About

Juan Barcia Mas is an architect, writer and curator. He studied architecture at TU Munich, TU Delft and ETH Zurich. After graduating, he has been working as an architect, curator and artist. His recent curatorial and artistic practice includes the exhibition Cabin Crew at gta exhibitions (2022), Sexkino Roland, Nexpo (2022) and Seven Questions at the Chair of Jan de Vylder (2023). In collaboration with Shen He, he has exhibited in the Zürich Biennale at Kunsthalle Zürich and taught at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). He is also engaged in the art and architecture discourse by contributing regularly to different magazines, such as Cartha, PW Magazine and Lila Strauss.

Ellena is an architect, publisher, editor and researcher based in Zurich. Before starting her independent practice with Tibor Bielicky in 2021, she had been working with Graber Pulver Architekten and Christ & Gantenbein since 2015. In 2020 she co-founded the architecture periodical Superposition, after being part of the editorial board of the architecture magazine Planphase where several of her essays and interviews have appeared. After graduating from Technical University Munich in 2014 with a Diploma degree, she co-edited the documentary film “Im Windschatten von Olympia“ as part of a research on the urban development of Munich in the 1960s and 70s, and she self-initiated a multi-disciplinary research on American architecture, urbanism and subculture and created the research platform Recording America. She is interested in investigating cultural and spacial transformations through architecture.

Lukas Fink is an architect based in Zurich. He graduated with distinction from ETH Zürich with the speculative design project „The Beauty of the Cadastral Map“, which explores the forming power of the plot line and respectively of private property. Before joining Newrope in 2019, he worked in different offices and own collaborations in Zurich, Berlin and Brussels. Lukas is working as part of the Architekturgenossenschaft C/O and ANA on architectural projects, publications and on site actions and is trying to find out what an architectural practice can be today.

Sophia Garner is an architect with a deep interest in the intelligence of landscapes, along with a sensitivity to processes, practices and bodies they encompass. She studied architecture and landscape at TU Vienna and ETH Zürich, and practices at this interface with UT SOL in Zurich, a studio she co-founded in 2024. UT SOL addresses the immediate relation between the built and the body, recognising the importance of a physical environment that is inclusive and designed with consideration towards both health and care. In 2023 she joined NEWROPE the Chair of Architecture and Urban Transformation, ETH Zürich as a scientific assistant.

Michiel works as an urbanist and curator working at the intersection of the arts, architecture, heritage and ecology and is Program Lead of the NEWROPE chair. He is focused on shaping and sharing the chair’s efforts to help create an architectural culture and design discours that are more responsive to the urgencies of our time. He is co-founder of Amsterdam-based practice for cultural transformation Loom and research platform Failed Architecture and was a 2018-19 Loeb Fellow at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He is one of the editors of Rewriting Architecture, a publication that provides 10+1 actions for a more adaptive architecture, which appeared in the fall of 2020.

Freek Persyn is born in 1974 in Belgium and lives and works in Brussels. He is married to Sotiria Kornaropoulou and father of three children: Polly, Kimon and Zoé. In 1998, he co-founded the office 51N4E, a spatial design practice focused on urban and social transformation. 51N4E works on a wide range of scales, from strategy to realization, and designs the built environment with an affinity for both the physical and the invisible dimensions of space. The work of 51N4E received the most attention for its adaptive reuse projects in Central Europe and for its intense engagement with Albania. Since 2019, Freek Persyn combines his partnership at 51N4E with the professorship of Architecture and Urban Transformation at the ETH Zürich.

Michele Porcelluzzi is an architect and researcher. After gaining experience in architectural offices in Milan and Berlin, in 2023 he began his jointly supervised PhD at Politecnico di Milano (DAStU) and ETH Zürich (NEWROPE Chair of Architecture and Urban Transformation), focusing on naturecultural urban spaces. His work addresses public and collective life, with particular attention to urban commons and the intersection between spatial design and collective rituals. Alongside his doctoral research, he is also engaged in curatorial activities and exhibition design, experimenting with formats of public engagement and collective storytelling. His research activity has been published in journals including OASE (2022) and Die Architekt (2023) and exhibited at IABR 2022 in Rotterdam.

Charlotte Schaeben studied Architecture at ETH Zurich and UPC Barcelona. In her self-defined Master thesis, she portrayed the Zone Franche (Free Economic Zone) of the Pays de Gex and developed a concept for the cross-border metropolitan region of Geneva based on the integrative potential of open spaces. She has a specific interest in photography and mapping, the cognitive response to spatial environments, and a cross-scale approach to situate architectural projects within their historically grown context of regional, cross-border and societal development. She joined the chair in summer 2019.

Ina Valkanova is a doctoral fellow of the I-LUS program. Her research explores the possibilities for collaborative transformation of contemporary industrial landscapes. From 2017 until 20019 she was the coordinator for investment and innovation of the long-term development strategy of the city of Sofia, Bulgaria – Vision for Sofia. She studied and worked in Germany, Portugal and Spain.

Philippe Vandenbroeck is a doctoral researcher at NEWROPE, where he explores a practice of imagination to activate marginal spaces. He holds master’s degrees in agronomy, philosophy, and urban planning (‘Human Settlements’) from KU Leuven. Philippe is the founder of shiftN, a boutique consultancy in strategic foresight serving international clients across civil society, philanthropy, and public institutions. From 2015 to 2022 he was an affiliate researcher at the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity, Earth Institute, Columbia University. He currently serves on the boards of several charities and NGOs. In addition to his academic and consulting work, Philippe is also a published photographer and writer.