FEATURED AUTHOR
Florian Urban
I am an architectural historian. Born and raised in Munich, Germany, I spent most of my adult life in Berlin before moving to Glasgow in 2010. I hold a Master of Fine Arts from the University of the Arts in Berlin, an MA in Urban Planning from UCLA and a Ph.D. in History and Theory of Architecture from MIT. I am the author of Neo-historical East Berlin – Architecture and Urban Design in the GDR 1970-1990 (Ashgate, 2009) and Tower and Slab – Histories of Global Mass Housing (Routledge, 2012)
Subjects: Art & Visual Culture
Biography
Florian Urban is Professor and Head of Architectural History and Urban Studies at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art. He holds a Meisterschüler degree (Master of Fine Arts) from the University of the Arts in Berlin (1996), an MA in Urban Planning from UCLA (2001) and a Ph.D. in History and Theory of Architecture from MIT (2006).He was born and raised in Munich/Germany and spent most of his adult life in Berlin before moving to Glasgow in 2010. Before joining the Mackintosh School of Architecture he taught at the Center for Metropolitan Studies, Berlin Technical University and worked for the German Federal Institute for Research on Construction, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR). Since 2009 he is the book review editor-in-chief for the journal Planning Perspectives.
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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- History of architecture in the urban context, particularly in the 20th century
- Relation between architecture and social, cultural, and political forces
- The architecture of mass housing as a global phenomenon
- New Tenements, that is, dense multi-storey urban residences since 1970
- Informal housing/self-built housing, particularly in Europe in the mid 20th century
- Discourses on modernism and post-modernism
- Discourses on historic preservation and identity
- Postmodern architecture in East Germany
- Postmodern architecture in Poland
Books
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