Dr Krzysztof Nawratek

PhD, FHEA

School of Architecture

Senior Lecturer in Humanities and Architecture

Departmental Director of Research and Innovation

k.nawratek@sheffield.ac.uk

Arts Tower

Full contact details

Dr Krzysztof Nawratek
School of Architecture
Arts Tower
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN

Profile

Since September 2015, I have been a Senior Lecturer in Humanities and Architecture at the University of Sheffield School of Architecture (SSoA). Currently, I am the Departmental Director of Research and Innovation. I was MA in Architecture Design program leader and PGT director, and I led Y1 UG in Sheffield. Before joining SSoA, I was an associate professor in Architecture, M.Arch. programme leader at the School of Architecture, Design and Environment, Plymouth University, United Kingdom. Since 2020 I am also Visiting Professor at Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Brazil. Educated as an architect and urban planner, I have worked in Poland, Latvia (e.g. for Riga City Council and NAMS Architecture Office) and Ireland (Principal Urban Designer at Colin Buchanan, Dublin). I worked as a visiting professor at the Geography Department at the University of Latvia and as a researcher at National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis, Maynooth, Ireland. I was a Member of the Board of Experts European Prize for Urban Public Space 2012, 2014 and 2016 and a member of the selection panel for the Polish contribution to the International Architecture Biennial in Venice in 2012 and in 2014.

My main research interest focuses on urban theory in the context of post-secular philosophy and 'radical inclusivity'. I am also interested in the crisis of the contemporary (neoliberal) city model and urban re-industrialisation.

Qualifications: PhD in Architecture and Urban Planning

Research interests: I am interested in spatialized post-secular thought and non-dialectic modes of thinking. These investigations have two intertwined threads. The first is more theoretical (in a tradition of hermeneutic inquiry) investigation of radical contextualization, radical inclusivity and in general how The Absolute Other’s (‘das ganz Andere’ defined by Rudolf Otto) influences are actualized in space. The second is more empirical; it focuses on religious imaginations and religion-related behaviours in space. This more empirical perspective is then contextualised as a framework in order to decolonize Western (post)Christian urban and architectural discourses.

Publications

Books

Kozlowski M, Mehan A & Nawratek K (2020) Kuala Lumpur: Community, Infrastructure and Urban Inclusivity. Abindgon: Routledge. View this article in WRRO
Nawratek KJ (2018) Total Urban Mobilisation. Ernst Jünger and the Post-Capitalist City. Palgrave Macmillan.
Nawratek K (2012) Holes in the Whole Introduction to the Urban Revolutions. Washington: Zero Books. View this article in WRRO
Nawratek K (2011) City as a Political Idea. Citizenship, Sovereignty and Politics. University of Plymouth Press.
Nawratek K (2005) Ideologie W Przestrzeni. Próby Demistyfikacji. Krakow: Universitas.

Edited books

Nawratek KJ (Ed.) (2015) Radical Inclusivity. Architecture and Urbanism. Barcelona: dpr-Barcelona. View this article in WRRO

Journal articles

Tahar F, Mehan A & Nawratek K (2023) Spatial reflections on Muslimsʼ segregation in Britain. Religions, 14(3).
Cavalcanti de Arruda GAA, de Freitas DM, Soares Lima CM, Nawratek K & Miranda Pataro B (2022) The production of knowledge through religious and social media infrastructure : world making practices among Brazilian Pentecostals. Popular Communication. View this article in WRRO
Nawratek K, Mehan A & Tahar F (2022) Beyond community: inclusivity through spatial interventions. Writingplace, 6, 136-147. View this article in WRRO
Nawratek K (2021) Rudolf Otto’s ‘The Absolute Other’ and a radical postsecular urban contextualization. Planning Theory, 20(1), 28-43. View this article in WRRO
Nawratek K & Mehan A (2020) De-colonizing public spaces in Malaysia: dating in Kuala Lumpur. Cultural Geographies, 27(4), 615-629. View this article in WRRO
Yaghi A, Petrescu D & Nawratek K (2019) Performative interventions to re-claim, re-define and produce public space in different cultural and political contexts. Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 13(3), 718-735. View this article in WRRO
Nawratek K (2014) How brave can we be? The city as a political experiment. Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 38(1), 1-2.
Nawratek KJ (2014) An urban partisan: Carl Schmitt's and Jacob Taubes’ guide for urban revolution. Journal of Architecture and Urbanism, 38(1), 3-10. View this article in WRRO
Nawratek K (2012) New progressive architecture: Designing for cities in end times. Journal of European Popular Culture, 3(1), 77-88.
Nawratek K (2012) Urban Landscape and the Postsocialist City. CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, 14(3). View this article in WRRO
Nawratek K (2011) The internet: a potential factor in socio-spatial disintegration of Riga?. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Urban Design and Planning, 164(4), 233-239.

Chapters

Nawratek KJ (2018) Architecture of radicalized postsecularism In Beaumont J (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Postsecularity (pp. 315-324). Routledge
Nawratek KJ (2017) ‘Der Arbeiter’: (Re) Industrialisation as Universalism? In Nawratek KJ (Ed.), Urban Re-industrialization Punctum Books View this article in WRRO
Nawratek K (2017) University as a Terminal: Socio-Material Infrastructure for Post-Neoliberal Society, The Future of University Education (pp. 145-156). Springer International Publishing View this article in WRRO
Nawratek KJ & Bus-Nawratek KI (2015) On the Frustrating Impossibility of Inclusive Architecture In Nawratek KJ (Ed.), Radical Inclusivity. Architecture and Urbanism (pp. 12-23). Barcelona: DPR-Barcelona. View this article in WRRO
Nawratek KJ (2013) Contemporary Capitalism and a Post-socialist city: the Bankruptcy of Neo-liberal Riga In Redbergs O (Ed.), Conditions for Contemporary Culture (pp. 129-136). Riga: Megaphone Publishers.
Nawratek KJ (2013) Territory, Autonomy and Provisional Revolution: How to Survive in 21st Century In Redbergs O (Ed.), Conditions for Contemporary Culture (pp. 91-95). Riga: Megaphone Publishers.
Nawratek KJ (2012) Producing citizens: from socialist to post-socialist urban opression In Miles M & Savage J (Ed.), Nutopia A Critical View of Future Cities (pp. 36-35). University of Plymouth Press
Nawratek KJ (2011) Rejecting the Communicative Paradigm of Public Space In Bader M, Baurhenn O, Szreder K, Voinea R & Koch K (Ed.), The KNOT. An Experiment on Collaborative Art in Public Urban Space (pp. 151-156). Berlin: Jovis.

Research group: Research groups

Grants

MSCA-ITN Re-Dwell: Delivering Affordable and Sustainable Housing in Europe (2020 - 24).

Teaching interests: I am interested in design as an 'applied theory' and in theory of design process. I am interested in radically inclusive architecture and in design as a thinking process. I was practising as an architect and urban designer, in my teaching I invite students to contextualize their design and to focus on the way how the design change the existing power and social relationships.

Teaching activities

Power, Space, Society: ARC6742
MA in Architecture studio: ARC6986/ARC6987

Professional activities and memberships: I am Fellow of The Higher Education Academy (HEA), member of Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA) and member of The British Association for the Study of Religions (BASR).