Ward previously taught at GSAPP Columbia University, New York and has been a member of the artistic board of the magazine A+ Architecture in Belgium for 13 years.

Milena Stavrić
TU Graz
“Designing with Matter: Rethinking Building Materials Across Scales”
Thursday, January 15, 2026, 7pm
HS II, Rechbauerstraße 12, 1. KG, 8010 Graz

Milena Stavrić is associate professor at the Institute of Architecture and Media at Graz University of Technology, a position she has held since 2019 following her habilitation in Architectural Geometry and Digital Design in 2018. Her research centers on the convergence of architectural geometry, digital methods, and sustainable practices. She is particularly focused on new materials, such as bio-composites, and advanced technologies like robotics, parametric modeling and 3D printing. Her work also investigates the ecological potential of building materials through life cycle analysis and the integration of BIM technology for circular material reuse. Milena Stavrić’s international engagement includes a period as a visiting scholar at Harvard University, where she joined the MaP+S Group. Beyond this, she has delivered lectures at numerous international universities, including those in Vienna, Mexico City, Istanbul, Hamburg, Novi Sad, and Zagreb. Her talks often focus on the implementation of digital technology in architecture and education, and she has a continuous practice of organizing exhibitions to showcase her students’ work. In the last five years Stavrić has been a key contributor to numerous research initiatives, including the FWF project Mycelium-Based Clay Composites in Architecture and the SFB project Advanced Computational Design. Her research has been recognized with awards like the Hertha Firnberg Prize. She has also led seven realized architectural projects and her material innovations have been featured in 15 exhibitions over the last five years. In addition to her research, Stavrić holds active administrative roles as deputy head of the Institute of Architecture and Media and is a member of international review boards. She has supervised over 25 master’s and PhD theses and has authored more than 120 peer-reviewed publications and several books.

Anna-Maria Meister
KHI Florenz (MPI) / KIT Karlsruhe
“Hidden in Plain Sight or Questions of Forms, Matter and Processes”
Thursday, January 22, 2026, 7pm
HS II, Rechbauerstraße 12, 1. KG, 8010 Graz

Anna-Maria Meister directs the Lise Meitner Research Group Coded Objects at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (KHI)—Max Planck Institute, and is professor of architecture theory and co-director of the saai archive at KIT Karlsruhe. Meister’s work focuses on processes of design and the design of processes, specifically their political, social, and aesthetic consequences; she also investigates the materiality of knowledge systems and their constructions. She holds a joint PhD degree in the History and Theory of Architecture and the Council of the Humanities from Princeton University as well as degrees in architecture from Columbia University and TU Munich. Her work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Max Planck Institute for History of Science, Berlin, the Graham Foundation, the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, and DAAD; in 2025 she was selected as Henriette Herz Scout for the Humboldt Foundation. As licensed architect and historian she works across medial divides and has curated exhibitions and produced installations at the Venice Biennale 2014, the Lisbon Triennial in 2013, and at Princeton University in 2024. Her research was published in journals like British Journal for the History of Science, Architectural Histories, Journal for the History of Knowledge, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, Harvard Design Magazine, Volume, Uncube; in 2024, she was runner-up for EAHN Best Article Award for Architectural Histories for the volumes 2022 and 2023. Most recently, she co-led the international research project Radical Pedagogies and co-edited the eponymous book (MIT Press 2022), as well as the interdisciplinary volumes Entangled Temporalities (2023) and Are You a Model? (2024); currently she is editing a double volume titled Coded/Objects and a monograph on standardization as societal projection in 20th-century Germany.