CV and publications
Curriculum Vitae (in summary)
Personal Data Katja Grillner, born 1970
Affiliation Professor,Critical studies in Architecture, KTH School of Architecture and the Built Environment, Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Research Field
Katja Grillner holds the position as professor of Critical Studies in Architecture and currently serves as Head of Department at KTH School of Architecture (2019-). Her research on architecture and landscape combines theoretical, historical and literary strategies for spatial exploration. Among her book publications are her PhD-dissertation Ramble, linger and gaze – philosophical dialogues in the landscape garden (Stockholm: KTH 2000), as main-editor 01-AKAD – Experimental Research in Architecture and Design (Stockholm: AxlBooks, 2005), and, as co-editor, Architecture and Authorship (London: Black Dog, 2007). Grillner was from 2011-2015 the director of Architecture in Effect, a national initiative for a strong research environment funded by Formas 2011-2017. She co-founded the feminist architecture teaching and research group FATALE in 2007.
Present Employment
2009- Professor in Architecture – Critical Studies, KTH School of Architecture
Degrees and Promotions
2009-04-01 Professor of Architecture, KTH, Stockholm
2005-06-08 Docent in Architecture, KTH, Stockholm
2000-05-19 TeknDr (PhD), KTH, Stockholm. Dissertation Ramble, linger and gaze – philosophical dialogues in the landscape garden (Stockholm: KTH 2000). Main advisor: Professor Jerker Lundequist
1997-02-28 TeknLic (MPhil), KTH, Stockholm. Dissertation Four Essays Framed: Questions of Imagination, Interpretation and Representation in Architecture (Stockholm: KTH 1997) . Main advisor: Professor Jerker Lundequist
1995-09-11 M.Arch. (Theory and History of Architecture), McGill University, Montreal
1995-03-03 Architect, M.Arch. (Professional degree in Architecture) KTH, Stockholm
Research Projects and Grants
2011-2016 Project-leader: Strong research environment Architecture in Effect: Rethinking the Social in Architecture. Funding Body: The Swedish Research Council Formas (25 million SEK)
2007-2009 Project-leader: The Poetics of Critical Writing in Architecture, Art and Design Research. Funding Body: The National Research Council in Sweden 2007-2009 (1 million SEK)
2003-2009 Project-leader: The Academy for Practice-based Research in Architecture and Design. Funding Body: The National Research Council in Sweden 2003-2009 (5,5 million SEK)
2003-2007 Project-leader: Architecture and its Mythologies. Funding Body: The National Research Council in Sweden 2003-2007 (4 million SEK)
Academic Leadership / Commissions of Trust
Extensive experience of operative management work from academic leadership roles and steering committee engagement (on project, department and faculty level) and participation in research and graduate education boards and committees
2022- Director of PhD-program Art, Technology and Design (KTH in
collaboration with Konstfack)
2019- Head of Department, Department of Architecture, KTH
2015-2019 Dean of Faculty, KTH (elected position)
2013-2015 Deputy Head of Dept., Director of Research, School of Architecture
2013-2015 Member of Formas Researcher Council (Forskarrådet)
2011-2016 Director of Architecture in effect (SRE Formas)
2011-2015 Chair of Appointments Committee ABE (TFN ABE)
2009-2011 Vice-Dean, School of Architecture and the Built Environment, KTH.
Specific responsibilities for research strategy development and implementation, and for faculty recruitment and development.
2004-2008 Director of Research / Director of Studies in the PhD-program, KTH-Architecture
2003-2009 Director of AKAD, The Academy for Practice-based Research in Arch. and Design
2000-2003 President for the Nordic Association of Architectural Research
Scientific Commissions
Member of the Research Evaluation Committee for Design Sciences, University of Antwerp (2018).
Chair of the Evaluation Committee for evaluation according to the Dutch Standard Evaluation Protocol of the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture and the Built environment (2016-17).
Continuous referee for applications to the Norwegian Research Council (2002-2006)
Referee commissions international scientific journals (Architecture and Culture; Byggekunst / Arkitektur:N; Design Research Journal; Gender, Place and Culture; Candide – Journal for Architectural Knowledge; Journal of Tropical Geography; Nordic Journal of Architectural Research). Referee commissions book and journal proposals Wiley-Academy publishers, SAGE-publications
Scientific evaluation of applications for academic posts and promotions: LTH School of Architecture, 2005; Melbourne University 2007, 2009; Malmö University College 2010; University of Sheffield 2010; Luleå Technical University 2011 and 2013; and for PhD-positions/stipends Oslo School of Architecture 2006; and HDK, Gothenburg University 2006; Massey Univ, NZ, 2014; Stockholm University 2017; UCL (2014, 2020, 2022).
Opponent / Examiner for PhD-dissertations at Aarhus University (2022), Reykjavik University (2022), UCL, London (2006, 2009, 2015, 2017), Edinburgh University (2016), Newcastle University (2017), McGill University, Montreal (2007), University of Melbourne (2008, 2022); AHO, Oslo (2002), SLU, Alnarp (2009), LTH (2009), LTU (2010), SU (2011, 2014), Leuven (2014); LiU (2014). Member of nine PhD-examination committees: in Skill and Technology, KTH; in Architecture, KTH; in Architecture LTH, in Gender Studies, LiU, in Art History, Stockholm University.
