Demokratie und Stadt

Antrittsvorlesung „Theorie und Geschichte in der Architektur“

How did the present built environment come into being? How does architecture shape social life? How can buildings be studied as part of everyday social practices? And what possibilities for action arise from this for socio-ecological transformation?

Julia von Mende explores these questions through analyses of the historical formation of houses and cities. Her research focuses on qualitative, interdisciplinary methods to examine the spatial structures of everyday practices such as eating and living, as well as on the history of housing research. Teaching is an integral part of her work. In case studies developed together with students, they examine how buildings came into being, the conditions that shaped them, and how they are appropriated in everyday use. The knowledge gained through this process informs and supports architectural design.

The lecture series ‘Dialog Architektur’ will take place in person during the summer semester in Café 1, Building 1, at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences.

The lecture will be held in German language.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Julia von Mende is an architecture and urban researcher working at the interdisciplinary boundaries of architecture, sociology, urban studies and cultural studies. Since the summer semester of 2025, she has been teaching and researching as a professor of ‘Theory and History in Architecture’ at Frankfurt UAS. Previously, she was a visiting professor of theory and history in the Urban Design programme at Jade University of Applied Sciences in Oldenburg and a fellow in the Thuringian Postdoctoral Programme at the Bauhaus University in Weimar. In 2020, she received her doctorate from the Faculty of Architecture at RWTH Aachen University with a study on the interrelationship between private households and cities, using the example of the spatialisation of eating practices (awarded the ‘Wohnen & Stadt’ study prize, among others). The starting point for this work was her scientific collaboration in the project ‘The Anthropocene Kitchen’ at the Cluster of Excellence Image Knowledge Design. An interdisciplinary laboratory at Humboldt University in Berlin. Before working in academia, she was active in journalism, including as editor-in-chief of the online debate portal BKULT and as editor of the trade journals Daidalos and Arch+. She studied architecture in Berlin and Copenhagen.