Teaching Commissions
2020- Master-level: Examiner and course leader for elective smeinar courses in the architecture program.
2000- PhD-level: Examiner and course leader for PhD-courses in Architecture, KTH (Critical Theory in Architecture, Research methodology, Architectural writing). Supervisor of PhD-students (5 students currently active, 10 graduated PhD students (7 as main advisor, 3 as co-advisor)
1995- Advanced level: Examiner and course leader for elective and continuing education courses in Architecture, KTH (Architecture and Gender, Architecture and Design Research Methodologies, Architecture Theory (1960’s to the present) including development and planning.
2011- Bachelor level: Key-lectures in 1st and 2nd year courses ‘Introduction to Architecture, the discipline and the profession’
2000-03 In professional practice: Responsible for arranging courses, seminars and project reviews at White architects 2000-2003
International engagements: Examiner of PhD’s in the UK, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium. Invited critic in PhD-colloquiums and Master Classes at the Bartlett School of Architecture (2002, 2005), Delft School of Architecture (2008), University of Technology in Sydney (2007), and Univ. of Queensland, Brisbane (2010). Since 2013 Visiting professor at University of Newcastle, UK. Invited lectures (see list of examples below).
Awards and fellowships
2011 Recipient of the Janne Carlsson Award for Academic Leadership
2010 Recipient of the KTH Award for Gender Equality Promotion
2007 Visiting scholar at University of Technology, Sydney – funded by Formas
2004 CCA Visiting Scholarship, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal
2003 Columbia Univ. and Univ. of Pennsylvania, funded byWenner Gren Foundation
Examined PhDs and Licentiates supervised by Katja Grillner
(* as main advisor)
*Malin Zimm Losing the Plot – Architecture and Narrativity KTH 2005
*Katarina Bonnevier Behind Straight Curtains – Towards a Queer Feminist Theory of Architecture KTH 2007
*Catharina Gabrielsson Att göra skillnad – Det offentliga rummet som medium för konst, arkitektur och politiska föreställningar KTH 2007
*Jonas Runberger (Licentiate) Architectural Prototypes KTH 2008
*Inge-Mette Kirkeby Skolen finder Sted KTH 2008
*Charlie Gullström Presence Design: Mediated Spaces Extending ArchitectureKTH 2010
*Konstantinos Ioannidis Designing the Edge: An Inquiry into the Psychospatial Nature of Meaning in the Architecture of the Urban Waterfront KTH 2011
*Jan Hietala Inconclusive Evidence: Spatial Gender Politics at Strawberry Hill (1747-58) KTH 2013
Andreas Nobel Dimmer på Upplysningen: Text, form och formgivning (KTH 2014)
Brady Burroughs Architectural Flirtations (KTH 2016) (main advisor until 2015)
*Jenny Wiklund Jounal - Rekonstruktion av kropp och minne (KTH 2017)
Pablo Miranda Program Matters - From Drawing to Code (KTH 2018)
Sepideh Karami Interruption - Writing a Dissident Architecture (KTH 2018)
Publication (selection)
Google Scholar Publicering och Citering
Books
Katja Grillner,Ramble, linger, and gaze: Dialogues from the landscape garden (KTH 2000)
Katja Grillner et al (Eds.) The Reader: Rethinking the Social in Architecture (Architecture in Effect, 2013).
Tim Anstey, Katja Grillner and Rolf Hughes (Eds.)Architecture and Authorship, Black Dog Publishing, London 2007.
Katja Grillner, Sven-Olov Wallenstein and Per Glembrandt (Eds.)01.AKAD – Experimental research in architecture and design - Beginnings, AKAD/Axlbooks, Stockholm 2005.
Peer-reviews articles and book-chapters (selection)
Katja Grillner "At the Western Side a Dead-End Park Slot: On 'Situated Knowledges and the Science Question' in Architecture and Urban Design" in Architecture in Effect: Vol 1, Actar 2018, pp 190-211.
Hélène Frichot, Katja Grillner and Julieanna Preston "Feminist practices: Writing around the Kitchen Table" in Meike Schalk, Thérèse Kristiansson, and Ramia Mazé (Eds.) Feminist Futures of Spatial Practice, Spurbuch Verlag, 2017.
Katja Grillner and Klaske Havik "Between Sites and Stories, Between Texts and Times: A dialogue about fiction and narrative in architectural inquiries" in Klaske Havik, Jorge Mejía Hernández, Mike Schäfer, Mark Proosten, Susana Oliveira (eds.), Writingplace: Investigations in Architecture and Literature, Rotterdam: NAI Publishers, 2017.
Katja Grillner “Design research and critical transformations: Situating thought, projecting action” in Murray Fraser (Ed.) Design Research in Architecture (Ashgate, 2013)
Meike Schalk, Brady Burroughs, Katja Grillner and Katarina Bonnevier “FATALE Critical Studies in Architecture” in Nordic Journal of Architecture, No 2, pp 90-96 (2011).
Katja Grillner “A Performative Mode of Writing Place: Out and about the Rosenlund Park, Stockholm 2008-2010” in Mona Livholts (Ed.) Emergent Writing Methodologies in Feminist Studies, (Routledge 2011), pp 133-147.
Katja Grillner,“Housing the Swedish Summer (Utopia in Reverse?)”, in Edward Whittaker, Alex Landrum (Eds), Nonsite to Celebration Park, Bath Spa University, 2008.
Tim Anstey, Katja Grillner and Rolf Hughes“Architecture and Authorship”, introduction to Architecture and Authorship, (Eds. Tim Anstey, Katja Grillner, Rolf Hughes), Black Dog Publishing (2007).
Katja Grillner,“Nature’s lovers – Design and Authorship in the 18th century landscape garden”, inArchitecture and Authorship, Eds. Tim Anstey, Katja Grillner, Rolf Hughes, Black Dog Publishing (London 2007).
Katja Grillner, “Fluttering butterflies, a dusty road, and a muddy stone: criticality in distraction (Haga Park, Stockholm, 2004)”, in: Jane Rendell et al (eds), Critical Architecture, (London,Routledge, 2007)
Katja Grillner,“Room within a view – a conversation on writing (&) architecture“ article co-authored with Rolf Hughes, accepted for publication in OASE 70, (2006).
Katja Grillner,“Experience as imagined – Writing the Landscape garden”, paper presented at Experiencing the Garden in the 18th Century, conference at the Institute for Romance Studies, London, March 13th 2004.. Published in Experiencing the Garden in the 18th Century, Ed. M.L. Calder, Peter Lang Publishers, Bern 2006.
Public lectures (key-notes, by invitation, selection)
Katja Grillner “Enacting the Past, the Distant (or what in not here but there): Performing Material Fictions”, invited lecture at University of Edinburgh, UK, March 2016
Katja Grillner “Design Research and Critical Transformations”, invited lectures at Newcastle University, UKMarch 2014; at Univ of Leuven, Belgium, Oct 2014.
Katja Grillner "Fiction and Performance in Architectural Research Inquiries", key-note lecture at Writing Place International Conference, TU Delft, Nov 2013.
Katja Grillner “Ambivalence, Seduction and Revolution: Looking back at the Landscape Garden with a foot in the grass and a drop of rain just arrived”, Invited lecture at Landscapes and Routes Seminar, Stourhead Gardens, Oct 19th 2012.
Katja Grillner “Design Research in Sweden”, Key-note lecture at Design Research: Four Scandinavian Examples, University of Kentucky, College of Design, Sept 22nd 2012.
Katja Grillner “Feminism as Architecture”, Invited lecture at Stock-taking: Critical Positions, Swedish Museum of Architecture and KTH, Sept 8th 2010.
Katja Grillner “Shifting Place Perceptions – Performative Modes of Site Writing”, Key-note lecture at the Writing Architecture Symposium, University of Queensland, Brisbane, July 22nd-23rd, 2010
Katja Grillner “Writing Place – An Architectural Technique?”, Key-note lecture at the EAAE –Teaching Architecture Theory Network, Fribourgh, Oct 16th, 2009
Katja Grillner “Nature’s lovers: Figuring the Landscape Designer”, invited guest lecture at National University in Singapore, Architecture School, Nov 21st 2007; and at RMIT in Melbourne, Architecture School, Dec 6th, 2007.
Katja Grillner “Writing in Architecture”, invited lecture at Delft Technical University, Architecture School, October 4th 2007.
Katja Grillner “The Seduction of Landscape”, invited lecture at the Annual Fehn Symposium, Christian Norberg.Schultz, Hamar, May 11-13 2006.
Architectural, artistic and curatorial practices
Katja Grillner and Johan Thurfjell Shifting perspectives Spatial Installation at Buda Arts Centre, Kortrijk, Belgium, April 2012, concluding exhibition of the EU-funded research project SUR at DOCH, University of Dance and Circus, Stockholm.
Katja Grillner with FATALE “Incompatible Modalities Salon”, salon event, performance and installation at the former Courtauld Gallery, now Slade School of Arts in London. Arranged as part of the Whirlwinds session at the Sexuate Subjects Conference, University College London, Dec 3rd 2010.
Katja Grillner “out of focus (in distraction)”, spatial installation, light boxes with images and sound installed in stairwell at the gallery domoBaal contemporary art in London. Part of groupexhibition by members of the research cluster spatial imagination in design, Jan 2006. Curator: Penelope Haralambidou
Katja Grillner with AKAD. Exhibition of works from the ‘Writing Architecture’, course and workshops. Curated by Grillner, and produced together with Malin Zimm, part of the exhibition of AKAD-projects, Lunds Konsthall, Jan 2006. Curator for the AKAD exhibition: Gunnar Sandin.
Katja Grillner and Malin Zimm “Writing Architecture - Site-specific writing” five short documentary films, filmed by Katja Grillner, and edited by her and Malin Zimm. Shown at the exhibition of AKAD-projects, Lunds Konsthall, Jan 2006.
